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From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.

Tuesday 02/12/08

3:30am Turner Classic Movies
The Window (1949 USA): Based on a story by Cornel Woolrich, the master of lachrymose noir, The Window updates the legend of the boy who cried wolf to the American big city of the post-war years. Little Tommy Woodry (doomed child thespian Bobby Driscoll) has a penchant for spinning greatly exaggerated and fantastic stories, and when he witnesses upstairs neighbors Joe and Jean Kellerson (Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman) committing a murder, neither his parents nor the police give his tale any credence. The Kellersons, however, know the boy is telling the truth, and are determined to silence him before he finds a sympathetic ear. Driscoll, who would die of heroin addiction in 1968, is terrific, and Stewart was one of the few Hollywood character actors equally capable of playing guys next door and glowering villains and is perfectly cast here. A taut and violent thriller in the best Woolrich tradition, The Window also earned Editor Frederic Knudtson a well-deserved Academy Award nomination.

9am Sundance
Marvelous (2006 USA): Things are a bit thin in the TiVoPlex this week, so pardon me for grasping at this particular straw. Critical consensus suggests Marvelous is anything but (I personally haven't seen it yet), but any film featuring gangly Scotsman Ewen Bremner is going to pique my interest. He plays Lars, the brother-in-law of modern-may miracle worker Gwen (Martha Plimpton), a divorcee with the ability to mend broken machinery with the power of her mind. It's purportedly a comedy, so don't tune in expecting to see Lorenzo's Motor Oil. Also airs at 4:30pm and 2/16 at 1pm and 10:45pm.

Wednesday 02/13/08

12:05am HBO Signature
Marujas Asesinas (2001 ESP): This twisty Spanish comedy - whose title translates into English as "Killer Housewives" - stars Neus Asensi as Azucena, the unhappy spouse of smug macho man Felipe (Accion Mutante's Antonio Resines). Though Azu is getting some on the side from Pablo (Carlo Lozano) and hubby is a font of ready cash, she can't stomach the abuse she's taking from her man, and determines to dispose of him with the help of sister Isabel, cousin Quique, and sycophantic employee Lalo. Indeed, they commit the crime with such ease that Azu decides homicide could be a useful way of dealing with ALL the vaguely annoying people in her life, leading to a series of gruesome set-pieces worthy of a Tarantino flick. If you've enjoyed other Iberian black comedies such as Álex de la Iglesia's Day of the Beast or Crimen Ferpecto - or even, God forbid, the all-American Kill Bill - you'll probably get a kick out of Marujas Asesinas.

5:30pm Sundance
Choking Man (2006 USA): The Heimlich Maneuver gets its day in the sun in this unusual feature about an Ecuadorian dishwasher plying his (flat) wares in Jamaica, Queens. Jorge (Octavio Gomez Berrios) toils in the bowels of a filthy diner run by Rick (Mandy Patinkin), where an omnipresent Heimlich instructional poster dominates the kitchen proceedings and his fellow employees give him the cold shoulder. Sidelined at work, Jorge is also getting bullied on the home front by his boorish roommate, and finds himself escaping into animated fantasy sequences not a million miles from those created by writer/director Steve Barron in his groundbreaking Aha video Take on Me. Yes, this American indie feature comes from the same guy who helped make Norway's biggest band MTV superstars for one brief, shining moment in 1985. Shot on location in less than three weeks, Choking Man's intriguing blend of neo- and magical realism will appeal to those (like me) who thought Michel Gondry's Science of Sleep was a 2006 highlight. Also airs 2/16 at 4:30am.

Thursday 02/14/08

2am Sundance
The Man Who Became King (2007 SAF): Adongo Adaga was just another Sudanese exile living in Canada at the turn of the 21st century, until he received word that he was needed back home. This compelling documentary takes a look at the challenges facing Adaga, who desperately wanted to relocate his family from his homeland to the Great White North but was instead called to serve as the king of a tribe in his native Southern Sudan. A large tribe of several hundred thousand subsistence farmers, the Anyuak needed him to settle outstanding issues, such as their strained relationship with neighboring tribes and the difficulties faced by their fellow Anyuak across the border in Ethiopia. The film focuses on Adaga's efforts to balance the needs of his people with the needs and safety of his immediate family, and his grace under pressure should be a lesson for us all.

Friday 02/15/08

1:30pm Fox Movie Channel
Curse of the Fly (1965 GB): This low-rent third entry in the original short-lived Fly cycle makes a rare wide-screen television appearance tonight. Brian Donlevy plays Henri Delambre, the grandson (!) of previous gene-splicing pioneer Andre Delambre, played by a bug-eyed Al Hedison in the original 1959 film. In real life, Hedison was Donlevy's junior by a quarter century, and the two films seem to be set no further apart than, oh, six years or so, but never mind; all that matters is that the Delambres are still on the case, still eager to play God, and still mad as hatters. Henri and his offspring have fine-tuned the matter transmitter so that people can now be transported from London to Montreal in the blink of an eye, but after taking their trans-Atlantic trip, these human lab animals find themselves aging rapidly and developing disgusting skin lesions. Shot on the cheap at Shepperton Studios, it's still nice to report that Curse is now available in its correct CinemaScope aspect ratio, and it's always fun to see Burt Kwouk in anything, even if he IS cast here as a stereotypical "houseboy". There's no actual fly - regular size or otherwise - in the picture, though.

5pm Turner Classic Movies
Little Big Man (1970 USA): Arthur Penn's revisionist Western gets its first television airing in years (and its first wide-screen airing ever) this evening, and I'm eager to reacquaint myself with a film I haven't seen since the early 1980s. Little Big Man stars Dustin Hoffman as Jack Crabb, a centenarian recounting his colorful life in flashback format to an eager historian (TiVoPlex idol of worship William Hickey). Brought west as a youngster, Jack falls into Cheyenne hands after the requisite massacre of his parents, is raised by avuncular Chief Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George), and is then "rescued" by the cavalry, who place him in the less-than-tender care of Holy Roller Silas Pendrake (Thayer David) and his wife (Faye Dunaway). Equally uncomfortable as either Anglo or Native (or Human Being, as Chief Old Lodge Skins would have it), Jack spends his adult life being torn between both cultures, his personal schism reflecting that of the late '60s counterculture which helped make Little Big Man a huge commercial and critical success. The film's terrific supporting cast includes Richard Mulligan (as George Armstrong Custer), Jeff Corey (as Wild Bill Hickok), Martin Balsam, Jesse Vint, and M. Emmet Walsh, but the film really belongs to Chief Dan George, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance and parlayed it into a very late-in-life but successful career change from school-bus driver to professional actor.

7:30pm Turner Classic Movies
Save the Tiger (1973 USA): When films I recommend air back-to-back on TCM, I usually roll them up into a single entry. Such is not the case tonight, as Little Big Man and Save the Tiger are deserving of individual places in the 'Plex. The May/December romance had been a Hollywood staple for years, but took on added zest during the early 1970s, when the generation gap had assumed yawning proportions and 40-something geezers in business suits were trying to bed sweet young hippie chicks in love beads. Clint Eastwood's Breezy (also 1973) was a wonderful example of this sub-genre, but stuck strictly to the bittersweet difficulties of maintaining such a relationship when your friends all think you're nuts. John G. Avildsen's Save the Tiger cast a wider net, supplying social and political commentary in addition to its tale of mid-life crisis and adultery in downtown Los Angeles. Jack Lemmon deservedly won the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as Harry Stoner, a sad sack clothing magnate whose dalliance with flower child Myra (Laurie Heineman) provides him distraction from the crushing responsibilities of his daytime job. Lemmon is desperate for an escape route, and finds one by hopping into the sack with Myra, burning down his garment factory, and getting involved in an animal rights campaign, all in the course of a single day. Nothing like keeping busy to get your mind off your troubles, I guess.

Saturday 02/16/08

5pm Fox Movie Channel
Two of a Kind (1983 USA): In the mood for something terrible? I mean something so terrible you may wish to gouge your eyes out after watching it? So terrible you may throw a brick through your flat-screen TV? SO TERRIBLE YOU MIGHT BE COMPELLED TO WATCH IT THREE TIMES IN A ROW?? Then tune in tonight, when Fox unleashes this camp classic on unsuspecting viewers at 5pm - and again at 7pm - and once again at 9pm. Two of a Kind (the title of which could just as easily have been Two of TiVoPlex's Most Despised Betes Noires) features John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as the only inhabitants of Planet Earth who can stop God (voiced by Gene Hackman) from destroying His wayward creation. Patrons reportedly ran screaming from theatres during the film's original screenings, but you...you have to sit on your sofa and watch it THREE TIMES IN A ROW. Those are the rules, and don't you dare break 'em.

Sunday 02/17/08

9pm Sundance
Cello (2005 ROK): After months and months of watching Sundance's Asia Extreme series, I'm left with one question: what's with the one-word titles? We've had Pray, Audition, Phone, (The) Ring, (The) Eye, Nightmare, and that's just off the top of my head. I'm looking forward to the sequel possibilities: could we have Cello vs. Phone at some point? Pray for the Eye? Will young aspiring actors attend a Nightmare audition? Producers, don't thank me now; just send me a check. As for Cello, it's actually one of the better films to pop up on Sundance of late, and a hopeful sign that maybe the Extreme well isn't entirely dry just yet. It stars Hyeon-a Seong as Hong Mi-Ju, a cellist and music teacher with a deep dark secret that bubbles to the surface when her husband hires a sinister and speechless housekeeper who once tried to commit suicide by swallowing acid. Needless to say, her presence is not a soothing one, and things soon start to go bump in the night. The film manages to take the genre in a few new directions (for one thing, it tries to maintain some dramatic integrity), the music is pretty good, and the long-haired ghost girl stays OUT of the bathtub this time. Cello is well worth a look, even if you're pretty sick of J-horror and its assorted progeny.

Monday 02/18/08

11:35am HBO Family
The Learning Tree (1969 USA): Gordon Parks' gauzy homage to his own small-town roots in 1920s Kansas, The Learning Tree was one of the first films added to the National Film Registry way back in '89. The film depicts a year in the life of African-American teen Newton Winger (Kyle Johnson), whose family lives in an overwhelmingly Anglo town deep in the Corn Belt. A coming-of-age drama that hits most of the expected marks regarding racial segregation and discrimination, The Learning Tree looks a bit ponderous and trite today, but in 1969 it was the first major film production entrusted to a black man's care. It's no Killer of Sheep, but is an important film nonetheless, and worth seeing for Burnett Guffey's gorgeous cinematography and Dub Taylor's memorable performance as racist scum-sucker Spikey. Also airs at 2:35pm.