TiVoPlex
TiVoPlex for Tuesday July 19 2011 through Monday July 25 2011
By John Seal
July 18, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 7/19/11
8:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Gangster Story (1959 USA): Here’s an interesting one: the only feature film helmed by actor Walter Matthau. Matthau directs himself as Jack Martin, a hoodlum laying low in a small California town after committing the ultimate sin—killing a cop. Jack can’t resist an easy mark and pulls off a bank job in the sleepy burg, annoying both the F.B.I. and the local crooks, who don’t take kindly to an outsider moving into their territory. Trouble ensues. No one’s going to mistake this 62-minute long second feature for Little Caesar or Scarface, but it’s an intriguing footnote to Matthau’s long and illustrious screen career. Look for Vic Tayback in an uncredited cameo as Norm the resort guard.
11:50 PM Starz
Inside Job (2010 USA): Prepare to be pissed off. Well, you should have been pissed off for the last couple of years, but if you’ve been living under a rock or simply haven’t kept up with the news, Inside Job will bring you up to speed in a hurry. Long story short: Wall Street financiers have not only being playing fast and loose with our money, they’ve also been gaming the system, giving themselves massive bonuses, and sucking on the public teat. Directed by Charles Ferguson, whose No End in Sight was one of the first docs to critically analyze the Second Iraq War, Inside Job was the surprise winner of this year’s Best Feature Length Documentary Oscar. If you suffer from high blood pressure, you might want to avoid it—all others, tune in and fume along with the rest of us. Also airs 7/20 at 2:50 AM.
Thursday 7/21/11
4:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Daybreak (1931 USA): One of only three American films directed by the great French filmmaker Jacques Feyder, Daybreak is a drama about an Austrian soldier who gets himself into trouble with his debtors. Ramon Novarro plays Lieutenant Willi Kasder, an Imperial Guardsman whose commanding officer (C. Aubrey Smith) advises him to marry into money in order to solve his financial problems. Willi, however, doesn’t much care for moneybags Emily (Karen Morley), preferring poor little piano teacher Laura (Helen Chandler) as a potential soul-mate. Will common sense or true love prevail? Daybreak is a fairly typical, fairly static early talkie, but looks handsome thanks to Cedric Gibbons’ superior art direction.
12:35 PM Flix
The Great Diamond Robbery (1953 USA): Quite why this MGM comedy is airing this afternoon on Flix instead of TCM, I can’t explain—but here it is. The Great Diamond Robbery was Red Skelton’s last feature for the studio and features the funny-man as Ambrose C. Park, an adult orphan bound and determined to locate his biological parents. Ambrose works as a diamond cutter, and succumbs to temptation when a crafty lawyer (James Whitmore in an out-of-character bad guy role) cooks up a plan to introduce him to Mum and Dad in exchange for some under-the-counter hot rocks. Only catch: they’re not really Mum and Dad. If you’re a Skelton fan or simply enjoy jokes about marrying your sister, here’s your film. Look for the wonderful Kurt Kaszner as Ambrose’s ‘Uncle Tony’.
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Drums of Africa (1963 USA): Frankie Avalon in a pith helmet? Actually, I think he wore one in Bikini Beach too—remember the Potato Bug? Anyhoo, in Drums of Africa Frankie plays Brian Ferrers, a Victorian-era explorer trying to end slavery on the Dark Continent. Yes, it’s as absurd as it sounds, and yes, the film is lousy, but do you really want to miss Frankie freeing the black man? The low-rent supporting cast includes Mariette Hartley, Lloyd Bochner, and the great Hari Rhodes (Conquest of the Planet of the Apes).
Friday 7/22/11
12:30 AM Sundance
Older than America (2008 USA): Here’s an obscure but deeply worthwhile indie flick. Written and directed by Native American actress Georgina Lightning, Older than America relates a shameful tale of the Indian boarding schools—establishments where young Indians were sent against their will by the federal government for education and religious indoctrination. (This sort of thing also happened to indigenous peoples in Australia and other countries, of course.) Shot in Minnesota, the film tells the story of Rain (played, appropriately, by Lightning), an adult trying to come to terms with her childhood experiences at such an institution. The film stars other Native American actors of considerable repute, including Adam Beach (Smoke Signals, Windtalkers) as police chief Johnny, Tantoo Cardenal (Silent Tongue) as Auntie Apple, and the great Wes Studi (Dances With Wolves, Avatar) as Richard Two Rivers.
Saturday 7/23/11
8:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Ace Drummond (1936 USA): The 13th and final chapter of the serial brings the adventures of fearless aviator Ace Drummond to a thrilling conclusion.
8:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Zorro Rides Again (1937 USA): And as one chapter play ends, another begins. The Saturday matinee cycle of life continues with Zorro Rides Again, a 12-chapter Republic serial not about the swashbuckler of yore but his descendant James Vega (John Carroll), who dons great grand-pappy’s mask to do battle with a gang of miscreants determined to seize control of the California-Yucatan Railroad. And he sings, too—just like Ace Drummond! This above average serial features surprisingly impressive special effects courtesy Howard and Theodore Lydecker.
9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Tarzan’s Savage Fury (1952 USA): Can fury ever be considered anything but savage? I’ve never seen adjectives like ‘pleasant’, ‘relaxing’, or ‘supercalifragilisticexpealidocious’ attached to the noun ‘fury’, but then again, other than this movie, I don’t think I’ve ever seen ANY adjective attached to it. Be that as it may, in Tarzan’s Savage Fury we find the T-man (Lex Barker) facing off against a commie spy (Charles Korvin) and a British traitor (Patric Knowles), who are bound and determined to get their hands on some raw materials vital to the security of the free world. I Walked With a Zombie’s Darby Jones pops up as a witch doctor. What, George Zucco wasn’t available?
9:25 PM The Movie Channel
Sugar Boxx (2009 USA): I haven’t seen this film, but consider the following:
1. It’s entitled Sugar Boxx. Isn’t that what Super Sugar Crisp comes in? I love that Super Sugar Crisp bear and his chunky turtleneck sweater.
2. It was written and directed by a man named Cody Jarrett. That’s right, Cody ‘made it, Ma...top o’ the world’ Jarrett from Raoul Walsh’s White Heat. Well, not really.
3. Cody previously directed such films as Frog-g-g! and Get Froggged!: Behind the Scenes of Frog-g-g! I haven’t seen those films, either, but I really want to.
4. Most importantly, Sugar Boxx features appearances by Kitten Natividad (Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens), the late Tura Satana (Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) and legendary schlock director Jack Hill (Switchblade Sisters).
I rest my case.
Monday 7/25/11
8:20 AM Encore Dramatic Stories
Women in Love (1969 GB): Bad boy director Ken Russell began flaunting his style in this free-wheeling adaptation of D. H. Lawrence’s novel of the same name. Oh, sure, Russell had previously helmed the Harry Palmer entry Billion Dollar Brain, but that film stayed strictly within the confines of trad spy cinema and didn’t allow him much artistic leeway. Women in Love, however, is a much different and much saucier kettle of fish. Adapted for the screen by Larry Kramer, the film stars Alan Bates, Glenda Jackson, Oliver Reed, and Jennie Linden (who?) as the Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice of the Edwardian age. Not too surprisingly, Kramer and Russell jettisoned much of the novel’s political and social commentary in favor of sex, sex, and more sex, including the infamous homo-erotic nude wrestling scene that shocked and thrilled 1969 audiences. There’s nothing here quite on a par with the director’s infamous nunsploitation classic The Devils, but for filmgoers still getting used to the new MPAA codes of the time Women in Love was assuredly considered sizzling hot stuff. The faultless supporting cast includes Eleanor Bron, Michael Gough (RIP), and Vladek Sheybal, none of whom do any wrasslin’ in the buff.
10:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Island of Love (1963 USA): This shot-in-Greece comedy isn’t terribly funny, but it sure does look purty. Robert Preston headlines as two-bit chiseler Steve Blair, who cons gangster Tony Dallas (Walter Matthau) into funding a film starring Steve’s stripper girlfriend Cha Cha (Betty Bruce). The film within a film is a flop, and Steve and screenwriter Paul Ferris (Tony Randall) flee to Greece to escape an anticipated date with the fishes. Though the laughs are sparse, the picture perfect island of Hydra looks fabulous in widescreen. Not available on home video, Island of Love probably won’t reappear on TCM any time soon, so if you’re interested tonight’s probably the night.