TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday, November 6, 2007 through Monday, November 12, 2007
By John Seal
November 5, 2007
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 11/06/07
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
To Trap A Spy (1964 USA): Wildly popular during its original four season run on NBC, the demand for Bond-style spy show The Man From U.N.C.L.E. outstripped the supply - hence To Trap A Spy, the first of eight (!) films prepared for big screen release in the US and around the world. For the first time ever, all eight features are airing on television this morning, back to back to back to...well, you get the idea. Created by re-editing old TV episodes (supplemented with footage deemed too ‘hot' for the boob tube), these films performed surprisingly well at the box-office. Adapted from U.N.C.L.E.'s black and white pilot, The Vulcan Affair, To Trap A Spy served as a big screen introduction for main characters Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum), two super secret agents battling against the villainy of T.H.R.U.S.H., an organization with an acronym as tortuous as their nefarious activities. The film co-stars Shakespearean actor and future Blacula William Marshall as an African president threatened with assassination by bad guy Andrew Vulcan (Fritz Weaver), and it's up to Napoleon Solo to protect him. It's followed at 4:45 AM by One of Our Spies Is Missing (1965), in which Illya Kuryakin and U.N.C.L.E. overseer Mr. Waverly (Leo G. Carroll) assume prominent roles; at 6:30 AM by One Spy Too Many (1966), featuring a scenery gobbling Rip Torn as megalomaniacal baddie Alexander; at 8:15 AM by The Spy With My Face (1965), in which a doppelganger takes Solo's place; at 9:45 AM by The Karate Killers (1967), a star-studded martial arts affair with cameos from Joan Crawford, Herbert Lom, Telly Savalas, and Terry-Thomas; at 11:30 AM by The Spy In the Green Hat (1966), wherein Jack Palance tries to change Earth's climate; at 1:15 PM by The Helicopter Spies (1968), featuring an adventure in Iran; and at 3:00 PM by How to Steal the World (1968), in which T.H.R.U.S.H. attempt world domination by kidnapping the world's leading scientists. If you're like me, a little Man From U.N.C.L.E. goes a long way, and these glorified TV movies will satisfy your spy cravings - at least for a week.
3:00 AM More Max
The Palm Beach Story (1942 USA): My second favorite Preston Sturges film (Sullivan's Travels being number one, natch), The Palm Beach Story stars Joel McCrea as Tom Jeffers, an inventor struggling to make ends meet at home whilst trying to raise funds for his research work. He's married to Gerry (Claudette Colbert), who can't stand the fiscal strains placed on their marriage by his pie in the sky schemes, and when Tom turns up his nose at a $700 gift from The Wienie King (hilarious Robert Dudley) she embarks for the titular resort, a quickie divorce, and re-marriage to wealthy philanthropist J. D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee, also terrific), who she hopes will then provide the necessary funding for Tom. Co-starring Mary Astor as Hackensacker's man crazy sister, The Palm Beach Story avoids the more extreme caricatures of some Sturges pictures and hilariously pushed the limits of the Production Code about as far as they would go in 1942.
Wednesday 11/07/07
2:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Devil's Mask (1946 USA): A creepy Columbia murder mystery that's been locked in the vaults far too long, The Devil's Mask stars Jim Bannon as Jack Packard, a detective trying to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of museum curator Quentin Mitchell. Mitchell dropped out of sight after leaving on an expedition to the remote reaches of South America, and Packard has been hired by Mrs. Mitchell (Mona Barrie) to find him. Does the solution lie with the shrunken head recovered from a crashed cargo plane - or does The Rime of the Ancient Mariner hold the key to the mystery? Spun off from the popular radio show I Love A Mystery, The Devil's Mask is average private eye fare enlivened by some suitably ghoulish accoutrements.
10:30 PM HBO Signature
Ladrones y Mentirosos (2006 PUR) : Released in Anglo territories as Thieves and Liars, this is a fascinating Puerto Rican film about the strange relationship between the Commonwealth and its American imperial master. The film stars Cuban-born Steven Bauer as Oscar, a drug runner embroiled in the crime and corruption scarring the island as it serves as a way station for Colombian cocaine on its way to the mainland. The film weaves the stories of three island families into the narrative, including that of an airport worker and a newspaper reporter. Shot on digital video and funded by grant money from the fledgling Puerto Rico Film Commission, Ladrones y Mentirosos is a gritty and realistic piece of indie filmmaking from first time feature director Ricardo Mendez Matta.
Thursday 11/08/07
6:05 AM Sundance
McVicar (1980 GB): Roger Daltrey is remarkable as arch-criminal John McVicar in this completely satisfying and riveting crime drama from TV director Tom Clegg (The Sweeney). Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Daltrey's performance is his ability from the get go to make you completely forget that you're watching a bonafide rock star in the lead role. The Who frontman portrays the character as a cross between a London wide boy and a sharp dressed mod - check out the hounds-tooth check jacket he wears after his escape - and though I don't know much about the real life McVicar, Roger's portrayal is thoroughly convincing. Even the presence of a handful of lung-shredding Who-style numbers layered somewhat awkwardly atop the action can't distract from Daltrey's remarkable on screen presence. The film also benefits from an utterly charming performance by Adam Faith, and though the story is fairly predictable, it's never less than interesting and enjoyable. One of the best British crime films - ever. Also plays at 2:15 PM.
7:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Hard Way (1942 USA): An excellent if little-known examination of the hardships of show biz life, The Hard Way features Ida Lupino as Helen, a bitter recipient of life's hard knocks determined to save little sister Katherine (Joan Leslie) from the same fate. Helen connives to marry Katherine off to gone-to-seed vaudeville hoofer Albert (Dennis Morgan) in hopes that her career will blossom - and rescue both women from their going nowhere fast lives in coal-mining country. Things go according to plan until Katherine becomes a hit on Broadway, driving her struggling hubby to drink and despair and herself to life in the too-fast lane, after which the sisters learn that fame ain't everything it's cracked up to be. Derided by studio boss Jack Warner and unpopular at the box office, The Hard Way nonetheless earned Lupino a Best Actress Award from the New York Film Critics' Association.
Friday 11/09/07
6:30 AM More Max
The Hand (1981 USA): Do we ever get enough of Michael Caine here in the TiVoPlex? No, we do not - even when he's starring in a schlocky horror picture show like The Hand. Written and directed by Oliver Stone, a director far more suited to junk than JFK, The Hand features Caine as Jonathan Lansdale, a comic artist who loses the eponymous appendage in a car crash, then finds himself being stalked by his missing digits, which have acquired a mind of their own. Eager to return to and serve the sub-conscious biddings of its master, The Hand is soon wreaking havoc throughout Southern California, apparently populated by lots of folks with whom Jon has issues. A fun film with aspirations far beyond its station, The Hand co-stars Viveca Lindfors, Tracey Walter, and Stone himself as, appropriately enough, a tramp - though presumably not one of the grassy knoll variety.
11:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Shampoo (1975 USA): Expurgated prints of Shampoo have popped up over the years on standard cable, but I think this is only the second uncut, letterboxed broadcast ever. It's a sex farce about the conquests of the world's only straight male hairdresser - well, Beverly Hills' only straight male hairdresser - played with swagger by Warren Beatty. This being a Beatty picture, there's also a political subtext to the proceedings, with the 1968 Presidential election serving as a prominent backdrop for the bedroom frolics. Amongst Beatty's conquests are Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie, Lee Grant (who won the Supporting Actress Academy Award for her performance), and, in her debut, a pre-Princess Leia Carrie Fisher, who gets to say the ‘F' word. Directed by Hal Ashby and written by Robert Towne, Shampoo also features Jack Warden, Luana Anders, Howard Hesseman, and film director William Castle.
Saturday 11/10/07
7:00 PM Cinemax
The Last King of Scotland (2006 GB): Even if you hate this film, it's hard to deny the power of The Last King of Scotland's lead performance by Forest Whitaker as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada. Whitaker deservedly took home the Best Actor Oscar at this year's Academy Awards for his portrayal of the syphilitic hard man with a soft spot for all things Celtic. The film focuses on Amin's relationship with the fictional Nicholas Garrigan, a callow Scots youth played by Mr. Tumnus himself, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed James McAvoy. An idealistic medical student, Garrigan has come to Africa to assuage his white liberal guilt, and he promptly meets not so cute with Amin over a dead buffalo, falls under his spell, and is taken on as his personal physician. Things go swimmingly at first, but soon Garrigan begins to catch glimpses of a less jovial, deeply unhinged side to Idi - and begins to regret his decision to snub his contacts at the British embassy. Based on a novel by Giles Foden, The Last King of Scotland also airs at 10:00 PM, 11:30 PM, and 11/11 at 2:30 AM and on More Max at 3:50 PM.
Sunday 11/11/07
9:0 PM Sundance
Nightmare (2000 ROK): A South Korean variant on the American teen slasher trope, Nightmare is an unsettling stew of gore and grue about seven youths being stalked by the vengeful corpse of their friend Eun-Ju. Eun-Ju's death was, naturally, the result of some carelessness on the part of the still living (though not for long) pseudo-teens, and they must pay for their transgressions. Basically Friday the 13th with a longhaired ghost instead of a guy in a hockey mask, Nightmare breaks no new ground but still manages to provide a modicum of entertainment for less discerning horror mavens.
Monday 11/12/07
6:30 AM HBO
Cool As Ice (1991 USA): Heeey, looky here! A month or two ago I listed this Vanilla Ice classic when it was airing on some obscure channel that no one gets simply because, well, it's Cool As Ice, and nothing is cooler than that! Now it reappears on garden variety HBO. To recap my prior précis: Ice portrays a rebellious bad boy with a bright yellow motorcycle and a hankering for clever and pretty waitress cum honor student (Kristin Minter), but the small-town local yokels don't take to the hip and happening newcomer and his girly-man earrings. The Washington Post's Richard Harrington aptly described the film as "'Footloose' meets ‘The Mild Ones'". Not to be missed! Also airs at 9:30 AM.
6:00 PM IFC
Darkon (2006 USA): If you play RPG's or belong to the SCA (or even just know what those acronyms stand for) you'll want to check out this documentary about LARPing. Darkon examines the fantasy lives of a group of geeky Baltimore residents who spend their weekends chasing each other around city parks in homemade armor. They're perfectly normal folks, just like you and I. Snigger. Also airs at 10:00 PM.