From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated, they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times PDT.
Tuesday 07/22/03
1:45am IFC Following (1998 GB): I have yet to see this near-legendary freshman effort from Memento helmer Christopher Nolan, but its reputation precedes it, as does the brilliance of Mr. Nolan’s breakthrough hit of 2000. Nolan also wrote, produced, shot, and edited this brief (69 minute) mystery, which largely features a cast of amateurs and second-stringers. Apparently about a young man whose curiosity gets the better of him when he follows a burglar on his appointed rounds, Following sounds a bit like a British take on the acerbic Belgian mockumentary, Man Bites Dog (1992), and, like its continental predecessor, is also in glorious black-and-white.
7:15am The Movie Channel Gregory’s Girl (1981 GB): Bill Forsyth’s delightful romantic comedy stars John Gordon Sinclair as Gregory, a rather gormless Scottish teenager in the throes of first love. He’s the goalie of the school football team, but when Dorothy (Dee Hepburn) takes his spot on the roster after a magnificent tryout, he’s immediately smitten with her. Anyone who has ever experienced the highs and lows of teen love with enjoy this family-friendly film filled with pithy dialogue and gorgeous location photography of Cumbernauld, Scotland. Forsyth went on to make the popular Local Hero (1982 GB) with Burt Lancaster, the ice cream comedy Comfort and Joy (1984 GB) with the estimable Bill Paterson (the government minister in the original Traffik mini-series), and even produced a sequel (Gregory’s Two Girls) in 1999, but this is his best all-around film, with apologies to his earlier crime comedy That Sinking Feeling (1980 GB). Also airs at 10:15am, 2:45pm, 5:45pm, and 7/23 at 2:30am and 5:30am.
1:30pm Turner Classic Movies The Secret Fury (1950 USA): This RKO noir thriller stars Robert Ryan and Claudette Colbert as would-be newlyweds whose wedding is contested by a stranger claiming that the bride-to-be is already married. When Colbert suffers a nervous breakdown, it’s up to prospective hubby Ryan to fathom out the mystery and discover the truth. Somewhat reminiscent of the William Powell mystery Crossroads (1942 USA), The Secret Fury is ably directed by Mel Ferrer, co-stars the always-worth-watching Paul Kelly and Vivian Vance, and features an uncredited (and unrelated) Jose Ferrer in a small role.
Wednesday 07/23/03
3am Turner Classic Movies Beau Bandit (1930 USA): I’m not a huge fan of the Western genre, but TCM has packaged together some impossibly obscure and ancient RKO oaters this morning, and it behooves me to acknowledge them. The first film stars fading heartthrob Rod La Rocque as a likable villain who falls for the local schoolmarm (Doris Kenyon) shortly before sticking up the bank owned by the future Ming the Merciless, Charles Middleton. Directed by Lambert Hillyer (best known for his 1936 lesbian horror film, Dracula’s Daughter), Beau Bandit also features Mitchell Lewis as La Rocque’s deaf-mute sidekick. It’s followed at 4:15am by Beyond the Rockies (1932 USA), with Tom Keene (last seen in Ed Wood’s notorious if over-underrated Plan 9 from Outer Space) as a ranch hand out to avenge the death of a friend. The oddly-titled Freighters of Destiny (1931 USA) which airs at 5:15am, reunites Keene with Beyond the Rockies director Fred Allan, and features a cameo appearance by Hopalong Cassidy’s favorite sidekick, George “Gabby” Hayes. This time Keene plays a wagon-master’s son out for revenge against the bad men who dun kilt his pa. Allan, Keene, and Hayes also factor into 1932’s Ghost Valley, which airs at 6:30am and features Keene as a mine owner unwilling to sell out his stake to the local big wig (Mitchell Lewis). The package continues throughout the day with another Keene film, 1932’s Come On Danger at 8:30am, Rod La Rocque’s marvelously titled Hi Gaucho! (1935 USA) at 9:30am, and some later (and for me, less interesting) Warner’s westerns during the afternoon hours. It’s hard to pick and choose amongst these undoubtedly formulaic films, but you’ll rarely get the opportunity to see them, so plan accordingly. On a side note, La Rocque (his real name) was married to Vilma Banky (born Vilma Lonchit), the Hungarian silent screen star whose career also withered away with the advent of the talkies. Can you imagine a better pair of names for a Hollywood couple?
7am Sundance War and Peace (2001 IND): After a little old West escapism, here’s a nice cold shower of realism for you. With a two-and-a-half hour running time, this documentary about the escalating nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan echoes the general lengthiness of Indian film whilst also paying tribute to Tolstoy’s massive novel of the same name. With more and more flashpoints developing worldwide and an American president who prefers starting fires to putting them out, this is a deeply disturbing look at one of the most dangerous and long-standing disputes of the 20th - and now 21st - century. Also airs 7/27 at 4am.
8pm Sundance Paradox Lake (2002 USA): This unusual and occasionally disturbing look at the treatment of autistic children and teenagers will raise far more questions than it answers for most viewers. The film, whilst wholly fictional, stars a cast of autistic children and real-life counselors and is set at a summer camp where simple day-to-day tasks assume an almost overpowering level of complexity. Polish director Przemyslaw Reut coaxed good performances from his “star”, Matt Wolf, a USC film grad, but the heavy lifting is done by the autistic children, especially Jessica Fuchs as the young woman who develops a mysterious relationship with Wolf via her collection of toy animals. The film, regardless of its very low budget, is quite ambitious, and ends on an ambiguous, though hopeful, note. Also airs 7/24 at 8:30am.
Thursday 07/24/03
5:45am Turner Classic Movies Roar of the Dragon (1932 USA): This rip-roaring RKO adventure story stars Richard Dix (1923’s Ten Commandments) as a riverboat captain squaring off against Manchurian bandits and a bad guy (C. Henry Gordon) trying to steal his gal. Well-directed by Wesley Ruggles, Roar of the Dragon also includes Zasu Pitts, Dudley Digges, and flapper extraordinaire Arline Judge as Western tourists caught up in the conflict. And if you ever wanted to see Edward Everett Horton wielding a gat, look no further.
11pm Sundance The Hunt (1997 GB): If you want to see the spoiled and wealthy of the English countryside hoist by their own petard, here's your film. Dutch director Niek Koppen was given unprecedented access to the operators of the Ludlow Hunt, one of scores of legal blood sports organizations in Britain. By withholding all narrative judgment, Koppen lets the hunters speak for themselves. Their bizarre belief that they are somehow protecting the countryside by engaging in their ritual killing game will soon convince you that they are out of touch and ultimately heading to their own personal knacker's yard. Their disgusting disloyalty to their hunting dogs - who get put down the instant they can no longer sniff out a fox or keep up with the pack - is the final proof that these people care little about animals, life, or anything other than dressing up for a day of eco-terrorism and drinking. A damning but fair documentary, The Hunt should be avoided by squeamish viewers. Also airs 7/28 at 8:15pm.
Friday 07/25/03
1:50am Encore True Stories Ladybug Ladybug (1963 USA): This is a very unusual and much underappreciated film about a small rural school and its response to the Cuban Missile Crisis and an apparent impending nuclear attack. Director Frank Perry was one of the leading lights of American independent cinema in the ‘60s, and this film deserves to be as well-known as his debut, David and Lisa, the film that introduced Keir Dullea to the movie-going public. Personally, I think Ladybug is the better of the two pictures, conveying a sense of deadening inertia and fear as the crisis escalates, with its generally unknown cast lending a patina of realism to the proceedings. Also airs 7/27 at 4:30am.
Saturday 07/26/03
3am HBO 2 The Execution of Wanda Jean (2002 USA): It may be news to many Americans, but capital punishment in the United States is still dealt out on a somewhat arbitrary basis. If you’re poor, black or Hispanic, from a Southern or border state, and are convicted of murder, the odds of a date with Ol’ Sparky are not the same as they would be if you were rich, middle-class, white, from the Mid-West or Northeast, and convicted of murder. In the case of Wanda Jean Allen, not only did she fit into the former category, she was also a lesbian and borderline learning impaired. As a result, her inept lawyer’s bad work contributed to her death by electrocution at the hand of Oklahoma’s prison authorities. Chronicling the period commencing at Ms. Allen’s clemency hearing and concluding with her execution, this film points out the deep flaws in the American system of legal murder.
3am Encore True Stories That’s Black Entertainment: Westerns (2002 USA): I haven’t seen this, but it’s apparently a compilation of clips from the four “colored ” westerns crooner Herb Jeffries made in the late 1930s. If you’ve missed these films (which have occasionally surfaced on TCM, usually during Black History Month), this looks like the next best thing. Sadly, it doesn’t appear to feature any new interview material with the maverick 91-year-old leading man, who was at one time married to burly-q queen Tempest Storm.
Sunday 07/27/03
1:45am Encore Mysteries The Running Man (1963 GB): For those who resent paying their insurance premiums - and who amongst us doesn’t - there is Carol Reed’s The Running Man, not to be confused with the Arnold Schwarzinator film of the same name. The always-dapper but much-too-thin Laurence Harvey stars as Rex Black, a professional pilot whose insurance claim is turned down by frosty Allen Cuthbertson due to coverage that expired two days prior to an accident. Enraged, Harvey and wife (played by an icily beautiful Lee Remick) launch a scheme to bilk the insurance company of a very large sum of money. Unfortunately, claims adjustor Alan Bates is on the job to complicate matters for the felonious couple. John Mortimer’s screenplay is a bit flat and frankly unbelievable at times, but the superb cast more than makes up for it. The film, shot in color and on location in Spain, looks gorgeous, but Encore is airing a pan-and-scan print that severely compromises the original Panavision framing. At least this print retains a wide-screen credits sequence, which features some superb work by Bond main man Maurice Binder.
10am Sundance Traffik (1989 GB): The miniseries that spawned the inferior Steven Soderbergh remake, Traffik is, quite simply, one of the best television dramas of all time. Produced for Britain’s Channel 4, the series was closely mimicked by Soderbergh’s film, with three intertwining tales about a German engineer accused of drug smuggling, a British government official with a drug-addled daughter, and a Pakistani farmer trying to make ends meet. There the similarities end, however, as Steven Gaghan’s overwrought and childish screenplay can’t hold a candle to Simon Moore’s script. The casting of the American version is also problematic, especially when contrasted with the original: the ever-annoying Michael Douglas is no Bill Paterson, and Catherine Zeta-Jones is simply out of her league compared to Scots actress Lindsay Duncan, who essays the role of the drug smuggler’s wife with equal measures of dignity, aplomb, and desperation. This six-part series is airing in its entirety today, but even considering its six-hour length, seems shorter than the clumsy big-screen version. Can you tell I didn’t enjoy Traffic (2000 USA)? And I call myself a Soderbergh fan!
9pm Turner Classic Movies The First Auto (1927 USA): It’s appearing on TCM’s Silent Sunday Night, but the story behind The First Auto is a bit more complex than that of most other silent-era comedies. Four months before Warner Bros released the partly-talking, all-singing Al Jolson vehicle The Jazz Singer, they released this Barney Oldfield comedy about the generation gap between the horse-reliant oldsters of the turn of the century and the auto-mad youth of the Roaring ‘20s. If you watch and listen to the film carefully, you’ll hear the actor Russell Simpson utter a single word, “Bob”. It doesn’t quite qualify as the first word spoken on-screen - sound and cinema had been the subject of experimentation since the mid-teens - but it was the thin end of the microphone wedge as far as the major studios were concerned. As a film, it’s no classic, though it features a decent cast (a young William Demarest and The Hunchback of Notre Dame’s Patsy Ruth Miller), but as an object of historical interest, it’s priceless.
Monday 07/28/03
1:15am Showtime Rolling Thunder (1977 USA): William Devane plays Major Charles Rane, a returning Vietnam war hero who is having trouble readjusting to civilian life. The first two acts of this film slowly outline the coming storm, as Rane's homecoming is first dampened by clueless civilians and then destroyed by even more clueless petty criminals. The final act is action filmmaking at its best, as Rane and his army buddy (played well by a young Tommy Lee Jones) take their violent, but not pointless, revenge.
1:30am Turner Classic Movies The Great American Pastime (1956 USA): I don’t know what to expect from this one, but the cast is incentive enough to give it a look. Tom Ewell (The Girl Can’t Help It) stars as a Little League coach whose romantic life is complicated by Ann Miller, the widowed mother of one of his charges. Also on hand is Anne Francis (Forbidden Planet) as Ewell’s daughter, Disney regular Dean Jones, and Raymond Bailey. The film was written by Nicholas Benchley, the son of raconteur Robert Benchley and the father of lowbrow author Peter Benchley.
