TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex
By John Seal
June 25, 2007
Sunday 07/01/07
11:00 AM Showtime
Meatballs (1979 USA): It feels like déjà vu all over again here at the TiVoPlex. As with the previously mentioned Sleepaway Camp films, the Meatballs franchise has been well represented on premium cable of late - excluding the series' progenitor, which finally makes its return this morning. If you want a less bloody take on the pains and pleasures of summer camp life, this Ivan Reitman helmed comedy should fill the bill. Documenting the childish goings on at Camp North Star, where head counsellor Tripper (Bill Murray, terrific as always) has his hands full maintaining order, Meatballs is 90 minutes of inconsequential but good natured fun, and airs again at 2:00 PM.
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
A Lady of Chance (1928 USA): Gorgeous Norma Shearer plays woman of the world Angel Face Morgan in this excellent and typically sumptuous MGM silent directed by Robert Z. Leonard. Angel Face uses her gig as a hotel elevator operator to gold dig gullible rich men, and soon targets concrete magnate Steve Crandall (Johnny Mack Brown) as a possible source of supplemental income. Having sunk her claws into Crandall, the couple head down south to check out his lucrative plantation - but when two of Angel Face's criminal chums decide to get in the act, she discovers she's really fallen for the guy. According to legend, co-star Brown actually fell for Shearer, plying her with flowers and chocolates during production. No word on how hubby Irving Thalberg responded to Brown's schoolboy crush, but Shearer went on to be one of the early stars of the talkies, whilst Brown was banished to the relative obscurity of ‘B' westerns.
Monday 07/02/07
7:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
These Are the Damned (1962 GB): Here's this week's most exciting entry, a little known and little seen British science fiction feature making its premium channel debut. Not to be confused with Village of the Damned or Children of the Damned, These Are the Damned does, however, also focus on children - in this case, special children being bred to survive a nuclear war by a scientist named Bernard (Alexander Knox). The film is so intriguing and unusual that I'm not going to spoil it for you by revealing too much plot, but the cast alone - which also features Oliver Reed, Macdonald Carey, Shirley Ann Field (Peeping Tom), Walter Gotell, Viveca Lindfors, and James Villiers - is reason enough to watch.
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