TiVoPlex
By John Seal
January 30, 2007
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tuesday 01/30/07
5:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Clairvoyant (1935 GB): Claude Rains stars in this unusual Gainsborough Pictures production as Maximus, a phony clairvoyant who suddenly acquires the skill of making disturbingly accurate predictions. He's been earning a good living ripping off the suckers on the music hall circuit, but finds he really has second sight after meeting rich heiress Rene (Fay Wray). At first it's all fun and games, with the erstwhile seer using his talents to earn a pretty penny at the race track, but after foreseeing a mining tragedy, he's brought to court under suspicion of causing the accident - and must now use his unwanted gift to save himself from a life behind bars. Shot on a very low budget (and looking it), The Clairvoyant relies on a solid screenplay co-written by Charles Bennett and Bryan Edgar Wallace (son of renowned mystery writer Edgar Wallace) and the talent of its two leads to hold the audience's attention - at which it succeeds admirably.
10:40 AM Showtime Extreme
The Long Riders (1980 USA): A few weeks back I overlooked the small screen return of this entertaining Walter Hill western, so it's time to make amends. Airing for the first time in widescreen, The Long Riders depicts for the umpteenth time the exploits of the infamous James-Younger bank robbery gang. Starring James Keach and David Carradine as, respectively, Jesse James and Cole Younger, as well as their extended families as assorted brothers in crime, hangers-on, and Old West groupies, Hill's film does an above average job with the familiar material. Though the casting gimmick- which also encompasses Carradines Keith and Robert, Quaids Randy and Dennis, Guests Christopher and Nicholas, and the Keach you've actually heard of, Stacey - is a bit of a distraction, the film is still a good one, if weakened by the bizarre decision to cast the wrong Keach in the lead role. Treading ground already covered by 1972's Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, Hill's feature episodically traces the gang's hoof-prints from Missouri to Minnesota, with stops along the way for whoring, hoedowns, and inter-gang squabbling aplenty. Firmly within the ‘revisionist western' genre, The Long Riders also looks great thanks to Ric Waite's cinematography, which belies his small screen roots and hints at his excellent future work on films as disparate as The Border (1982) and, ahem, Red Dawn (1984). Add in an elegiac Ry Cooder score, and you've got ample reasons to saddle up with The Long Riders.
Wednesday 01/31/07
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Spiral Staircase (1946 USA): Few American films blend the influences of expressionism, noir, and suspense as effectively as The Spiral Staircase, a Robert Siodmak thriller set in an Old Dark House circa 1916. Dorothy McGuire stars as Helen, a mute domestic servant stalked by a serial killer who has already had deadly dealings with a number of ladies in the neighboring village. Helen is taking care of bedridden Mrs Warren (Academy Award nominee Ethel Barrymore), whilst other relatives and servants (including George Brent and Elsa Lanchester) go about their business - until night falls, when she finds herself alone with the helpless old lady and a secret someone lurking in the shadows. Though the film doesn't stray far from the conventions of Hollywood mystery cinema, it masterfully maintains tension throughout, slowly stripping Helen of the ‘protective layer' provided by the supporting cast and setting up a magnificent thunder and lightning finale for the final reel.
Thursday 02/01/07
3:30 AM Showtime
The Chicken Chronicles (1977 USA): Super rarity alert! Oh sure, it may not be much of a film, but The Chicken Chronicles has been cooped up in some musty film vault for far too long, and finally gets sprung in the wee, wee hours of this Showtime morning. Starring Phil Silvers as a very dirty old restaurateur and Steve Guttenberg as his randy young employee, it's a sex comedy of the lowest order set in the bland Los Angeles suburbs of the late 1960s. Penned by Paul Diamond, who went on to write an episode of Married With Children and little else of note, the plot revolves around the efforts of chicken slinger David Kessler (Guttenberg) to get laid, and the efforts of his boss (Silvers) to get a bird's eye view of the action. That's about it, though the presence of Ed Lauter as David's high school principal adds a modicum of respectability to the proceedings. Also airs at 6:30 AM and 2/5 at 3:15 AM and 6:15 AM.
11:50 AM Starz In Black
A Boy Called Twist (2004 SAF): This modern day retelling of Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist takes place in Capetown, South Africa, where a 'Boy Called Twist' moves from orphanage to street life to middle class comfort thanks to a series of happy and not so happy coincidences. Though not quite able to match either the David Lean or Roman Polanski adaptations, this is still a very worthwhile effort with a superb cast, including young Jarrid Geduld as Twist, dreadlocked Lesley Fong as Fagin, Bill Curry as the businessman (here reimagined as a Muslim named Ebrahim) who takes pity on the young lad, and the stunning Kim Engelbrecht as Nancy, about whom I can say 'rrrowww' with considerable emphasis. Though the film stays reasonably true to the novel, it adds some gritty local details - the Dodger and co. spend time huffing glue, for example, and the muezzin's call to prayer is an important counterpoint throughout the film. All in all, it's a fine production, marred somewhat by careless telecine work which results in awkward framing and subtitles that 'fall off' the screen.
Friday 02/02/07
5:00 AM Sundance
Open City (1946 ITA): One of the prime examples of Italian neo-realist cinema, Roberto Rossellini's Open City set the standard for the genre and still remains a powerful piece of filmmaking. Shot almost immediately after the liberation of Rome in 1944, it tells the story of a disparate group of Italian resistance fighters - including communists and Catholics alike - battling the German occupiers and the Quislings who collaborated with them. Open City made a star of both Anna Magnani, a then little known actress who had survived on bit parts throughout the lean wartime years and parlayed her performance here into considerable international success and an Academy Award, and Aldo Fabrizi, who would go on to enjoy massive popularity in his native land on the strength of his performance as an anti-fascist priest. The story is told brutally and frankly, and the artifice of tinsel town seems a million miles away from this cinematic burg. Also airs at 1:15 PM.
8:15 AM Sundance
Zoot Suit (1981 USA): I have fond memories of a 1978 High School trip to see the original production of this Luis Valdez' stage play about Mexican-American youth culture during the 1940s, memories which even include a few verbatim lines of dialogue. Considering the wild success enjoyed by the play - which was Anglo Los Angeles' introduction to a heretofore hidden or ignored subculture - a film version was inevitable, and Universal hired Valdez himself to do the job. As a result, the big screen version is little more than a filmed play, and lacks the immediacy and energy of a live stage production whilst also foregoing the many advantages offered by cinema's ability to open up and expand a narrative beyond the confining boundaries of the proscenium. Nonetheless, the story remains, as does the music, which together tell a fascinating and lively based-on-fact tale of racial prejudice and injustice in the barrios of East L.A. As much a celebration of Chicano culture as condemnation of white racism, Zoot Suit is also blessed by the presence of Edward James Olmos, who reprises his stage role as narrative device El Pachuco, and of lead Daniel Valdez as protagonist Henry Reyna, unjustly accused, indicted, and convicted of first-degree murder.
Saturday 02/03/07
2:20 AM Starz In Black
Tsotsi (2005 SAF): Last year's Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film makes its small screen debut this morning. It's a familiar tale of sin and redemption, made fresh by its Johannesburg setting and powerful performances from Presley Chweneyagae as the titular hot-headed street punk - who would shoot you as soon as blink at you - and Terry Pheto as a nursing mother who establishes a strange bond with him. Based on a novel by Athol Fugard, the film has the kind of uplifting final reel that Academy voters love - but still remains true to its artistic vision, portraying the rough life of Tsotsi with unblinking and unvarnished honesty. Too bad it's airing in pan and scan, though. Also airs at 8:30 PM.
5:30 PM Sundance
Adam and Paul (2004 IRE): I don't like to repeat myself, especially when I've recommended something quite recently - but if you missed the October airings of this outstanding Irish feature, don't miss it tonight. Adam and Paul are a pair of junkies on the lookout for their next fix in an unlikely and rather bleak buddy movie, which stars the otherwise unheralded Tom Murphy and Mark O'Halloran (who also wrote the screenplay) as lovable losers barely surviving on the streets of Dublin. The film effortlessly turns the double trick of avoiding mawkish sentimentality and romanticizing drug addiction, and was a hit on the festival circuit, where it won the Audience Award at the 2004 Galway Film Fleadh. It's an impressive work that I can't recommend too highly.
6:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Queen Bee (1955 USA): I don't think I can prove it, but I'd guess that Joan Crawford's post-stardom ‘bitch' reputation stemmed from her appearance in this aptly titled soap opera - in fact, daughter Christine claimed Crawford family home life wasn't too far from the life depicted here, so perhaps there's more than a grain of truth to this supposition. In Queen Bee, Joan plays Eva Phillips, a quintessential Southern belle who manipulates all those around her, including lousy husband Beauty (Barry Sullivan), sweet young secretary Jennifer (Lucy Marlow), and old flame Judson (John Ireland). Joan devours the scenery whilst dispensing arch dialogue by the bucket full, helping to establish the drag queen formula that informs the work of Charles Busch to this day, whilst unintentionally setting in stone the Mommie Dearest archetype that sadly remains her primary contribution to the collective memory of American pop culture. Oh, and for those who care about such minor things, the film was nominated for a couple of Academy Awards, too.
Sunday 02/04/07
1:00 AM Showtime 2
Pauly Shore is Dead (2003 USA): Thank you Jesus! Airs in widescreen, so you can watch him suffer in his correct aspect ratio.
1:00 AM Sundance
Riff-Raff (1991 GB): Director Ken Loach specialises in British working-class social realism - well, he did until he broadened his horizons with this year's historical drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley, finally due for an American release this Spring - and Riff-Raff is one of the finest examples of that style. Robert Carlyle stars as Scots brickie Steve, a working class oik roughing it in a squat whilst engaged in an unlikely romance with aspiring pop singer Sue (Emer McCourt). Steve shares his living space with a potpourri of fellow construction workers, a team engaged in renovating slum housing into expensive flats whilst expressing their disdain - if not hatred - for their bosses, who threat them like dirt whilst cutting corners to fatten the bottom line. Like most Loach films, there's a wry undercurrent of humor, and the script - written by Bill Jesse, himself a veteran of the building trades - is filled with the searing insight and wisdom we'd expect from the man who brought us Cathy Come Home on the BBC's Wednesday Play back in the day.
1:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Topper Returns (1941 USA): TCM repeated the Topper trilogy last month, and as I hadn't seen them in many years, it seemed as good a time as any to reacquaint myself with the films. Surprisingly, the third and final entry in the series was the one I enjoyed the most, and it airs again this afternoon as part of Turner's annual 30 Days of Oscar celebration. Why do I like this one the best? Quite simply, Roland Young gets lots of screen time, and there's no Cary Grant. Plus, it features an uproarious beach sequence, which I swear is the funniest physical comedy you'll see this side of a Buster Keaton film. Really.
9:00 PM Sundance
Wishing Stairs (2003 ROK): A fresh batch of Asian horrors commence on Sundance with this South Korean shocker, the third entry in the disparate Yeogo Goedam series, which also includes Whispering Corridors and Memento Mori. Sadly, this isn't one of the better recent Korean efforts, with a paper-thin plot about a haunted girls school cribbed from far better films like, well, Memento Mori and Dario Argento's ballet-themed Suspiria. If you're a hardcore admirer of these things, you'll want to climb the Wishing Stairs - but all others can safely step off.
Monday 02/05/07
1:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Kapo (1959 POL): Only the survivors of the Holocaust can tell us what the concentration camp experience was really like, but Kapo is probably as close as cinema can get to recreating the numbing horrors of the camps - and that includes Schindler's List. Susan Strasberg is superb as Edith, a Jewish teenager who is saved by chance and then becomes a collaborator in order to survive. The film's greatest strength is its ability to make us comprehend the forces that compelled inmates to become kapos - the Nazi equivalent of prison trustees - and lmost (but not quite) makes us sympathize with them. Snatched from the jaws of the gas chamber only to have the power of life and death thrust upon them, the kapos did what they had to do in order to survive - and who amongst us would not take that same chance if thrust into the heart of Nazi darkness? This incredibly powerful film is filled with astonishing imagery, none more powerful than the scene of Edith/Nicole watching helplessly as her parents are forced to jog to their demise amidst a crowd of children and elderly inmates - people who are inessential to the Reich's war machine. This important film, long forgotten in the United States, gets its third airing this morning on TCM - and richly deserves a place in everyone's home video library.
10:30 AM Showtime
Pauline At the Beach (1983 FRA): I must say the heretical: I've never been an admirer of French auteur Eric Rohmer. Perhaps that's because I took in a few too many late nights at the local repertory house back in the ‘80s, and found his work banal beyond words and best prescribed as sleep aids for ADHD-stricken film fans. However, his features are far from being television staples, and when one pops up on the schedule, it's my solemn duty to report the sighting to you, my loyal reader. And you know what? It's been 20 years since I last took in a Rohmer film, so maybe I'll like this one. You never can tell. Also airs at 1:30 PM.
6:00 PM Sundance
Grace Lee Project (2005 USA): In an effort to come to terms with both the social stigma of racial stereotyping and the stifling ominpresence of her very common name, filmmaker Grace Lee took it upon herself to track down and interview as many women who share that name as possible. I was certain she would feature a good friend of mine (who for privacy reasons shall remain nameless), but sadly, that friend's showbiz career found her on the road when Grace came a-calling. The Grace Lee's she DID find, however, are an eclectic bunch, ranging from a 14-year-old guerrilla artist to an 88-year-old civil rights activist. The resulting film isn't the sort of documentary one usually associates with Sundance - like most of its subjects, it's generally polite and well-behaved - but there are worse ways to spend an hour in front of the boob tube. Even if you don't know any Grace Lees yourself.