TiVoPlex
By John Seal
July 26, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 7/27/10
6:00 PM Starz
Zombieland (2009 USA): This zomedy actually premiered last weekend, but I carelessly overlooked it. Zombieland is actually a pretty odd duck, and I’m somewhat surprised it turned into a modest hit last summer: more indie character study than gruefest, the film spends as much time on back story and road movie machinations as it does on gut-munching. Woody Harrelson is excellent as Twinkie-loving Tallahassee, a redneck survivor of the zombie apocalypse who meets up with nerdy Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) on the Texas to Ohio highway. The two are diverted to California after getting carjacked by femme fatales Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and end up rubbing shoulders with Bill Murray in hilarious fashion. Kudos to Columbia for a brilliant marketing strategy, which played up the film’s comedic elements without giving away all the best bits in advance. Also airs at 9:00 PM.
11:30 PM HBO Signature
Los Bastardos (2008 USA-MEX): Perhaps Arizona Governor Jan Brewer watched Los Bastardos before she started spouting off about illegal immigrants beheading good red-blooded Americans whilst corrupting children with pinatas full of wacky tobacky and nose candy. That’s one explanation. The other is that she read the poll numbers and knew she needed a big burst of xenophobia if she wanted to keep her job. Whichever may be the case, Los Bastardos is an above average drama about L.A. day laborers Fausto and Jesus (Ruben Sosa and Jesus Moises Rodriguez), and their unfortunate decision to get involved with a suburban crackhead. It’s only a movie, Jan…only a movie.
Wednesday 7/28/10
4:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Sally (1929 USA): Oh, those early Hollywood musicals, when sound was new and a gal could dream about hoofing her way to fame and fortune along the Great White Way. No one’s going to mistake Sally for 42nd Street, but it’s a fun little picture regardless, and stars Marilyn Miller as the titular young woman, an orphan who discovers a love for the old soft shoe at an early age. Miller had also appeared in the original stage play and would succumb, unpleasantly, to botched nasal surgery in 1936—but her breathing is unimpaired in Sally, and if she’d lived, she might have been a star. The film co-stars brassy Pert Kelton, goofy Joe E. Brown, and a five minute Technicolor sequence (apparently the entire film was in color at one point, but this is all that’s left).
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Yesterday’s Enemy (1959 GB): Manly Stanley Baker stakes out pole position in this excellent war-is-Hell feature from director Val Guest. Baker plays Langford, commander of a squad of exhausted British troops hacking their way through the jungles of Burma. Cut off from the rest of their unit, the squad labor through dense tropical foliage until they run across a Japanese-held village, which they seize - along with an important map. Desperate to learn the map’s secrets, and much to the chagrin of a clergyman (Guy Rolfe) and a war correspondent (Leo McKern), Langford and Sergeant MacKenzie (Gordon Jackson) start executing villagers. Dubbed “the most controversial drama ever filmed” in the UK, Yesterday’s Enemy is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago, and arguably the best non-horror movie Hammer Films ever produced. It makes its TCM premiere this evening and comes with my highest recommendation.
Thursday 7/29/10
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956 USA): One of the best early rock ‘n’ roll movies returns to the small screen this afternoon after a very, very lengthy absence indeed - I think the last time it aired was on the USA network back in the ‘90s. Produced and released independently, Rock, Rock, Rock!’s story is the usual nonsense about getting someone decent to perform at the prom, but the stars were perfectly aligned for producers Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky (yes, the Amicus moneymen): they acquired the services of The Johnny Burnette Trio, Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Flamingos, The Moonglows, LaVern Baker, and, erm, Cirino and the Bowties. Every rock and roll movie had a crummy white harmony group, it seems, but the damage done by Cirino and chums is minimal and more than made up for by the otherwise impressive starpower. Worthy of all three rocks as well as its exclamation mark, Rock, Rock, Rock! also marked the film debut of 13-year-old Tuesday Weld.
5:15 PM Showtime 3
The Art of the Steal (2009 USA): The ‘theft’ of a major art collection is the subject of this fascinating documentary. Albert Barnes was a Philadephia doctor who developed a treatment for VD, then plowed his earnings into establishing the Barnes Foundation in suburban Merion, PA. It’s a major collection (including Van Goghs, Renoirs, and Picassos) valued at up to $25 billion (no, not million, BILLION) dollars - and after Barnes death in 1951, he left specific instructions that it was not to leave Merion. The film examines how his wishes have since been subverted, and how the collection will be pried away from its intended resting place at historically-African American Lincoln University by the Philadelphia Museum of Art - an institution Barnes loathed. It’s a sad but familiar tale of how one man’s legacy was subverted by big money and the ‘establishment’.
Friday 7/30/10
10:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Strange Bargain (1949 USA): Either this is just a strange coincidence, or TCM has a very strange film festival underway. Strange Bargain is a decent, if somewhat ordinary, mystery directed by a gentleman named Will Price. Mr. Price directed a grand total of three feature films in his career. One of the other three was (perhaps you’ve already guessed) Rock, Rock, Rock!, but the third was 1950’s imperialist fantasy Tripoli - which appears nowhere on the TCM schedule, so I guess we’re back to the coincidence theory. Regardless, Strange Bargain features Jeffrey Lynn as Sam Wilson, an employee dealing with an awkward request by boss Sydney Jarvis (Raymond Roe): make his death by suicide appear to be murder so that the Jarvis family can claim the insurance money. Harry ‘Colonel Potter’ Morgan co-stars as the policeman assigned to the case, and look for future Adventures of Superman regular John Hamilton as one of Sam’s fellow employees.
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Let’s Spend the Night Together (1982 USA): When it comes to Beatles vs. Stones, I’m a loyal Liverpudlian. Doesn’t mean I hate the Stones, mind, but they’re a distinct second behind the moptops, and fall behind further if you factor in other Britpop groups like The Zombies, The Hollies, and The Animals. They’re better than Freddie and the Dreamers, though. Damning with faint praise duly attended to, Stones fans and neophytes alike will want to tune in to this concert film, which features the band at the point when they were past their peak but not yet an international embarrassment. Get yer ya-yas out - or some popcorn - and watch Mick and Keef gurn at each other for 90 minutes.
Saturday 7/31/10
7:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Bowery Battalion (1951 USA): I think you can guess what they’re up to this time. Yes, Slip and Sach get drafted; their mission: to ferret out some commie spies in the Army. The rot was really setting in at this point in the series, so I won’t blame you if you give Bowery Battalion a miss.
10:30 AM HBO
Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County (2010 USA): Prepare for heartbreak, all ye who enter here. Only miles away from The Happiest Place on Earth, working-class youngsters of all ages live with their parents in discounted motel rooms, always on the move and one pay check away from the streets. A dozen of these children are the subject of Alexandra (daughter of Nancy) Pelosi’s new film, and only the stoniest and coldest of hearts will fail to be moved. Also airs at 1:30 PM.
Sunday 8/01/10
5:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
The Mudlark (1951 USA-GB): Irene Dunne stars as middle-aged Queen Victoria in this charming, if ahistorical, comedy-drama. Secluded within the walls of Windsor Castle, Her Majesty is hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (Alec Guinness), who has informed the Queen that her subjects wish she’d get out and about a bit more. Cue the arrival of the titular character (Andrew Ray), a scruffy working-class lad who’s found a brooch with a picture of Victoria and is now bound and determined to meet his idol. Will his dream come true - or will he be caught up in a nefarious Irish plot to burn down the castle? Also touching their forelocks: Finlay Currie as a loyal retainer, Anthony Steel as a military officer, and Wilfrid Hyde-White.
Monday 8/02/10
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Fast Lady (1963 GB): A rarely seen widescreen British comedy, The Fast Lady makes its TCM debut this early morning. James Robertson Justice, best known as Dirk Bogarde’s bad-tempered mentor in the Doctor series, stars as Charles Chingford, a blustery motorist who meets bicyclist Murdock Troon (Stanley Baxter) in a road accident. Troon rather fancies Chingford’s daughter Claire (who can blame him - she’s played by 22-year-old Julie Christie, in only her second film), but she won’t give him the time of day until he learns to drive. Directed by Ken Annakin, who would further develop the fast cars, romance, and comedy themes in 1969’s Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (reviewed in last week’s TiVoPlex), this delightful little picture also features Allan Cuthbertson, Leslie Phillips, Frankie Howerd, Kathleen Harrison, Bernard Cribbins, Clive Dunn, and Danny Green.
8:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Go-Between (1971 GB): Those who favor something a little more serious and cinematic than The Fast Lady won’t find a better option in this week’s TiVoPlex than The Go-Between. Directed by Joseph Losey and written by Harold Pinter, it’s a finely detailed story of forbidden cross-class love in the bucolic English countryside. Christie is the aptly named Lady Trimingham, who engages in a spot of adultery with rough trade tenant farmer Ted Baxter (Alan Bates). Her ladyship can’t carry on in this fashion without a little help though, and she finds it in the form of 13-year old innocent Leo (Dominic Guard), who carries messages between the lovers. Set during the summer of 1913 - perhaps the last summer before the English nobility began to sense that their days of dominance were numbered - The Go-Between was stunningly shot by Gerry Fisher, and co-stars Michael Redgrave, Edward Fox, and Michael Gough.
10:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Quiet Please: Murder (1943 USA): This convoluted and unusual Fox mystery features George Sanders as a dapper villain who steals a rare edition of Hamlet, produces some forged copies, and sells one to—horrors—a Nazi spy (Sidney Blackmer). When the spy discovers he’s been rooked, he demands his money back, but the waters are further muddied by a nosy policeman (Kurt Katch) and Sanders’ middleman—er, woman (Gail Patrick)—who’s adept at manipulating all sides in the dispute. There’s a lot of plot crammed into Quiet Please: Murder’s 70-minute running time, so quiet please, and pay attention!
5:00 PM Sundance
Nick Nolte: No Exit (2008 USA): Nolte is one of the most talented actors of his generation. He’s also a man with problems. Lots and lots of problems. This bizarre documentary consist of Nolte interviewing himself and others about…Nick Nolte. It’s perhaps not the most illuminating film ever made about a celebrity, but its definitely interesting, thematically and stylistically.