Robinson Crusoe

TCM's schedule lists the 1954 version of Robinson Crusoe as starting the prime time lineup at 8:00PM tonight. Directed by Luis Buñuel, it's one I'm particularly looking forward to as I don't think I've seen it in its entirety before. Dan O'Herlihy stars as the castaway and received a Best Actor nomination for his role. TCM's schedule suggests you can't buy it on DVD; at least, not at TCM's online shop. A DVD version was released for the 50th anniversary back in 2004 and there are copies available at Amazon, but it's presumably one of those now out-of-print titles.

I saw the beginning of the movie several years ago, back when one of the Spanish-language channels (I think Azteca America) was showing movies at lunchtime. I mentioned the interesting selection of movies I came across on Spanish-language TV back in May, 2009. Most of what they showed was Mexican, ranging from Mexico's Silver Age of the 1940s through to some latter-day crime films about narcotraficantes, with a lot mixed in. There were some films from other Spanish-speaking countries; I'm sure I saw stuff set in Argentina and Spain. Buñuel's version of Robinson Crusoe was one of the few English-language films they showed during the lunch hour -- as I understand it they do show a lot of much more recent Hollywood stuff. The only problem is, the movies are all dubbed into Spanish, and not subtitled. Since my Spanish is very limited, it makes it quite difficult for me to figure out what's going on.

TCM had Robinson Crusoe listed on the schedule back in January, but what they actually showed that day was a low-budget movie called Miss Robin Crusoe, which actually sounds quite interesting. The Buñuel version is also currently schedule to air again at the end of April, but that's a middle-of-the-night showing. Miss Robin Crusoe? Not on the schedule.