Box Office Prophets: TiVoPlex

TiVoPlex

By John Seal

February 24-30, 2003

You should grow a few inches before looking down her shirt

From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated-they all have a home in the Tivoplex! All times PST.

Saturday March 1st and Sunday March 2nd will be covered in a special edition of Tivoplex later in the week.

Monday 02/24/03

1:30 AM Black Starz
The Liberation of L. B. Jones(1970 USA): An atypical conclusion to director William Wyler's career, The Liberation of L. B. Jones is an interesting if flawed look at racism in a small southern town circa 1970. The title character is played with typical aplomb by Roscoe Lee Browne, a classically trained actor, university professor, and record-setting track athlete. How's that for a curriculum vitae? Adapted for the screen by the reliable Sterling Silliphant (The Lineup, In the Heat of the Night, the film details the efforts of undertaker L.B. Jones to divorce his cheating wife (Lola Falana) who's engaging in an affair with the local redneck policeman, played to the hilt by Anthony Zerbe, who can't afford to let HIS wife know that he's sleeping around. Lee J. Cobb is also on hand as the district attorney, and there are small roles for Lee Majors, Barbara Hershey, Yaphet Kotto, Fayard Nicholas, Dub Taylor, and Chill Wills. With cinematography by Tivoplex fave Robert Surtees, a score by Elmer Bernstein, and a downbeat and realistic ending, this is well worth a look. Also airs 2/27 at 8:35 PM.

2:45 AM Sundance
Loves Of A Blonde(1965 CZE): If you enjoyed Milos Forman's Fireman's Ball, recommended in this column a few months back, you'll want to see Loves of A Blonde, his earlier film about love and family in (relatively) liberal pre-Dubcek Prague. The titular blonde is a young woman (Hana Brejchova) who sleeps with a traveling musician (Vladimir Pucholt)-and follows him back to his digs in Prague, much to the distress of both the muso and his parents. It's a slight story, well told and well filmed in black and white by Miroslav Ondricek, last seen behind the camera of Drew Barrymore's Riding In Cars With Boys(2001 USA).

6:10 AM Cinemax
A Rage In Harlem(1991 USA): Bill Dukes is one of many underutilized African-American talents working on the fringes of Hollywood. I recently recommended his drug war drama Deep Cover, but this is the best of his infrequent films, an adaptation of one of Chester Himes many New York-set crime novels. Himes relocated to Paris in the 1960s, and his distance from his source material frequently lent an air of obtuse obsolescence to his story telling, but John Toles-Bey's screen adaptation places this one firmly in the 1950s and avoids Himes awkward literary attempts to recreate a city with which he was no longer on intimate terms. If you have an aversion to Robin Givens, take solace in the presence of the always excellent Forest Whitaker and Danny Glover, as well as Gregory Hines. Also airs at 9:10 AM.

8:45 PM Starz
Memento(2000 USA): Even casual film fans know all about this film, a little gem of intrigue with a great gimmick and a terrific script. It's featuring in Tivoplex this week because Starz is kindly airing a widescreen print. There's really no way to fully appreciate the intricacies and details of this film when it's pan and scanned, so if you haven't already ponied up for the DVD, this is the next best way to see director Christopher Nolan's sophomore effort. Also airs at 11:45 PM.

Tuesday 02/25/03

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Black Cat(1934 USA): I suggested this title last month based on one viewing ten or more years ago, and then promptly forget to record it myself. So in the unlikely event that my loyal readers also missed it, I'm pleased to report that TCM is re-broadcasting it on this date. The film that broke the British censors' back and contributed to that country's horror ban of the '30s and '40s, this was also Universal's last big effort before settling into the sequel routine with Frankenstein and Dracula. Starring an against type Bela Lugosi as good-guy Vitus Werdegast and a fiendish Boris Karloff as malevolent Hjalmar Poelzig (what a great pair of names!), The Black Cat features scenes of torture and sadism that overstepped the acceptable boundaries of mid 1930s taste. With the British market off-limits, Universal clamped down on their horror films and never produced another one as powerful or disturbing as this. And this time I'm not going to miss it, dammit!

9:00 PM More Max
Beijing Bicycle(2001 CHI): Chinese film seems to be breaking out of the frock flick straitjacket, and here's another good example of the mainland's recent trend toward more realistic and contemporary fare. The tale of one bicycle and the two young men who trade ownership of it, Beijing Bicycle doesn't pull its punches and doesn't try to sweep the violence and class divisions of modern day China under the rug. Much as I enjoy and appreciate the languid historicism of films like Raise the Red Lantern, Not One Less, and Farewell My Concubine, it's refreshing to see Chinese filmmakers take the gloves at least half way off. Also airs 2/28 on Cinemax at 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM.

Wednesday 02/26/03

5:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Mask of Dimitrios(1944 USA): This film is a knock off of 1941's The Maltese Falcon, with the eponymous mask taking the place of the famed bird. Warners even went to the trouble of reuniting Falcon cast members Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre (whose respective characters in each film, Cairo and Leyden, are both names of port cities). Based on an Eric Ambler novel, this is an enjoyable but ridiculous caper film, with the characters traveling across a back-lot Europe in pursuit of the legacy of the sinister Dimitrios Makropoulos, a criminal mastermind played to slimy perfection by Zachary Scott.

7:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Laugh Clown Laugh(1928 USA): This is the sort of film that really gets my spidey-senses tingling. Well, those are actually my obsessive-compulsive senses, prompting me to watch every creaky old obscurity that I can. But THIS one is truly special, a Lon Chaney-MGM silent that never gets aired, isn't on video or DVD, and hasn't shown up at my local repertory house anytime in the last few decades. Based on a play by the prolific Bishop of Broadway, David Belasco, the film also features a fifteen-year old Loretta Young and was filmed by James Wong Howe. According to Michael F. Blake's definitive Chaney book A Thousand Faces, Laugh Clown Laugh bears thematic similarities to Lon Sr.'s circus tragedyHe Who Gets Slapped, but is unfortunately missing a reel. We can hope that this missing reel has surfaced since the publication of Blake's volume in 1995, but even if the footage remains absent, this is the movie event of the week. Laugh Clown Laugh was a huge popular success, becoming MGM's second biggest Chaney hit, grossing $1,102,000 worldwide. That was a lot of lettuce in 1928, bub.

Thursday 02/27/03

9:00 AM HBO East
The Rocketeer(1991 USA): I know this is a big budget Disney film, but it was a flop at the box office, and the film's referential (and reverential) nods to old serials really appeal to me, so here it is. Bill Campbell (currently seen recreating Pickett's Charge in Ted Turner's Gods and Generals) plays the granite-jawed hero, and while the part would have been better in Brendan Fraser's hands, he's fine. It's the supporting cast that really shines, including Alan Arkin as Campbell's scientific mentor, Timothy Dalton as Errol Flynn clone Neville Sinclair, Paul Sorvino as a gangster, Ed Lauter as a dimwitted FBI agent, and the ethereal Jennifer Connelly as our hero's main squeeze. Coen Brothers regular Jon Polito also has a small role as a sleazy airfield owner, and there's a great Rondo Hatton impression by Tiny Ron Taylor. The story is basically a remake of Lost Planet Airmen(1949 USA), with spies and other bad guys out to obtain an incredible rocket pack that can transport a man through the air with amazing speed. The more old movies you've seen, the more you'll enjoy this guilty pleasure directed by Joe Johnston, also responsible for the excellent October Sky(1999 USA), and Jumanji, of which the less said the better. Also airs at noon.

8:00 PM HBO 2
Nico and Dani(2000 ESP): I don't know much about this Spanish coming of age drama, but it won a number of awards at film festivals around the world, including the Special Award of the Youth at Cannes and Best Director (for Cesc Gay) at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival. It probably won't show up on the schedule again (certainly not on HBO) so for those who favour European film, this will be probably be your only chance to see Nico and Dani, especially if your local video emporium is Blockbuster.

Friday 02/28/03

3:20 AM Encore Mystery
Scream of Fear(1961 GB): This is a fine psychological horror piece from Hammer with enough creepy moments to keep my eight year old covering his eyes for much of the film-even though it really doesn't show much in the way of blood and guts. Susan Strasberg stars as Penny Appleby, a young woman injured in an accident and wheelchair bound as a result, who travels to the south coast of France to be reunited with her father. Unfortunately, Daddy isn't home when she arrives, and she begins to suspect foul play-especially when she finds his body ensconced in various places, including the Appleby's summer house. Ann Todd is excellent as Strasberg's sympathetic but suspicious stepmother, Christopher Lee affects a ridiculous French accent as the local doctor who thinks the girl is imagining things, and the affable Ronald Lewis plays the family chauffeur, Bob, who's the only one willing to give credence to the young lady's tales of a familial corpse in the gazebo. Douglas Slocombe's black and white photography is excellent (Slocombe went on to lense all three Indiana Jones films) and the corpse is played to creepy perfection by Fred Johnson, whose grim visage was also memorably seen in 1960's City of the Dead. Jimmy Sangster's screenplay has a decent twist in its tail and there's a good jazzy score by Clifton Parker.

8:30 PM Encore Westerns
100 Rifles(1969 USA): This is an action packed western that wouldn't have been possible without the confluence of the Vietnam War with the rise of the euro-western. Directors like Leone, Solima, and Damiani introduced a left-wing perspective usually absent from American westerns and this tale of the Yaqui indians (Viet Cong) versus the well-armed and well-entrenched Mexicans (United States) reflects those views. Sex symbols Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch, and Jim Brown star.