TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for March 23 2010 through March 29 2010
By John Seal
March 29, 2010
Thursday 3/25/10
1:10 AM Showtime 3
Foxes (1980 USA): Adrian Lyne made his feature directorial debut with this above-average coming-of-age tale set in the San Fernando Valley, just a few short years before Valley Girls, "grody to the max" and "gag me with a spoon" became common parlance. Jodie Foster, ex-Runaway Cherie Currie, Marilyn Kagan (who was almost 30 at the time!), and Kandice Stroh star as four troubled young ladies coping with boys, school, drugs, weight issues, and all the other myriad problems that hound female teens. Though the film is episodic and at times predictable, it remains one of the best films of its type, avoiding the pitfalls of exploitation cinema and remaining determinedly serious in its outlook. Co-starring Sally Kellerman, Scott Baio, Brit rocker Adam Faith, and (in her first credited appearance) Laura Dern, Foxes supposedly will be airing in widescreen this morning, but I'll believe it when I see it. This is Showtime 3 we're talking about.
11:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953 USA): There's Saturday matinee fun aplenty in this Technicolor adventure from Fox (which surely would have been shot in Cinemascope if it had been made a couple of years later). Cornel Wilde stars as French nephew of nobility Jean-Paul, who throws off the strictures of his pampered life in favor of searching for riches in Guatemala. Teaming up with Professor MacDougall (Finlay Currie), he stumbles across the remains of an ancient city destroyed by an eaerthquake—and stumbles into love with the egghead's beautiful daughter (Constance Smith). Co-starring George Macready and Fay Wray as Jean-Paul's blueblooded aunt and uncle, as well as Anne Bancroft as a competitor for his heart, Treasure of the Golden Condor is the very definition of good old-fashioned fun.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Happy Ending (1969 USA): Lovely Jean Simmons plays a middle-aged woman on a quest for personal discovery in this solid if unspectacular Richard Brookes-helmed and penned drama. Simmons is Mary Wilson, not the Supremes singer but a housewife who's now more in love with hooch than with hubby Fred (John Forsythe). She abandons him prior to their 16th wedding anniversary (Good God, the wife and I just celebrated our 25th) and heads to the Bahamas to ‘get her head together' (as the kids said in 1969) with friend Flo (Shirley Jones) in tow. A brief fling with lying SOB Franco (Bobby Darin) pays no dividends, and Mary soon realizes she needs to face up to the facts: after the first few years, married life gets a bit boring! Unavailable on DVD, The Happy Ending co-stars Dick Shawn, Teresa Wright, Lloyd Bridges, Nanette Fabrey, and Tina Louise, and gets a very rare widescreen airing tonight.
Friday 3/26/10
7:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Side Street (1950 USA): MGM weren't known for their crime dramas or noirs, but on the rare occasions they made ‘em, they usually did ‘em right. Directed by Anthony Mann, Side Street is an above average thriller featuring Farley Granger as Joe Norson, a mailman trying to make ends meet and keep his family fed. Then one day, whilst earning money for food, up from the ground came a bubblin' crude. By which, of course, I mean that Joe steals some dirty money from scumbags Georgie and Victor (James Craig and Edmon Ryan) and finds it hard to make amends. If you like fifties location footage of New York, flag down a yellow cab toot sweet and take a trip to Side Street.
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