TiVoPlex
By John Seal
April 26, 2004
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 04/27/04
3pm Turner Classic Movies
Action of the Tiger (1957 GB-USA): Van Johnson stars as an amoral black marketer in this film about intrigue behind the Iron Curtain. When he’s approached by beauteous Martine Carol with a plea to help rescue her brother from imprisonment in Stalinist Albania, he has a Pickup on South Street-style epiphany and realizes that he’s got to do his bit in the War on Communism. Most notable for its supporting cast, which includes Herbert Lom and Anthony Dawson, Action of the Tiger also marked the first of four collaborations between future James Bond director Terence Young and future Bond Sean Connery. Shot in Technicolor, Action of the Tiger makes its wide-screen American television debut this afternoon.
9pm More Max
Sweet Sixteen (2002 GB): Regular readers know I have a soft spot for Marxist director Ken Loach. His films are always political, but rarely polemical, as Sweet Sixteen - his most recent feature, making its television premiere this evening - proves. Set in the impoverished slums of Glasgow, Scotland, the film stars Martin Compston as a young man trying to save his falsely-convicted mother from the clutches of her nasty drug-dealing boyfriend and her equally unpleasant father upon her release from prison. Unfortunately but understandably saddled with subtitles to help the uninitiated cope with the cast’s extremely thick Scots accents, this is a wonderful slice of life drama written by Paul Laverty and lensed by Barry Ackroyd, both frequent Loach collaborators.
11pm Showtime
Revolution (1968 USA): Given a single airing last November on Showtime, Revolution returns for an encore performance this evening. It’s a fascinating time capsule, and any old hippies, yippies, or students of cultural studies who missed the November broadcast should definitely set their timer tonight. Filmed vérité style during San Francisco’s infamous Summer of Love in 1967, Revolution captures the counterculture zeitgeist of the Haight-Ashbury like no other film. Music is provided by Country Joe and the Fish (good), The Steve Miller Band (not so good, but better than their ‘70s hit-machine incarnation), and - best of all - the all-girl group Ace of Cups, whose previously unheard demos were recently released by the fantabulous Big Beat Records. Later re-edited by director Jack O’Connell and re-issued in 1996 as The Hippie Revolution, the original version remains the best way to see and appreciate this remarkable footage. Also airs 4/28 at 2am.
Wednesday 04/28/04
7pm Encore Action
Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004 USA): I know it’s not going to be very good. But as one of the few big-time fans of Paul Verhoeven’s giant bugs-from-space movie, I’m going to delude myself into hoping this straight-to-cable sequel won’t be completely sucktacular. Oh, you want evidence, do you? Well, let’s summarize the arguments in its favor: Ed Lauter’s in it, and he’s one of Hollywood’s most reliable character actors. Director Phil Tippett built models on the set of Joe Dante’s Piranha!, a big plus. And screenwriter Ed Neumeier actually wrote the script for the first Starship Troopers in 1997, as well as 1987’s Robocop! Hey, I think I’ve convinced myself that Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation might not be entirely worthless, and being as there aren’t really any interesting alternatives on cable today, I think my evening is planned. If you’re not convinced, there’s always Scrabble or Go Fish.
Thursday 04/29/04
4:15am More Max
King Creole (1958 USA): Set in the picturesque French Quarter of old New Orleans, King Creole is one of Elvis Presley’s best films, benefiting from a screenplay by Michael V. Gazzo, whose brilliant drug-addiction drama Hatful of Rain had been released a year earlier. It also has some great music, featuring three Leiber-Stoller originals (including the rockin’ title track) and the wonderful and timeless Wise-Weisman composition, Crawfish. Shot on location in luminescent black-and-white, the film follows Elvis’ upwardly mobile journey from dishwasher to nightclub performer under the tutelage of impresario Paul Stewart. As the King climbs to the top, he attracts the attention of local mobster Walter Matthau, who starts turning the screws when Presley refuses to appear at his nightclub. Directed by Michael Curtiz, and featuring Carolyn Jones, Dean Jagger, Vic Morrow, and Raymond Bailey, this is the Elvis film for folks who don’t like Elvis films. Also airs on HBO Signature 5/3 at 3am.
2pm Sundance
My Terrorist (2002 ISR-GB-DEN): This astonishing documentary recounts the efforts of former El Al stewardess Yulie Gerstel to obtain freedom for Fahad Mihyi, a pro-Palestinian gunman who wounded her in an attack in London in 1978. Sentenced to four life terms, Mihyi seemed unlikely to receive the compassion of his victim, but Gerstel’s transition from Israeli nationalist and soldier to conciliatory filmmaker led her to realize that Palestinians and Israelis both bore responsibility for the apparently endless cycles of violence and retribution in the Holy Land. Notwithstanding the hostile response of many Israelis to Gerstel - she’s probably only marginally more popular than Mordechai Vanunu in her home country - My Terrorist is a courageous and brave attempt to bridge the religious, racial, and social differences that have plagued the Jewish State for decades.
Friday 04/30/04
8:45am Encore True Stories
Port of Last Resort (1999 OST): As the recently-aired Struma (2001 CAN) proves, there are still plenty of fascinating and previously untold stories of the Holocaust to be told. Here’s an Austrian documentary about the little-known Jewish exodus to Shanghai in the years leading up to World War II. With its reputation (and legal status) as an open city, Shanghai became the home of a 20,000-strong contingent of European Jews in exile, a community that stayed intact until Maoist forces destroyed the Jewish cemetery and erased all physical memories of the diaspora. This remarkable film includes interviews with survivors as well as incredibly rare footage from the period.
11pm Turner Classic Movies
Dollar (1938 SWE): This early Ingrid Bergman comedy/drama gets a very rare American television airing courtesy TCM’s Friday import slot. Bergman was still a few years away from Hollywood stardom, but she was already a big name in Scandinavia when she made Dollar for director Gustaf Molander, who had also helmed her in the original Swedish version of Intermezzo in 1936. This story of infidelity amongst the smart set features Bergman as the wife of businessman and gambling addict Georg Rydeberg, and takes place over a ski lodge weekend, during which Bergman tries to cover up her sale of company stock in order to settle her husband’s debts. To complete the screwball picture, there’s a meddlesome Yank on hand - played by Stockholm-born Elsa Burnett - and a pair of feuding couples busy suspecting their partners of faithlessness. Whilst a bit more broadminded than the puritanical Hollywood films of the period, Dollar remains of primarty interest due to Bergman’s presence, and she unsurprisingly dominates the proceedings.
Saturday 05/01/04
3am Turner Classic Movies
Enchanted Island (1958 USA): Director Allan Dwan got his start helming silent action films like 1922’s Robin Hood, and this was the penultimate feature of his lengthy and illustrious career. Filmed on location in the South Pacific, it’s an entertaining and colorful RKO time-killer. Based loosely on Herman Melville’s Typee, Enchanted Island stars Dana Andrews in a Polynesian variant on the Arabian Nights tales, with Andrews jumping ship and washing ashore on a remote tropical island populated by cannibals and love interest Jane Powell. I haven’t read the source novel, but somehow I doubt that this is a particularly faithful adaptation.
7pm IFC
Tommy (1975 GB): I consider myself a reasonably big fan of The Who - Substitute is one of my favorite singles of all time - but I have to admit I’m not all that keen on their rock opera about the deaf, dumb, and blind kid with the pinball fetish. That said, Ken Russell’s outrageous film adaptation needs to be seen at least once so you can tell your grandchildren that, yes, Oliver Reed did try to sing on screen. Some of the songs are downright painful to listen to, and it’s hard to imagine a time when this film could have been considered anything but camp, especially considering the cast includes Ann-Margret and Elton John. Nonetheless it remains strangely fascinating, something that can’t be said about other rock operas on film, such as Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1982 GB). Hopefully IFC will air this in its correct 1:1.85 aspect ratio, though their track record on letterboxed prints is bafflingly inconsistent. Also airs 5/2 at 12:30am and 1:15pm.
Sunday 05/02/04
9:30am Sundance
Afghan Stories (2002 USA): New York-born Taran Davies, responsible for the quite excellent Mountain Men and Holy Wars (also 2002), produced and directed this look at life in Afghanistan post 9-11. By a quirk of fate, Davies found himself in the right place at right time: he arrived in Kabul in October 2001, shortly before Dear Leader Bush starting pounding that poverty-stricken country back into some sort of pre-Stone Age existence. Taking a look at the lives of ordinary Afghanis, including a Taliban torture victim, a family attempting to emigrate to Canada, and others, the film is, according to then-Afghan ambassador to the UN Dr. Ravan Farhadi, “the first to tell the stories of the ordinary Afghan people.”
11pm Turner Classic Movies
Finger of Guilt (1956 GB): Released in the UK as The Intimate Stranger, Finger of Guilt was blacklisted director Joseph Losey’s second British film, and while it isn’t quite up to the standards of 1957’s Time Without Pity (recently reissued on DVD), it remains a fascinating and worthwhile drama. Richard Basehart plays an American filmmaker in London whose film career is threatened by a series of poison-pen letters that break up his marriage and cause him to question his sanity. This was undoubtedly close-to-the-bone stuff for Losey, as well as screenwriter Howard Koch, who also went into exile during the Hollywood blacklist years. Bolstered by a sturdy British cast, including Mervyn Johns, Faith Brook, and Roger Livesey, Finger of Guilt is a deeply personal statement, and hasn’t been seen on American television in quite some time.
Monday 05/03/04
4:35am Encore Mystery
Johnny O’Clock (1947 USA): The debut feature of director Robert Rossen, Johnny O’Clock is a nifty noir featuring Dick Powell as the title character, a going-to-seed casino manager whose life is slowly sinking under the collective weight of infidelity, illegal gambling, and sheer slothfulness. Hounded by a corrupt cop who ends up dead, Powell’s life gets worse when tenacious police inspector Lee J. Cobb starts applying the heat. Hunky Jeff Chandler made his film debut in this feature, which also airs at 5pm.
3pm Fox Movie Channel
Bedazzled (1967 GB): The rare cult film that deserves its reputation, Bedazzled has, of course, since been re-imagined by the insidious Hollywood money machine, to ill effect. Well, OK; it wasn't THAT bad, but compared to the original - a truly inspired and unique piece of work - it was a load of old codswallop, as my granddad used to say. At any rate, Fox is showing the REAL Bedazzled, wide-screen and complete with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Raquel Welch, the beautiful Eleanor Bron, and Dame Edna himself, Barry Humphries, this afternoon. Maddeningly still unavailable on DVD, the gold standard for Swingin’ ‘60s comedies, Bedazzled is a brilliantly-written Peter Cook paean to sin and temptation that features a wall-to-wall barrage of quotable dialogue. In fact I could reel off numerous chunks of the film right now, but I suppose that would be boring. Think I’ll just pop out to the shops for a bottle of Fruney's Green Eyewash instead.
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