Just a heads-up that TCM Canada is airing the 1968 crime thriller THE SPLIT (1968) this Friday, June 2, at 7 pm PST / 10 pm EST. Based on the Richard Stark novel "The Seventh" this caper flick features a great cast that includes Jim Brown (in the Parker role), Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hackman, Jack Klugman, Diahann Carroll, Julie Harris, Warren Oates, Joyce Jameson, and Jackie Joseph.

I'm not sure if the film ever got a video release or for that matter how often it gets airplay, but I'm looking forward to seeing it. Reviews for the film have been mixed, but a cast like that mandates a viewing.

TCM Canada also has WILD, WILD PLANET slated for Sunday June 4th. This is listed as being a letterboxed edition. That's one crazy Margheriti fantasy.

Also Donald Sutherland in an early role, and a terrific James Whitmore as the psychopath who steals Parker's (oops, I mean McClane's) money.

Not a very good film, and can't match the book (amazing, and one of Stark/Westlake's best), but still not a dull ride, with a couple of highly memorable sequences -- among them a donnybrook between Jim Brown and Ernest Borgnine (!!!) If I remember correctly, they throw each other around an office, destroying everything in sight. It's fast, furious, and hilarious.

In terms of Stark adaptations, I would put it immediately behind POINT BLANK but ahead of THE OUTFIT, which makes it second best. I've never seen Godard's MADE IN U.S.A. or Alain Cavalier's MISE EN SAC, but from I've read the former has almost nothing to do with its source novel, The Jugger, and the latter (based on The Score) is damn near impossible to see in the United States.

I absolutely love WILD, WILD, PLANET. I'm personally gratified to own the long OOP laserdisc, but I'd love to see a high def upgrade of this title. I seem to recall a recent chat with Warner or MGM staffers on-line (maybe it was on The Digital Bits, but I'm not sure, the source is just white noise in my brain right now and I'm too lazy to spend the time to look it up) where they brought up the possibility of including THE GREEN SLIME as part of a Science Fiction set in the near future. I couldn't wish for a better companion piece than WILD, WILD PLANET. Although maybe they could spice things up with another "anthony Dawson" Sci-Fier like SNOW DEVILS.

But now that the MGM video line has split away from Sony, who knows what's going to happen.

At least there's that laserdisc. And that great poster. Wish I had a digital camera and I could share it with you.