By John Seal
January 27 - February 2, 2003
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated - they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times PST.
Monday 01/27/03
4:05am The Movie Channel
Youngblood (1978 USA): I recommended this a few weeks back sight unseen. I can now report that it's a fine TiVoPlex pick, especially for fans of the black action genre. Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs was the box office draw, but the focus of Youngblood is actually the title character, played with reasonable conviction by What's Happening! semi-regular Bryan O'Dell. He's a not-so-street-smart kid who wants to run with the Kingsmen, a local gang headed by Hilton-Jacobs, a returned Vietnam vet. The Kingsmen spend a lot of time drinking, beating up rival gang members, and abusing each other, but that doesn't mean they don't have a social conscience: when they lose a member to smack, the hunt is on for the dope pushers peddling junk in the 'hood. The story is familiar but is helped along by a uniformly good cast. War's score is excellent, especially the title track and Galaxy, featured in a disco scene heavily reminiscent of Soooooouuullllll Train. Watch for Ron O'Neal (Superfly) in a brief cameo as a high school gym teacher. Also airs at 7:05am.
5pm Fox Movies
When Michael Calls (1972 USA): No one seems to like this made-for-TV movie, but I can remember watching it when it was first broadcast and being scared to death by it. I watched it again last year and it has held up pretty well for me, regardless of a starring role by the annoying Michael Douglas in his pre-Streets of San Francisco days. Is that phone call REALLY coming from beyond the grave? Watch and find out...but don't be alone in the room!
11:30pm Turner Classic Movies
The Naked Street (1955 USA): Another noir obscurity airing this month on TCM, The Naked Street features Anthony Quinn as a mobster out for revenge against Farley Granger, who has knocked up Quinn's sister, played by Anne Bancroft. If one can get over the bizarre concept of Quinn and Bancroft cast as siblings, this should be a worthwhile little feature shot by Floyd Crosby. TiVoPlex favorite Whit Bissell has a small role and there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-him early appearance by Lee Van Cleef.
Tuesday 01/28/03
4am Cinemax
The Bad Seed (1956 USA): A prime example of Hollywood hysteria about our out-of-control children, The Bad Seed is an absurd but highly entertaining piece of hokum. If only little Patty hadn't been indulged by that nice Mrs. Daigle, none of those murders would have happened! Well-cast, with little Patty McCormack (still active on the convention circuit) as the child of evil, Nancy Kelly as her bewildered mother, and Henry Jones as the malevolent groundskeeper whose suspicions take a tortuous turn, The Bad Seed is a faithful adaptation of the novel by William March, and was directed by the great Warners vet Mervyn LeRoy.
9:30am Fox Movies
The Lodger (1944 USA): It's no more accurate than any of the dozens of other Jack the Ripper flicks over the years, but The Lodger doesn't pretend to be more than it is, a solidly made B feature. Director John Brahm manages to achieve a suitably murky atmosphere whilst featuring arguably the finest cinematic Jack in the shape of Laird Cregar, who also worked with Brahm on the equally memorable Hangover Square the following year. Expertly shot on the Fox back-lot, this film doesn't aspire to be historically correct, like the portentously dreadful From Hell (2001 USA), instead concentrating on the mythical angles of the Ripper story. Also airs at 11:30pm.
9pm More Max
The Devil's Backbone (2001 ESP): Directed by Guillermo del Toro in between Hollywood epics Mimic and Blade II, The Devil's Backbone is much closer in content and tone to Del Toro's earlier Cronos (1993 MEX). Seamlessly meshing a ghost story with the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War and filmed to great effect on location in Spain, this is an imperfect but memorable old-fashioned spook show that deserves attention from those who enjoyed The Others. Also airs 1/31 at 2am and 5am.
Wednesday 01/29/03
3am Turner Classic Movies
Blonde Crazy (1931 USA): It seems to be blondes night on TCM, and the block kicks off with this pre-Code Roy Del Ruth comedy-drama. Jimmy Cagney and Joan Blondell are perfectly matched as a pair of con artists out-conning other criminals. If that isn't enough, there are some fine musical interludes, featuring great songs like Happy Days are Here Again and I Found a Million-Dollar Baby (in a Five-and-Ten Cent Store). Following at 4:30am is a slight Busby Berkeley vehicle for MGM, Blonde Inspiration (1941 USA), about writers at a pulp magazine. The highlight of the morning follows at 6am, with Jean Harlow's Bombshell, one of the platinum blonde's greatest comedies. She plays a cinema siren trying to upgrade her image, with predictably hilarious results.
4am More Max
Oklahoma Crude (1973 USA): I remember when this George C. Scott film came out, because the title made a great impression on my 11-year-old imagination. Alas, this is not a precursor to Scott's later Hardcore, but a story of feminism in the Oklahoma oil fields. One of the great Stanley Kramer's last films, this one is overlooked, rarely seen, and well due for a revival. With a great supporting cast, including John Mills, Jack Palance, and Faye Dunaway, Oklahoma Crude was written by Marc Norman, who went on to share an Academy Award with Tom Stoppard for Shakespeare in Love.
6:30am Starz!
Orlando (1992 GB): This is a stunningly beautiful art-house film that also introduced the magnificent Tilda Swinton to a wider audience. Based on a Virginia Woolf novel (that I haven't read), Orlando is a strange but intriguing tale of transgender time travel that also features Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth I (apparently Barry Humphries was booked that day). With themes similar to those addressed in the current The Hours, now seems to be a good time to rediscover this remarkable little film. Also airs at 9:30am.
9:30am Turner Classic Movies
The Lady from Shanghai (1948 USA): If it's remembered for nothing else, Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai will always have a place in cinema history as the film that introduced the much-copied - and much-satirized - house of mirrors shootout scene. Like many of Welles' films (The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil), this one was apparently re-edited by his big-studio masters and as a result is at times, erm, incoherent. Of most interest to Welles fans and noir buffs.
Thursday 01/30/03
1am Sundance
Silverlake Life: The View from Here (1993 USA): When I recommended the film Southern Comfort a few weeks back, I mentioned that that film was the most moving documentary I had seen since Silverlake Life. Now Sundance is airing this gut-wrenching and heart-rending look at a gay couple, both HIV positive, one with full-blown AIDS. Words can't really express the impact of this film. If you are averse to seeing someone literally die on camera, this is not the film for you, but I can't recommend it more highly. A lot has changed in the ten years since this film was made and AIDS is no longer considered an immediate death sentence in the United States. After watching this film, consider the plight of sufferers in Africa and Asia, however, who don't have access to the medications available in the West, and multiply by the tens of thousands the suffering seen in this remarkable record of life and death.
Friday 01/31/03
12:30pm Showtime 2
House of Games (1989 USA): One of David Mamet's best films is about illusion, both at the gambling table and away from it. Joe Mantegna and Lindsay Crouse are both excellent as they try to pull the wool over each other's eyes, but it's the cameo appearance by cardsharp Ricky Jay that is the highlight of the film. Also airs 2/2 at 1:15pm.
5pm IFC
Titus (1999 USA-ITA): Julie Taymor's revisionist adaptation of Shakespeares's Titus Andronicus didn't please traditionalists any more than did Richard Loncraine's Richard III (1995 GB), but it's the better film by a country mile. Anthony Hopkins took a break from his bad career choices and returned to his roots as Titus, another "pride goeth before a fall" Shakespearean character, and is ably abetted by an outstanding supporting cast, notably Alan Cumming as the wacky Saturninus and Harry Lennix as Aaron. Titus also looks great, with location photography in Italy and Croatia (as well as the magnificent Cinecitta Studios, recently on display to terrific effect in Gangs of New York) by Suspiria cinematographer Luciano Tovoli.
Saturday 02/01/03
3am Fox Movies
Harry and Tonto (1974 USA): Who can resist a movie about a crusty curmudgeon (Art Carney) taking a cross-country trip with his faithful pet (Tonto)? Sounds like About Schmidt with felines, which is good enough for me. I've never seen it, but director Paul Mazursky was also responsible for the superb Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1970 USA), so I'll be tuning in.
8:05am Sundance
Burden of Dreams (1982 USA): Les Blank's documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo (1982 BRD) is a bit like Michael Lindsay-Hogg's Let It Be. That film chronicled the breakdown of the relationship between the four Beatles, and Burden of Dreams concentrates on the similar differing personalities of director Werner Herzog, a passive/aggressive genius, and actor Klaus Kinski, an, er, overly-aggressive madman (and genius). The parallels aren't perfect, of course, because Herzog and Kinski somehow managed to work together again on 1988's Cobra Verde. Blank's film features the two spatting, arguing, and fighting, and also includes the rare test footage of Mick Jagger, before Mr. Wimpy Rocker decided that filming a movie in the middle of the Amazon and hauling a riverboat over a mountain wasn't his cup of tea. Also airs 2/2 at 2am.
Sunday 02/02/03
12:15am Sundance
Branded to Kill (1967 JAP): Seijun Suzuki's intoxicating gangster film is one of the highlights of Yakuza cinema. Visually stunning and ahead of its time, Branded to Kill was, of course, shot in wide-screen Nikkatsuscope, and is, of course, being aired in its correct aspect ratio by Sundance.
4:35am Sundance
Juliet of the Spirits (1965 ITA): I've waxed poetic about this Fellini masterpiece a few times in the past. You can revisit my ravings here, or you can simply take it on trust that you will probably never see a better-looking or more thought-provoking film than this one. Also airs at 2:35pm.
6:30am Encore Mystery
Repulsion (1965 GB): Roman Polanski's English-language debut is a disturbing tale of mental disintegration. This was also Catherine Deneuve's first English role, and she's perfectly cast as an unstable young woman trying to come to grips with a lonely and foreign existence. Filmed in stark black-and-white by Gilbert Taylor (Polanski's Macbeth, Hitchcock's Frenzy, and the first Star Wars), this is amongst the greatest psychological horror films.
10am Sundance
Day of Wrath (1943 DEN): What a day for high-quality cinema! I can't remember the last time that Carl Theodor Dreyer's film aired - heck, I'm not even sure it's EVER been on TV before - but Sundance has it throughout the month of February. I haven't seen the restored version recently issued by Criterion as part of their Dreyer box set, but with any luck, this will be that print, as the previously available VHS version was no great shakes. Dealing with themes of repression and paranoia similar to those Dreyer addressed in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928 DEN), this is a film that all serious film buffs have to see.
