TiVoPlex
By John Seal
July 18, 2006
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 07/18/06
11:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
I Thank A Fool (1962 GB): Not to be confused with star Susan Hayward's Death Row weepie I Want to Live, I Thank A Fool features the flame-tressed thesp as Dr. Christine Allison, a medico imprisoned for the mercy killing of her terminally ill lover. Upon release at the conclusion of her two-year sentence, she's offered the job of caring for the unhinged wife of the very man responsible for sending her up the river in the first place: prosecuting attorney Stephen Dane (Peter Finch). This odd state of affairs leads to a confrontation with Dane's supposedly long dead father-in-law (crusty Cyril Cusack) and an even odder denouement that I shall not reveal in detail here. Beautifully filmed in widescreen on location in County Cork, Ireland, and on The Wirral, I Thank A Fool also features familiar faces Diane Cilento, Kieron Moore, and Richard Wattis.
1:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
The Last Shot You Hear (1969 GB): Another obscure British thriller that rarely appears on the small screen and will probably never see the light of day on DVD, The Last Shot You Hear stars Hugh Marlowe (whose screen career ended after this film) as Charles Nordeck, a renowned marriage counsellor who, in order to protect his lucrative career, denies his wife Anne (Patricia Haines) an annulment. (Remember when people were ashamed of being divorced? If not, you won't want to miss this.) Whilst there'd probably be an extended and nasty court case in real life, this is a movie, and Anne refuses to take the news lying down. She unwisely convinces her lover (William Dysart) to murder Charles and make it look like a burglary gone bad—but when things predictably don't go quite as planned, the rather tepid series of wan thrills and ho-hum revelations that follow will leave most viewers under-whelmed. Nonetheless, hardcore movie junkies may want to take a look at this Gordon Hessler-helmed feature, which co-stars Thorley Walters and a host of British television actors from shows like Z Cars and Dixon of Dock Green. Oh, what I'd give for a Z Cars DVD set.
7:00 PM Sundance
Kadosh (1999 ISR): A mini-Amos Gitai film festival commences on Sundance this evening with Kadosh, his controversial drama about the ultra-orthodox Hasid sect. Set in a Jerusalem neighbourhood where the tenets of Hasidism are strictly enforced, the film features Yael Abecassis and Meitel Barda as Rivka and Malka, sisters who are, in small but significant ways, bucking the male chauvinist system. To the chagrin of her father-in-law, Rivka is unable to bear children, and Malka is engaged to an ex-Hasid who turned his back on his brethren to serve in the Israeli Army. The film - which includes some fairly explicit sex scenes - came in for fierce condemnation as anti-religious (and no doubt anti-Semitic), but it's nothing of the sort - it's really a fairly traditional story about love conquering all. It's followed at 9:00 PM by the director's 1998 feature Yom Yom, a decidedly lighter look at Marriage, Israeli Style.
Wednesday 07/19/06
6:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Murder of Dr. Harrigan (1936 USA): An outstanding cast makes up for a multitude of other sins in this obscure Warners ‘B' feature. The great Ricardo Cortez stars as Dr. George Lambert, an intern at a hospital where crotchety Dr. Harrigan has been murdered, his archrival (and boss) Dr. Melady (Robert Strange) has disappeared, and suspicion has alit upon the shoulders of sweet young thing Nurse Sally Keating (Kay Linaker). It's up to the wet behind the ears Lambert to prove Keating innocent, and to find out who actually dun it. The usual array of thick-headed cops (including Joseph Crehan) and inquisitive reporters (including Milton Kibbee) butt heads, and producer Bryan Foy's favorite narrative device - the spinning newspaper headline - puts in an appearance. You've seen it all before and you've seen it done better, but The Murder of Dr. Harrigan is good fun nonetheless.
9:35 AM Encore Dramatic Stories
Resurrection (1980 USA): This new-agey, pseudo-science fiction feature stars Ellen Burstyn as Edna Mae McCauley, a woman whose near-death experience in a car smash-up unlocks her hidden ability to heal others with the power of her mind. Boyfriend Cal (Sam Shepard) can't deal with his sweetie's new powers and goes off the rails, and soon the local fundamentalists - including Cal's daddy, a fire and brimstone preacher - are on the warpath. The penultimate screenplay for reclusive playwright Lewis John Carlino - whose previous film, The Great Santini, also dealt with folks who don't appreciate complexity or shadings of grey in their black and white world - Resurrection co-stars Roberts Blossom as Edna Mae's father, Richard Farnsworth as a gas station manager, and Richard Hamilton as the bible-thumping patriarch. Burstyn is very good, as is the entire cast, but the film's faith-based, though ecumenical, mindset can be a trying experience for more sceptical viewers. If you can set aside the scientific method for the duration, however, you'll enjoy this well acted and slightly outre fantasy.
3:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick (1988 CAN): Culture clash alert! Maximilan Glick (Noam Zylberman, most recently cast as the voice of Split Kit in the resurrected Garbage Pail Kids series) is a young Jewish lad contending with his hormones and his strict parents in 1950s Manitoba. When he's paired up in piano class with a nice Christian girl (14-year-old Fairuza Balk), his elders are determined to nip the relationship in the bud, and only the intercession of friendly Rabbi Teitelman (Saul Rubinek), a most unorthodox Orthodox rabbi, can keep Max from throwing a hissy. Director Allan Goldstein hasn't exactly covered himself with glory in his career - he was responsible for the nearly unwatchable Death Wish V: The Face of Death in 1994 - but he hit the mark with this Canadian variant on The Wonder Years trope, which does a nice job balancing both sides of the assimilation argument.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973 USA): Until I looked it up on IMDb, I'd forgotten that Sam Peckinpah had directed this revisionist western - probably because it isn't terribly violent, and probably because the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is Bob Dylan's Knockin' on Heaven's Door. ‘Mama, take this badge off of me...I can't use it anymore.' I'm not a huge Zimmy fan, but that's one hell of a song. The SECOND thing that comes to mind is my admittedly crazy idea to remake it as a rollicking animated comedy called Pat Garrett and Billy the Fish, but unless you spent the 1990s reading a lot of Viz comics you probably wouldn't want to see that. Anyhoo, Peckinpah's film features James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson as the titular gunslingers, with Coburn's Garrett hot on the heels of outlaw Billy, who's been giving the local cattle barons a hard time. The supporting cast is studded with stars (most of them encrusted with old west dust), and includes Dylan, Richard Jaeckel, Chill Wills, Katy Jurado, Jack Elam, R.G. Armstrong, Luke Askew, Jason Robards, Rita Coolidge (then Mrs. Kris Kristofferson), L.Q. Jones, Harry Dean Stanton, Dub Taylor, Elisha Cook Jr., and Slim Pickens. I'm not a huge Peckinpah fan, but this is definitely one of his best, and makes its widescreen television debut tonight.
Thursday 07/20/06
6:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
One Crowded Night (1940 USA): Crowded with implausible coincidences, that is. This enjoyable and thoroughly ridiculous RKO programmer takes place at the roadside Autopia (!) Court motel, a desert stopover somewhere between San Diego and points east where the Matthews family eke out a living supplying soft beds and decent meals for weary travellers. They're in exile from beautiful Duluth, Minnesota, where son-in-law Jim (Paul Guilfoyle) is doing time for an armed robbery that, naturally, he didn't commit. Dutiful wife Mae (Anne Revere) turns over sheets and puts mints under the pillows whilst waiting for her man to get paroled, whilst sister Gladys (Gale Storm) and parents Ma and Pa (Emma Dunn and George Watts) take care of the other details of running a small business that virtually no one ever uses. Until, that is, One Crowded Night, when a bus pulls up and deposits weepy war wife Ruth Matson (Oakland born Pamela Blake), the car of a snake oil salesman (J. M. Kerrigan) blows a tire, and some cops show up looking for Jim, who's busted out of the big house and is on his way back to Mae. This précis only hints at the astonishing coinkidinks to come, and logic and proportion soon fall sloppy dead in the lobby of the Autopia Court. I don't know if feeding your head is a good response to the tortured path taken by Richard Collins' screenplay, but you might need a pretty big bucket of popcorn.
9:00 PM IFC
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990 USA): It's no one's idea of a good sequel, let alone a good film, but this marks Leatherface's widescreen television debut, so I suppose if you've been aching to see it and haven't rented the DVD yet, here's your chance. Barring an early appearance by Viggo Mortensen, there's not a whole lot to recommend here: the plot, such as it is, is a pale retelling of the first film's sanguinary story, with a pair of siblings running a long distance errand for their father and a survivalist replacing the original's RV full of teenagers. As for the cast, well, did I mention that Viggo Mortensen puts in an appearance?
Friday 07/21/06
12:50 PM Showtime Edge
Dark Water (2005 USA): By now you know I'm not terribly keen on the recent spate of American remakes of Japanese horror films. Having said that, this one is a tad above average thanks to the artful direction of the great Walter Salles and the efforts of the cast, including Jennifer Connelly as the mother of a young girl threatened by a ghost, John C. Reilly as the helpful real estate agent who places them in the apartment from Hell, and Pete Postlethwaite as the super of said abode. (As for Dougray Scott as Connolly's ex-husband, well, good decision to sue for divorce, Jen.) If you like rain or rising damp - or just enjoy looking at the beautiful Ms. Connelly - you'll want to go for a paddle in Dark Water, which makes its widescreen boob tube debut this afternoon.
Saturday 07/22/06
1:00 AM Showtime Mystery
Walk On Water (2004 ISR): Did you hear the one about the Mossad agent and the gay grandson of a Nazi war criminal? No, that's not the set-up for a joke, it's the plot of this rather unusual Israeli film from director Eytan Fox. Lior Ashkenazi plays Eyal, a secret agent masquerading as a tourist guide for German holiday-goer Axel (Knut Berger), who's spending time in the Holy Land visiting his kibbutzing sister Pia. Their granddad (Ernest Lenart) is a wicked old Nazi, and Eyal and Axel engage in a pas de deux to reveal - or conceal - his whereabouts. Against all odds, the macho man and the girly man become fast friends, but Eyal eventually drops any pretensions of civility and takes a trip to Berlin in order to terminate his target. Walk On Water struggles to balance a whole host of issues, including sexuality, collective guilt, and individual responsibility, and the denouement is not entirely satisfying. On the whole, though, the film succeeds as a character study of three very different people and their commitments to family, faith, and country.
Sunday 07/23/06
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Blacksmith (1922 USA): A brief block of Buster Keaton shorts comprise this week's edition of Silent Sunday Night on TCM. First up is The Blacksmith, featuring Buster as a clueless apprentice who makes a hash of things with the anvil, hammer and tongs whilst filling in for his imprisoned employer. Interestingly enough, he gets to wreak havoc on both horse-drawn and motorized vehicles, and he's good at neither! It's followed at 9:30 PM by 1923's The Balloonatic, wherein Buster hones his survival skills with gal pal Phyllis Haver, and at 10:00 PM by 1922's Cops, featuring the Great Stone Face as a young man mistaken for an anarchist by the local police department. None of these are particularly rare - you can see them all on DVD these days - but they're all fine examples of Keaton's superlative comic abilities.