TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for March 23 2010 through March 29 2010
By John Seal
March 29, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 3/23/10
12:35 AM Encore Action
Black Mama, White Mama (1973 USA-PHI): Shot in the Philippines and directed by the legendary Eddie Romero (Mad Doctor of Blood Island, Beyond Atlantis), this outrageous women-in-prison flick features Pam Grier and Margaret Markov as unlikely allies in a war against The Man. Grier is Lee Daniels, most politely described as a sex worker, whilst Markov plays revolutionary sista Karen Brent. The ladies are doing time in one of those women's jails that seem to be de rigueur overseas, but they escape their captors' clutches thanks to the intervention of guerilla Ernesto (Che Guevera? No, some guy named Zaldy Zshornack). But Lee and Karen's troubles aren't over: shackled together à la Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, they must evade recapture by the authorities, whilst also eluding bounty hunter Ruben (Sid Haig) and gangster Vic Cheng (the ubiquitous Vic Diaz). What's a girl to do? Kick some ass, of course!
4:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Most Beautiful (1944 JAP): TCM's tribute to Akira Kurosawa continues today with five of his earliest features. Kicking things of is The Most Beautiful, the director's sophomore effort and a film only recently released on home video—and that as part of the Criterion Collection's understandably pricy 25(!) disc set, 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa. It's a little known feature, not least because it's basically a wartime propaganda effort about patriotic women working in a bombsight factory, and is best appreciated as the Japanese equivalent of Edward Dmytryk's Tender Comrade. Apparently, of all the films Kurosawa directed, this was the one closest to his heart—perhaps because he ended up marrying one of the film's stars, Yoko Yaguchi. It's followed at 6:00 AM by the somewhat more familiar Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945), a perfunctory, set-bound tale of feudal court intrigue; at 8:30 AM by No Regrets for our Youth (1946), in which a Japanese girl loses her political innocence when her loved ones are targeted by the Imperial government; at 10:30 AM by One Wonderful Sunday (1947), which I've never seen but has been compared to the works of Frank Capra (!); at 12:30 PM by Drunken Angel (1948), arguably the first of Kurosawa's masterpieces and the first of the director's two dozen collaborations with actor Toshiro Mifune; and at 2:30 PM by Stray Dog (1949), the closest Kurosawa ever came to making a film noir.
Wednesday 3/24/10
1:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Dodes' Ka-Den (1970 JAP): And one more for the road. The film that drove Kurosawa to attempt suicide (and the first film he shot in color), Dodes' Ka-Den relates a very grim tale of Tokyo slumdwellers, including the retarded Roku-Chan (Yoshitaka Zushi), whose imitation of a streetcar lends the film its title (in English, Clickety-Clack). Produced in the wake of the fruitless half decade after the director's 1965 epic Red Beard, the film doesn't fit neatly into the Kurosawa filmography, not least because Toshiro Mifune is nowhere to be seen. As loathed as much as it is loved, Dodes' Ka-Den will, however, be much appreciated by admirers of troubled youth pics such as Los Olvidados and Pixote.
Thursday 3/25/10
1:10 AM Showtime 3
Foxes (1980 USA): Adrian Lyne made his feature directorial debut with this above-average coming-of-age tale set in the San Fernando Valley, just a few short years before Valley Girls, "grody to the max" and "gag me with a spoon" became common parlance. Jodie Foster, ex-Runaway Cherie Currie, Marilyn Kagan (who was almost 30 at the time!), and Kandice Stroh star as four troubled young ladies coping with boys, school, drugs, weight issues, and all the other myriad problems that hound female teens. Though the film is episodic and at times predictable, it remains one of the best films of its type, avoiding the pitfalls of exploitation cinema and remaining determinedly serious in its outlook. Co-starring Sally Kellerman, Scott Baio, Brit rocker Adam Faith, and (in her first credited appearance) Laura Dern, Foxes supposedly will be airing in widescreen this morning, but I'll believe it when I see it. This is Showtime 3 we're talking about.
11:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953 USA): There's Saturday matinee fun aplenty in this Technicolor adventure from Fox (which surely would have been shot in Cinemascope if it had been made a couple of years later). Cornel Wilde stars as French nephew of nobility Jean-Paul, who throws off the strictures of his pampered life in favor of searching for riches in Guatemala. Teaming up with Professor MacDougall (Finlay Currie), he stumbles across the remains of an ancient city destroyed by an eaerthquake—and stumbles into love with the egghead's beautiful daughter (Constance Smith). Co-starring George Macready and Fay Wray as Jean-Paul's blueblooded aunt and uncle, as well as Anne Bancroft as a competitor for his heart, Treasure of the Golden Condor is the very definition of good old-fashioned fun.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Happy Ending (1969 USA): Lovely Jean Simmons plays a middle-aged woman on a quest for personal discovery in this solid if unspectacular Richard Brookes-helmed and penned drama. Simmons is Mary Wilson, not the Supremes singer but a housewife who's now more in love with hooch than with hubby Fred (John Forsythe). She abandons him prior to their 16th wedding anniversary (Good God, the wife and I just celebrated our 25th) and heads to the Bahamas to ‘get her head together' (as the kids said in 1969) with friend Flo (Shirley Jones) in tow. A brief fling with lying SOB Franco (Bobby Darin) pays no dividends, and Mary soon realizes she needs to face up to the facts: after the first few years, married life gets a bit boring! Unavailable on DVD, The Happy Ending co-stars Dick Shawn, Teresa Wright, Lloyd Bridges, Nanette Fabrey, and Tina Louise, and gets a very rare widescreen airing tonight.
Friday 3/26/10
7:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Side Street (1950 USA): MGM weren't known for their crime dramas or noirs, but on the rare occasions they made ‘em, they usually did ‘em right. Directed by Anthony Mann, Side Street is an above average thriller featuring Farley Granger as Joe Norson, a mailman trying to make ends meet and keep his family fed. Then one day, whilst earning money for food, up from the ground came a bubblin' crude. By which, of course, I mean that Joe steals some dirty money from scumbags Georgie and Victor (James Craig and Edmon Ryan) and finds it hard to make amends. If you like fifties location footage of New York, flag down a yellow cab toot sweet and take a trip to Side Street.
9:00 PM IFC
Bug (2006 USA): A William Friedkin-helmed psychological thriller, Bug makes its widescreen television debut this evening. Ashley Judd stars as waitress Agnes, who's stuck between a rock and a hard place: she has a nasty ex-husband (Harry Connick Jr.) who's just been paroled, and a creepy guest named Peter (Michael Shannon) who swears he's on the up and up, but whose thousand-yard stare implies otherwise. Peter is suffering from a particularly nasty case of PTSD he picked up in Iraq, as well as an obsession with the insects he believes inhabit his body...and Agnes falls into the trap of buying into the bug theory, leading to a journey deep into the paranoid heart of darkness. Based on a play by Tracy Letts, Bug is Friedkin's best film in quite some time and probably should have earned Judd some Oscar consideration.
Saturday 3/27/10
12:15 AM Starz in Black
Child's Play 3 (1991 USA): So number 2 wasn't enough for you, eh? Then feast your eyes on Child's Play 3, airing this early Saturday morning on Starz In Black. That's because, this time out, Chucky is trying to steal the soul of African-American youngster Ronald (Jeremy Sylvers), who attends the same military academy as our old chum Andy (tennybopper Justin Whalen). Andy is almost all growed up, but his old playmate just won't leave him alone—hey, he is your friend to the end! Appropriate mayhem ensues.
7:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Spook Busters (1946 USA): After a three year hiatus from matters supernatural (a theme last explored in 1943's East Side Kids comedy Ghosts on the Loose), the Bowery Boys return to haunted house shenanigans in Spook Busters. Directed by William ‘One-Shot' Beaudine, Spook Busters is proof positive that the series was already on the decline: instead of Mike Mazurki and Pamela Blake in the supporting cast, we get Charles Middleton and Douglas Dumbrille. It still had a good ways to go before hitting bottom, however, and as far as Bowery Boys features go, you can do far worse than this one. Faint praise, I know.
7:30 PM The Movie Channel
Midnight Movie(2008 USA): It's not credited as such, but Midnight Movie is basically a remake of 1991's Popcorn. (Which, come to think of it, was itself probably inspired by Bigas Lunas' 1987 shocker Anguish.) Both flicks are post-modernist takes on the slasher meme, and feature a masked killer victimizing audience members attending the screening of a legendary horror flick at a small town bijou. This is an irresistible conceit for yours truly, though others will find it much less enticing. Also airs at 10:30 PM.
9:00 PM Sundance
Election (2005 HK): Rhetorical question of the week: how did this Johnny To classic not earn a spot in Sundance's much missed Asia Extreme series? Detailing the bloody court intrigue surrounding a Hong Kong crime organization, Election features the great Simon Yam as Lok, a clear-headed candidate for presidency of the Wo Shing Society, and Tony Leung Ka Fai as Big D, his unhinged opponent. Somewhat surprisingly, this is not an ultraviolent shoot ‘em up, though there are some fairly rough and tumble street throwdowns mixed in with the electioneering and (figurative) backstabbing. Handsomely shot in widescreen, this is one of To's most satisfying features, and won Best Picture honors at the 2006 Hong Kong Film Awards.
Sunday 3/28/10
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Cottage to Let (1941 GB): Leslie Banks plays scientist Dr. Barington, a boffin helping the RAF develop a new bombsight in the wilds of Scotland, in this obscure Anthony Asquith-directed spy drama from Gainsborough Pictures. Assistant Alan Trently (Michael Wilding) is suspected of espionage on behalf of the Third Reich, and it's up to double agent Dimble (Alistair Sim) to ferret out the truth. Matters are complicated by the nearby presence of a rehab center for wounded Tommys, one of whom (John Mills) also becomes deeply involved in the proceedings. Cottage to Let is minor Asquith, but doesn't get seen on American television with anything approaching regularity, so plan accordingly.
Monday 3/29/10
6:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Doctor in the House (1954 GB): Dirk Bogarde is recognized as one of the best British actors of the 1950s and ‘60s, but he only became a star because of his lead role in a series of airy rom-coms helmed by Ralph Thomas. The first film in the series, Doctor in the House, introduced the character of Simon Sparrow (Bogarde), a handsome med student working towards his degree at London's fictional St. Swithin's Hospital. Simon, however, has lots of distractions—including fast cars and not terribly fast women—and a crotchety head professor (James Robertson Justice) to boot. It's predictable, if well-written fun, and was successful enough to spawn several sequels, including 1955's Doctor in the House, which follows at 8:00 AM and includes one gut-busting joke about big breaths, and 1963's series finale Doctor in Distress, which airs at 9:45 AM.
6:00 PM Playboy
Supervixens (1975 USA): This week's Russ Meyer boob-a-thon features Henry Rowland as gas station operator Martin Bormann. You might remember Rowland from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, where he played Otto, a German butler who bore a startling resemblance to...Martin Bormann. In Supervixens, Bormann's station provides employment for pump jockey Clint Ramsey (Charles Pitts)—until he's set up by crooked cop Sledge (Charles Napier) for a crime he didn't commit. Don't worry—the plot is just an excuse to film our hero in compromising positions with the generally underdressed Uschi Digard, Shari Eubank, Christy Hartburg, and Colleen Brennan. As an added bonus, we also get Z-Man himself, John Lazar, in a small role (this time sans his own rack), as well as other Meyers regulars such as Haji and Stuart Lancaster.