11 - 17 FEB 2023

One day, perhaps, we will do a newsletter article on man’s best friend – I found myself contemplating this as rumours reached me of a possible biopic on the legendary Rin Tin Tin. Coincidentally, the first film listed this week uses the ‘man bitten by rabid dog’ scenario.  Even in 1966, the idea wasn’t new and it had been used in an episode of both Highway Patrol and Wanted Dead or Alive in the late 1950s. Later, there were some variations on the theme. In The Big Valley episode Night of the Wolf the culprit was indeed a wolf and in the 1974 TVM A Cry in the Wilderness it was a rabid skunk! George Kennedy, bless him, chained himself in the barn to protect his family – shame about the impending flood . . . . 
RAGE (1966) Saturday 11 February 9.30-11.35pm Talking Pictures (Ch 82)       
TP does it again – this time with one of Glenn Ford’s least-known, and least-seen, films. He is a doctor working in an isolated part of Mexico who is bitten by a rabid dog and has two days to find help. The reviews were average at best and, as noted in the introduction, the idea wasn’t entirely original, but you might want to give it a whirl.
KURSK: THE LAST MISSION (2018) Sunday 12 February 10.00-11.50pm BBC 2   P      
A much more recent drama that also comes in at the 3-star level, but not every film can acquire classic status and its credentials are sound enough. Thomas Vinterberg (Far from the Madding Crowd and our success in 2013, The Hunt) directs and the strong cast includes Colin Firth as the British commodore who is keen to help with the seabed rescue mission. 
DARK WATERS (2019) Tuesday 14 February 11.15pm-1.15am BBC2   P       
Dark Waters was under consideration a year or so ago, but it was too close to other exposés that we had shown. The story of the Du Pont chemical scandal, it is very good and you will find yourselves asking: ‘How could such things happen?’ There is a second showing Thursday 16 February, 9pm on BBC 4. 
HEREDITARY (2018) Wednesday 15 February 9.00-11.355pm Film Four   P      
We don’t do well with our occasional forays into the horror genre, so recommending Hereditary is a gamble! However, it was reviewed at the 5-star level and Toni Collette is such a good actor. She and her family find that their home is no longer a safe haven; comparisons to The Exorcist were not, in this instance, hyperbole.