Box Office Prophets: TiVoPlex

TiVoPlex

By John Seal

August 12-18, 2003

Takeshi Mike's re-make of Entrapment.

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

Tuesday 08/12/03

2:15 am Sundance
Seventh Street (2003 USA): Director Josh Pais grew up in the tough East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, a part of town that was once charitably considered colorful, but is now in the midst of gentrification. Pais’ film is a journey home for the filmmaker, and his discoveries aren’t particularly surprising: the East Village may be a lot safer than it once was, but like its uptown sibling Times Square, has lost a lot of the character that made it so special in the first place. If you miss the peep shows, punks, and junkies, too, this film may be salve for your wounded soul. Also airs 8/16 at 3pm and 8/17 at 2am.

5:00 am Turner Classic Movies
Torrent (1926 USA): Amidst a TCM day devoted to the American films of Greta Garbo comes this rarity, her first English-language feature. The story revolves around a Spanish peasant (Garbo) whose love for landowner Ricardo Cortez, cannot, of course, be requited. Garbo, taken to Paris by her father (Edward Connelly), becomes a singing star and eventually returns to her native land, only to fail in her efforts to convince her true love to go against the wishes of his family and marry her. Garbo is, of course, terrific, though the plot is a typically ornate example of ‘20s romanticism. Adapted for the screen by Dorothy Farnum (soon to work with King Vidor on the lamentably lost Bardelys the Magnificent), Torrent also features familiar faces like Lucien Littlefield, Tully Marshall, and Mack Swain. Interesting side-note: future star Joel McCrea was a stuntman on this film. Garbo fans should also note that another rarity, 1929’s The Single Standard co-starring Nils Asther and Johnny Mack Brown, airs at 11:15am.

Wednesday 08/13/03

1:00 am Turner Classic Movies
1:00 am Fox Movies
Anna Karenina (1935 USA) and Anna Karenina (1948 GB): In what can only be described as chilling proof of the theory of synchronicity, TCM is airing Clarence Brown’s lush MGM version of Tolstoy’s novel at exactly the same time Fox Movies is airing the British adaptation made a decade later. I’m not much of a fan of frock flicks, but this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to channel surf between the two versions, so you’d be advised to keep your finger poised on the remote tonight. The 1935 version stars Garbo as the tragic Karenina and features the usual MGM galaxy of stars in support, including that little brat Freddie Bartholomew, Fredric March, Basil Rathbone, and Maureen O’Sullivan, whilst the British film stars Vivian Leigh in the title role, with Ralph Richardson, Niall MacGinnis, and Michael “Alfred the Butler” Gough in supporting roles. If I had to pick one, I’d pick the latter (if only to avoid Bartholomew), but this really isn’t my area of expertise. Did you know IMDb lists an additional 24 film and television versions of this story? Perhaps an Anna Karenina film festival is in order.

Thursday 08/14/03

9:20 am Encore Mystery
Character (1997 HOL): I keep getting this film confused with Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration (1998 DEN). This is a Dutch film, however, and fairly far afield from the Dogme dogma of Vinterberg’s superb character study. Character details the struggles of a young lawyer whose father, in a bizarre attempt to test his child’s fortitude, does his best to keep his offspring impoverished and unable to make a living. Superbly shot in Rotterdam, as well as in additional locations throughout the Low Countries and Germany, Character is the best Dutch film since 1988’s The Vanishing. Also airs at 7pm.

3:00 pm Fox Movies
Secret World (1969 FRA): It’s a fairly quiet week in the TiVoPlex, so I’ll lower my generally lofty and pretentious standards and put in a word for this oddity. Directed by Beatles photographer Robert Freeman, Secret World looks great. Freeman knows how to frame a shot, consistently posing his actors in complimentary settings. Unfortunately, the story is so wispy that it almost disappears. Jacqueline Bisset plays a young Englishwoman hired by a French patrician to care for his son, a mournful sort who potters around in a holey old brown pullover for the entire film as he falls in love with the new “older woman” in his life. She's trying to maintain a relationship with a dashing young Frenchman with a sexy sports car. There's not much more to it than that, so enjoy the visuals and Bisset, who probably never looked better! Also airs 8/15 at 5am.

Friday 08/15/03

1:00 am Turner Classic Movies
Skyjacked (1972 USA): In the mood for a good old-fashioned disaster movie? Here’s one, and it’s being aired wide-screen to boot, so you’ll get a nice full view of the airplane’s cabin space, which you may feel free to move about in once the captain has turned off the no-smoking sign. Remember the good old days when your hijackers wanted nothing more than to fly to Cuba, and you could smoke on the flight? Nobody wanted to crash into buildings then. Yes, 1972 was truly a time of innocence, when shell-shocked Vietnam vets were the big threat to the nation’s social fabric. In Skyjacked, that archetypal role is filled by handsome scenery-chewer James Brolin, up against a star-studded flight full of victims, including Charlton Heston as the plane’s captain (if only he’d had a gun!), Yvette Mimieux, Walter Pidgeon, and good ol’ Rosey Grier, here seen channeling the spirit of his short-lived musical career. Directed by action specialist John Guillermin, this isn’t the worst entry in the genre, but it’s pretty weak tea nonetheless. Still and all, letterboxed is letterboxed, so set aside your critical faculties and settle in for a two-hour flight to cinema stupidity!

1:45 am Black Starz!
Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla (1952 USA): How this artistic blight ended up on Black Starz!, I’m not quite sure. But, like a plague of locusts, one has to adapt to reality, and the reality here is simple: this is one of Bela Lugosi’s worst films, but it’s rare enough to warrant our attention. Directed by the infamous William “One-Shot” Beaudine, this film is actually a showcase for the dubious comic talents of Sammy Petrillo and Duke Mitchell, a rather pathetic knock-off of the famous Martin-Lewis comedy team of the period. Mitchell sings badly and merely apes Martin’s on-screen languor, but Petrillo is a sight to behold, as he bears an uncanny physical resemblance to Lewis as well as verbally carrying on at the highest pitch possible. The dynamic duo play a pair of night-club entertainers (cleverly named, ahem, Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo) who end up on a remote island with a mad scientist, played by guess who, still sadly in the throes of his drug addiction. There’s a man in a gorilla suit, a bunch of white guys in “native” get-up, and some mind-numbing romantic moments between Mitchell and leading lady Charlita. It’s a positively dreadful film - it makes the similarly themed Zombies On Broadway (1946 USA) look like a classic - but there’s plenty of red meat here for fans of really bad cinema.

11:00 am Fox Movies
Pinky (1949 USA): One of the first Hollywood films to directly confront racial prejudice, Pinky stars Jeanne Crain as a light-skinned African American trying to pass in a white world. Directed by social-problem specialist Elia Kazan, this film was co-written by Philip Dunne and Dudley Nichols, neither of whom were known for politically conscious writing, though Nichols was an Academy Award-winner for 1935’s IRA drama The Informer. It’s an extremely moving film, memorable for the relationship established between Crain and Ethel Waters, playing the grandmother who raises Pinky and then becomes an uncomfortable memory for her. The film also features the best role Nina Mae McKinney ever had - a great shame, and a tribute to a long career that should have been but never was - and the film was beautifully shot by Joseph MacDonald. Over 50 years later, Pinky is still a powerful emotional ride for the audience, and confronts an issue still nettlesome within both the African-American community and American society in general. Also airs 8/16 at 1am.

8:00 pm Sundance
Dead or Alive: Final (2001 JAP): I know next to nothing about this Japanese bleak-future film, but it’s apparently the third film in a trilogy by bad-boy auteur Takashi Miike, best known in the United States for his infamous Ichi the Killer (2001) (which I haven’t seen) and the creepy but ultimately unsatisfying Audition (2000) (which I have). Riki Takeuchi stars as a police officer in pursuit of a corrupt politician (Sho Aikawa). This being a Miike film, there’ll be much more to it than that brief précis implies, but you’ll have to watch it for all the gory details. Also airs 8/16 at 9:45pm.

Saturday 08/16/03

2:30 am Black Starz!
The Last Dragon (1987 USA): This week’s schedule seems to feature an overabundance of camp classics. Here’s Motown mastermind Berry Gordy’s ill-advised martial arts epic, a bizarre concoction of flying fists, music, and romance that could only have been brought to the screen by a directorial hack like Michael Schultz, whom I still cannot forgive for the travesty that was and is Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (1978 USA). If you enjoy camp, if you like action movies, or if you’re simply a Vanity fan trying to relive the “big-hair ‘80s”, you’ll get your kicks here. If you’re like me, however, this film is all about the supporting cast, in this case personified by the amazing performance of Julius Carry as bad guy Sho’ Nuff, whose beyond over-the-top emoting raises the roof every time he’s on-screen. Why Carry hasn’t had more work is beyond me; the guy can play a villain with the best of them. You simply have to see this film, if only to witness Carry’s brain-bursting, vein-popping turn. He’s that good. Side-note: Black Starz! seems to be running a Michael Schultz film festival this month, as his earlier The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh airs 8/17 at 7am. That’s for informational purposes only, and shouldn’t be considered an endorsement.

Sunday 8/17/03

1:10 am Encore Westerns
The Iron Horse (1924 USA): One of the earliest extant Old West epics, The Iron Horse is John Ford’s memorable retelling of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Matinee idol George Brent is the handsome hero, Madge Bellamy is his ringleted sweetheart, and Fred Kohler and Peter Chadwick are the wicked villains. It’s a standard-issue oater writ very large, with some terrific railroad scenes, a game and attractive cast, and Ford’s terrific eye for action sequences and landscape shots.

9:00 am Fox Movies
Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1974 USA): Nothing special here, simply a rare wide-screen airing of an enjoyable if minor entry in Cliff Robertson’s filmography. He plays a 1920s stunt flyer touring the state of Kansas with his son, showcasing the aeronautical talents he honed during World War I. The story is by a youngish Steven Spielberg, whose always had an interest in airborne themes (Always, 1941) and whose penchant for heartwarming family drama is on full display here. A terrific supporting cast, including Alice Ghostley, Bernadette Peters, and Royal Dano, add to the film’s luster, and it’s a solid pick for families in search of a film to watch together. A pan-and-scan print airs at 11pm.

Monday 8/18/03

5:00 pm Encore Mystery
The Woman in the Window (1944 USA): Perhaps Fritz Lang’s best American film (though the same year’s Ministry of Fear is also in the hunt), Woman in the Window is a noir classic. Edward G. Robinson stars as a meek University professor whose fascination with a woman’s portrait leads to his unwitting involvement in the murder of her boyfriend. Blackmailed into assisting with the body’s disposal, Robinson is, of course, unable to avoid the vigilant efforts of the police, who inexorably move closer to learning the truth. Joan Bennett costars as the deadly dame, and Nunnally Johnson’s taut screenplay will keep you on the edge of your seat and rooting for sad-sack Robinson as he gets pulled deeper and deeper into a pit of despair not entirely of his own making.

8:35 pm Showtime Extreme
Tragic Hero (1987 HK): Normally I wouldn’t offer a second recommendation for this sort of film. Though it’s admittedly a rarity (certainly within the context of American television broadcasting), it’s by no means a great film, and doesn’t break any new ground in the well-established Hong Kong gangster genre. The action sequences are, unsurprisingly, excellent and well-choreographed, but the story is unoriginal and only enlivened by the presence of Chow-Yun Fat in a supporting role. But here’s the rub: Showtime is, against all the odds, airing this in wide-screen AND with subtitles. That’s enough to make this one a noteworthy footnote in this week’s TiVoPlex.