TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday June 7 2011 through Monday June 13 2011
By John Seal
June 6, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 6/7/11
12:45 AM Fox Movie Channel
Emperor of the North (1973 USA): Lee Marvin is 100% more man in this two-fisted tale of hobos riding the rails during the Great Depression. Marvin plays A No. 1, a bohunk who falls in with feisty Cigaret (Keith Carradine) whilst fussin’ and a feudin’ with rail-yard enforcer Shack (Ernest Borgnine). Robert Aldrich’s direction is fine, but is let down by Christopher Knopf’s flaccid and unfocused screenplay, and the film’s ‘70s roots are betrayed by some suspiciously long and bushy hair-don'ts. Nevertheless, the three leads are excellent (and ably supported by Simon Oakland, Elisha Cook Jr., and Sid Haig), Joseph Biroc’s cinematography impressive, and Frank DeVol’s score suitably frisky. Emperor of the North airs this morning in widescreen.
6:50 AM Encore
Hideaway (1995 USA): Jeff Goldblum does that twitchy thing he does so well in this entertaining sci-fi effort based on a Dean Koontz novel. Jeff portrays Hatch Harrison, an accident victim brought back from the dead by a doctor (Alfred Molina) after spending a two-hour sojourn in the afterlife. At first (shades of The Fly) everything seems back to normal for Hatch, but he’s returned from the beyond with something unpleasant (shades of Child’s Play) - the reborn soul of serial killer Vassago (Jeremy Sisto), who’s eager to get back to business. Oopsies! Also on hand: Alicia Silverstone as Hatch’s daughter and Rae Dawn Chong as a spooky seer. Also airs at 9:50 AM.
8:30 PM Encore Mystery
The Addiction (1995 USA): One of the better vampire flicks of the '90s, The Addiction features indie queen Lili Taylor as Kathleen Conklin, a doctoral student who gets bitten by a strange woman (Annabella Sciorra) whilst walking home one night. The bite gets infected and Conklin soon finds herself craving a wee drop of the red stuff from time to time. Needless to say, the craving is a major distraction from Kathleen’s studies, and she starts prowling the streets in need of the occasional fix. Directed by Abel Ferrara (Ms. 45, Bad Lieutenant), The Addiction eschews most of the routine vampire movie conventions, concentrating more on the psychological and physical aspects of "the curse." Taylor is outstanding, and Ferrara regular Christopher Walken co-stars as a fellow bloodsucker trying to 12-step his way out of the problem.
11:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Uncle Silas (1948 GB): I can’t say enough good things about Uncle Silas in a single paragraph, but trust me: you do NOT want to miss this film! Jean Simmons stars as Caroline Ruthyn, a 17-year-old taking care of her dear, dying daddy (Reginald Tate), and who, after Pop passes on, learns she is now the ward of troublesome Uncle Silas (Derrick de Marney). Silas has previously been cleared of murder charges, but his intentions are less than honorable: he has his eye on the family fortune Caroline will inherit when she comes of age, and with the assistance of the scheming Madame de la Rougierre (the amazing Katina Paxinou), is plotting to make sure it makes its way into his coffers. Based on a story by Sheridan le Fanu, this is a terrific Gothic meller of the old school and will be appreciated by fans of Laura, Dragonwyck, and suchlike.
Wednesday 6/8/11
9:00 AM Showtime 2
Live Forever (2003 GB): Whilst on my annual holiday visit to the old country in 1995, I allowed myself to get caught up in the legendary Blur vs. Oasis chart battle that saw both heavyweight bands releasing a single on the same day (that day also happened to be my birthday). Not since the Beatles and the Stones - who, incidentally, never directly challenged each other in like fashion - had such a battle been waged for the hearts and minds of British pop pickers, and I foolishly anted up for one of each release. Thing was, Blur had the smarter marketing plan, and ended up releasing their single (a since-forgotten jingle entitled Country House) as a two-CD set, both of which counted as separate sales chart-wise.
Oasis countered with the grindingly dull Roll With It, truly one of the worst efforts from that tedious band. The result was an unsurprising win for Blur, and three less-than-special CDs added to my overstuffed collection. Yes, those were the halcyon days of Britpop, when shaggy-haired rockers rubbed elbows with future war criminals like Tony Blair in a squirm-inducing rite of political passage. Those less-than-golden memories are recaptured in this pleasant if inconsequential documentary, which features interviews with the swaggering Gallagher Brothers, a bitter Damon Albarn, and a befuddled Jarvis Cocker, amongst others. No sight of Menswear, though.
Thursday 6/9/11
2:00 PM HBO2
Dead Again (1991 USA): Kenneth Branagh’s stylish neo-noir never gets as much credit as it deserves, so I’ll give it a shout out this afternoon. Branagh directs himself in two roles: as Roman Strauss, a ‘40s musician executed for killing his wife with some scissors; and as Mike Church, a ‘90s private dick whose current case - which revolves around amnesia, hypnosis and a spooky mansion—seems strangely linked to the Strauss murder. The film is cleverly structured and features a tip-top supporting cast, including Emma Thompson (Branagh’s spouse at the time), Derek Jacobi, Hanna Schygulla, Andy Garcia, and Robin Williams. Yep, even Robin Williams doesn’t ruin this one.
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Them! (1954 USA): June is going to be one of the best months ever on TCM: Drive-In Double Features are the theme, and every Thursday evening the channel will be airing four or five gems from the Golden Age of Science Fiction (the 1950s, of course). Tonight the Drive-In features one of the best giant monster movies of all time, Them!, in which dear old Edmund Gwenn does battle against the mutant ants (damn you, radioactivity!) populating Los Angeles’ sewer system.
Them! is amongst the cream of the big bug movie crop, and also features James Whitmore as a policeman, James Arness as a G-Man, and Leonard Nimoy as a teletype operator. It’s followed at 6:45 PM by Cosmic Monsters (1958), a rare British genre entry headlined by Forrest Tucker; at 8:15 PM by the world’s first giant spider movie, Tarantula (1955); at 9:45 PM by 1957’s set-in-Mexico thriller The Black Scorpion; at 11:30 PM by the laughable turkey monster that is The Giant Claw (1957); and at 1:00 AM by The Wasp Woman (1959), in which Susan Cabot makes some unwise choices in her quest for eternal youth. You’re going to need an extra big bucket of popcorn tonight and every Thursday night in June!
Friday 6/10/11
12:25 AM HBO Signature
Backyard (2009 MEX): Here’s Mexico’s official entry for the 2010 Best Foreign Film Oscar. It didn’t win (heck, it didn’t even get nominated), but is well worth a look nonetheless. Directed by Carlos Carrera, whose 2005 drama The Crime of Father Amaro was an outstanding character study concerning a morally compromised priest, Backyard tells a grim tale set in the border town of Ciudad Juarez. It’s here where Mexico’s incendiary drug wars - fueled in part by (believe it or not) U.S. trained paramilitaries - are at their hottest, and where hundreds of women have been murdered since 1995. The film stars Ana de la Reguera (soon to be seen in Cowboys and Aliens) as Blanca Bravo, a police officer sent to the city to try to put a stop to the killing. Needless to say, she encounters difficulties. Backyard is not quite as good as Father Amaro, but those in search of a superior police procedural need look no further.
9:45 PM Flix
Salesman (1968 USA): Salesman is one of my 50 favorite films of all time. Don’t ask me to pin it down in my top ten or 20 - though on any given day I might put it on either list - but this is one of the most effective, revealing, and truthful documentaries you’ll ever see. Directed by the Maysles Brothers, the film follows four Bible salesmen as they trudge from door to door trying to sell their wares in working-class Catholic neighborhoods across the country. Simple as that. You’ll learn more about human nature from this film than you will living your own life. Well, maybe.
Saturday 6/11/11
9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946 USA): In this reasonably entertaining series entry, Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) must somehow steer a course between western civilization and barbaric savagery. I guess that’s what happens after you spend a few years fighting Nazis in the jungle! In this case, though, the savages in question aren’t goose stepping Germans but a tribe of leopard enthusiasts determined to keep the internal combustion engine and modern plumbing out of the neighborhood. Oddly, the tribe - seemingly ruled by Caucasians (Edgar Barrier and Acquanetta) - don’t appear to be African at all, a trend that would bafflingly continue in jungle movies throughout the late '40s and '50s.
7:00 PM HBO
Devil (2010 USA): The Devil, they say, is in the details. In this case, however, he’s in the elevator. Set in a broken-down Philadelphia Otis (why Philly, I wonder?) but shot in Canada, Devil brings five people together in the out of order lift, one of whom is Ol’ Scratch himself. Not too surprisingly, he takes full advantage of the moment and starts getting up to all sorts of claustrophobic mischief with his new friends. Lesson: always take the stairs. Also airs at 10:00 PM.
7:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
King and Country (1964 GB): Tom Courtenay plays a World War I deserter in this outstanding Joseph Losey-helmed drama. Courtenay is Private Arthur Hamp, a British soldier who walks off the battlefield one day after deciding he’s had enough after three years of trench warfare, bully beef, hardtack, and wet puttees. No, puttees-those bandages soldiers used to wrap around their lower legs. You have a dirty mind. Anyhoo, Hamp’s decision sits poorly with his superiors, and the lad is hauled before a court martial, where he’s defended by upper-class twit Captain Hargreaves (Dirk Bogarde), who slowly begins to understand that his client isn’t the shiftless coward he’s supposed to be. Nominated for four BAFTAs, King and Country suffers a little from its stagy roots (it’s based in part on a play by John Wilson) but is worth scoping nonetheless for its excellent lead performances. Watch for potato-nosed Leo McKern as an unsympathetic sawbones.
Monday 6/13/11
3:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929 USA): No, not Lynne - though I would be delighted to see the last of her, too - but Fay (Norma Shearer), a rich widow trying to fend off the amorous advances of Lord Elton (Herbert Bunston, later Dr. Seward in Tod Browning’s Dracula) and Arthur Dilling (Basil Rathbone). There’s a subplot about some stolen jewelry, and the film earned a Best Screenplay Oscar nom, but this is one of those impossibly rigid early talkies where the camera never moves and there’s only one microphone. That said, it’s always a pleasure to watch Shearer, and Rathbone’s pretty good, too.