February 22nd 2013. Pick of the Day.

Film Forum's trib to the year in Hollywood 1933 kicks off its third week with screenings of Frank Capra's LADY FOR A DAY and Henry King's STATE FAIR. Capra's first adap of the Runyon short story features dapper Warren William as Dave the Dude and May Robson in a Oscar nominated turn as Apple Annie. King's FAIR features the folksy wit of the great Will Rogers as he navigates the titlular preoceedings, which include spiked mince pies and hog heartbreak. You'll just have to see it. But not today.

THE DEFIANT ONES screens its last today as part of MOMA's Auteurist History of Film series. Benchmark work from Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier elevate this crime noir to timely social parable. The sorely underappreciated Stanley Kramer presides over proceedings thrilling and thoughtful. An absolute gem. Not my Pick.
Anthology Film Archives begins a staggered two month tribute to the great Andrew Sarris tonight with two of the critic's faves, Andre De Toth's DARK WATERS and Stanley Donen's TWO FOR THE ROAD. The former concerns Merle Oberon's sub-wreck survivor's recuperation with in-laws who have different plans, while the latter remains one of the most insightful examinations of time's effects on a marriage, both romatic and disenchanting. Equally worth your attendance, but neither my Pick.
The Rubin Museum's Cabaret Cinema series hosts a very BLITHE SPIRIT tonight indeed! David Lean's third adaptation of a Noel Coward work was also the director's first color film, featuring Rex Harrison as a novelist seeking to debunk a psychic who only winds up summoning the aggravating spirit of his dead first wife. What better way to chase off the ennui, asks this guy? As usual the price of a cocktail gains you admittance to the Rubin's civilized screening shenanigans. Very tempting, but not today's Pick.
Midnight at the IFC Center offers seminal 70's works depicting vastly different horrors. Hal Ashby's HAROLD AND MAUDE ushered an entire generation safely through its suicidal tendencies, while remaining one of the most romantic films of that or any era. Spielberg's JAWS is RIO BRAVO with a shark. And there's not a goddamned thing wrong with that! Neither win my Pick today, which I reserve for a very special movie star who, while immortal in cinema, never truly got his due. Martin Landau would once proffer that nobody gave two fucks for this icon, but the average film geek today would vehemently disagree. And they would pronounce vehemently with a thick Romanian accent. Read on...
Béla Ferenc Dezso Blaskó first found fame in the silent cinema of his Hungarian home. Political turmoil caused various setbacks to his career until he emigrated to the U.S. in 1920. He struggled but always worked, forming a stock company that played to Hungarian emigrees and appearing in silent cinema and theatrical productions as the guy with the ach-cent. Then one day, a very fateful day, he was approached to portray the most famous Transylvanian count the world has ever known, if only becuse it has known no other. He accepted, and after almost three hundred triumphant stage perfs he essayed the character for Hollywood's cameras and begat, along with Boris Karloff, the monster cycle that would rescue Universal Studios' fortunes in the 30's in the title role of DRACULA.
But the story doesn't end there, with triumph and celebrity and a career as one of moviedom's most celebrated stars. Nope, Bela had other things coming unfortunately. Typecasting shackled the actor due to his accent and perhaps his TOO convincing perf as evil incarnate, and rare followed the role where he played the sympathetic hero, most notably Edgar G. Ulmer's phenomenal THE BLACK CAT. Later would come day work and heroin addiction and career ressurection at the hands of ED WOOD, the film not the filmmaker. But there were a handful of singular perfs the actor gave during his middling heyday that not only stand the test of time but remind a devoted film culture of what might have been, had only things shaken out a slightly different way. In any case tonight we may bear witness to that potential future before it was derailed, as the master character actor essays one of his most famous roles in a brand new 4K restoration courtesy the folks at KINO films. This is an event that film fanatics of all stripes can get behind, and turn out to show some love for one of the medium's most iconic sons in one of his best perfs. It's almost enough to cajole you to bellow Fuck Karloff! Almost.
 
The beloved Bela Lugosi stars in WHITE ZOMBIE, screening midnight tonight at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema in as good a print as has been seen in 80 years. This is a treat and I hope none of ya miss it!
 
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Back tomorrow with the week's last Pick! Be safe and sound and make sure the next guy is too, Stockahz! Excelsior!
 
-Joe Walsh