TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday, November 18, 2008 through Monday, November 24, 2008
By John Seal
November 17, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 11/18/08
5:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
First Comes Courage (1943 USA): This routine Columbia flag-waver earns a mention because it's a rarely seen Merle Oberon feature, and because it was the last film directed by Dorothy Arzner. That's a pretty thin thread on which to hang a recommendation, but Arzner was the ONLY female director working in Golden Age Hollywood, which is pretty odd when you think about it. Arzner doesn't acquit herself particularly well here, but First Comes Courage is certainly no worse than thousands of similar films churned out by Y chromosome filmmakers, and Oberon is gorgeous (if barely credible) as a Norwegian freedom fighter battling Nazis. Brian Aherne lends a helping hand as her British military liaison and Carl Esmond purrs maliciously as an adversary. It's followed at 6:45 AM by 1936's Rhodes of Africa, a salute to British Empire architect Cecil Rhodes, here stoically portrayed by Walter Huston during his brief mid-30s UK sojourn.
7:00 AM Sundance
Summercamp! (2006 USA): Summer camps are a uniquely American rite of passage for children of a certain age, and this enjoyable if shallow documentary takes a look at one such establishment. Focusing on Wisconsin's Swift Nature Camp, the film depicts the adventures of a 90-strong group of youngsters as they suffer through homesickness, insect bites, and uncomfortable bedding over the course of a gruelling three weeks. If you're one who waxes nostalgic about being shipped off to a distant location and placed in the care of strangers, you'll probably love Summercamp! Also airs 11/24 at 4:30 AM.
9:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Frozen Limits (1939 GB): It's not too often that British comedy team The Crazy Gang gets American television exposure — in fact, I can't remember it ever happening before. My only previous exposure to the Gang was on British TV, so this morning is a special time indeed, especially if obscure comedy acts are your thing. The gang consisted of six long since forgotten comics, and The Frozen Limits, a surprisingly amusing attempt to mine laughs from the Canadian Gold Rush of 1898, is generally considered their best effort. Much of the humor is topical and most of it understandably aimed at a British audience, but there's enough lunacy (including some rather camp Mounties and a salute to Walt Disney's Snow White) to render this of more than passing interest to American viewers.
Wednesday 11/19/08
7:00 PM Sundance
Pierrepoint (2005 GB): Albert Pierrepoint was Britain's "last" official hangman, and carried out over 400 executions — including those of Ruth Ellis and Lord Haw Haw — before his retirement in 1956. A small man with a vise-like handshake, he lived out his days in my hometown of Southport, Lancashire, where he banked at my father's place of employment, Nat West. This first rate biopic stars the great Timothy Spall as Pierrepoint, and Spall delivers a quietly effective performance as this dedicated public servant, who tackled his job with equanimity and compassion whilst running an Oldham pub on the side. There's also an excellent supporting turn by Eddie Marsan — rapidly acquiring a reputation as one of Britain's finest character actors — as James Corbitt, one of Pierrepoint's satisfied clients. Even if you're an opponent of the death penalty — as I am — you'll be intrigued and enlightened by this fascinating look at one man and his most unusual day job.
Thursday 11/20/08
1:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Spider and the Fly (1949 GB): Eric Portman stars as Fernand Maubert, a French police officer working in cahoots with master safecracker Lodocq (Guy Rolfe) to fend off the advancing German Army circa 1914. Offering a pardon in exchange for temporary employment, Maubert hires Lodocq to obtain a list of Boche spies working in France, but regrets his decision when gal pal Madeleine (Nadia Grey) turns up on the roster. Also on hand in this comparatively minor Robert Hamer effort: James Hayter as an army officer (naturellement!), Arthur Lowe as comedy relief, a less portly than usual Sebastian Cabot, and Hattie Jacques.
8:30 AM Sundance
This Is England (2006 GB): My favoritest film of all 2007, Shane Meadow's study of working class adolescents in 1980s Britain makes its American television debut tonight. Young Thomas Turgoose stars as Shaun, a small-for-his-age kid trying to find a place for himself amidst the Nottingham yoof scene. He befriends some of the local (multi-racial) skinheads, gets a crop and braces, and hangs out in the neighbourhood caff. Things change for the worse, however, when hard man Combo (Stephen Graham) comes home after doing a stretch in HM Prisons, flexing his street cred and dragging his easily manipulated pals to meetings of the racist National Front. Meadows avoids the predictable good/bad, black/white paradigms, and though Combo is a deeply unpleasant fellow, he still has enough shades of grey to make you sympathize with him — to a point. The film's Falklands War coda doesn't completely gel with what has gone before, but this is still a very powerful, superbly acted coming of age drama. Here's hoping Meadows' latest, Somers Town, gets a big screen American release soon.
7:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
Capone (1975 USA): Ben Gazzara devours the scenery as Chicago gangster Al Capone in this overripe Roger Corman-produced shoot 'em up, which makes its widescreen television premiere this evening. Directed by Steve Carver, who had success the previous year helming Corman's box office hit Big Bad Mama, Capone gilds the historical lily considerably but succeeds as a mindless action flick. Gazzara gets to shout a lot at the supporting cast, which includes Harry Guardino as sidekick Johnny Torrio (a gangland character deserving his own movie, I'll add), Sly Stallone as a much too young Frank Nitti, Susan Blakley as Gazzara's love interest/object of abuse (and the first woman to reveal her, erm, innermost secrets in a mainstream movie), and, of course, Dick Miller, who seems to have been granted a job-for-life within the Corman empire sometime back in the 1950s. If you can overlook the cardboard back-lot sets and anachronistic hair-don'ts and just enjoy the copious violence (not to mention the darkest recesses of Ms. Blakley's anatomy), you'll be well satisfied.
Friday 11/21/08
Midnight Showtime 3
Exposed (1983 USA): This is a pretty lousy movie with just enough pedigree to make it a very mild buy in this week's movie market. Nastassja Kinski stars as a Wisconsin farm girl — yeah, right — taken under the wing of fashion photographer Ian McShane and transformed into a Manhattan catwalk star. Enter, stage ludicrous, Rudolf Nureyev as a spy out to kill terrorist Harvey Keitel, and in need of the beautiful model's assistance in completing said task. With music by Georges Delerue and cinematography by Henri Decae, you'd expect this James Toback-helmed meller to aspire to nouvelle vague heights, but instead it plumbs the depths of cinema sewage. It's a fascinating misfire, but McShane is good.
3:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Lady of Vengeance (1957 GB): Paging Eady money! Paging Eady money! Here's a prime example of the sort of swill churned out by British studios in thrall to government cinema subsidies back in the day. American for hire Dennis O'Keefe plays Bill Marshall, a Yank journo covering the UK beat and eager for revenge against the man who drove his best girl to suicide. Said rotter is criminal mastermind Karnak (Anton Diffring), and Bill becomes entangled in a cat and mouse game with him revolving around possession of a rare postage stamp. Yes, this is another in the tiny "philatelic mystery" genre, which also includes 1963's Charade and one of those Krzysztof Kieslowski movies, the title of which is eluding me at present. Not to worry, though — things turn out for the best, and Bill doesn't have to do anything too slimy in order for justice to win out.
9:00 PM IFC
House (1977 JAP): I've read a lot about this film recently — it's newly available from Video Search of Miami, and it had an enthusiastic write-up in the most recent issue of Steven Puchalski's absolutely essential Shock Cinema (www.shockcinemamagazine.com). Ostensibly a thriller about young women disappearing in a spooky old mansion, Shock Cinema's review describes it as a surreal, psychedelic comic horror near-masterpiece. It's the one film you really won't want to miss this week.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Monster A Go-Go (1965 USA): One of the worst of the so-bad-it's-good genre makes its TCM premiere this evening. Directed by legendary schlockmeister Bill Rebane and produced by Herschell Gordon Lewis, Monster A Go-Go tells the tale of a crashed space satellite and the hideous creature it brings to the Greater Chicago Metro area. Even at 69 minutes, it feels too long, and though the "monster" (an irradiated astronaut played by super-sized amateur thesp Henry Hite) is semi-memorable, Lewis' extensive re-editing did the film few if any favors. If you like voice-overs, this is your movie — it makes The Creeping Terror look (and sound) like Citizen Kane. Well, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration. Would you believe The Brain from Planet Arous? It's followed on 11/22 by Rebane's much more professional but equally silly 1975 epic, The Giant Spider Invasion, which stars The Skipper, Alan Hale Jr., as a Wisconsin sheriff confronted by out of control mega-arachnids.
Saturday 11/22/08
9:00 PM Sundance
Lost in Beijing (2007 CHI): Tony Leung Ka Fai stars as Lin Dong, a seedy massage parlor owner — is there any other kind? — in this florid but oddly sterile drama from female director Li Yu. Lin has recently knocked up employee Ping Guo (Bingbing Fan) — in plain sight, no less, of hubby An Kun (Dawei Tong), who decides a little blackmail might go a long way towards solving his cash flow problems. Lin throws him a curveball, however, by confessing his fling and offering to adopt the bun currently baking in Ping's oven, and An gets his own back by bedding Lin's wife (Elaine Jin). This frankly unbelievable chain of events is delivered with poker-faced sobriety by the cast, who do their best with the film's over-egged screenplay. It all looks very pretty, though.
Sunday 11/23/08
9:00 PM Sundance
A Bittersweet Life (2005 ROK): A heady cross-pollination of spaghetti western and crime drama, A Bittersweet Life features J.S.A.'s Lee Byeong-hun as gunman Sonwoo, assigned to protect his boss's girlfriend, Heesoo (Shin Min-a), from prying eyes. Left with instructions to "take care" of anyone making a move on his moll, Sunwoo soon discovers there IS another man, but spares the poor fool's life out of his own tender feelings for the sweet young Heesoo. That news doesn't sit well with boss Kang (Kim Yeong-chol), and the bullets and blood are soon flying with gay abandon. Even by the standards set by fellow Korean filmmakers Kim Ki-Duk and Park Chan-Wook, A Bittersweet Life doesn't shy away from a bit of the old ultra-violence, and is definitely not recommended for sensitive souls.
Monday 11/24/08
Midnight Turner Classic Movies
El Mariachi (1992 MEX): Reputedly shot for $7,000, El Mariachi launched the career of talented young director Robert Rodriguez (From Dusk Til Dawn, Spy Kids). It's a terrific action story about a lowly mariachi musician (Carlos Gallardo), whose guitar case's resemblance to that of a hired killer's gets its owner into considerable hot water. A brilliant debut by the then 24-year-old newcomer, the film has the zest we expect from all Rodriguez films whilst maintaining its original patina of art house indie credibility.
10:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Foreign Agent (1942 USA): Gale Storm plays a movie star doing her bit against the Axis in this silly but fun Monogram production. Directed by William "One-Shot" Beaudine, the film features Storm as screen siren Mitzi Mayo, daughter of a lighting specialist whose invention is coveted by those nasty Nazis. With the aid of boyfriend Jimmy (John Shelton), Mitzi puts paid to the plot and make sure daddy's invention is safely delivered to Uncle Sam. It's followed at noon by Revenge of the Zombies (1943), an even more far-fetched Storm vehicle in which Third Reich scientist John Carradine plots to fill the ranks of the Wehrmacht with the living dead!