TiVoPlex
By John Seal
February 6, 2007
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 02/06/07
4:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
Five of A Kind (1938 USA): It's not quite as outré as Harry Fraser's infamous 1951 Siamese Twin exploiter Chained For Life, but there's definitely a bit of the freak factor involved in Fox's Five of A Kind. The film was the last of four features featuring the world famous Dionne sisters, five Canadians who became overnight celebrities when they beat the odds and became the first surviving quintuplets in recorded history. Removed from the custody of their parents and made wards of the state, the girls spent years on the promotional treadmill on behalf of the Province of Ontario. Now four and a half years of age and more than willing to ham it up for the cameras, the quints appear to be having a great time, custodial status notwithstanding. As for the story, there's very little involved, as sparring reporters Claire Trevor and Cesar Romero spar over who's going to get the big scoop regarding the toddlers' latest shenanigans. Of course, the journos soon fall in love, marking Five of A Kind as yet another predictable late ‘30s rom com, albeit one with a twist. On hand to supervise the children is Jean Hersholt (playing, of course, a kindly doctor), and Slim Summerville, John Qualen, and Jane Darwell put in appearances as well.
Wednesday 02/07/07
8:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Entertainer (1960 GB): Laurence Olivier stars as Archie Rice, a washed-up vaudevillian who refuses to recognize his own obsolescence, in this searing film adaptation of John Osborne's play of the same name. The Boys From Brazil notwithstanding, Olivier rarely got to play the bad guy on-screen, but is superb as a bitter and abusive comedian whose career is just about up. Olivier's future real-life wife, Joan Plowright, plays Mrs. Rice, and the cast rounds out superbly with Alan Bates, Albert Finney, Daniel Massey, and Thora Hird. Directed by Tony Richardson and written by Nigel Kneale (the creator of Professor Quartermass), this is a brilliant kitchen-sink drama that stands up well to repeated viewings.
5:15 PM Showtime Extreme
Rolling Thunder (1977 USA): William Devane plays Major Charles Rane, a returning Vietnam war hero who is having trouble readjusting to civilian life. The first two acts of Rolling Thunder slowly outline the coming storm, as Rane's homecoming is first dampened by clueless civilians and then destroyed by even more clueless petty criminals. The final act is action filmmaking at its best, as Rane and his army buddy (played well by a young Tommy Lee Jones) take their violent, but not pointless, revenge. Airing in widescreen format, this above average action pic - still, for some reason, unavailable on DVD - was written by Paul Schrader, so it's a cut above your everyday grindhouse fare.
6:00 PM IFC
Street Mobster (1972 JAP): If you've recovered from IFC's December airings of Kinji Fukasaku's five-film Yakuza Papers series, here's another of the director's nikkatsu (gangster) offerings. Street Mobster features good old Bunta Sagawara as Isamu, a particularly loathsome hoodlum who has a penchant for rape when he isn't knocking heads with the local competition. Isamu is a loose cannon, but he's also got big time aspirations, and is determined to set up his own powerhouse gang with compatriot Kizaki. Unsurprisingly, the incumbent Yato gang doesn't take kindly to this sort of thing, setting in motion the incredibly bloody proceedings that follow. Unlike some of Fukasaku's oeuvre, there's no attempt here to graft social commentary onto the story, which is either a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. Also airs at 9:15 PM.
Thursday 02/08/07
12:15 AM Showtime
Frances (1982 USA): Jessica Lange earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance as actress Frances Farmer in this superior biopic, which makes its widescreen television debut this morning. Farmer was a wannabe starlet during Hollywood's Golden Age, a beauty who was also intellectually brilliant and a left-wing troublemaker to boot. She knocked heads with studio bosses, drank too much, and generally didn't play by the rules - leading to hospitalization and a lobotomy thanks to the efforts of her harridan of a mother (played here to fine effect by Kim Stanley). Lange delivers a tour de force performance, and frankly I think she was cheated by the voters, who opted to reward Meryl Streep for her performance in Holocaust weepie Sophie's Choice - a predictable Academy selection that didn't require much introspection. Also airs at 3:15 AM.
1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Alibi (1929 USA): Here's a super rarity you won't want to miss. By now I'd assumed TCM had dredged up every Oscar nominee still extant for their 30 Days of Oscar programming - on a side note, I'm getting pretty tired of my favorite channel clogging its February schedule with re-airings of these overly familiar titles - but once again they've managed to dig up something fresh, or at least unfamiliar. Alibi is a doubly exciting prospect, because it not only stars good old Chester Morris - who got the star treatment in Tivoplex a week or two ago - but was directed by one of the overlooked greats, Roland West. West helmed at least two gothic classics, The Bat (1926) and its all-talking remake The Bat Whispers (1930), not to mention the recently new to DVD Thelma Todd pirate vehicle Corsair (1931), also starring Chester Morris. Alibi was West's take on yet another genre, the gangster flick, and features Morris as a murderous tough whose sweetheart - the daughter of a police sergeant, no less - provides him with the titular excuse after her beau spends an evening knocking off a copper. Morris earned himself an Academy Award nomination for his roll as gangster Chick Williams, as did William Cameron Menzies' magnificent art direction, a unique blend of Art Deco and Expressionism.
2:10 AM Cinemax
El Habitante Incierto(2004 ESP): Fans of all things suspenseful will want to make time for this Spanish thriller, which failed to get an Anglophone theatrical release but is now available on DVD as The Uninvited Guest. The film stars Andoni Garcia as Felix, a young architect who has split up with gal pal Vera (Monica Lopez), leaving him in sole possession of the huge house they had once shared. When a stranger shows up one night begging to make an emergency phone call (what, no mobile?), Felix admits him to the house - and never sees him again. When strange noises start to unnerve him, he convinces himself that the stranger is hiding somewhere in the building, and even the return of Vera can't put a stop to the eerie goings on. Writer-director Guillem Morales does a nice job of ratcheting up the tension and his screenplay doesn't tip its hand too early, though it does get a bit confusing during its final reel. Also airs at 5:10 AM.
Friday 02/09/07
3:45 AM More Max
Save the Tiger (1973 USA): The May-December romance has been a Hollywood staple for years, but it took on added zest during the early 1970s, when the generation gap had assumed yawning proportions and 40-something geezers in business suits were trying to bed sweet young hippie chicks in love beads. Clint Eastwood's Breezy (also 1973) was a wonderful example of this sub-genre, but stuck strictly to the bittersweet difficulties of maintaining such a relationship when your friends all think you're nuts. John G. Avildsen's Save the Tiger cast a wider net, supplying social and political commentary in addition to its tale of mid-life crisis and adultery in downtown Los Angeles. Jack Lemmon deservedly won the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as Harry Stoner, a sad sack clothing magnate whose dalliance with flower child Myra (Laurie Heineman) provides him distraction from the crushing responsibilities of his daytime job. Lemmon is desperate for an escape route, and finds one by hopping into the sack with Myra, burning down his garment factory, and getting involved in an animal rights campaign - all in the course of a single day. Nothing like keeping busy to get your mind off your troubles, I guess.
9:00 AM Showtime
Apres Vous... (2003 FRA): If you read the recent New York Times article about the decline of French art-house cinema, you know that Gallic filmgoers prefer more populist fare these days. Apres Vous... is exactly the sort of lightweight film that article talked about, and speaking as one who's fidgeted through more than my fair share of French-language snoozefests, that's not necessarily a bad thing - but your tolerance for romantic comedies had better be pretty high all the same. Daniel Auteuil, Jose Garcia, and Sandrine Kiberlain star as three points on a romantic triangle, and though there's an attempted suicide in the early going to set the story in motion, its strictly chick flick material the rest of the way. If that's your idea of a good time, you might want to check out Apres Vous..., which also airs (in widescreen, no less) at noon.
Saturday 02/10/07
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 USA): If memory serves, this is the first commercial-free airing of this classic adventure film in at least five years. It used to pop up regularly on The Disney Channel back when the House of Mouse would show movies without endless interruptions plugging their latest lame new product. You probably don't need me to remind you how good 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is, or how extraordinary the special effects are, or how terrific that Kirk Douglas Whale of A Tale song is - er, on second thoughts, forget the song. Tune in instead to see the giant octopus bear down mercilessly on the Nautilus whilst James Mason fiddles with his beard and Peter Lorre looks doleful.
6:00 PM Starz
The Squid and the Whale (2006 USA): A small-scale drama that managed to defy the odds and eke out a reasonable $7,000,000+ run at the box-office last year, The Squid and the Whale makes its American television premiere this evening - and up against the octopi-friendly 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea no less! Ubiquitous Jeff Daniels stars as the unctuous head of a splintering family, with Laura Linney co-starring as his adulterous wife and Owen Kline and Jesse Eisenberg drawing duty as the feuding couple's deeply unhappy offspring. Yes, it's the Practically Perfect Sundance Movie of 2006! Also airs at 9:00 PM and throughout the month.
Sunday 02/11/07
11:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Cinderella Liberty (1973 USA): This excellent adaptation of Darryl Ponicsan's novel of the same name features James Caan as Baggs, a gruff swabbie caught in bureaucratic limbo whilst awaiting his new posting. (Ponicsan also wrote The Last Detail, another superb slice of Navy life that also was adapted for the screen in 1973). Baggs' Navy paperwork gets misplaced, and he has time to kill in Seattle, where he hangs around portside, meeting and falling in love with single mom and all-around woman-of-ill repute Marsha Mason. Mason is superb in a tough role, and the film has a rough but bittersweet edge that ultimately leads to a happy ending. There's also a great performance by young Kirk Calloway as Mason's streetwise child, a boy who projects a tough veneer to conceal an inner core of vulnerability. Calloway went on to appear in 1976's Monkey Hustle, where he played a similar character to lesser effect.
9:00 PM Sundance
Acacia (2003 ROK): More Korean cinematic mayhem ensues in Acacia, a baby-gone-bad melodrama with a central conceit that reminds me of Jan Svankmajer's Little Otik. The film tells the story of a childless couple (Kim Jin-Geun and Shim Hye-Jin) who adopt Jin-Seong, a lovable six-year-old who enjoys burning down the garden shed and chowing on insects when he isn't spending quality time bonding with the giant Acacia tree in the backyard. Ah, the wonder years, I remember them well. When the previously infertile couple suddenly cross-pollinate and produce offspring, Jin-Seong does a runner - but things turn decidedly weird when that big ol' tree starts asserting itself beyond the smothering confines of the family garden. Ostensibly, Acacia is director Park Ki-Hyung's commentary on his country's ‘adoption industry', but if you prefer to watch it as a horror film about a maniacal toddler and a tree possessed by evil spirits, be my guest.
Monday 02/12/07
6:00 PM Sundance
Georgi and the Butterflies (2004 BUL): Ever wondered what life in a Bulgarian mental hospital is like? Pretty wacky, as it turns out - especially when Georgi Lulchev is in charge. Dr. Lulchev has different ideas about how to treat his patients, and this documentary examines some his schemes, which revolve around raising money for his chronically under-funded institution. Whether baking bread, spinning silk, or raising snails, the inmates of Home #6 For Psychologically Challenged Men are never bored, though whether or not they're also being subjected to a bizarre form of abuse is a question director Andrey Paounov studiously avoids.