TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday, March 31, 2009 through Monday, April 6, 2009
By John Seal
March 30, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 03/31/09
9:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
The H-Man (1959 JAP): This super scarce Japanese science fiction feature makes a rare small screen appearance tonight on TCM. One of the more thoughtful fantastic films of its time, The H-Man tells the story of a radioactive blob that likes to turn people into green slime, though NOT the same green slime as is featured in 1969's The Green Slime. Directed by the legendary Ishiro Honda, the film reflects Japan's post-war concerns regarding nuclear power and organized crime; there's a significant sub-plot here about dope peddling that will throw space opera fans for a loop. Caveat: TCM is airing this Tohoscope feature in pan and scan. Response to caveat: there's no DVD release of this film, so your options are limited anyway. Skip The H-Man at your own peril.
Wednesday 04/01/09
12:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Lost Missile (1950 USA): A young Robert Loggia stars in this middling William Berke-helmed programmer. Loggia plays David Loring, a patriotic scientist working on a new delivery system for nuclear warheads. Way to go, Dave — let's move that Doomsday Clock forward another minute or three! When a mysterious missile shows up in Earth's orbit and gets knocked off course by a retaliatory Soviet projectile, David and the good folks at Havenbrook Atomic Laboratory leap into action to divert it from its apparent landing point: the Eastern Seaboard of the good o' U.S. of A.! Part science fiction, part cold war thriller, The Lost Missile doesn't offer much in the thrills and spills department, but does benefit from a decent Gerald Fried score. It also marked the film debut of African-American actor Hari Rhodes (The Satan Bug, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes), here seen tinkling the ivories in a nightclub scene.
3:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937 USA): This fanciful Depression-era musical comedy features the inimitable Eddie Cantor as Aloysius Babson, a boxcar bum who dreams of a better life serving at the behest of a wealthy sultan. After stumbling onto a desert movie set, Babson is hired as an extra in an Arabian Nights-style fantasy — then promptly falls asleep and dreams he really IS living in old Baghdad. This isn't one of Cantor's classics — those all come three or four years earlier — but it's still great fun, as long as you can cope with the blackface routines, seemingly a contractual obligation for the comic.
6:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Tell it to the Marines (1926 USA): This deeply satisfying Lon Chaney drama displays the actor in an unusual setting: without makeup. Chaney plays a Marine drill sergeant cursed with a lackadaisical recruit (William Haines) who is also competing with Chaney for the love of a girl (Eleanor Boardman). The film climaxes with an exciting (if racist) rescue mission in China, but it's Chaney's touching performance that is the major reason to watch this underappreciated silent classic. Chaney befriended Marine Corps Commandant Smedley Butler during the making of this film: Butler went on to write one of the greatest anti-war tracts, War Is A Racket (http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm), which should be required reading for anyone interested in American foreign policy and the government's relationship with big business.
10:15 PM Flix
Gunshy (1998 USA): I'm no William Petersen fan — I find him either overbearing or impossibly dull — but this neo-noir is worth a look, especially as it features the vastly entertaining R. Lee Ermey in a small but crucial cameo role. Petersen plays Jake Bridges, a failed writer who hooks up with Joisey hoodlum Freddie (Michael Wincott) in order to learn some life lessons and perhaps give his moribund literary career a resuscitatory spark. Gunshy is not a great film, but does try to do something new with the gangster genre, and makes its widescreen television debut this evening. Interesting footnote: director Jeff Celentano is previously credited with a film entitled Dickwad, which I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing.
Thursday 04/02/09
7:00 PM Sundance
Caramel (2007 LEB): I love firsts in TiVoPlex, but after almost seven years of writing this column, they're coming fewer and further between. Happily for me, I get one this week, as Caramel is the first Lebanese film I've ever recommended! Directed by Nadine Labaki (who also stars), it's the episodic tale of six Beirut women: Jamale, Layame, Nisrime, and Rima, all of whom work in a beauty salon; seamstress Rose, and pensioner Lili. A lot goes on in this busy little film, and though it offers little that you haven't seen before in other character-driven indies, it's ultimately successful thanks to an excellent cast and a few well-placed applications of social realism.
8:45 PM IFC
Sugar (2004 CAN): And what better title to watch right after you've finished consuming Caramel? To be honest, I haven't seen Sugar, but couldn't resist putting it in for thematic reasons alone. It's a well-regarded drama about street hustlers in Toronto, and stars Brendan Fehr as a jaded gigolo named, appropriately, Butch. Look for indie darling Sarah Polley in a small role.
Friday 04/03/09
3:45 PM Showtime Extreme
Cutting Class (1989 USA): This is a terrible film, but c'mon...are you really going to say NO to a movie featuring folksinger Donovan's son (imaginatively also named Donovan) as a mental patient? How about one featuring Brad Pitt as a horny high school jock? Or one with Roddy McDowall as a school principal? Martin Mull as a murder victim? STILL not ready to take the plunge? Well, once you realize Dirk Blocker plays the basketball coach, your remaining resistance will crumble. Sadly, even with that cast — and even considering the standards of the slasher genre — Cutting Class is crap. Showtime Extreme is, however, airing it in widescreen this afternoon, so Original Aspect Ratio mavens may want to give it a look, or at least a cursory sideways glance.
Saturday 04/04/09
6:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Real Life (1979 USA): An evening of mockumentaries kick offs with Albert Brooks' Real Life, which features Brooks himself as an egocentric filmmaker named Albert Brooks (not to be confused with The Green Slime), whose cameras intrude into the private lives of the Yeagers, a typically middle-class, all-American family. Filming with the sanction of the (fictional) National Institute of Human Behavior, Brooks' camera soon begins to have an unanticipated effect on husband Chuck (Charles Grodin, hilarious as always), who turns from loyal husband to star-struck camera hog, and on wife Jeanette (Frances Lee McCain), who overcomes her initial shyness and develops a serious Stockholm Syndrome crush on the director documenting her life. Produced in the wake of Network and PBS's An American Family, both of which anticipated the full-scale arrival of reality television, Real Life is a prescient and still amusing look at this now depressingly ubiquitous genre. It's followed at 8:15 PM by the first widescreen television broadcast of Christopher Guest's shaggy dog tale Best In Show (2000), and at 10:00 PM by everyone's favorite mockrockumentary, (This Is) Spinal Tap (1984).
9:15 PM Flix
Hot Dog - The Movie (1984 USA): I don't have an excuse. I just love the idea of there being a movie entitled Hot Dog - The Movie.
Sunday 04/05/09
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Carnival in Flanders (1935 FRA): Ah, here's something a bit more TiVoPlexy! This obscure Jacques Feyder frock farce about the battle of the sexes in 17th century Flanders makes its TCM debut this evening. When Spain invades the small Lowlands town of Boom (curiously bereft of Liz and Dick), the menfolk all go into hiding, and it's up to the ladies—led by mayor's wife Cornelia (Francoise Rosay) — to stymie the invaders plans. Filled with risqué humor (certainly for the time, and definitely by contemporaneous American standards), Carnival in Flanders ended up being banned by the Nazis in 1940, who considered it a dangerously subversive picture. It all looks pretty tame now, but is essential viewing for fans of French cinema.
Monday 04/06/09
5:45 AM HBO Signature
Mahogany (1975 USA): Do you know where you're going to, do you like the things that life is showing you? Where are you going to? Do you know? Those are some of the weighty questions posed by this soapy rags to riches Diana Ross vehicle, which stars the Motown songbird as Tracy, a fashion designer sucked into the maelstrom of continental high life, including a love affair with European nobleman Christian (Jean-Pierre Aumont). But there's more: fashion shutterbug pal Sean (Anthony Perkins) has some dirty secrets which are about to make young Tracy's life even more complicated. Luckily, righteous Brian (Billy Dee Williams) is also around to keep our heroine grounded — and happily tethered to the apron strings, which, as Mahogany's screenplay won't let us forget, is woman's natural state. Needless to say, Tracy does not burn her bra.
10:00 AM Showtime Extreme
3:10 to Yuma (2006 USA): James Mangold's excellent if totally unnecessary remake of this classic western makes its widescreen television debut this morning. Russell Crowe is the ostensible star of the show, portraying bad guy with a tarnished heart of gold Ben Wade, but for my money the most fun to be had here is via Peter Fonda's performance as mad old coot Byron McElroy. Not only is it a great performance, it's also an astonishing transformation for Fonda, who doesn't look anywhere near this decrepit in real life. Also airs at 8:35 PM.
6:00 PM Sundance
The Forgotten Woman (2008 CAN): This eye-opening and heartbreaking documentary explores a guilty secret of India Rising: the plight of that nation's 20-45 million strong (estimates vary wildly) contingent of widows. Stigmatized by society, these widows are forced to surrender their husband's property and turn to street begging or prostitution to make ends meet. Directed by Dilip Mehta, The Forgotten Woman is the non-fiction alter ego of Deepa Mehta's 2006 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winner Water. (Deepa and Dilip are sister and brother.)
8:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Wild Angels (1966 USA): Remember when this biker classic used to air on the old Speedvision Channel? Gosh, that was a great channel. Not only did they show biker movies, they also showed hot rod movies as part of their Lost Drive-In series hosted by a rather decrepit looking Bruce Dern. And though we don't have Speedvision anymore, The Wild Angels is now airing, uncut and in widescreen, on good old Turner Classic Movies. Though 1954's The Wild One was the Granddaddy of biker pics, The Wild Angels was the one that brought the genre into the counterculture mainstream (so to speak), and features iconic performances by Peter Fonda (him again!) and Nancy Sinatra. Just remember, kids - we wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to ride. We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man!