By John Seal
February 10-16, 2003
TiVoPlex for February 10-16, 2003
By John Seal
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated-they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times PST.
Monday 02/10/03
4:05 AM Cinemax
Oklahoma Crude (1973 USA): It's a pity - though unsurprising - that the print utilized by Cinemax is pan and scan, but this is one of those times when you take what you can get. This is an odd film, especially coming from Stanley Kramer, a director usually associated with social causes. Set in the oil fields of Oklahoma, there are plenty of opportunities to make political hay, but screenwriter Marc Norman keeps the story strictly focused on the personality clashes between young upstart explorer Faye Dunaway, her dotty but lovable father John Mills, and crusty old bugger George C. Scott. Jack Palance is also on hand as a figurative moustache twirling villain, and while his character keeps the plot moving along, it's really the interplay between the former three that makes the film worthwhile. There's a glimpse of the film's intended wide-screen grandeur during the opening credits, and cinematographer Robert Surtees (father of Eastwood DoP Bruce Surtees) delivers uniformly excellent work throughout. Surtees was on a roll in the '70s, sandwiching this film in between big hits like Summer of '42 (1972 USA) and The Sting (1973 USA). Also airs at 7:05 AM.
4:45 AM The Movie Channel
Monkey Hustle (1977 USA): It's the rare black action film of the week, this time starring Yaphet Kotto, Rosalind Cash, and Dolemite himself, Rudy Ray Moore. This time the locals in Chicago are out to stop a big freeway project from destroying their neighborhood. By no means a critical or commercial success - Laurence Van Gelder of the New York Times puzzlingly described it as a "…movie of jellied brains and idiot eyes" - you'll indulge me its inclusion here: this is the first airing of Monkey Hustle on cable in at least ten years. Also airs at 7:45 AM.
9:30 AM Flix
A.K.A. Cassius Clay (1970 USA): This documentary was filmed while Muhammad Ali's future in the ring was still uncertain. The film posits a possible future for Ali as a Black revolutionary, and there's plenty of evidence presented to support that possibility. Of course, things didn't turn out that way, and Ali resumed his ring career. Surprisingly sympathetic, this film is a valuable artifact that deserves renewed attention in this post-Will Smith period of Ali's life.
8:05 PM Starz
Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001 USA): It's the cable premiere of the best skateboard documentary of 2001. I'll be the first to admit knowing little about this "sport," but apparently this is the film that contextualizes its cultural significance. I bet your average skateboarder can't spell contextualize, ho ho! I'm only joking, of course. I'm quite sure that when they're not "busting their buns," skater dudes are "hitting the books!" Winner of two awards at Sundance 2001, Dogtown will no doubt win me over. But how could they make a movie like this without including Jan and Dean's Sidewalk Surfing on the soundtrack? Also airs at 11:05 PM, 2/11 at 6:30 AM and 9:30 AM, 2/14 at 8:05 PM and 11:05 PM, and 2/15 at noon and 3:00 PM.
8:30 PM Encore Mystery
Olivier Olivier (1992 FRA): Director Agnieszka Holland dealt with youthful (mis)identity in the magnificent Europa Europa (1990 POL), a film about a young Jewish boy in Nazi Germany who joins the Hitler Youth. Two years later, she brought similar subject matter to the screen in Olivier Olivier, a film about a nine year old Parisian who disappears only to resurface six years later. As he becomes reacquainted with his family, questions begin to arise about his own identity and whether he is who he claims to be. Pray for subtitles!
Tuesday 02/11/03
8:30 AM Encore Love Stories
In the Mood For Love (2000 HK): Wong Kar-Wai's luscious looking romantic fantasy takes place in early 1960s Hong Kong and has two terrific leads in Maggie Cheung - an actress with the potential to breakthrough to American audiences in as big a way as Michelle Yeoh - and Tony Leung. Shot in both black and white and color, this is a feast for the eyes and the heart, as Cheung and Leung learn that their respective spouses are engaged in an adulterous affair. Set in a time and place where the sexual "liberation" of Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice was a million miles away, the film depicts the two spurned partners' attempts to come to terms with betrayal.
10:20 AM Showtime Extreme
The Visitors (1972 USA): This dramatic obscurity is an unheralded late-career film by the great name namer himself, Elia Kazan. James Woods makes his theatrical debut as a Vietnam vet who suddenly gets a visit from two former (and very creepy) Army buddies, one played by Steve Railsback, who also debuts in this film. The film is quite typical for its time: slow and character-driven; the wintry setting underlines the general sense of unease one gets as soon as Woods' pals show up on the scene. Also airs 2/15 at 9:00 AM.
7:30 PM IFC
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. (1999 USA): Errol Morris' documentary about the banality of evil is a truly disturbing film about a man who allows his ego to subsume his ethics. Fred Leuchter is a designer of lethal injection machines for Death Rows across America. He's also an avid Holocaust denier who convinced himself that the Nazi gas chambers weren't actually used to execute anyone. Perhaps best viewed on a double bill with Bowling For Columbine (2002 USA). Also airs 2/12 at 12:15 AM and 11:00 AM.
Wednesday 02/12/03
3:00 AM IFC
Envy (1999 AUS): This is one of my speculative picks, based purely and simply on an intriguing plot synopsis, so approach with caution. Does anyone besides me remember a rather poor Australian kids' show called The Adventures of Skippy, about a friendly kangaroo? The director of that show, Julie Money, decided to take on a somewhat weightier topic with her feature length debut, a film about a mother's desire for revenge against the man who molested her child. Sounds like we could be in very dodgy Deep End (2001 USA) waters, especially considering screenwriter Jeff Truman (and co-star) got his start writing for Aussie soap Neighbours! Gosh, I'm starting to give myself second thoughts just writing about it.
8:00 AM Encore Mystery
Night Gallery (1969 USA): Generally considered one of the best TV movie-pilots of its period, this film assured Rod Serling's return to the air waves after the demise of The Twilight Zone. Sadly the producers of Night Gallery (the series) played with Serling's format and NBC repeatedly moved the show around the schedule, and the show only lasted two seasons. The show still airs regularly on Encore Mysteries, but it's been a while since the pilot has been seen. Filmed (of course) in anthology style, Serling collected a terrific cast, including Joan Crawford, Ossie Davis, Roddy McDowall, and Richard Kiley. One of the segments, directed by none other than Steven Spielberg, was remade by that not-yet-famous filmmaker the following year as a segment of the TV series. Also airs at 10:45 PM.
Thursday 02/13/03
9:05 AM Starz
Pandaemonium (2000 GB): Sometimes I get stuck on a film and keep hitting the replay button in the TiVoPlex (see Simon Magus and Juliet of the Spirits among others). So pardon me if you've heard this before, but this is really a fine movie. About poetry, in the 19th Century, no less! Julien Temple's exploration of the relationship between the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth sounds like dry stuff, but it's a simply terrific film that also explores the meaning and reality of poetry and art. John Hannah, better known in America for playing Rachel Weisz's goofy brother in the recent Mummy series, looks a little uncomfortable as the government-sanctioned Wordsworth, but Linus Roache is perfection as the drug-addled visionary Coleridge. The unheralded star of the film is the transcendent Emily Woof, as Wordsworth's sister, the free-thinking Dorothy, and the film also features the marvelous Samantha Morton as Coleridge's wife Sara. The film looks gorgeous (I wish I had the opportunity to see it wide-screen) and was in my opinion the best British film of 2000. Also airs at 12:05 PM.
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Dark Manhattan (1937 USA): This PRC cheapie was a box office smash when it opened in 1937 Harlem. Eschewing the usual reliance on comedy and music in race films of the period, Dark Manhattan is a flawed but fascinating attempt to make a murder-mystery with an all African-American cast.
Friday 02/14/03
Midnight Flix
10:30 P.M. Summer (1966 FRA-USA): There's not much information available about this film, but it appears to have been shot in English by Jules Dassin, who directed Melina Mercouri in the international hit, Never On Sunday, and had gone on to make the equally popular Topkapi. This film is a decidedly smaller and artier affair, based as it is on a Marguerite Duras novel. The look of the film is distinctly '60s, and Romy Schneider never looked more beautiful. Mercouri is excellent as an alcoholic who has fallen out of love with her husband (Peter Finch) and tries to find solace by helping a murderer escape from the Spanish police. Much of the action of the film goes unexplained. There is some truly remarkable photography by Gabor Pogany, an otherwise unheralded Hungarian cinematographer who plied his trade in the Italian film industry of the '50s and '60s to little acclaim. His work here is quite revelatory, at times bringing to mind the German expressionism of the teens and twenties. Overall, an abstract delight not a million miles away from Antonioni's Blow-Up.
1:15 AM Showtime
Galaxina (1980 USA): Camp alert! Camp alert! The film that was supposed to make a star out of Dorothy Stratten is actually a royal stinker, but I couldn't let it pass without a mention. Stratten, the starlet who never made a good movie (unless one considers the so-so Star 80 a Stratten feature), was murdered in 1980 by scumbag boyfriend Paul Snider. Her paltry cinematic legacy rests uneasily on this wretched science fiction "parody." How Stratten's agent allowed her to be cast opposite the unattractive and unfunny Avery Schreiber (as Captain Cornelius Butt) is a mystery for the ages. Look for little Angelo Rossitto (Freaks, Dracula Vs. Frankenstein) as the Monster From the Egg. Only for those who truly appreciate bad cinema. Also airs at 4:15 AM.
4:35 AM Showtime Extreme
P.I.:Private Investigations (1987 USA): Here's an early screenplay by John Dahl (Red Rock West, The Last Seduction and Joy Ride). The film looks and feels like a low-budget straight-to-cable action film, but Dahl's intelligent and humorous writing help it rise above its inherent limitations. A confusing conclusion muddies the waters, but it's definitely an entertaining 90 minutes and an interesting look at the formative stages of this talented filmmaker. Also airs at 2:15 PM and 2/15 at 2:00 AM.
6:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
My Man Godfrey (1936 USA): If you didn't set the alarm early enough to catch Galaxina, perhaps you won't hit the snooze button when everyone's favorite screwball comedy airs this morning. (Then again, you could just record it onto your hard drive, I suppose.) TCM gets the Valentine's weekend underway in style, with this marvelous Universal film co-starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, both sizzling hot box office properties at the time. Powell plays a vagrant with a mysterious past who brings a measure of sanity to Lombard and her family of socialites, which also include the wonderful Eugene Pallette. And if that's not enough for you…
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
It Happened One Night (1934 USA): …here's the other film that's everyone's favorite screwball comedy! (No, wait, it's actually Bringing Up Baby!) Directed by Frank Capra and written by Robert Riskin, this film is simply chock-a-block with great scenes, including the infamous bedroom sequence and Claudette Colbert's successful, if questionable, hitchhiking attempt.
Saturday 02/15/03
2:35 AM Encore Action
All's Well, Ends Well (1997 HK): Another speculative pick for the daring, this is an obscure Hong Kong comedy about a lazy man who fakes mental illness in order to get money from his workaholic brothers. That's not subject matter that has been treated with much delicacy in HK cinema - witness Sammo Hung's performance in 1985's Heart of Dragon - so approach with appropriate caution. The film is also poorly regarded by HK film expert John Charles, so this is one primarily for completists and obsessives. I point no fingers.
6:30 PM IFC
Shower (1999 CHI): In contrast to the lowbrow antics of All's Well, Ends Well, Shower is a very serious drama about - wait for it - a mentally handicapped man who entices his brother home to assist in running the family bathhouse! I don't make this stuff up, the programming Gods do it for me. Winner of a boatload of awards, this film - especially when viewed immediately after the previous film - may be the needed proof of the possible artistic benefits of 1997's reunification. Also airs at 11:30 PM.
Sunday 02/16/02
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Camille (1921 USA): In the days before sound there were two male heartthrobs of the silent screen, and TCM has both on them on view today. First up is Rudolph Valentino in this lavish Metro production (before they hooked up with Mr. Goldwyn and Mr. Mayer) based on an Alexandre Dumas story. Valentino plays opposite Alla Nazimova, whose star was briefly in the ascent in the early '20s, and the star-crossed lovers no doubt had audiences reaching for their lacy kerchiefs.
11:30 AM More Max
Free Enterprise (1999 USA): Here's a film that I really shouldn't have liked but did. Two aspiring screenwriters who are also inveterate Star Trek fans try to approach William Shatner in order to pitch their latest project to him. Shatner (played by Shatner) has a ton of fun poking fun at his own image, and the rest of the cast - none of whom I'm familiar with - do a great job of playing against him. This is a sweet, heartwarming comedy that manages to avoid being sentimental. Trekkies will enjoy it but so will the rest of you.
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Love (1927 USA): As promised, here's Valentino's all-American counterpart, the handsome John Gilbert. And what could better epitomize the appeal of Gilbert than a film titled, simply, Love ( though the film is actually another adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina)? Here cast opposite real life paramour Greta Garbo, Gilbert displays the copious charm and sex appeal that never translated to the soundies. The boy next door of the '20s took to drink and died in 1936 at the age of 36, another victim of the build 'em up, knock 'em down world of Hollywood.
