TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday July 5 2011 through Monday July 11 2011
By John Seal
July 4, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 7/5/11
7:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
A Hatful of Rain (1957 USA): By the late ‘50s, mainstream Hollywood tentatively stopped tiptoeing around the realities of drug abuse. The burgeoning social problem, once confined to traveling road shows and B pictures, had graduated to the A list with 1955’s Nelson Algren screen adaptation, The Man with the Golden Arm. A Hatful of Rain, whilst not quite as brutal as its predecessor, is nonetheless a worthy and serious look at heroin addiction, featuring Don Murray as a young, disabled Army vet who can’t get the monkey off his back after being discharged from hospital. Supported by his family - including wife Eva Marie Saint and brother Tony Franciosa - Murray struggles to get control of his addiction, only to lose every time. Filled with wonderful location footage of New York City, and featuring an appearance by TiVoPlex favorite William Hickey, this is a prime example of the “problem pictures” of the period, right down to its downbeat but realistic finale.
8:00 AM Sundance
The Shock Doctrine (2009 USA): Director Michael Winterbottom is cinema’s renaissance man. Dramas, comedies, noirs, documentaries - he seems to revel in trying his hand at as many different genres as possible. The Shock Doctrine is his first non-fiction effort, and not surprisingly, it’s really good. Based on muckraker Naomi Klein’s best-seller of the same name, the film examines the horrendous impact neo-liberal capitalism has had on the planet over the last half-century, and presents a dizzying array of information in a succinct 82 minutes. Luckily, Klein and narrator Kieran O’Brien are on hand to help you make sense of it all. Also airs at 12:40 PM.
7:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Thief of Bagdad (1924 USA): I’m a huge fan of Alexander Korda’s 1940 Technicolor spectacle The Thief of Bagdad, but Douglas Fairbanks’ silent version is pretty darn good, too. Fairbanks plays the title character (in this iteration of the tale, we never learn his real name), a wily chap who disguises himself as royalty in order to win the hand of a beautiful princess (Julanne Johnston). Not so fast, bub: Dad (Brandon Hurst) wants his prospective sons-in-law to go on a mission to locate, and return with, the rarest treasure they can find. Can the Thief beat the competition, or will the evil Mongol Prince (Sojin) cross the finish line first? Produced on an epic scale, The Thief of Bagdad could be considered the apex of the 40-year-old Fairbanks’ career - it’s my favorite of his films, at any rate.
11:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Tarzan the Fearless (1933 USA): After MGM hit pay dirt with 1932’s Tarzan the Ape Man, producer Sol Lesser decided to cash in and produce his own Jungle Lord chapter play. The full serial is now considered lost, but this abridged feature remains. Buster Crabbe plays Tarzan this time, and though he’s a bit too All-American for my liking, acts the pants off Johnny Weissmuller (not a great challenge, I admit). Happily, TCM will be airing the 86-minute "British cut" of Tarzan the Fearless; there’s also an hour-long American version that is too truncated to make a lick of sense.
Wednesday 7/6/11
10:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
I Wake Up Screaming (1941 USA): This amazing Betty Grable vehicle was made years before the film noir was fully developed, but it's definitely one of the precursors of the style. Grable plays Jill Lynn, the sister of a murder victim whose beau Frankie (Victor Mature) is suspect number one as far as Police Inspector Cornell (the great Laird Cregar) is concerned. Frankie needs Jill to help clear his name, but she never liked him much and is less inclined to believe his story now. Will he convince her he's a straight-shooter, or will she end up wrapping him up in a bow for a trip up the river with Cornell? Based on an equally fine novel by Steve Fisher, I Wake Up Screaming transcends its B production values thanks to a solid cast and some first-rate cinematography by Edward Cronjager, a journeyman whose work always looked like it cost far more than it actually did.
9:00 PM Encore Mystery
The White Ribbon (2009 OST): Did you enjoy director Michael Haneke’s previous creep-fests, Funny Games and Cache? How about Wolf Rilla’s Village of the Damned or Werner Herzog’s The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser? If so, you should run - not walk - to the nearest DVR and set it to record The White Ribbon. Set in remote northern Germany in the days before World War I, the film tells the bizarro tale of a small village where the men beat their wives, the horses randomly tumble over, and accidents of all varieties keep happening - lots and lots of accidents. Shot in black and white, Haneke’s film reminds me of Michael Lesy’s classic photo essay, Wisconsin Death Trip. Yes, it’s that grim, and that good.
Thursday 7/7/11
11:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Killer Shark (1950 USA): A quarter century before there was Jaws there was Killer Shark. Directed by Budd Boetticher, the film stars young Roddy McDowall as Ted White, a callow college student forced to assume command of a shark hunt after his foolish ways leave his sea-faring father (Roland Winters) injured. Produced on the cheap by Monogram Pictures, Killer Shark is strictly movie chum, but Boetticher and McDowall completists will still be interested. It’s followed at 1:15 PM by Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison, an equally threadbare tale of prison life that benefits from location footage shot at Folsom.
10:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Trunk to Cairo (1966 ISR-BRD): Here’s one that’s got me salivating: a German-Israeli spy drama with no reviews on IMDb! (I’m pretty sure this film used to air on local television back in the ‘70s, but don’t remember whether or not I’ve ever seen it.) Audie Murphy headlines as Mike Merrick, a Yank secret agent dispatched to Cairo to put the kibosh on Nazi scientist Schlieben’s (George Sanders) plans to threaten develop a dastardly super-weapon. Trunk to Cairo was Murphy’s only non-western feature, was directed by future Cannon Films bigwig Menachem Golan, and was penned - believe it or not - by Marc Behm, who only a year prior had written Help! for Richard Lester and The Beatles. Here’s hoping TCM has access to a widescreen print, but if not, this film is rare enough to warrant a look in any format.
5:00 PM Sundance
Crude (2009 USA): The subject of a lawsuit by evil multinational Chevron, Crude is another feather in the cap for documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster). The film examines a class action lawsuit filed by Ecuador against Texaco (and, by extension, Chevron, which had purchased Texaco in 2001) for toxic dumping in the Amazon. It’s utterly compelling stuff, but Chevron naturally took offense and demanded Berlinger turn over his unused footage - all 600 hours of it - for their perusal. Unfortunately, federal judge Lewis Kaplan found in favor of the plaintiffs in 2010, but there’s also good news: a court in Ecuador ruled earlier this year that Chevron owed Ecuador a cool 8.6 billion dollars for the filth and contamination Texaco left behind. The case is, of course, still a long way from being settled.
Friday 7/8/11
12:45 PM Starz in Black
Life Is Hot in Cracktown (2009 USA): It got bad reviews, but Buddy "Combat Shock" Giovinazzo’s Life Is Hot in Cracktown is actually pretty darn good. It’s an ensemble piece about the effects of crack cocaine on a disparate group of Los Angelenos, and though it could certainly be considered an "exploitation" film, it’s a well acted, well-shot, and well written one. A surprisingly good cast, including Illeana Douglas, Lara Flynn Boyle, RZA, and Kerry Washington, is a definite plus.
5:05 PM Flix
La Dolce Vita (1960 ITA): It’s been too long since I last saw Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, so I’m pleased as punch that Flix is screening it this month. (Hopefully they’ll be showing it in its correct 2.35:1 aspect ratio - otherwise, what’s the point?) Marcello Mastroianni stars as Marcello Rubini, a gossip columnist who finds himself sashaying from party to party in high society Rome. Not too surprisingly, he also has an eye for the ladies, gets involved with both a woman of some means (Anouk Aimee) and a movie star (Anita Ekberg), and subsequently ditches suicidal fiancée Fanny (Magali Noel). Featuring a lush Nino Rota score, La Dolce Vita is a lengthy, dense, and still relevant examination of celebrity, reality, and the meaning of life, as well as one of Fellini’s greatest accomplishments.
Saturday 7/9/11
8:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Ace Drummond (1936 USA): Chapters 9 & 10 of the Ace Drummond serial, in which our hero visits the Mountain of Jade.
9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Tarzan and the Slave Girl (1950 USA): More wimmin problems for the T-man. This time, Tarzan (Lex Barker) must do battle with the Lionians, another of those bizarre Caucasian tribes that seem to exist in abundance throughout the Dark Continent. Seems the Lionians are a dying breed, and their king (The Picture of Dorian Gray’s Hurd Hatfield) places an order for fresh female blood - including Jane (Vanessa Brown), who gets kidnapped along with a bunch of other dames by the tribe’s sex-starved soldiers. Lionians Need Women! A surprisingly decent supporting cast, including Robert Alda, Anthony Caruso, and Denise Darcel, offers distraction from the film’s shoddy production values.
7:00 PM Cinemax
Machete (2010 USA): Everyone’s favorite Spy Kids character Uncle Machete (Danny Trejo) finally got his own movie, and what a movie it is! Not only is it a cartoonish exercise in ultra-violence, it was also considered a warning by right-wing nativists across the land, who convinced themselves that director Robert Rodriguez was signaling "illegal immigrants" to pick up the nearest blade and start slicing up honkies. Sorry, Tom Tancredo - it’s only a movie. Also airs at 10:00 PM.
Sunday 7/10/11
1:40 PM Encore Action
Black Moon Rising (1986 USA): Remember a few weeks back when I waxed nostalgic about my dinner with Doug Curtis? If you missed it, here’s the short version: hoping to get me into showbiz, my father introduced me to the producer one evening. Didn’t happen, of course, but my parents maintained their contact with Mr. Curtis, who later invited them to attend the world premiere of Black Moon Rising! Attend they did, and my father swears it’s an okay movie. I’ve never seen it, but considering it was written by John Carpenter and stars Richard Jaeckel, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Vaughn, Linda Hamilton, Keenan Wynn, and Lee Ving, he might just be right.
11:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Mabarosi (1995 JAP): Here’s another terrific feature from Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, also responsible for such outstanding films as After Life, Nobody Knows, and Still Walking. Mabarosi is the melancholic tale of Yumiko (Makiko Esumi), a young Japanese housewife whose perfect life is thrown into disarray when her husband commits suicide. Yumiko remarries, but the void in her heart remains unfilled, even after the passage of many years. The film is Koreeda’s tribute to director Yasujiro Ozu (it’s filled with symmetrically shot dialogue scenes and ground level camera work), and is appropriately followed at 1:15 AM by End of Summer (1961) — Ozu’s penultimate effort before his untimely demise in 1963.
Monday 7/11/11
9:30 AM Sundance
Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (2006 USA): An important fixture in the New York City music scene for almost two decades, late composer Arthur Russell gets his due in this informative and entertaining doc from Brooklyn-born neophyte filmmaker Matt Wolf. Russell was a Zelig-like presence in the Big Apple throughout the 1970s, leaving his mark on the disco, no wave, punk, and avant-garde music scenes before his death from AIDS in 1992. Featuring interviews from poet Allen Ginsberg, composer Philip Glass, singer-songwriter Jens Lekman, and many others (including Russell's parents), Wild Combination underscores the brilliance and breadth of the man's talents.