Box Office Prophets: TiVoPlex

TiVoPlex

By John Seal

September 23-29, 2003

Nice hats!

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

Tuesday 09/23/03

5:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Unknown Man (1951 USA): This solid if slightly undercooked pseudo-noir stars Walter Pidgeon as a pro bono lawyer who gets a bad guy (Gong Show punchline Keefe Braselle) off the hook, then goes after the syndicate once he learns he made a mistake defending the hood. It’s a typical MGM "crime doesn’t pay" film of the period, never less than professionally executed, but lacking the grit of other studios’ noirs. The supporting cast is a good one, and includes Barry Sullivan, Lewis Stone, young starlet Dawn Addams, and Mari Blanchard. There are some familiar faces in the uncredited cast, too, including Dabbs Greer and Public Enemy grapefruit victim Mae Clarke.

10:20 PM Black Starz
Arrangement (1999 USA): I haven’t seen this romantic comedy yet, but it’s a too rare example of African-American indie feature filmmaking, so it deserves a mention. The freshman effort of writer-director H.H. Cooper, who has worked on a number of Spike Lee joints in addition to serving as first assistant director on the humorous Undercover Brother (2002 USA), Arrangement stars television’s Keith Davis as a philandering young man who is startled when his fiancée decides it’s okay for her to see other people, too. The influence of Spike runs through this film, from the screenplay’s sexual politics to the crew (many of whom apprenticed with Lee), to the special thanks extended in the closing credits to cousin-of-Spike and Undercover Brother director Michael Lee.

Wednesday 09/24/03

2:45 AM Sundance
Investigation of a Flame (2001 USA): The story of the Catonsville Nine, a group of peace activists who took direct action to try to impede the progress of the Vietnam War, is told in this short subject documentary. The Nine, who included the priest brothers Philip and Daniel Berrigan, seized Maryland draft board records in May 1968 and proceeded to burn them. The resultant trial ended with convictions and jail sentences, at which time Philip Berrigan wrote this eloquent statement: "Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house...The time is past when good men can remain silent, when obedience can segregate men from public risk, when the poor can die without defense." Daniel Berrigan turned his experiences into a play, which was then adapted for the big screen and filmed in 1972 as The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, now a forgotten film in need of rediscovery.

5:00 AM Fox Movies
Fourteen Hours (1951 USA): This unique Fox production takes a half hour television premise (man on ledge threatens to jump to his death) and pads it out to feature length. Luckily, the film is superbly cast and well directed by the reliable Henry Hathaway, and is worth a look from ‘50s film fans and insomniacs alike. Richard Basehart is the man on the spot, but as usual, it’s Paul Douglas who is the highlight of the film, essaying another of his trusted authority figure roles as the policeman responsible for talking Basehart down. Also on hand are Howard Da Silva as a police inspector, snide Robert Keith and snotty Agnes Moorehead as relatives drafted to assist the police in convincing Basehart not to jump, a young Grace Kelly, and, as a policeman, method actor Jeff Corey.

6:00 PM Sundance
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974 BRD): One of my favorite Fassbinder flicks, this is the story of a North African immigrant (El Hedi ben Salem, who committed suicide in 1982 whilst imprisoned in France) who meets a stodgy, middle-aged German woman (veteran actress Brigitte Mira). The couple fall in love and decide to marry, but the path of interracial love is strewn with difficulties, especially in a post-war Germany unprepared for multiculturalism. Like most Fassbinder films, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul manages to deliver a political or social message whilst avoiding ideology or preachiness. Astonishingly, the redoubtable 93-year-old Mira starred in 2003 in an unattributed German-made sequel (or remake, I’m not sure which), Angst Ist Seele Auf, playing the same character, this time opposite a black East German-born actor, Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss . Also airs 9/27 at midnight.

Thursday 09/25/03

9:30 AM Fox Movies
Scream of the Wolf (1974 USA): If you grew up watching as much television as I did, you inevitably ran across this ABC TV-Movie of the Week in one of its many rebroadcasts. It’s been a while since it’s seen the light of day, though, with this month’s broadcasts being the first in ten years or more, at least on a premium channel. Director Dan Curtis carved out his own gothic horror niche in the Minowian wastelands of 1970s boob tube culture, with this film as well as other memorable titles such as the long-running soap opera Dark Shadows, the Karen Black anthology Trilogy of Terror, and the well-received 1973 version of Dracula. This time Curtis took on the mythology of lycanthropy, casting Peter Graves as a hunter on the track of a killer wolf -- who may be -- brace yourselves -- a werewolf! There’s a plot development you didn’t expect! It’s about as tame as you would imagine, but for baby boomers and the post-baby boom generation, it’s fun to see Graves rub elbows with Clint Walker and Don Megowan whilst tackling the hirsute horrors of a lupine quadruped.

2:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Case of the Black Parrot (1941 USA): This fun Warners “B” mystery stars William Lundigan as a reporter and Eddie Foy, Jr. as his trusty camera jockey on the trail of a master criminal (Paul Cavanaugh), whose questionable activities attract the snooping eyes of the scoop hungry newspaperman. Maris Wrixon is around as the love interest and the ever busy Joseph Crehan appears as the local police inspector -- who, of course, needs Lundigan and Foy’s help to close the case for him. Minor stuff indeed, but good fun.

9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Deliverance (1972 USA): Here’s a popular hit that hardly ever gets seen on TV anymore. Even if you haven’t seen the film, you’ve heard the theme music, the ubiquitous dueling banjos motif that signifies the imminent arrival of straw-chewing hicks in overalls and droopy eared hound dawgs. The story of four big city swells (Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox) out for a canoeing trip in the bucolic backwoods of rural Georgia, Deliverance cheerfully confirms all the reliable deep South redneck stereotypes when the foursome crosses paths with the inbred local yokels. Novelist James Dickey, who adapted his own story for the screen, makes a cameo appearance as a sheriff, and the film was brilliantly shot by Vilmos Zsigmond. One caveat: the film was shot in 2.35:1 Panavision, and TCM’s listing implies a pan and scan print may be aired. That would be a surprising development and may be incorrect information, but be forewarned.

Friday 09/26/03

8:00 AM HBO 2
Once Upon a Time in America (1984 ITA-USA): Sergio Leone’s final film isn’t his best work, but HBO is airing the almost complete 227 minute version, so if you haven’t seen it, here’s your chance. Though the film is ostensibly about Jewish gangsters in early 20th century New York City, the cast is made up principally of Italian-American actors we’ve long associated with mafia or crime roles, including Robert De Niro, Frank Pesci, and Danny Aiello, in addition to top drawer character actors like James Woods, Treat Williams, and Burt Young. This is truly a stunning film to look at, magnificently photographed by the great Tonino Delli Colli, who also shot 1966’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly for Leone, and features one of Ennio Morricone’s most stirring and moving scores. It’s epic tale drags at times, and sadly HBO -- still under the illusion that its subscribers are a bunch of cinema illiterates -- are airing this pan and scan, but until this one pops up on TCM or Sundance, this is your best opportunity to see it. Also airs at 11:00 AM.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Throne of Blood (1957 JAP): Akira Kurosawa’s re-imagining of Macbeth certainly ranks amongst his greatest films, perhaps a notch below Seven Samurai (1957 JAP) and my personal favorite, High and Low (1963 JAP), but highly recommended all the same. With Kurosawa regular Toshiro Mifune cast as a Japanese warlord -- a rough equivalence of Shakespeare’s Scots nobleman -- frequent Kurosawa collaborator Nakai Asakazu behind the camera, and a plangent score by Masaru Sato, this is one of the must-see films for fans and students of international cinema.

Saturday 09/27/03

7:45 AM Showtime 3
The Swindle (1997 FRA-SUI): This deliberately-paced caper film from director Claude Chabrol is a little thin in the story department but benefits from two terrific performances by stars Isabelle Huppert (still radiant at 42) and dapper leading man Michel Serrault. Too bad the film was released in the US with such a mundane moniker, as the original French title Rien Ne Va Plus, is much more evocative of the high stakes atmosphere surrounding two all-star grifters trying to weasel their way out of a particularly tricky situation. Also airs 9/28 at 2:30 AM.

Sunday 09/28/03

6:00 PM Showtime
The Boys of 2nd Street Park (2003 USA): This Showtime original documentary sounds, on the surface, like it may cover similar ground to Josh Pais’ excellent 7th Street (also 2003). Rather than concentrate on a single man’s memories of childhood in lower Manhattan, however, this film interviews six male Brooklynites on the rites of passage in 1950s and 1960s Brighton Beach. This is the world television premiere of this Sundance Film Festival fan favorite, which went on to win a number of awards at festivals across the country. Also airs at 9:00 PM.

9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Cops (1922 USA): A batch of rare and not so rare Buster Keaton films are on tap this evening and into the following morning. First up is this one-reeler about a young man (Buster) inadvertently taken for an anarchist by the local police department, resulting in a citywide, Keystone Kops style chase, and, ironically, considerable mayhem along the way. It’s followed at 9:30 PM by The Blacksmith (1922 USA), featuring Buster as an inept smithy’s apprentice whose unskilled hands unintentionally destroy a rather nice Rolls Royce. 1923’s The Balloonatic follows at 10:00 PM and finds Buster exploring the Great Outdoors via the basket of a hot air balloon -- which, of course, he is unable to keep airborne. All three shorts are available as supplements on various Kino DVDs, but a sound feature that is yet to arrive in digital format, Doughboys, airs at 10:30 PM, and stars Buster as an unwitting World War I infantryman trying to stay alive and win the love of Sally Eilers, who plays a singer entertaining the boys at the front. Cliff Edwards, “Ukelele Ike” and “Jiminy Cricket” himself, is also featured as Buster’s trench mate. The less significant Passionate Plumber (1932 USA) airs the following morning at midnight and is followed by 1929’s Spite Marriage (Buster’s final silent feature) at 1:30 AM.

Monday 09/29/03

1:15 AM Showtime
The Shout (1978 GB): Jerzy Skolimowski’s metaphysical hymn to the powers of the human voice will not appeal to general audiences, but folks who like the films of Peter Weir will enjoy this film about a tramp (Alan Bates) who moves into a Devon farmhouse occupied by a bemused but open-minded John Hurt and a suspicious Susannah York. Bates claims his ‘shout’, a skill acquired in the Australian outback, can kill everything within range of its sound. No truth to the rumour that the same effect can be had by playing the music of Genesis, whose Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks supplied the discordant soundtrack. Whether death can result from listening to too much Phil Collins music, however, is still an open question amongst scientists, though anecdotal evidence tends to confirm the veracity of this urban legend.

5:30 AM Black Starz
Classified X (1998 FRA): Melvin Van Peebles is never short on opinions. I'd find it a lot easier to accept them if he weren't responsible for the vastly overrated Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song (forgive me if I omitted any 'a's or 's's from the title) and cinematic atrocities such as the racist, sexist, and plain awful Identity Crisis. Nonetheless, this is a fascinating and frequently dead-on documentary about Hollywood's treatment of African American filmmakers over the decades. And if you didn’t catch Van Peebles marvelous Story of A Three-Day Pass (1968 FRA) last week, hope for a rebroadcast in future months.