May 23rd 2013. Pick Of The Day.

Last chance to show some long-deserved love for Jerry Schatzberg's SCARECROW, the only flick to co-star Al Pacino and Gene Hackman, at least until they cash in on that direct-to-video action comedy I pray nightly will not happen. Screens its last at the Film Forum. Chose it yesterday so me myself is gonna pass.

Ingmar Bergman's THE VIRGIN SPRING screens for the second of its three-day run as part of MOMA's ongoing Auteurist History of Film series. Yeah no.

Robert Altman and Rober Evans teamed up to create movie magic back in 1980 with their big screen adap of E.C. Segar's beloved comic strip icon POPEYE. Because those are the first two cats you envision bringing cartoon joy to glorious life. Even Harry Nilsson couldn't inject any of his trademark whimsy into this dud. But there are those who cherish said effort, and to them I say it screens today at the Library for the Perfoming Arts. Knock yerself out.

Ingmar Bergman's THE VIRGIN SPRING screens as part of Anthology Film Archives' retrospective The Middle Ages On Film. Yeah no. Again. The fuck is it with these cats booking Bergman during the warm weather months? Twice in one day no less!

AFA's series also includes a screening of Kenji Mizoguchi's SANSHO THE BAILIFF today as part of that same series. I have a hard time picking against Kenny Miz, but another film legend is feted this day and the dice come up in favor of the latter. Next time, bubbeleh.

The Clearview Chelsea Cinemas offers up THE OPPOSITE SEX, producer Joe Pasternak's musical re-telling of George Cukor's 1939 classic THE WOMEN. Among it's cast; June Alyson, Joan Collins, Joan Blondell, Dolores Gray, Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller and Agnes Moorehead. That's quite the coven, if ya ask me. All I know is Jim Backus plays Dick Shawn's shrink. That's worth 12 bucks right there.

Lastly the Film Society's tribute to the great Burt Lancaster on the occasion of his centennial winds down today, and the final four offerings are potent entries to his CV indeed. The day begins with the actor's final teaming with director Robert Aldrich in the nuclear paranoia thriller TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING. Then his difficult teaming with Frank Perry in the difficult John Cheever adap THE SWIMMER unspools. Then we come to my own difficulty, which for a change has nothing to do with simple arithmetic. This is a very complex arithmetic indeed.

Lancaster won his first and only Oscar out of 4 nods for Richard Brooks' magnificent adap of Sinclair Lewis' ELMER GANTRY, and deservedly so. Rarely have screen persona and role so perfectly coalesced as in this film, the tale of a larger than life huckster who finds his true calling in the evangelical world perfectly suited to the movie star's exuberant vim and vigor. As perfect a distillation of the actor's unique appeal circa 1960 it may be, a just as perfect example of his older self's gravitas circa 1980 battles it out with the earlier film for my Pick today. These two roles and the respective perfs contained within are such perfect representations of the star at opposite bookends of his career I'm grateful they screen back-to-back tonight. As mentally quick and physically imposing his GANTRY was, the elder has-been Lou Pascal is broken inside and out, past his prime, the full metaphor for the once thriving but now crumbling mecca he resides in. The ultimate supporting character in his own life. This being a Lancaster role, however, the opportunity presents itself to make himself useful again, and he not only seizes it he manages to somehow make valid every tall tale he's concocted to give his life worth. Lancaster manages to reach back to his film noir beginnings to essay this character, who teaches a modern world a lesson in the romance it has lost, thereby proving those things seemingly obsolete to be the most relevant. I simply believe this was the more difficult climb between the two towering perfs separated by nearly 30 years, and so I gladly reward it with my Pick today. Some great artists simply never stopped giving until inconvenient mortality interceded. Burt Lancaster was one of them.

Louis Malle's ATLANTIC CITY, featuring the actor's last great perf, screens tonight at 9pm at the Walter Reade Theater. You'll never think of lemons the same way again. Trust me.

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Be safe and sound and make sure the next guy/gal is too, Stockahz! See you tomorrow with a new Pick!

-Joe Walsh