TiVoPlex
By John Seal
February 7, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 2/8/11
5:00 AM Sundance
Of Time and the City (2008 GB): I was born in Liverpool, England, and though I’ve lived in the United States most of my life I still feel a strong connection to the city. So does director and fellow ex-Liverpudlian Terence Davies, who made this all too brief (but brilliant, beautiful, and extremely personal) tribute to a city that is much more than the birthplace of British beat music. If you’re old enough to remember a time when coal smoke filled the air, horse-drawn wagons traversed the streets, and Britannia’s merchant navy ruled the waves, you’ll adore this heartfelt salute to the Pool. Also airs at 2:10 PM.
10:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Hanging Tree (1959 USA): Y’know, pardner, I ain’t got much time for westerns. My favorite cowboy character of all time is Woody from Toy Story, and I can’t believe True Grit got all those Oscar noms. That said, though, The Hanging Tree has a profile designed to catch my eye: it’s not available on home video, has a great cast, and is airing during a week when the TiVoPlex isn’t exactly bursting at the seams. It’s headlined by Gary Cooper, here cast as Doc Frail, a sawbones practicing in a Montana mining camp. Doc is new in camp and has some past indiscretions he’d prefer to forget, but acquires some new skeletons in his closet after treating wounded fugitive Rune (Ben Piazza): in exchange for keeping mum about his patient’s previous date with the hangman’s rope, he takes him on as an indentured servant. The arrival of a beautiful young woman (Maria Schell), a scuzzy prospector (Karl Malden), and a bible thumping preacherman (George C. Scott, in his film debut) further complicate matters. The Hanging Tree received an Oscar nom for its theme song, which Marty Robbins croons over both the opening and closing credits.
Wednesday 2/9/11
1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Red (1994 FRA): I’m a bit disappointed that the other two chapters of director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours trilogy (Blue and White) aren’t also airing this morning, but these are the 31 Days of Oscar and thems the rules: Red was the one that got the Academy’s attention, and though I personally prefer White, it’s still definitely a must see. Irene Jacob stars as Valentine, a Swiss model who establishes a strange relationship with a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who likes to spy on his neighbors. Red brings the trilogy to a fitting conclusion with a final act "meeting of the minds" involving the main characters of all three films — something that won’t make much sense when viewed in isolation from Blue and White! As with all Kieslowski films, Red is maddeningly opaque, visually stunning, and fraught with symbolism.
8:20 AM Flix
Paternity (1981 USA): No, it’s not 31 Days of Golden Raspberry on Flix, though you might get that impression thanks to this morning’s airing of this flaccid Burt Reynolds "comedy." Paternity took home the 1982 Razzie for Worst Original Song, the tune in question being a little number entitled Baby Talk. I don’t remember the song at all, but the film — which is unavailable on home video and makes its widescreen television debut today, hence its inclusion in the TiVoPlex — is pretty weak tea. Burt plays Madison Square Garden exec Buddy Evans, a single guy who wants a child but doesn’t want a wife. Buddy sets out to find a woman to impregnate in exchange for $50,000, with the understanding that this will be the beginning and end of their relationship. He finds her in the shape of waitress Maggie (Beverly D’Angelo), but as you can probably guess, the whole surrogate mother thing turns out to be a wee bit more complicated than planned. If I recall correctly, the laughs are few and far between, but I’m definitely anxious to re-acquaint myself with Baby Talk.
8:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
Night and the City (1950 USA): One of the greatest of films noir, Jules Dassin’s Night and the City is, uncharacteristically, set in London rather than New York. Richard Widmark stars as two-bit hustler Harry Fabian, a transplanted Yank trying to earn a crust in the seedy world of pro wrestling. A chance encounter with squared circle veteran Gregorius (real life Greco-Roman grappler Stanislaus Zbyszko) seems to offer Harry a golden opportunity to make a mint—but Gregorius’ son Kristo (Herbert Lom) has other ideas, and our anti-hero soon finds himself fleeing from his goons through the luminous black and white back alleys of the Big Smoke. If all this isn’t reason enough to watch, Mike Mazurki herein plays a character named The Strangler — you wouldn’t want to miss that, would you?
8:20 PM Encore Dramatic Stories
Lenny (1974 USA): Hey, TCM, Lenny was nominated for six Oscars! Where’s the love! Instead it gets relegated to Encore Dramatic Stories, but don’t let that put you off — this is a great film, headlined by Dustin Hoffman’s amazing and deeply moving performance as stand-up comic and cultural lightning rod Lenny Bruce. Shot in black and white by Bruce Surtees, this is the rare biopic that does more than simply recreate the life and times of its subject — it also casts light on the forces arrayed in opposition to the flickering flame of the human spirit. That may sound a mite over the top, but watch the film and see if you aren’t choked up and even a little bit angry at the end. It’s that powerful.
Thursday 2/10/11
8:15 AM Sundance
A Town Called Panic (2009 BEL): If you enjoy the Toy Story series, you may get similar mileage from this Belgian animated feature. Shot in glorious stop-motion, the film relates the adventures of Horse, Cowboy, and Indian, three toys who try to celebrate a birthday by building a barbecue pit but end up having an Internet shopping misadventure instead. And it just gets weirder from there — much weirder. Based on a television series popular in the Low Countries and clocking in at a brisk 75 minutes, A Town Called Panic will delight and baffle old and young alike. Also airs at 12:30 PM.
Friday 2/11/11
3:00 AM Flix
Skidoo (1968 USA): Two years ago, I wrote this:
I never thought I'd live to see the day Skidoo would appear again on television, and in all honesty, I'm a bit disturbed at the prospect. After all, this is the midnight movie to end all midnight movies, so obscure and deeply buried in the vaults that its extremely rare big-screen appearances are the stuff of legend (the last time I saw it was probably 15 years ago at San Francisco's Red Vic, a dilapidated but wonderful rep house with sofas for seats and a good line in concession stand chocolate). It's the infamous film in which Jackie Gleason takes an acid trip, and that's probably reason enough to watch, though the remarkable supporting cast also provides a strong argument: Carol Channing (as Jackie's wife), Groucho Marx, Frankie Avalon, Fred Clark, John Phillip Law, Peter Lawford, George Raft, Frank Gorshin, Cesar Romero, Slim Pickens, Mickey Rooney, Richard Kiel, Harry Nilsson, and (the final icing on the cake) Arnold Stang, the TiVoPlex cult fave whose career runs the gamut from The Man With the Golden Arm to Courage the Cowardly Dog and beyond! Directed by Otto Preminger, Skidoo is the ne plus ultra of old Hollywood's attempts to acknowledge and interpret the counterculture and, simply put, is a terrible movie. If you miss it tonight, however, you may regret it for the rest of your life, as there's still no indication that a home video release is in the offing. Now, can TCM…pry The Day the Clown Cried from Jerry Lewis' clammy grip??
Since then, TCM has given Skidoo an encore performance, and now it’s worked its way (up? down?) to Flix (still no DVD, though). So perhaps The Day the Clown Cried really is just around the corner. Till then, just keep singing: “Skidoo…skidoo…I do believe it really is the thing to do…”
6:30 PM Showtime
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2008 USA): Okay, what is it about this family? Last month, we had the American television premiere of White Lightnin’, a dramatic re-imagining of the life of Appalachian folk dancer Jesco White and his hillbilly relatives. Now we get the American television premiere of this documentary about the same clan! Can the earlier Jesco White docs, Dancing Outlaw and Dancing Outlaw II, be far behind? Prepare for a whole lotta cigareets, whusky, and wild, wild women. And dancing. Also airs at 9:30 PM.
Saturday 2/12/11
9:45 PM Flix
Fortress (1993 USA): Here’s the widescreen television debut of yet another crappy bleak future sci-fi adventure. Actually, I tell a lie: Fortress is not totally crappy. It’s no classic, mind you, but with Stuart Gordon in the director’s chair, it’s head and shoulders above most genre pics — even after factoring in the presence of cardboard thespian Christopher Lambert in the film’s lead role. Lambert plays John Brennick, a poor schlep whose child has died. In this iteration of our bleak future, a couple’s child allowance is one, but Brennick and wife Karen (Loryn Locklin) are determined to pop another bun out of the oven and will go to any lengths to do so. Jail terms, a sadistic warder (Kurtwood Smith), a loony but helpful cellmate (Jeffrey Combs), and a Brazil-style prison break ensue. Lambert’s as bad as ever, but Gordon does his best with the material and Combs is always fun to watch.
Sunday 2/13/11
10:00 AM Sundance
Lovers of Hate (2010 USA): An above average indie slacker comedy, Lovers of Hate features Chris Doubek and Alex Karpovsky (one of the few redeeming qualities of recent mumblecore epic Tiny Furniture) as Rudy and Paul, two brothers competing for the hand of the same woman. Rudy lives in a car and is in the process of being dumped by wife Diana (Heather Kafka), whilst Paul is a successful writer with an ego to match and an abiding interest in catching her on the rebound. Shot by writer-director Bryan Poyser in nineteen days, Lovers of Hate is a cynical and darkly comic character study that may be a bit too bitter for some.
Monday 2/14/11
5:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Flirtation Walk (1934 USA): Years before Dick Powell became a movie tough guy he was a popular musical-comedy lead. In Flirtation Walk, Dick plays an army private stationed in Hawaii who falls for 42nd Street lovely Ruby Keeler—who also happens to be the General’s daughter. When Dick gets admitted as a cadet at West Point, guess who shows up and wants to help him produce the school musical? Directed by Frank Borzage and co-starring Pat O’Brien and (in a bit part as another cadet) Tyrone Power, Flirtation Walk features some terrific tropical paradise location photography and was nominated for Best Picture in 1935.
5:15 AM Showtime 2
Burden of Dreams (1982 USA): Les Blank's salute to obsessive German filmmaker Werner Herzog returns to the small screen this morning. Shot whilst Herzog was producing Fitzcarraldo, the film highlights the on-set squabbles between Herzog and star Klaus Kinski and the over-the-top decisions made by the director, such as the infamous sequence wherein Amazonian tribesmen were hired to haul a fully assembled riverboat up a hillside. Featuring valuable footage of Jason Robards and Mick Jagger, both of whom left the production early, Burden of Dreams is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest of all filmmakers, who has defied the odds by continuing to produce excellent work to this very day.
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Rachel, Rachel (1968 USA): Paul Newman never really got his due as a director, but probably came closest with this touching and sensitive drama about middle-aged romance. Mrs. Newman, Joanne Woodward, stars as Rachel Cameron, a 35-year-old spinster and small town school teacher still living at home with Mom (Kate Harrington). When childhood chum Nick Kazlik (James Olson) returns from the big city for a visit, he tries to get her out of her shell, but finds the challenge a tough one, as Rachel has long been subsisting on a rich fantasy life in lieu of interaction with other humans. Woodward’s performance earned her a Golden Globe and the film also chalked up four Oscar noms, though no gongs were forthcoming.
6:00 PM HBO
Crazy Heart (2009 USA): When was the last time Jeff Bridges wasn’t at least nominated for an Oscar? Seems to be an annual occasion now. This year, it’s for his re-interpretation of Rooster Cogburn in the Coen Brothers’ True Grit, but in 2010 it was for his performance in this film as a down on his luck country-western singer — and, as we all know, that nomination turned into a win for the bearded one. I didn’t catch Crazy Heart during its theatrical run — contemporary country music and me don’t really get along — but I’ll definitely be checking it out this evening. Also airs at 9:00 PM.