TiVoPlex

By John Seal

January 9, 2007

Reservoir Dogs ain't got nuthin on us

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From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.

Tuesday 01/09/07

1:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Still of the Night (1982 USA): An all but forgotten thriller from director Robert Benton (Kramer Vs. Kramer), Still of the Night makes its widescreen television debut this morning. Starring Roy Scheider as a psychiatrist who becomes entangled in the murder of one of his patients, the film blends romance, mystery, and some knowing nods to the films of Alfred Hitchcock into a very professional and enjoyable piece of Hollywood confectionary. Co-starring Meryl Streep as the victim's mistress and Jessica Tandy as Scheider's happy go lucky mom, Still of the Night also benefits from terrific Manhattan location work by cinematographer Nestor Almendros.

7:45 AM Sundance
Boom! (1968 GB): With all due respect to the great Judy Holliday, Boom! really should have been titled Phfft!, because it's one of the legendary disasters of cinema history. One of several features to star the on again off again on again off again screen couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, Boom! is based on a Tennessee Williams play and was brought to the screen by director Joseph Losey, then living in blacklisted exile in Britain. Shot in Sardinia, it tells the story of rich harridan Mrs. Goforth (Taylor) who has outlasted five husbands and ensconced herself in a lavish Mediterranean estate, where she abuses the help and moans about her health. So, no basis in reality there, then. Along comes penniless poet Chris Flanders (Burton), who manages to inveigle his way into the heart of his hostess despite his reputation as an ‘angel of death' who pops up beside the death beds of women of renown. Adapted for the screen by Williams himself, the film is 90 minutes plus of bitchy dialogue, improved slightly by the presence of Noel Coward as a dinner guest and Doctor Loveless himself, Michael Dunn, as a security guard. Boom! is considered a camp classic in some circles (paging John Waters) but is pretty atrocious by any other standard. Here's hoping, however, that Sundance has at least dug up a widescreen print. Also airs 1/10 at 2:00 AM.

Wednesday 01/10/07

4:00 AM Sundance
Haiti: End of the Chimera (2004 FRA-HAI): Shot only days before the US-stage managed exile of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, this made for French television documentary is another sad commentary on the disgraceful condition and tortuous history of this deeply troubled Caribbean nation. Founded after an 1804 slave revolt famously led by Toussaint L'ouverture, Haiti has since remained in the grip of a light-skinned native elite who have preserved their own privileges for 200 years at the expense of the dark-skinned masses. Aristide was only the second popularly elected president of the Republic, and relied on street gangs, or ‘chimeres', to keep him in power, as the country has no armed forces (the Army was disbanded some years back for operating death squads). Unfortunately, these poorly organized gangs couldn't protect him from the right-wing media, which fuelled discontent with charges of corruption - ultimately leading to Aristide's forced departure for South Africa, where he resides to this day. Also airs 1/15 at 3:00 PM.

11:30 AM Showtime 2
TerrorVision (1986 USA): Any film starring Gerrit Graham is going to get a thumbs up from me, and here's one of the beady-eyed funny man's most amusing efforts. Graham and co-star Mary Woronov play the Puttermans, a suburban couple not entirely dissimilar to the one featured in Woronov's classic Eating Raoul (1982). They live in a ranch-style home with annoying 12-year-old son Sherman (Chad Allen) and crotchety patriarch Grampa (Bert Remsen), and own one of them new fangled satellite dishes - a contraption that turns out to be the garbage chute for a civilization in a distant galaxy. Amongst the space junk sent to Earth is a beyond absurd sock-puppet monster that proceeds to eat the adults and the neighbors, leaving the fate of the world in the hands of young Sherman, who must convince the authorities that something's not quite right at the end of the cul-de-sac. Helmed by Subspecies auteur Ted Nicolaou, this outrageous black comedy - still missing in action on DVD - also airs 1/11 at 10:00 PM and 1/12 at 1:00 AM.

11:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Beach Red (1967 USA): Last time Cornel Wilde's Beach Red showed up on TCM, I botched my recording and ended up with only half the film. It returns in widescreen tonight, and hopefully my mastery of DVD-R has improved some over the years. As for the film, it's a war movie classic, and stars Wilde as an Army captain leading the assault on a Japanese held island during WWII. Along for the blood and guts are a sadistic sergeant played to perfection by Rip Torn, and a wide-eyed innocent portrayed by amateur thespian Patrick Wolfe, who never made another picture. One of the first American films to eschew the standard war movie clichés of the post-war period, Beach Red doesn't look quite as daring as it did back in the day, but still packs a punch and looks great in it's correct aspect ratio.

Thursday 01/11/07

Midnight Flix
Streamers (1983 USA): One of the most obscure entries in Robert Altman's filmography, Streamers features Matthew Modine as a raw recruit about to be sent to the meat-grinder in Vietnam. Modine plays Billy, one of four newly minted GI's spending their last days of freedom desperately trying to subsume their fear in a welter of boys-only misbehavior and verbal abuse. Based on a hit play by David Rabe and set within the confines of a single room in an Army barracks, the film predictably but effectively dissects the dehumanizing lengths the military goes to in order to produce obedient and quiescent foot soldiers. Modine is excellent as always, but he's matched by Michael Wright as a streetwise African-American soldier and George Dzundza as a drunken sot of a sergeant.


4:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Dirigible (1931 USA): A long forgotten Frank Capra melodrama, Dirigible makes its TCM debut this morning. The film features Hobart Bosworth as an explorer looking to use airplanes to reach the South Pole, until Commander Jack Bradon (Jack Holt) convinces him airships are the future of aeronautical travel. After calling our stockbroker to buy up shares in the Zeppelin Company, we're off to Antarctica for thrills, chills, and more chills, as well as a romantic subplot involving Fay Wray. The film is also rumored to feature an uncredited Boris Karloff as a member of the expedition, so get your thumb poised over your remote control's slow-mo button.

6:00 AM HBO2
Munich (2005 USA) : I missed the television premiere of this Steven Spielberg epic whilst taking my holiday break, but I would be remiss to not mention it at all, as it's proof positive that the bearded one really does have some talent, and in fact seems to be improving with age. A dark morality tale of personal responsibility set in the aftermath of the massacre of Israel's athletes during the 1972 Olympic Games, Munich follows the exploits of a group of Mossad assassins assigned to wreak vengeance and kill those responsible for the events culminating in the airport atrocity at Furstenfeldbruck. Both the Tony Kushner screenplay and the cast (Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush, et al) are simply outstanding, but Spielberg's direction ups the ante further, resulting in the kind of 1970s-era character study he was incapable of producing back in the, er, 1970s. A film that is only going to improve with age, Munich also airs at 9:00 AM and throughout the month.




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6:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
By Whose Hand? (1932 USA): I've never seen this Columbia thriller, and chances are you haven't either. It gets a recommendation here based on the presence of Dwight Frye and Nat Pendleton amongst its cast.

Friday 01/12/07

4:30 AM Encore Action
Amazing Stories III (1992 USA): Whilst we're on the Spielberg tip, please note the return to television of this anthology of stories from his 1985 television series of the same name. This volume includes three serviceable tales featuring, amongst many others, Hector Elizondo, Charlie Sheen, Patrick Swayze, and Gregory Hines. Mysteriously absent from home video, these episodes haven't been seen on television for many years, and though they're not likely to make you forget Twilight Zone or Thriller (and when is THAT marvellous show going to come to disc?), they're reasonably entertaining examples of a small screen genre that has long since passed on.

7:30 AM Starz
Why We Fight (2005 USA): Eugene Jarecki's magisterial examination of American militarism makes its television debut this morning. Taking President Dwight D. Eisenhower's speech regarding the development of a ‘military-industrial complex' as its starting point, Why We Fight makes the now relatively uncontroversial claim that our economy needs permanent warfare in order to flourish. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2005, and though it preaches to the choir, it is devastatingly (if quietly) effective and is a worthy successor to Jarecki's equally essential Trials of Henry Kissinger. Also airs at 10:30 AM.

11:35 AM Encore Dramatic Stories
Brothers (2004 DEN): Danish director Susanne Bier's Brothers tells the story of Copenhagen siblings Jannik and Michael, the former an oft-imprisoned troublemaker, the latter a dutiful military man and productive citizen. When Jannik (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is released from prison after completing his most recent sentence, the two expect to resume their usual roles in the family drama - but when Michael (Celebration's Ulrich Thomsen) finds himself posted to Afghanistan, where he subsequently is captured by the Taliban, Jannik finds himself thrust into the unfamiliar role of the responsible adult who must care for his brother's ‘widow' (the wonderful Connie Nielsen) and children. Displaying the influence of the Dogme Manifesto without strictly adhering to its rules, Brothers is an engrossing look at the way violence can bring unexpected changes to its victims, and airs again at 7:00 PM.

3:00 PM The Movie Channel
Meet the Applegates (1991 USA): Director Michael Lehmann's follow-up to Heathers (1989), Meet the Applegates is an equally acerbic critique of American suburbia. Sadly, it doesn't hold together quite as well as its predecessor, as it tries to blend social satire with science fiction trappings. Ed Begley Jr. plays the patriarch of the titular clan, a family of insects - yes, insects - trying to blend inconspicuously into the bland uniformity of the suburbs. It doesn't really work, but it makes its widescreen television premiere this evening - and for those who pose the question, what went wrong with the promising career of Michael Lehmann? - here's a big part of the answer. Also airs at 6:00 PM.

9:00 PM IFC
At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964 BRA): IFC launches its new Grindhouse series with the American television premiere of the very first Coffin Joe feature - surely the most disturbing and frightening film made anywhere in the world in 1964. For those unfamiliar with Coffin Joe, he's a character created by Brazilian actor-director-renaissance man Jose Mojica Marins: a bearded, brooding maniac dressed in a black cape and black top hat, and equipped with gruesomely long fingernails. Joe has appeared in a dozen or so features over the years - indeed, Marins is currently completing production on the most recent entry in the series - but At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul was where it all began, and it is genuinely disturbing stuff. Though Joe's physical appearance remains the same throughout the series, his raison d'etre always changes, and in this initial outing he finds himself employed as a gravedigger. On the prowl for a new wife, Joe discovers that none of the local nubiles take a fancy to him - I wonder why? - and decides his wooing must be a little more forceful, resulting in 90 minutes of gothic horror at it's most perverse. Simply put, if you are a horror film fan and have never seen this film, you now have plans for this evening. Also airs 1/13 at midnight.

Saturday 01/13/07

12:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1963 USA): Wow, what a week. Not only does Coffin Joe come to American television, so does Eddie Carmel. Who's Eddie Carmel? He was a comedian known as The Jewish Giant, and a man who suffered from a pituitary abnormality that saw him grow to the astonishing height of seven feet, eight inches. He parlayed his infamy into a pair of film roles, including an appearance as a misshapen monster in this late-night television staple of yesteryear, which makes its premium channel debut this morning. Jason Evers is the ostensible star, playing Dr. Bill Cortner, who, after a terrible car accident, attempts to keep the decapitated head of girlfriend Jan (Virginia Leith) alive in a pan of saline solution. Carmel only shows up for the final reel, but his entry is an unforgettable one, as he plays the stereotypical ‘monster in the closet' who makes common cause with the disgruntled Jan, who wants to be taken off life support. Yes, think of The Brain That Wouldn't Die as another ridiculous horror film if you must - but I prefer to think of it as a fascinating rumination on medical ethics.

6:00 AM Encore Action
Battle of the Last Panzer (1969 ITA): The prodigiously productive Italian film industry of the 1960s was dominated first by sword and sandal epics, then in turn by James Bond rip-offs and spaghetti westerns. The end of the decade saw Italian filmmakers turn toward World War II for inspiration, and here's one of several dozen identikit action pictures produced between 1968 and 1971, before gialli and sex comedies became all the rage. With very few exceptions, none of these films are very good, but they are full of action and period vintage military hardware, not to mention past their prime, slumming American actors like Battle of the Last Panzer's Guy Madison. Most of these films were also shot in Panavision, and sadly Encore seems to be utilizing a pan and scan print for this airing - but considering the rarity of this feature, we'll take what we can get. It's followed at 10:00 AM (on Encore Dramatic Stories) by 1968's Battle of El Alamein, another example of this forgotten genre, featuring Michael Rennie as General Bernard Law Montgomery and Robert Hossein as Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.

Sunday 01/14/07

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Caesar and Cleopatra (1946 GB): Fans of frock flicks should note this rare television airing of George Bernard Shaw's screen adaptation of his own play about the (fictional) relationship between Caesar (snarky Claude Rains) and Cleopatra (sexy Vivien Leigh). After Rome invades Egypt, Caesar finds himself less than satisfied with the mere material rewards of imperialism, and finds himself yearning for companionship. Whilst strolling past the Sphinx one day - in the merry, merry month of May?—he happens upon Cleopatra, a woman of striking looks and sharp intelligence who appeals to the great Pontifex Maximus' desire for a suitably grand spouse. The most expensive film ever made it Britain at the time of its release, it's hard to see where the money was spent, as Caeasr and Cleopatra is decidedly short on spectacle and long - very long - on Shaw's witty dialogue. It looks fabulous nonetheless, with youngsters such as Jack Cardiff and Freddie Young behind the camera, and the supporting cast is exemplary, with Stewart Granger, Flora Robson, Ernest Thesiger, Michael Rennie, Leo Genn, Stanley Holloway, Jean Simmons, and even an 18-year-old Roger Moore populating the scenery.

6:15 AM Sundance
Shakespeare Behind Bars (2005 USA): Can the transformative power of art work its healing magic behind bars? That's the question posed by this fascinating documentary about a troupe of Kentucky inmates who have their own Shakespearean company and put on an annual production at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex. You've never seen The Tempest quite like this before.

7:05 AM Encore
Howard the Duck (1986 USA): Is it REALLY that bad? To be honest, I have no memories of the last (and only previous) time I've seen this much reviled, George Lucas produced box-office bomb. Won't you join me in rediscovering its dubious pleasures? Also airs at 10:05 AM.

Monday 01/15/07

5:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Swing! (1938 USA): A wonderful if crude ‘race picture' from director Oscar Micheaux, Swing! may be lacking in the story department, but more than makes up for things in the all singing, all dancing department. The story revolves around producer Ted Gregory (Carman Newsome), who's trying to become the first African-American to produce a Broadway show. Things seem to be going his way, until fractious lead actress Eloise (Hazel Diaz) breaks her leg after going on a bender, setting the production back on its heels. Will Ted have to cancel the show - or will a suitable understudy show up in the nick of time? You don't need me to give away the ending, but you'll want to watch anyway to get a glimpse of the hoofing Tyler Twins.


     


 
 

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