January 12th 2013. Picks Of The Day. You read that right.

Again we Cinegeek find ourselves slogging through the second weekend of the new year with not much classic cinema to indulge in. What is on display, however, is cherce. So should you choose as many do this time of year to catch up on the newly Oscar nominated flicks you have thus far missed no one would begrudge ya. If on the other hand you're still jonesing for classic cinema screened large, read on my evil minions...

I am very tempted to award my highly sought after Pick Of The Day to one of my all time movie idols and his feature directing debut, which not only marked him as a unique vision behind the camera but may have done more to boost the fledgling independent film scene postwar than any other single contribution. That last statement, along with the term "highly sought after Pick Of The Day", is very debatable. What is not debatable is the influence John Cassavetes had on the film world on both sides of the lens. It all started with a little acting exercise that grew into a rough hewn no-budget feature that absorbed the ethos of Italian Neo-Realism and spit it back out in a distinctly New York manner. SHADOWS screens today at the Film Forum as part of their New Yawk New Wave fest, paired with the Jack Kerouac-scripted Beat underground short PULL MY DAISY. The 7pm show features a Q&A with star Lelia Goldoni. Excruciatingly tempting, but not my Pick today.

Also unspooling for a second day as part of the Forum's New Yawk series are Lionel Rogosin's quasi-doc time capsule of the flophouse boulevard of the 50's ON THE BOWERY, and experimental filmmaker Shirley Clarke's jazz & smack debut feature THE CONNECTION. Worthy selections. Neither my Pick.

Across the pond at my beloved Nitehawk Cinema a flabbergasting amount of midnight screentime is being devoted to hack-is-too-good-a-term Brian De Palma over the next few months, beginning tonight with his nearly succesful attempt at Argento's garish reworking of Hitchcockian tropes DRESSED TO KILL. I know, it hurt just typing that sentence. However even De Palma cannot curb my devotion for my new fave theater in the five boroughs, transplanting the Alamo Drafthouse experience to cozy bearded B-Burg and saving me the airfare to Austin in the process. So I encourage you to view even DE PALMA at this brilliant new space. I mean I would encourage you to view him in this new space, except for the following two reasons; 1. he sucks, and 2. I have an even better reason for you to visit this pristine new movie temple. Twice today even. So for the first and maybe last time ever I offer my PICKS of the day plural, both at the Nitehawk and so much more deserving of your time. And they're the same movie! I had your curiosity, now I have your interest.

James Whale initially found success directing both stage and screen projects concerning WWI, his service and stint in a POW camp stamping him with desirable cache in that category. Wooed to the Universal lot he directed WATERLOO BRIDGE, about the dancehall underworld circa WWI and a chorus girl who must stretch her morality thin to make ends meet. The film was a hit and helped save a studio in various stages of solvency at the dawn of the sound era. Whale famously chose to film FRANKENSTEIN next, and the reworking of Mary Shelley's seminal morality tale also bore the none too subtle subtext of wartime horror. It, like you need to be told, was a massive hit, rescuing the studio's fortunes and spawning, along wth Todd Browning's DRACULA, the glorious Universal Monster cycle of the 30's. Whale himself would direct two further equally seminal entries in this cycle, one a sequel to his stitched Prometheus, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, which most agree is not merely superior to the original but one of the most subversive Post-Code studio flick of the 30's. The second is usually a conversational afterthought when discussing the filmmaker's CV, but in actuality may well be the director's finest two hours. And the leading man is nowhere to be seen! I think we both know what I'm talking about...

Following the dismal reception of THE KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR Whale sought a property with surefire BO appeal. He turned to another fantasy author whose wildly popular works were beginning their journey to the screen in the sound era. Employing what was then the state of the art in screen FX he convinced audiences everywhere they were witnessing a transparent human being whose experiments succeded in the physical realm yet failed horribly in the psychological. Another Promethian myth transported to a gothc near-past, but this time the scares and the awe were balanced with wit and whimsy, all the ingredients neccesary for a thinking man's popcorn flick. The REAL secret ingredient, it turned out, was the film's star, imported to these shores for his Hollywood debut but seen only in the films closing seconds. Physical presence denied, he instead set the charisma dial at 11, and provided one of the all-time great examples of voice work in film. The effects experts convince that he cannot be seen, but the actor convinces that a man is indeed present at all times. He may be standing just beside you mwah hah hah...

The great Claude Rains starts in James Whale's THE INVISIBLE MAN, screening twice today at the Nitehawk in what promises to be very cool circumstances indeed. The incredibly cool Phantom Creep Theatre presents Whale's masterpiece with an acompanying live perf, one geared toward the kiddies at noon today, the midnight screening not so much. Defying description, I point you toward their YouTube clip on the Nitehawk's site. Make of this ghoulish excellence what you will. If I was really ambitious I'd attend both screenings and take bets on which I drank more at. Though that might disturb the kiddies in ways Phantom Creep Theatre do not intend..

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Check out the calendar to see what the rest of the month holds, Stockahz! January update coming in a few days! Be safe and sound and make sure the next guy is too! Excelsior!

-Joe Walsh