TiVoPlex
By John Seal
August 29, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 8/30/11
1:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Impasse (1969 USA): I’m back, and better than ever! Well, perhaps not better than ever...would you believe better than three weeks ago? How about better than last night? Now that I’ve wowed you with my Maxwell Smart impersonation, let’s start things off in this week’s TiVoPlex at an Impasse: in this case, an obscure 1969 feature starring Burt Reynolds as a soldier of fortune searching for some lost World War II gold in the Philippines. Originally produced for television, Impasse ultimately earned a theatrical release, but that didn’t help its prospects much...it basically sank without trace, and occasional syndication appearances aside, this is the first time it’s had any wide exposure since. Anne Francis, Jeff Corey, and Filipino heavy Vic Diaz co-star in what is a pretty average, but oh so rare, action pic.
3:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Floods of Fear (1959 GB): The title isn’t very promising, but Floods of Fear is actually quite a bit better than you might expect. Howard Keel headlines (in a non-singing role) as Donovan, a convicted (but innocent) criminal who gets caught in some seriously inclement weather after he busts out of the joint in hopes of tracking down the dirty rat who framed him. Based on a pulp novel (hence the crap title), Floods of Fear was directed by the great comedy specialist Charles Crichton, who herein proves himself equally adept at drama, and co-stars sex goddess Anne Heywood alongside walking abstinence advert Cyril Cusack. The film’s only major drawback is some dodgy accents: though shot in Britain, Floods of Fear is set in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Wednesday 8/31/11
1:00 AM Sundance
The Necessities of Life (2008 CAN): This unique French-Canadian drama stars Natar Ungalaag as Tiivii, an Inuit battling one of the diseases gifted to his people by the white man: tubercolosis. Set in 1952, the film follows Tiivii’s travels from the remote interior to urbane Quebec City, where he is sequestered against his will in a sanitarium. As in Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala, the transition is an unhappy one, but a supportive nurse (Eveline Gelinas) intervenes before it’s too late and helps Tiivii by introducing him to bilingual child patient Kaki (Paul-Andre Brasseur). Though that sounds like a recipe for sloppy sentiment, The Necessities of Life thankfully dodges the three-hanky bullet in favor of a more honest and delicate approach to human relationships.
Thursday 9/1/11
1:45 AM Showtime 3
The Tillman Story (2010 USA): His story is well-known: granite-jawed Pat Tillman was a football star, an all-American hero, and a martyr to the causes of both America’s ten years and counting war in Afghanistan and the peace movement hoping to end it. Tillman, of course, was killed in combat in 2004, and his sacrifice instantly became fodder for Washington’s propaganda mill. The truth, however, was quite different from the porkies being told by the Pentagon: not only was Tillman an articulate war skeptic, it also turned out he had died as the result of so-called "friendly fire." This superb documentary from director Amir Bar-Lev (My Kid Could Paint That) brings all the threads of the Tillman story together in one maddening, anger-inducing package that should convince even the most conservative of viewers that authority should be questioned every once in a while. Airs again throughout the month.
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Flame and the Arrow (1950 USA): Here’s a Burt Lancaster film I’ve managed to overlook for almost 50 years - probably because I’m more partial to his "contemporary" pictures (The Killers, Brute Force) than I am to his frock flicks (The Crimson Pirate, The Leopard). Though I’ve never seen The Flame and the Arrow, it caught my eye thanks to the behind camera presence of director Jacques Tourneur, a filmmaker then at the height of his powers with recent highlights such as Out of the Past (1947) and Stars in My Crown (1950) dotting his resume. Set in medieval Lombardy, the film stars Burt as Dardo Bartoli, a freedom fighter doing battle with evil Hessian occupiers whilst pitching woo to milady Anne de Hesse (Virginia Mayo). To be honest, this brief précis sounds pretty awful, but with Tourneur behind the camera, a screenplay by Waldo Salt, and Aline MacMahon and Norman Lloyd in the supporting cast, how bad it can really be? Time to find out!
3:30 AM Flix
A Shine of Rainbows (2009 IRE-CAN): Sure and begorrah, ‘tis an Irish film about rainbows! Surely there’s a leprechaun, too, and a pot o’ gold? Well...no. A Shine of Rainbows is actually a heart-warming family drama about a pre-pubescent orphan (tousle-haired John Bell) who’s getting the crap beaten out of him on a regular basis by bullies. Enter Mary Poppins - er, Maire O’Donnell (Connie Nielsen) - a woman with a heart of gold who aims to cheer up the lad and provide him with the love and support he needs to get through his rough patch. Yes, she adopts him, but a gruff new dad (Aidan Quinn) and unexpected tragedy loom in the not too distant future. It’s pretty predictable stuff, but the cast is game and I do feel obliged to occasionally recommend films suitable for the entire family.
1:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
La métamorphose des cloportes (1965 FRA): Now this is the sort of thing that really gets the ol’ heart racing. At first I didn’t believe it, but a quick trip to the Fox Movie Channel website confirms the truth: this long forgotten French feature will be screening this afternoon, and in widescreen, no less. Released in the US simply as Cloportes, it’s a very good crime comedy about a gang of smalltime hoodlums (including Charles Aznavour, Lino Ventura, and Pierre Brasseur) whose heist scheme goes awry, leading to prison time and plans for post-stir revenge. Will Fox also be treating us to a subtitled print, and are more obscure Euro treats awaiting us in the future? I’m not getting my hopes up, but La métamorphose des cloportes will keep me satisfied for now.
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Householder (1963 IND): I’ll happily admit to not being a big fan of Merchant-Ivory productions - they’re a little too bourgeois for my taste. However, even this dedicated philistine will make an exception for The Householder, a shot in India drama helmed by James Ivory and penned by frequent collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. It was, in fact, the very first Merchant-Ivory feature, and relates the story of the unhappy marriage of middle-class Indians Prem (Shashi Kapoor) and Indu (Leela Naidu). The conflict stems from Indu’s indifference to housework, which cheeses off Prem to the point where he summons his Mom (Durga Khote) to give his wife lessons and advice on the care and feeding of husbands. (I guess feminism had yet to arrive on the sub-continent.) It all hews pretty closely to the Merchant-Ivory template, but as The Householder came first it feels substantially fresher than their later efforts.
Friday 9/2/11
12:20 AM Starz
Mooz-lum (2010 USA): Though it bears evidence of being someone’s first film - its script is too earnest by half, for one thing - Mooz-lum is nonetheless worth a look for folks interested in Islam and the African-American experience. Written and directed by Qasim Basir, the film stars Evan Ross as a young Muslim trying to forge his own path and escape the shadow of his overbearing father (Roger Guenveur Smith). The situations are a bit too predictable, but the leads (as well as co-star Danny Glover) are excellent, and the film’s heart is resolutely in the right place. Also airs at 3:20 AM.
Saturday 9/3/11
3:20 AM Showtime Action
Tobruk (1967 USA): With North Africa in the news on a daily basis, could there be a better time to reacquaint ourselves with this ever so slightly above average WWII actioner? The fortress of Tobruk was a constant prize in the see-saw desert battles of 1941 and '42, and this Arthur Hiller feature offers a heavily fictionalized but enjoyable recreation of the conflict. Rock Hudson stars as Major Craig, a Canadian army officer leading a ragtag band of commandos on a mission to blow up a critical fuel dump. Also along for the fun are George Peppard, Nigel Green, and Norman Rossington. If you enjoyed The Dirty Dozen, Dirty Heroes, or even Inglourious Bastards (which stole this film’s Jewish commando sub-plot), you’ll be reasonably well satisfied with Tobruk.
8:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Zorro Rides Again (1937 USA): After taking a break during TCM’s Summer Under the Stars celebration, the serial resumes with Chapters 4 & 5, in which our masked hero confronts sky pirates. I think that’s the politically correct term for
"hijackers."
9:00 Turner Classic Movies
Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle (1955 USA): Tarzan’s run at RKO concluded with this series entry, which also marked the first time Gordon Scott trod the boards as the Jungle Lord. Scott was neither as good an actor nor as physically agile as Lex Barker, but he certainly looked the part during his six film tenure in the tree-house. This is definitely one of the least interesting Tarzan flicks, however - a strictly back-lot bound effort burdened by a very tired plot device involving big game hunters masquerading as photographers. Completists, of course, won’t care, and a decent supporting cast (Peter Van Eyck, Vera Miles, Jack Elam, and Rex Ingram) offers value for everyone else.
12:00 PM HBO
Catfish (2010 USA): Ever pretended to be someone you weren’t online? This riveting documentary tells the story of Yaniv Schulman, a handsome if somewhat gullible young New Yorker who fell hook, line, and sinker for a line dealt him by a lonely woman in Michigan. That’s just Catfish’s set-up, though: there’s a great deal more to this surprisingly warm-hearted and open-minded film. One of the nicer surprises of 2010, Catfish also airs at 3:00 PM.
Sunday 9/4/11
11:20 AM Encore Dramatic Stories
Change of Habit (1969 USA): This was the film that finally soured Elvis on movies forever. Not sure why it took The King so long to figure out most of his screen efforts sucked, but better late than never! In Change of Habit, he plays John Carpenter (!), a doctor doing good work in tha hood alongside swingin’, non-singin’ nun Sister Michelle (Mary Tyler Moore). It’s as sickeningly sweet and condescending as you can imagine, but we can thank Change of Habit for finally shaking Elvis out of his movie stupor. Barbara McNair and Ed Asner co-star, whilst madman Timothy Carey puts in a typically unhinged appearance as a supermarket manager.
Monday 9/5/11
4:00 AM Sundance
Donkey in Lahore (2008 AUS): Goth puppeteer Brian met teenage Amber whilst performing in her home town of Lahore, Pakistan. The two immediately fell for each other and resolved to wed, setting in motion an amazing six-year odyssey for them both. Brian converted to Islam and adopted the name Aamir, won over Amber's somewhat reluctant family, and then spent almost two full years simply trying to arrange the correct paperwork needed to bring his new bride home to Brisbane, Australia. In the meantime, Amber began to question her decision to marry Brian and also began to doubt his sincerity. This amazing documentary captures many of the highs and lows of their developing and maturing relationship and should be required viewing for the Islamophobe in your family. The grace and generosity displayed by Amber's family is truly remarkable and the Pakistan we see in the film bears little if any relationship to a country we are told is a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism. By film's end, it appears that the initially distraught Amber has begun to adapt to her new life down under, whilst Brian's feelings of guilt about tearing her away from her family seem to be at least partly addressed by his own family's obvious affection for his new wife. This is a wonderful film that ends too soon and begs for a sequel.
7:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Plumber (1979 AUS): I think this may be the American television premiere of Peter Weir’s odd made-for-Aussie TV character study, but The Plumber did get a VHS release during the Golden Age of Home Video (the 1980s). Ivar Kants is the titular drain doctor, but he’s hardly a professional: hired by poor old Jill (Judy Morris) to fix her bathroom pipes, he seems to create far more problems than he solves. It’s a very strange little film with a suitably discomfiting atmosphere, and comes highly recommended.