TiVoPlex
By John Seal
December 5, 2006
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 12/05/06
3:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (1956 USA):Dana Andrews stars in this Fritz Lang noir about a writer (Andrews) who, in order to prove a point about the immorality of the death penalty, designs some circumstantial evidence to implicate himself in a murder case. Unfortunately for Dana, his plans go awry when his exculpatory evidence goes astray in a car wreck, and before you know it he has an appointment with Ol' Sparky himself. Lang's last Stateside feature before his feted return to Europe, Beyond A Reasonable Doubt came too late in the cycle to be considered a ‘pure' noir—though it is in black and white, there are an awful lot of daytime scenes, for example—but the plot's paranoia and inescapable doom are right out of the noir playbook. It's not quite The Big Clock, but as long as you can accept the premise of Andrews playing an award-winning scribe, the film works reasonably well.
Wednesday 12/06/06
2:30 AM Showtime
Mixed Company (1974 USA): It isn't even close to being PC, but there's something endearing about this "family" comedy-drama about a husband and wife who end up adopting a house full of needy children, including a boy from the ghetto, an American Indian, and a Vietnamese orphan. Joseph Bologna plays Dad, a tough-guy basketball coach with the proverbial heart of gold, and Barbara Harris is Mom, a social worker with, er, a heart of gold, too. There's also an out-of-character appearance by cuddly Tom Bosley as an inveterate racist friend of the family. The film hasn't aged gracefully and it makes its point bluntly and repeatedly, but I like it anyway, and Bologna and Harris are both excellent. Also airs at 5:30 AM.
12:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Dark Passage (1947 USA): I've been on a bit of a Bogie kick of late, reacquainting myself with films such as Key Largo and In A Lonely Place. Here's another of his classic performances, this time in the service of an outrageous but hugely enjoyable scenario from writer-director Delmer Daves. Bogart plays Vince Parry, a wrongly convicted man who breaks out of prison to prove his innocence. When a suspicious bus driver sounds the alarm and notifies the coppers, Vince is rescued by sympathetic Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall), who offers to hide him until the storm blows over. After spending a few blissfully platonic days holed up with Irene, Vince makes tracks for a plastic surgeon, who obligingly provides him with a new face—but a second murder sends him back to Irene's flat for a date with destiny. Though burdened with a gimmicky third act (who wants to watch Bogie wrapped up in bandages?), Dark Passage is premium entertainment, and one of only four films Bogie and Bacall made together. They're all good.
Thursday 12/07/06
5:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Blood and Steel (1959 USA): One of a series of low-budget, widescreen World War II flicks shot by Fox on location in the Philippines, Blood and Steel returns to the small screen tonight after a very lengthy absence. Starring John Lupton, James Edwards, Brett (Return of the Fly) Halsey, and John Brinkley as four Seabees stranded on a Japanese-occupied island, the film is completely unexceptional in every respect, though it's good fun to see the great James Hong playing a stereotypical evil Nipponese. If you've seen one of these programmers, you've seen ‘em all—but this one has been much harder to see than the others!
10:30 AM Flix
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972 FRA): It's not my favorite Bunuel flick, but any Bunuel film is better than 99% of everything else, so it's still pretty darn good. Starring long time Bunuel buddy Fernando Rey, the film is a near plotless examination of the strenuous efforts of six friends to simply sit down and enjoy a meal together, and the surreal events that prevent them from doing so. Written by Bunuel in collaboration with frequent colleague Jean-Claude Carriere, this fantasy gleefully subverts the set-up of the great man's earlier examination of the bourgeois dinner party, The Exterminating Angel, which featured a room full of folks who couldn't—physically or mentally COULDN'T—take their leave after chowing down. Co-starring Delphine Seyrig, Stephane Audran, and Jean-Pierre Cassel, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie was the high watermark of the third act of Bunuel's long and convoluted film career, and is essential viewing for any serious film buff.
4:15 PM Showtime
Schultze Gets the Blues (2003 GER): This one screams ‘quirky character study', and it is, but at least it's a pretty good one. Horst Krause plays the title character, a retired salt miner who spends his days hanging out at the local bierkeller or reclining on his sofa. Whilst engaged in the latter activity one day, he hears a strange new kind of music on the radio—Cajun zydeco—and instantly becomes obsessed with the style and its practitioners. Fantasizing about the bayous of Louisiana, Schultze is soon pounding out his own unique blend of polka-zydeco on his accordion, as well as learning how to cook Jambalaya. When the opportunity arises to attend a folk music festival in Texas, Schultze is on the next plane, setting in motion a somewhat predictable series of culture clashes—Borat he ain't. This is an impressive first outing for director Michael Schorr, and airs in widescreen tonight and on 12/8 at 2:30 AM and 5:30 AM.
Friday 12/08/06
8:15 AM The Movie Channel
The Brother From Another Planet (1984 USA): John Sayles' parable of intergalactic racism returns to the small screen tonight. Somewhat reminiscent of Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976 GB), this film is a warmer, grittier affair, with long-time character actor Joe Morton's performance as a black alien lost on the streets of Harlem trumping The Thin White Duke's stranded-in-the-desert space oddity. Besides contending with befuddled New Yorkers puzzled by his odd feet and inability (or refusal) to talk, bounty hunters from beyond (played by Sayles and frequent collaborator David Strathairn) are pursuing Morton, intent on returning him to his home planet. If it isn't Sayles' best film - Eight Men Out and Matewan would certainly factor into that discussion - it's deserving of consideration. Look for the late Steve James, the man who's played Chuck Norris' sidekick more times than you've had hot dinners, in a co-starring role as one of the locals. Also airs at 11:15 AM.
7:00 PM Sundance
Last Life in the Universe (2003 THA-JAP): If you enjoyed last week's pastoral Ozu epic Floating Weeds, you'll probably like this Asian oddity about a withdrawn Japanese librarian (Ichi the Killer's Tadanobu Asano) whose suicidal tendencies are challenged by an outgoing Bangkok native (Sinitta Boonyasak) who bonds with him after the two witness, in odd fashion, the sort-of-accidental death of her sister. It's The Odd Couple Indochina-style, with Ichi-director Takashi Miike putting in a cameo appearance as a yakuza. Last Life In the Universe is, however, miles away from Miike's ultraviolent ouevre—and even if the story doesn't engage you, Christopher Doyle's exemplary cinematography is worth watching.
9:00 PM IFC
Yakuza Papers 2: Deadly Fight In Hiroshima (1973 JAP): The second entry in Kinji Fukasaku's five-film Yakuza cycle, Deadly Fight in Hiroshima moves the story forward to the mid 1950s. In 1952, new parolee Shoji Yamanaka (Kinya Kitaoji) is out on the street and looking for food, shelter, and employment. After suffering a thrashing from Katsutoshi, the crotch-scratching son of the leader of the Otomo Clan (the great Sonny Chiba), Yamanaka joins forces with the rival Muraoka clan, where he proceeds to make a good impression and begins to rise through the ranks. Three years later, he faces off again with Katsutoshi—and this time the end result is a little different. The character of Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) does return from the first film, providing the series with some needed continuity, but the focus is clearly on the laconic Yamanaka, whose character also surfaces in the final film in the quintology. Is quintology a real word? If it isn't it should be.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Honeymoon Killers (1969 USA): Based on the true story of a misfit couple who took advantage of elderly (and generally well-off) widows, The Honeymoon Killers simply gets better with age and definitely isn't ready to be put out to pasture. Tony Lo Bianco and Shirley Stoler play unlikely lovers masquerading as brother and sister somewhere in middle America. Lo Bianco preys on recently bereaved older women, ultimately marrying them and then moving his "sister" into the household where, after a brief period of marital bliss, she murders the new brides. Starkly shot in black-and-white by Oliver Wood, who has since, erm, distinguished himself with films such as The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990 USA) and The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002 USA), this is a classic example of outsider cinema—director Leonard Kastle STILL hasn't made another film!
Saturday 12/09/06
6:00 PM Showtime
Undead (2003 AUS): This Aussie zombie comedy got some pretty decent word-of-mouth when it briefly popped up in American cinemas a few years back. I haven't seen it, but if it's only half as good as Peter Jackson's magisterial down-under gut-muncher Braindead, it'll be worth a look. Also airs at
9:00 PM.
9:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Escape In the Desert (1945 USA): This obscure Warners' war pic stars Helmut Dantine as the leader of a group of German soldiers who break out of their POW camp in the American southwest and proceed to terrorize the locals. Based on a true story—German POWs actually DID escape from a Phoenix-area camp on December 23rd, 1944—Escape In the Desert is an enjoyable if artless quickie torn from yesterday's headlines, and co-stars Jean Sullivan, Philip Dorn, and Alan Hale Sr. as some of the unlucky civilians in the path of the rampaging Nazis.
Sunday 12/10/06
12:30 PM Starz Edge
Breakfast on Pluto (2005 IRE-GB): Unjustly but unsurprisingly ignored on its initial release, Neil Jordan's most recent film makes its American television premiere this afternoon. Based on a novel by Pat McCabe, the film tells the inspirational story of transvestite Patrick/Kitten (the superb Cillian Murphy), and his search for happiness in the hardscrabble backstreets of London circa the 1970s. Patrick has moved to the mainland from his small hometown in Ireland in search of his mother, whom he believes is residing enticingly just out of reach somewhere in the Big Smoke. Unflappable and unstoppable, he enjoys a series of unusual adventures, including fronting a rock band (along with former Virgin Prunes singer Gavin Friday), getting mixed up with the IRA, and working in a magic show. Divided into 36 ‘chapters', Breakfast on Pluto is another triumph for Jordan, who even includes a humorous reference to his earlier transgender epic, The Crying Game, for good measure.
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
When A Man Loves (1927 USA): I'm not certain, but I think this is the world television premiere of this long forgotten John Barrymore romantic drama. There's not much information regarding When A Man Loves on the web, and even TCM's ordinarily exemplary website fails to supply more than the briefest of synopses: "A French adventurer fights to save a young innocent forced into a life of prostitution." Presumably, the adventurer is Barrymore and the innocent Dolores Costello. Warner Oland, Noble Johnson, and Holmes Herbert are also amongst the cast, as is an uncredited Myrna Loy, and the technical crew—including director Alan Crosland and DoP Byron Haskin—screams quality. A must see for admirers of silent cinema.