TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex
By John Seal
November 15, 2010
Thursday 11/18/10
1:50 PM The Movie Channel
Slash (2002 SAF): Here’s something you don’t see every day: a South African horror flick! James O’Shea stars as Mac, a rock singer who finds himself (and his bandmates) stranded, stalked, and slashed by a killer scarecrow around and about a remote farmstead. The Absolute Horror website sums up this film better than I can: “Slash is a movie that makes Miner’s Massacre look like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” If you’ve ever suffered through Miner’s Massacre, you know praise doesn’t come any lower than that, but hey…South African horror, everybody! Also airs at 4:50 PM.
Friday 11/19/10
5:00 PM Sundance
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007 USA): This one’s a bit of a TiVoPlex Great White Whale. Originally airing some months back on Showtime 3, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead was supposed to appear on that channel in widescreen. It didn’t. Last week it showed up in the Sundance Channel program guide, and - despite Sundance’s seemingly random propensity for pan and scan - I assumed they’d air it in its original aspect ratio. It didn’t air at all. Now it’s scheduled again. What will we get this evening? A real, honest to goodness 1.85:1 airing of Sidney Lumet’s sterling drama about the strained relationship between two criminally-minded brothers (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke)? Or more episodes of Ladette to Lady?
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Dementia (1955 USA): Also known by the more colorful title Daughter of Horror, Dementia is a bonafide psychotronic classic. It’s a completely dialogue-free mood piece in which a young woman (Adrienne Barrett) wanders through the back alleys and sleazy joints of L.A.’s Skid Row whilst the narrator - Ed McMahon! - fills in her back story. Dementia is an astonishing little gem, brimming with noir atmosphere and familiar faces, including stand-up comic Shelley Berman as a beatnik, little person Angelo Rossito, AIP regulars Jonathan Haze and Bruno VeSota, and jazz trumpeter Shorty Rogers. It’s also the only film VeSota’s teacher wife Jebbie appeared in. Can you imagine being married to Bruno and bearing six of his children? Yikes.
Saturday 11/20/10
7:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Private Eyes (1953 USA): In Bowery Boys adventure number 32, Sach (Huntz Hall) gets socked in the nose and subsequently acquires a talent for mind-reading. Slip (Leo Gorcey) gets another brainstorm and decides to harness Sach’s newfound ability by opening his own defective agency. Malapropisms and pratfalls follow in abundance.
8:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
The Leopard (1963 ITA): Now here’s a challenge for me: I’m still in the digital stone age and can only record one program at a time. So, do I reserve my hard drive this morning for my beloved but thoroughly predictable Bowery Boys? Or do I record this lush, widescreen Luchino Visconti historical epic about 19th century Sicilian court intrigue? I know what I should do, but Visconti’s never been one of my favorite Italian directors: though he got his start in neo-realism, he soon began to helm enigmatic bloaters such as The Damned and Death in Venice which test my patience more than anything. So, Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey, or Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, and Claudia Cardinale? Help me make my decision for me, dear readers…
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