Screen Picks

The week in repertory film, TV and video.

by Sam Adams

The Convent

(Fri., March 16, 11 p.m., Hoyt’s Cinemas, Rt. 38 & Rt. 70, Pennsauken, 856-910-2340 or www.exhumedfilms.com)

Promising "Nuns, Guns and Gasoline," The Convent may not be anyone’s idea of classic cinema, but chances are Exhumed Films’ exuberant audiences will make this Philly premiere worth watching all the same. Featuring demonic nuns who stalk unsuspecting teens in an abandoned convent, the film (which features Coolio in the role LL Cool J filled in Halloween: H2O) falls distinctly on the humorous side of the horror divide. (The presence of scream queen Adrienne Barbeau is a dead giveaway.) Shown with Night of the Comet.

Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

($29.95 DVD)

Even for a confirmed Kubrick-hater like myself, there’s no resisting this delirious 1964 farce, whose kinetic energy is no doubt due as much to boho humorist Terry Southern’s screenplay contributions as to the notoriously controlling Kubrick. Presented on DVD in its properly shifting aspect ratios, the film — released the same year as Fail Safe — is a far more sarcastic take on nuclear armageddon, featuring George C. Scott’s eye-bulgingly over-the-top turn as the hawkish General Buck Turgidson. (Scott often called it his favorite of his own performances.) Peter Sellers performs an astonishing triple feat as the cryptic scientist of the title, the fatuous Captain Mandrake and the president of the United States; Kubrick originally planned to have him play Slim Pickens’ hayseed bombardier, too, but Sellers, who had expressed grave reservations over essaying the character’s Texas accent, fortuitously injured his leg and claimed to be unable to perform. And Sterling Hayden (also featured in Kubrick’s twisty noir The Killing) delivers a rare semi-comic performance as the delightfully named General Jack D. Ripper. A making-of featurette and a Kubrick overview don’t add much, but considering the generally poor quality of Kubrick on DVD (Kubrick expressed a preference for non-letterboxed transfers before his death, and an idiotic corporate policy has prevented Warner Bros. from releasing the uncensored version of Eyes Wide Shut), Dr. Strangelove is the standout in a fallow field.