TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday, July 29, 2008 through Monday, August 4, 2008
By John Seal
July 28, 2008
Friday 08/01/08
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Two-Headed Spy (1958 GB): Michael Caine gets the star treatment today on TCM, starting with this fairly decent intriguer in which his role is decidedly of the supporting variety. The Two-Headed Spy's REAL star is Jack Hawkins, here cast as a British spy who not only insinuates his way into the Nazi war machine but then manages to win promotion to the Wehrmacht general staff, where he rubs shoulders with Der Fuhrer (a memorable Kenneth Griffith) himself. He's ably assisted in his undercover activities by nightclub singer Lili (Gia Scala), whilst Leutnant Reinisch (Eric Schulmann) grinds his teeth and tries to ferret out the mole in Hitler's midst. In addition to Caine — who appears as 'Gestapo Agent' — the film also co-stars Donald Pleasance and Bernard Fox. It's followed at 5:00 AM by Billion Dollar Brain (1967), in which the by now very famous Caine made his third and final screen appearance as British secret agent Harry Palmer.
7:00 PM Sundance
You're Gonna Miss Me (2005 USA): One of the great comeback stories of recent years has been the reappearance of Texas-born musician Roky Erickson, a founding member of the world's first self-proclaimed psychedelic rock band, the 13th Floor Elevators. Thanks to onerous drug laws, Erickson spent time in jail and mental institutions during the late 1960s and early 1970s and for much of the last two decades of the 20th century was in the care of his mother Evelyn. Thanks to the efforts of his younger brother Sumner, Roky has spent the last decade regaining his confidence, and his condition has stabilized to the point where he can tour and record regularly. His unbelievable life is surveyed in this excellent rockumentary, which for best value should be complemented by Eye Mind, Paul Drummond's superb recent print history of the Elevators.
Saturday 08/02/08
1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Destructors (1974 GB): Bottom of the barrel Michael Caine arrives this morning in the form of The Destructors, a shot-in-Europe thriller about American intelligence agent Steve Ventura (Anthony Quinn) and his efforts to bring scumbag drug lord Jacques Brizard (James Mason) to justice. To do so, he hires old friend (and contract killer) John Deray (Caine), who proceeds to put the hurt on The French — er, sorry, Marseilles — Connection. Though the film is resolutely derivative, lackadaisically written, and unimaginatively filmed, it does benefit from south of France location work and a terrific Roy Budd score. Look for former Kennedy press secretary Pierre Salinger in a small role.
1:30 PM Encore Mystery
The Good German (2006 USA): Everything you need to know about the box office performance of Steven Soderbergh's tribute to classic Hollywood: it's making its television debut on Encore as opposed to HBO, Cinemax, or Showtime. A floppo at the boxxo, The Good German was shot full-frame in black and white, perhaps explaining why no one went to see it. That's a shame, because it's an interesting experiment in filmmaking that features a predictably fine George Clooney performance as an American military journalist who finds himself enmeshed in a murder mystery whilst covering the Potsdam Conference in July 1945. It's not one of Soderbergh's best, but you gotta give him credit for trying.
10:50 PM Encore
Return to Horror High (1987 USA): It's George Clooney day here in the TiVoPlex! Return to High Horror features the salt and peppered one in his pre-Grecian Formula days as a vain leading man on the set of a low-budget slasher pic. The film's being shot at abandoned Crippen High School, closed since a series of gruesome murders bloodied its hallways five years earlier — and still playing host to secrets that begin to affect the film crew in deadly ways. Even by the standards of the genre, Return to Horror High is minor league stuff, but it's still fun to watch Clooney working for what was probably a not very large pay check. You know, an AFTRA pay check, not a SAG one. Also airs 8/3 at 1:50 AM.
Sunday 08/03/08
5:00 AM IFC
The Last Wave (1978 AUS): I'm still as baffled by this Peter Weir film as I was after first seeing it in the early '80s, but that doesn't make it any less rewarding. It's a cinema puzzle piece about an Australian lawyer (Richard Chamberlain), the five Aborigine men (including one portrayed by David Gulpilil) he's defending against murder charges, and a prophecy about a bleak and watery future for the Australian continent. Akin to Weir's earlier Picnic at Hanging Rock and Antonioni's Blow-Up, The Last Wave is a film that has actually improved with age, with the threat of global warming lending it an edge not readily apparent on its initial release.
10:30 AM Flix
Smithereens (1982 USA): A wonderful coming-of-age period piece about life on the edge in New York City, Smithereens was director Susan Seidelman's impressive debut feature. Seidelman next helmed Desperately Seeking Susan, an equally fine effort also set in Manhattan, but Smithereens' lack of star power and commitment to realism gives it the slight edge. Susan Berman stars as Wren, a self-sufficient but vulnerable young punkette barely scraping by in the Big Apple. She hopes to hook up with rocker Eric (sloe-eyed Richard Hell), but instead finds her fate intertwined with that of uncool suburbanite Paul (Brad Rijn), currently living on an abandoned lot in his Chevy van. Shot only a few years after President Ford's infamous 'drop dead' bail-out veto, this time capsule captures a long-gone city that was both grimmer and more innocent than it is today.
Monday 08/04/08
6:00 PM HBO
Baghdad High (2007 GB-USA): Produced collaboratively by the BBC and HBO, this is a cinema verite documentary about four boys trying to complete a tough school year in Iraq's capital city. I haven't seen it yet, but I suspect matriculating in Baghdad is a little more challenging than in Beverly Hills. Also airs at 9:00 PM and throughout the month.
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