TiVoPlex
By John Seal
September 28, 2009
Saturday 10/03/09
12:30am Turner Classic Movies
The Wild Party (1956 USA): Not to be confused with 1974's The Wild Party, this shindig features Anthony Quinn as Tom Kupfen, an aging football star whose best days are well behind him. He can't quite get used to no longer being BMOC and spends his copious spare time listening to jazz, hanging out with a bunch of losers, and drinking far too much. Tom and his pals decide to rob a young couple in hopes of maybe gleaning enough money to pay their bar tabs, but things don't go precisely as planned and the strong-arming turns into a kidnapping. Considered rather outrageous in its day, this excellent thriller - never available on home video - co-stars Arthur Franz, Nestor Paiva, and Paul Stewart.
2am Turner Classic Movies
Perversion for Profit (1965 USA): Poor George Putnam must have been completely discouraged by the time he passed on in late 2008: his warning had gone unheeded, and the culture wars lost. Perversion for Profit is an amazing and angry screed about the dangers of sodomy, bestiality, sado-masochism, nudism and nudity, and homosexuality! homosexuality! homosexuality! Why, with the triple threat of the printing press, rapid transit, and mass distribution, the threat is all around us. And who is it that is poisoning the minds of our youth? Godless Communism, of course, with a helping hand from their foot soldiers, the hook-nosed, cigar chomping money-grubbers who drive this two billion dollar-a-year industry. George assures us that the Supreme Court and the law are on our side, and it's up to us (presumably the man of the house) to check and double-check all the reading material that enters our homes to make sure it is wholesome and good. The tone of Putnam's narration suggests he already knew the game was up when he made this film, which was produced by one of the great men of the 20th century, John McCain's pal Charles Keating Jr., who spent time in jail for fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy. But not, thank jeebus, smut-peddling!
3:30am Showtime 3
Nursery University (2008 USA): You won't believe what some parents will do to get their kids into a good college...or high school...or middle school...or elementary school...or...pre-school? The competition for spaces in Manhattan's pre-K private schools is cutthroat, and it's recorded in all its gory, embarrassing detail in this extremely watchable documentary from directors Matthew Makar and Marc Simon. You'll be especially impressed with the mother who proclaims, "we're used to getting what we set out to get". Suffer the little children, indeed.
6am Turner Classic Movies
Dick Tracy (1937 USA): This week's whiz-bang chapter-play action arrives in the form of Chapters 9 and 10, Stratosphere Adventure and The Gold Ship.
Sunday 10/04/09
1:15am Turner Classic Movies
The Horsemen (1971 USA): I'd love to know how this one got green-lighted by Columbia producer Edward Lewis. "Yeah, Ed, it's John Frankenheimer. I've got a script here I'd like to pitch to you. Story's set in Afghanistan. AFGHANISTAN. I dunno, its some podunk country in Africa, I think. Yeah, anyway, it's about a bunch of sweaty macho types who play buzkashi. No, no, not booze-catching, buzkashi. Y'know, it's that game where they ride around on horses and sorta play polo, only they don't use a ball, they use a headless goat. Yeah. The script? That pinko bastard Dalton Trumbo wrote it. You like? GREAT. I got Omar Sharif and Jack Palance lined up already!"
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