TiVoPlex
By John Seal
May 17, 2004
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 05/18/04
3am Turner Classic Movies
The Miracle Woman (1931 USA): This first rate pre-Code drama stars Barbara Stanwyck as the title character, an embittered woman who takes up a career as a phony miracle worker after the death of her preacherman father. Her hugely popular tent shows are staged with the aid of an unscrupulous carny (Sam Hardy), who turns against her when her conscience is pricked by the love of a blind man (handsome David Manners, as ebullient as ever in this film). Directed by Frank Capra and written by Jo Swerling - who went on to pen It’s A Wonderful Life for Capra 15 years later - The Miracle Woman is one of Stanwyck’s finest hours and strongly recommended for those with an interest in 1930s cinema.
9pm More Max
Intacto (2001 ESP): This week’s speculative pick stars the always-great Max Von Sydow as a Holocaust survivor with a unique talent: he can use luck as a commodity, swapping, stealing, or distributing it at will. Intacto won eight nominations and two awards - including an acting prize for Burnt Money’s Leonardo Sbaraglia - at the Goyas (Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars) and won the International Film Fantasy Award at Portugal’s Fantasporto. I missed it during its extremely brief US release in early 2003, and will definitely be tuning in tonight for its American television debut, where with a bit of luck - begged, borrowed, or stolen - it will air with subtitles. Also airs 5/24 at 12:45am and 3:45am.
Wednesday 05/19/04
4:45am Showtime
Salt and Pepper(1968 GB): By 1968, the Swinging '60s were dragging to an end, the decade’s groovy feel-good vibes dissipating thanks to the relentless realities of the Vietnam War, worldwide liberation movements, and (in Britain, at least) the realization that currency devaluation was just around the corner and you’d probably never have it so good again anytime soon. Leave it up to fading Rat Packers Sammy Davis and Peter Lawford to try and give themselves a hip Carnaby Street makeover a few years too late in this weak comedy about a pair of nightclub owners mixed up with spies, intrigue, and a nuclear submarine. Honestly, this is nothing special, but it’s been unavailable on home video for donkey’s years and features lots of familiar faces in supporting roles, including Dad’s Army star John Le Mesurier, Bahamian actor Calvin Lockhart and Graham Stark. A decent jazz-oriented score by John Dankworth is a plus, though Sammy’s singing leaves something to be desired.
9am Turner Classic Movies
Dangerously They Live (1941 USA): This flawed Warner's program has enough points of interest to warrant a look by aficionados of assembly-line B features. John Garfield had recently escaped the studio’s exclusivity clause, but was still bound to the Brothers Warner for two films a year, of which this was the first. Still angry with Garfield for refusing assignment to 1939’s Golden Boy, Warner's punished the troublesome actor by withholding their juiciest roles from him, casting him here as a New York intern whose patient, amnesia victim Nancy Coleman, claims to be a British agent pursued by Nazi operatives. It’s predictable stuff, adapted for the screen by novelist Marion Parsonnet, but is nicely shot by L. William O’Connell, and features a solid supporting cast, including Raymond Massey and Moroni Olsen.
Thursday 05/20/04
12:15am Showtime 2
Tragic Hero (1987 HK): Normally I wouldn’t offer further recommendations for Tragic Hero, a film that has appeared on Showtime a few times over the last two years and has done time in TiVoPlex on those occasions. Though reasonably enjoyable, it’s by no means a great film, and whilst the action sequences are (unsurprisingly) excellent and well-choreographed, it failed to break any new ground in the well-established and somewhat calcified Hong Kong gangster genre. If not for the presence of Chow-Yun Fat in a supporting role, this film probably would never have been picked up for belated American distribution, but here’s the rub: Showtime is, against all the odds, airing it in wide-screen AND with subtitles. That, coupled with the dearth of exciting alternatives this week, make this one a noteworthy footnote in this week’s TiVoPlex.
Friday 05/21/04
1:30am Turner Classic Movies
The Youngest Profession(1943 USA): So, we all know about the Oldest Profession, but which one is the youngest? According to this thinly-disguised studio promotional film, apparently it’s - wait for it - autograph hunting. Featuring Virginia Weidler and Jean Porter as a pair of star-struck bobby-soxers with inky fingers, the film is basically an excuse to parade a host of MGM contract players in front of the cameras to satiate the relentless hunger of indiscriminate and easily-impressed moviegoers for a look at their favorite stars. If The Youngest Profession were any fluffier, it would float away, but there’s no other film that can boast of appearances by William Powell, Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, and Lana Turner, not to mention Agnes Moorehead and TiVoPlex favorite Bess Flowers.
9pm Sundance
Decasia (2002 USA): Playing like a bizarre hybrid of Mohsen Makhbalmaf’s heady Once Upon a Time, Cinema, Stan Brakhage’s Dog Man Star, and one of Godfrey Reggio’s Qatsi trilogy, this film was created by Bill Morrison, who actually worked with Reggio on Nagoyqatsi. Consisting of apparently "found" footage in various states of decay, Decasia is a short (67-minute) meditation on the impermanence of life and art. Acting as a big-screen version of Brion Gysin’s legendary dream machine, the film exudes a calming and meditative influence. I found myself pondering the fate of many of Decasia’s subjects: are these the last surviving images of these people? Are we seeing the only remaining evidence of a particular traditional Arabic or Greek dance? And where precisely WAS that camel going? My personal highlight from the film is actually some of the most "recent" footage: children on a 1950s-style school bus look directly and piercingly into the camera, silently breaking the fourth wall à la Jean Seberg in Breathless. Decasia is all the more mysterious for shrouding the source material in anonymity; no clues are provided as to where the film came from, who is in it, or whether or not it is real or fabricated. You can also visit www.decasia.com, but you won’t find any more answers there. Also airs 5/24 at 4:15am.
11pm Turner Classic Movies
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955 SWE): Or, Ingmar Bergman Makes a Rom-Com. I must admit, when it comes to Bergman I prefer his darker works - Seventh Seal, Virgin Spring, Wild Strawberries - but I’ll take Smiles of a Summer Night over his intensely personal and frequently boring Liv Ullmann period (Cries and Whispers, Scenes From a Marriage, ad nauseum). Starring Ulla Jacobsson as the innocent young wife of a womanizing lawyer (June Night’s Gunnar Bjornstrand), the film doesn’t stray too far from the genre’s conventions, but is intelligently written by Bergman. Co-star and Bergman regular Harriet Andersson can currently be seen in Lars Von Trier’s enigmatic Dogville, and Smiles of a Summer Night also features the first of 13 appearances by (unrelated) Bibi Andersson in a Bergman film.
Saturday 05/22/04
7pm Cinemax
Bend It Like Beckham (2002 GB): I know, I’m compromising myself with this one, but there’s next to nothing else worth recommending today, so I’ll take off my beret and dark glasses, stop sipping my wine and nibbling my Brie, and recommend this relatively big hit which grossed a staggering $32,000,000 in the US alone (Actually, I can’t stand Brie, but I do like a nice flaky cheddar). It’s filled with the familiar Anglo-Indian culture-clash themes of countless British films of recent years, but lacks the gravitas of weightier genre entries such as East is East, My Beautiful Laundrette and Bhaji On the Beach. Bend It Like Beckham does, however, feature a breakout performance by 27-year-old Parminder Nagra as a football-mad teenager whose parents, naturally, don’t approve; no doubt they’d much prefer their daughter take up cricket. It’s funny and uplifting stuff, if a wee bit trite and quite predictable, but Nagra makes it watchable and fans of willowy blondes will be excited by the presence of genuine teenager Keira Knightley in a supporting role. I’m looking forward to director Gurinder Chadha’s next project, a Bollywood-style adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice retitled Bride and Prejudice. Also airs at 10pm and 5/24 at 6am, 9am 5pm, and 8pm.
Sunday 05/23/04
1:35am Sundance
Seeing is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights, and the News (2002 CAN): The timing couldn’t be more perfect for the broadcast of this documentary about the ubiquity of video equipment and its impact on social justice movements - and by extension, journalism and news dissemination - in the 21st century. From its inception as a consumer-driven product aimed at the wedding and birthday market, the lowly video camera has since been utilized as a powerful truth-telling tool by people around the world. This film includes an extensive look at the struggle for land rights amongst the indigenous peoples of the Filipino island of Mindanao, where the murderous crimes of private goon squads and their police allies were captured on film by native filmmakers, and also explores the use of video gear by social justice movements in the Czech Republic, South Africa, and Mexico.
9pm Turner Classic Movies
The Lost World (1925 USA): You can keep your Jurassic Park and your One Million BCs; in my book, this is still the gold standard for dinosaur movies. Based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel about an eccentric professor determined to convince his skeptical colleagues that prehistoric creatures still roam the earth, the film features startlingly good animation by the great Willis O’Brien, mentor to stop-motion genius Ray Harryhausen. O’Brien had been developing his animation techniques in a series of short films, including the remarkable Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918), but reached the pinnacle of success with this full-length adventure starring Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger, the unctuous academic who proves his point by bringing a brontosaurus back to London. Filled with thrills and excitement, The Lost World was superbly shot by Arthur Edeson (All Quiet on the Western Front) and even features Doyle in a cameo appearance as himself.
Monday 05/24/04
7:30am Turner Classic Movies
The Beachcomber (1954 GB): The unlikely screen team of Glynis Johns and the eternally-soused Robert Newton star in this drama about a fire-and-brimstone missionary (Johns) and a drunken sot (Newton) trying to save a tropical island from a cholera epidemic. It’s not quite as grim as that synopsis sounds, as Johns develops a modicum of modesty and understanding and Newton...well, he cuts back a bit before the pair clinch in the final reel. Donald Sinden is on hand for comedy relief and there are smaller roles for Donald Pleasence and Michael Hordern. Based on a Somerset Maugham play, this is lightweight but enjoyable stuff, several notches below the superior Laughton-Lanchester version from 1938, but still worth a look.
9pm Sundance
A Certain Kind of Death (2003 USA): If you loved last week’s American Eunuchs - personally, I’m still recovering from its graphic scenes of elective testicle surgery - you may want to make time for this one. It’s a look at the unavoidable phenomenon of those who selfishly shuffle off this mortal coil without benefit of next of kin, leaving it up to local governments to cope with the disposal of their remains and belongings. The film follows the misadventures of three John and Jane Does as the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office tries to determine their identities and whether or not there are friends and family to be contacted. If you’ve always wanted to be the fly on the wall in your local mortuary and are curious about cremation and mass burial, here’s your film. It’s all a bit less glamorous than your average Thomas Noguchi autopsy.
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