From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times PDT.
Tuesday 02/03/04
1:45am Turner Classic Movies Their Own Desire (1929 USA): This creaky MGM romancer is of primary interest as one of the earliest films featuring the beautiful Norma Shearer. It’s a fairly standard divorce story, decked out in style by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, and a must-see for Shearer fans like myself. For everyone else, there’s reliable Lewis Stone as her father, Robert Montgomery as her love interest, and a screenplay by the prodigious Frances Marion, in between assignments on the silent classic The Wind (1928 USA) and Garbo’s talkie premiere, Anna Christie (1930 USA).
11:01am Fox Movie Channel Best of the Best II (1993 USA): Don’t look at me that way. I know this a crappy martial arts movie, but has ANYONE seen it in its correct aspect ratio since its original theatrical run? I thought not. Well, someone at Fox decided it was time to give it the deluxe treatment. To be honest, though, this isn’t the worst film of its type, and features a decent B cast, including Eric “I got the talent, my sis got the money” Roberts, Chris “my brother got the talent, I got nothin’” Penn, Meg Foster, Kane “Jason” Hodder, and, erm, Wayne Newton. Go on…take a peek at it through your fingers…it’s not THAT bad.
7pm Fox Movie Channel Big Trouble in Little China (1986 USA): Hey, here’s another Fox schlock classic, though in this case, I’m willing to argue that the film is actually pretty good. John Carpenter’s contribution to the Indiana Jones-spawned pulp cycle stars Kurt Russell as a freelance trucker sucked into a battle between his buddies (including Dennis Dun and Victor Wong) and wicked sorcerer James Hong. One of the first American films to reflect the influence of Hong Kong cinema, this is a marvelous and vastly entertaining film penned by the estimable W.D. Richter (Buckaroo Banzai, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), and thanks to Fox, is being aired wide-screen this evening. Considering the film was released in 1:2.35 Panavision, that’s a big deal for Carpenter fans and good news for those who just like a rip-roaring adventure story that’s suitable for the whole family.
7pm Sundance Images (1972 GB-USA): I haven’t seen this rare Robert Altman feature, but it has a sterling critical reputation and hasn’t been on television since...well, just about forever. Shot in Ireland, the film stars Susannah York (The Shout, Superman) as a woman whose mental condition deteriorates during a weekend sojourn in the country with her husband (Rene Auberjonois). It’s Altman, it’s wide-screen, it was shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, and it features an early John Williams score; cineastes, set your TiVos. Also airs 02/06 at 9:30pm.
Wednesday 02/04/04
1:45am Turner Classic Movies The Green Goddess (1930 USA): I’m a big fan of actor George Arliss, and this is probably my favorite of his films. It’s an over-the-top adventure yarn about a planeload of stiff-upper-lip Britishers (including H.B. Warner, seven years before his trip to Shangri-La in Lost Horizon) who crash-land in an obscure Eastern principality. Surprisingly, Arliss is NOT one of the passengers, but plays the local rajah, a canny trickster who manipulates and abuses his newfound subjects. Attractively shot by James Van Trees, this is a very odd but intriguing early talkie.
10:20am Black Starz! The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967 FRA): Burdened though it is by director Melvin Van Peebles’ typical editing foibles, Story of a Three-Day Pass is nonetheless his greatest film, buoyed by superb performances by handsome Harry Baird, lovely doomed starlet Nicole Berger, and the unheralded Harold Brav as Baird's apoplectic commanding officer. A romantic comedy about love, racism and the United States Army, the film will raise you up only to drop you down, but it rarely resorts to cinematic cliché and will appeal to idealist and cynic alike. Beautifully shot by Michel Kelber, the film also features an absolutely top-notch score which deserves some sort of recognition and is instantly atop my list of “soundtrack most in need of a CD (re)issue”, along with last week’s Hello-Goodbye. Strongly recommended for all.
Thursday 02/05/04
3am More Max New Adventures of Tarzan (1935 USA): Hardcore fans of the erudite apeman won’t be entirely satisfied to see that it’s the 70-minute abridgement of the original four hour-plus serial that’s airing, but the rest of us should probably be grateful. This is one of the harder Tarzan features to see, as it was produced independently by Edgar Rice Burroughs himself. Unfortunately that means an awful lot of stock footage and low production values, but it DOES feature Bruce Bennett (Herman Brix) in one of his two appearances as the titular character. Bennett, who turns 98 in May, was a shot putter in the 1928 (!) Olympics who turned his athleticism into a long and varied film career, including appearances in Treasure of the Sierra Madre in 1948 and Love Me Tender in 1956. Recently interviewed in Filmfax magazine, Bennett comes across as a swell guy, so check out his movie and send him some birthday wishes this spring!
Friday 02/06/04
9am Encore Westerns Dirty Little Billy (1972 USA): This revisionist western has been airing frequently of late on various Encore channels, but I only recently took the time to watch it again. Though far from perfect, it’s still a worthwhile (though fictional) look at the defining moments in the life of young William “Billy the Kid” Bonney, played to mumbling, Method-acting perfection by Michael J. Pollard. Written and directed by Stan Dragoti (Mr. Mom), the film appears to have been shot through a lens caked with dust and mud, as just about everything appears dirty green, brown, and/or thoroughly filthy. Of particular note are the early sequences, as the Bonney family arrive in their new Wild West home after leaving New York, and the performance of Richard Evans as Goldie, a gunfighter who takes young Billy on as his apprentice. Shot on location in New Mexico, this is surely the only film you’ll see that features a Dick Van Patten cameo as a john, and there are small but recognizable roles for Severn Darden, Nick Nolte, and Gary Busey. This was also the last film produced by Jack Warner, who surely wasn’t all that comfortable with some of the R-rated content. Also airs at 8:35am.
10:50pm Starz! Wendigo (2001 USA): One of the best horror films of the last ten years, Wendigo features current Academy Award-nominee Patricia Clarkson. It’s a brilliant character study about culture clash, mythology, and the power and strength of family. Directed, written, and edited by Larry Fessenden, also responsible for the equally fine (but very different) Habit, Wendigo is set in the snowy reaches of the Catskills, where a family of three (indie queen Clarkson, Jake Weber, and Malcolm in the Middle star Erik Per Sullivan) are taking a break from their stressful big-city lives. On their way to a friend's winter cabin they hit a deer, spoiling the fun for a group of local hunters, and things slowly (very slowly) start to spiral out of control. Whilst there are some surface similarities to films like Deliverance and Southern Comfort, and while the character of Otis Spunkey (an appropriately bitter performance by John Speredakos) would seem to support that contention, the other local backwoods types are portrayed as neutral bystanders simply getting on with their daily lives. Indeed, Wendigo is quite even-handed, pitting the intruders’ fear and lack of trust in human nature against Otis' (understandable) resentment of outsiders. The film repeatedly echoes Stanley Kubrick's overrated bloater The Shining, with long tracking shots and snowbound settings, but is ultimately the better film, establishing deep emotional connections between its characters and keeping a tight grip on the Tension-o-Meter. The cast is uniformly fine, with particular kudos to Christopher Wynkoop as the straight-talking local sheriff and to Sullivan, who proves he's not a one-note child actor. Like Habit, the film's final 15 minutes are a slight letdown, but overall this is further proof of Fessenden's outstanding talent. Also airs 2/07 at 1:50am.
9pm IFC Drunken Angel (1948 JAP): Last week I recommended Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, whilst also name-checking his early crime drama Stray Dog. Here’s another example of his occasional dalliance with the crime drama, once again featuring Toshiro Mifune, this time playing a gangster dying from tuberculosis. He’s being treated by an alcoholic doctor, played brilliantly by screen veteran Takashi Shimura, and the film details the fascinating relationship that develops between the two. High and Low is my favorite Kurosawa film, but I consider this the best of his 1940s productions.
Saturday 02/07/04
1am Sundance All or Nothing (2002 GB): We could really do with a thorough Mike Leigh retrospective - including early TV films like Nuts in May and Who’s Who, please - but at least we get to see his most recent feature, the kinder, gentler All or Nothing. Starring the always-terrific Timothy Spall as a taxi driver and Leigh regular Lesley Manville as Spall’s wife, the film is another paean to the London working classes that spawned the hirsute director. If you already love Leigh, you’ll love this. If you haven’t seen any of his films, this is as good an introduction as any. After watching this one, go out and rent Naked, Secrets and Lies, High Hopes, and Life is Sweet, and have your own Mike Leigh festival in the comfort of your own grotty tower block.
9am HBO LaLee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton (2001 USA): This superb HBO documentary is the most recent collaborative work of non-fiction filmmaker Albert Maysles, and the man hasn’t lost his touch. Detailing the lives of a poverty-stricken family in the Mississippi Delta, the film was nominated for an Oscar but lost out to another HBO production, the equally-fine Murder on a Sunday Morning. If you think the lingering effect of slavery days on modern American society is long gone, take a look at this film. Also airs at noon.
Sunday 02/08/04
4:35am Encore Mystery Old Dracula (1974 GB): I think the only mystery about this film is why star David Niven signed the contract to appear in it. Yes, this isn’t the best item on the illustrious actor’s resume. It’s been absent from cable for a decade or more, however, and isn’t available on home video, so bad movie fans (or those who worship Niven) will rejoice at the reappearance of this vampire comedy. Directed by Clive Donner (The Nude Bomb) and co-starring the wonderful, late lamented Teresa Graves (Get Christie Love), the film was originally released as Vampira, but re-released with its current title to cash in on the success of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. Jeremy Lloyd, a veteran of British TV’s evergreen series Are You Being Served?, supplied the occasionally witty screenplay, which involves medical malpractice and (of course) blood-sucking. If the film’s lowly production values don’t get the better of you, you can revel in the cast of comfortably familiar British faces, including Monty Python’s token female Carol Cleveland, Carry On regular Bernard Bresslaw, Hammer scream queens Linda Hayden and Veronica Carlson, Freddie Jones, and - yes! - Colonel Peacock himself, Frank Thornton. Add in a score by genius composer David Whitaker (Psychomania), and you’ve got a winner for the psychotronic crowd. Also airs 2/9 at 1:40am.
11pm Turner Classic Movies In the Line of Fire (1993 USA): It isn’t Clint’s best movie by any stretch, but TCM is airing a wide-screen print tonight, so fans of old Stone Face should warm up their recorders. Directed professionally - if drily - by Wolfgang Petersen, the film stars Eastwood as an aging Secret Service agent trying to make amends for his perceived failure to save John F. Kennedy on that deadly November day in Dallas. He’s up against another mad genius plotting to assassinate the current commander-in-chief, this time personified by wacky John Malkovich, who earned his second Academy Award nomination for his performance. It won’t change your life, but this is solid entertainment, and unless you’re going to shell out for the DVD, you won’t see it look any better.
Monday 02/09/04
6pm Sundance Children: Kosovo 2000 (2001 BEL-HUN): If you need a distraction from fluff and fantasy - and who among us doesn’t yearn for a brisk punch to the gut every now and then? - look no further. Hungarian documentarian Ferenc Moldovanyi went to Kosovo only a year after the horrors of Serbia’s pocket genocide and interviewed children who had lived through the dark days of 1999. In equal parts bitter, depressing, and life-affirming, this is a worthy companion piece to other genocide documentaries such as The Last Just Man and the forthcoming S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine.
