Box Office Prophets: TiVoPlex

TiVoPlex

By John Seal

July 8-14, 2003

Exercise is great but exercise your Choppers too

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

Tuesday 07/08/03

5:30am Fox Movie Channel
Mr. Moto In Danger Island (1937 USA): We can only hope that this film doesn't fall afoul of the morality police who recently shut down Fox's Charlie Chan film festival. Yes, the Chan films traded in Asian stereotypes. And yes, they employed white actors (Warner Oland and Sidney Toler) to play the great detective. But they also introduced American audiences to native-born Asian-American thespians such as Keye Luke, Victor Sen Yung, and Benson Fong at a time when Asians were otherwise only seen as conniving or subservient outsiders, white slavers, or tong overlords. The Chan films also featured the great African-American comedian, Mantan Moreland, in the role as Chan's chauffeur and confidante, Birmingham. Birmingham was prominently featured and frequently aided Chan in his investigations, another apparent sore point for the censors. If one is willing to acknowledge the racism inherent in the Chan films - and in almost any film featuring non-white actors of the period - then one should also be astonished at a series of films that featured white, Asian, and African-American characters working together to solve crimes. Frankly, I think it's time to recognize the Chan films as the first tiny glimmerings of the multicultural American society we all take for granted today. Having pounded my podium, this entry in the Mr. Moto series is an average one, again starring Peter Lorre as the Japanese detective, this time on the trail of diamond smugglers in Puerto Rico. For those who really get their knickers in a twist about racial stereotyping in film, this should be high on your must-see (or must-avoid) list, as it features Jewish actor Leon Ames as a Puerto Rican policeman and simpering Willie Best as a launch pilot. It rarely shows up on TV, and with the latest furor, this may be the last opportunity in a while to see it.

5:30pm Turner Classic Movies
Modern Times (1936 USA): I'm not the world's biggest Chaplin fan, but between this and The Great Dictator (1940 USA), his post-Little Tramp legacy is safe. An assault on the machine age - and, indeed, against capitalism itself - Chaplin's film is equal parts farce and political commentary. Co-starring amour Paulette Goddard and silent comic Chester Conklin, Modern Times is best remembered for its hilarious assembly line scene, but is replete with other equally worthy moments, including Chaplin's prescient chase scene, where he is mistaken for a Communist by the local Pinkertons. TCM is also airing the interminable Limelight (1952 USA) at 7:30pm, the marvelous (though somewhat over-familiar) Gold Rush (1925 USA) at 11pm, and the aforementioned Great Dictator at 1am on 7/9.

7pm Sundance
Chopper (2000 AUS): Future Jolly Green Hulk star Eric Bana burst onto the festival scene with this controversial Australian paean to a very, very bad man. Based on the autobiography of Mark Brandon Read, this is a Tarantino-esque exercise in violence and four-letter words. Not for all tastes by any means, but fans of crime and action films will undoubtedly want to see what the clean-cut Eric Bana was up to in the years before he became Bruce Bana. Also airs 7/12 at 9pm.

11:45pm The Movie Channel
Legacy of Blood (1971 USA): This extremely obscure horror film stars the always-busy John Carradine as a dying patriarch whose will challenges his potential heirs to stay a night in the old family mansion, or lose their inheritance. Carradine, naturally, isn't around for long, and it's up to Merry Anders, Faith Domergue (Cult of the Cobra), Richard Davalos, and Brooke Adams to survive through the wee hours and claim the old man's money. In all honesty, this is a terrible film with a premise already done to death 50 years earlier, but it's rare enough to merit inclusion in TiVoPlex. Also airs 7/9 at 2:45am.

Wednesday 07/09/03

10:15am Flix
The Entertainer (1960 GB): Laurence Olivier stars as Archie Rice, a washed-up vaudevillian who refuses to recognize his own obsolescence, in this searing film adaptation of John Osborne's play of the same name. The Boys From Brazil notwithstanding, Olivier rarely got to play the bad guy on-screen, but is superb as the bitter and abusive comedian whose career is just about up. Olivier's future real-life wife, Joan Plowright, plays Mrs. Rice, and the cast rounds out superbly with Alan Bates, Albert Finney, Daniel Massey, and Thora Hird. Directed by Tony Richardson and written by Nigel Kneale (the creator of Professor Quatermass), this is a brilliant though painful kitchen-sink drama. Also airs at 5pm and on 7/12 at 1:05pm.

10:30am Turner Classic Movies
Dark Hazard (1934 USA): An excellent and overlooked crime drama, Dark Hazard stars Edward G. Robinson as a compulsive gambler struggling to control his addiction. The film co-stars brassy Glenda Farrell as the woman leading him astray and has a small role for future Charlie Chan Sidney Toler. Well-directed by the reliable Alfred E. Green (Baby Face, The Jackie Robinson Story), this is a forgotten Warner's film that deserves the attention of all Golden Age fans.

7pm Sundance
Japon (2002 MEX-ESP-GER-HOL) : I haven't seen this made-in-Mexico film about a man planning his suicide, and what I've read about it makes it sound like a lot of navel-gazing goes on, but I'm certainly not immune to the charms of wrinkled-brow cinema, so here it is. The unheard of Alejandro Ferretis stars as an unhappy chappie who relocates to a remote region of the country to plot his demise, only to fall under the influence of an old woman (Magdalena Flores, another amateur actor) whose calming influence begins to change the man's outlook on life. I'm not sure if this is the 143-minute director's cut or the 122-minute festival cut, but this should be avoided by adherents to the Short Attention-Span Theater school of cinemagoers.

Thursday 07/10/03

5am Turner Classic Movies
5:15am Black Starz
Struggles in Steel: The Fight for Equal Opportunity (1996 USA): This small-scale documentary looks at one very small aspect of the post-World War II civil rights struggle. The story of the effort to integrate the steel mills of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this brief but excellent film mixes archival footage with interviews with former steelworkers. Also airs at 5pm and 7/13 at 2:50am and 11:45am.

8:45pm Showtime 3
Short Eyes (1977 USA): This brutal prison drama stars Bruce Davison (yes, Senator Kelly himself) as a man charged with child molestation and jailed with some decidedly unsympathetic inmates. Based on a play by former Sing Sing inmate Miguel Piñero - himself the subject of a recent Benjamin Bratt-starring biopic - Short Eyes was filmed on location in the infamous Tombs, a 19th-century New York prison still in use today. The interesting supporting cast includes the debut of 20-year-old Luis Guzman (he doesn't speak, but his faux 'fro is repeatedly on display), Tex-Mex musician Freddy Fender (who sings), and singer-songwriter Curtis Mayfield (ditto). It's a great film, but not easy viewing.

Friday 07/11/03

12:30am The Movie Channel
The Shout (1978 GB): Jerzy Skolimowski's disquieting tale of a wandering minstrel (Alan Bates) who insinuates himself into the lives of a Devon couple (John Hurt and Susannah York) plays like a cross between The Wicker Man (1973 GB) and The Last Wave (1977 AUS). If you liked either of those slightly askew pseudo-mythological epics, you'll enjoy this story of a man whose singing voice can kill (and his name isn't Justin Timberlake). Co-starring Tim Curry and Jim Broadbent, The Shout also features music by Genesis members Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford. Why didn't they just ask Phil Collins to provide the singing voice? Also airs at 3:30am.

6:20am The Movie Channel
The Bed-Sitting Room (1969 GB): This Richard Lester-lensed post-nuclear apocalypse anti-epic stars Ralph Richardson as a man turning into a bed-sitting room due to exposure to radiation poisoning. It sounds like screenwriter, playwright, and former Goon Spike Milligan may have been exposed to some slightly less deadly substances while he was cooking this silliness up. With a veritable who's who of British comedians on hand - including Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Arthur Lowe, Michael Hordern, Roy Kinnear, Harry Secombe, and Milligan himself - this film may not make you laugh out loud, but you will be chuckling under your breath a lot. Watch for stuffy Frank Thornton (Are You Being Served's Captain Peacock) as the BBC. All of it.

Saturday 07/12/03

11am HBO Signature
The Road Home (1999 CHI): Fans of Chinese cinema will definitely want to make time for Zhang Yimou's drama about a young man from the city who returns home to the country to bury his father. As he goes about the task - which is complicated by his mother's request for a traditional burial parade - he flashes back on the lives of his parents. It all plays a bit like an Asian Last Orders (2001 GB), and is a worthy addition to Yimou's impressive filmography, which also includes Ju Dou (1990), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), and Not One Less (1997). Beautifully photographed by cinematographer Hou Yong, who worked with Yimou on Not One Less and the more recent Happy Times (2000), this film won the Audience Award at the 2001 Sundance Festival.

Sunday 07/13/03

3:50am 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 inappropriate 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 shoot 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.

5am Encore Action
The Sniper (1952 USA): Living in the Bay Area, you tend to see a lot of familiar landmarks in Hollywood movies, especially in the post-World War II era, when location shoots became the order of the day. Here's an excellent early example of the shot-in-San Francisco film, a movie about a mentally-scarred veteran (Arthur Franz) who relives his wartime trauma by indiscriminately shooting the locals in between making laundry deliveries as part of his daytime job. Bad girl Marie Windsor plays against type as a woman who tries to get to know the introverted Franz but the real star is the city of San Francisco, not yet burdened with the ugly downtown developments of the 1960s and 70s.

Monday 07/14/03

7:05am Showtime
Pussycat Pussycat I Love You (1970 USA): Pardon me for drooling, but regular readers of this column know I have a predilection for obscure late '60s movies. Well, I have a predilection for ANY obscure movie, but when it comes to the cinematic bum fluff of that golden era, I get really excited. Here's the forgotten sequel to Woody Allen's What's New Pussycat?, directed by the recently deceased Rod Amateau. My expectations are low, but hope springs eternal, especially considering the good cast on hand (Ian McShane, Severn Darden, and John Gavin), location footage in Rome, and some names beloved to fans of Eurotrash movies at the bottom of the cast list, including Richard Harrison, Paul Muller, and future porn star Karin Schubert. Also airs at 10:05am.

10:30am Turner Classic Movies
Gallant Sons (1940 USA): There's an intriguing block of MGM B crime dramas on this morning's TCM schedule, leading off with this effort starring Jackie Cooper as a teenager trying to prove his father is innocent of a murder for which he has been imprisoned. A solid supporting cast, including Bonita Granville, Gene Reynolds, Leo Gorcey, and the inimitable El Brendel, round out this decent minor effort. It's followed at noon by 1941's The Get-Away, a prison break movie starring Dan Dailey as a beyond-rehabilitation bad guy and a young Donna Reed as his more-than-patient sister. The Penalty, also from 1941, airs at 1:30pm, and is probably the best of the set, featuring Gene Reynolds, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold, and Phil Silvers in a story about a young man (Reynolds) sent to a reform school. The block concludes with Unholy Partners (1941 again), a Mervyn LeRoy-directed account of a newspaperman (Edward G. Robinson) whose business partner (Edward Arnold) is a gambler desperate to influence the paper in his favor.

9:45pm Starz
Rain (2001 NZ): This week's speculative pick is a New Zealand film about a family vacation gone badly wrong. Starring amateur Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki as a girl whose parents (Marton Csokas and Heavenly Creatures Sarah Peirse) spend their beach house holiday drinking and sleeping around, Rain will surely benefit from terrific location photography and a soundtrack by Split Enz and Crowded House singer-songwriter Neil Finn.