TiVoPlex
By John Seal
June 1, 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 06/01/04
1am Encore
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969 USA): Back in the mists of time, when I was a mere lad with nary a hint of peachfuzz on my face, I always associated the word "horse" with heroin. That may sound odd, especially to those who knew me then, but here’s the story: one of the most enduring memories of my childhood is the initial broadcast of the 1973 telefilm Go Ask Alice, specifically the grocery scene wherein teen A tells teen B to "get off her high horse" about something or other, only to have snotty teen C advise her to instead "get off her horse high." Smack, skag, junk, even good old-fashioned dope…but horse? Does anyone call it that anymore? Did anyone really call it that in 1973? Yes, it may be one of the colloquialisms for the opiate of choice for fading rock stars and angst-ridden jazz musicians, but it’s hardly one of the most common ones. All of which may not have much bearing on the subject at hand, 1969’s Jane Fonda vehicle They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, but when the film first popped up on television in the mid-'70s I assumed it was a hardhitting crime drama entitled They Shoot Horse, Don’t They? Yes, I was a strange child, and no, the film has nothing to do with drug abuse - well, other than perhaps a little bit of coffee and maybe some uppers - and everything to do with the Depression-era pastime known as marathon dancing. Couples could win big money in those days just by staying on their feet longer than the other hoofers, and this film - based on Horace McCoy’s novel - is a unique cinema tribute to this brief cultural phenomenon. They Shoot Horses features a marvelous cast, including (in addition to Hanoi Jane) Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York, Al "Grandpa" Lewis, Bruce Dern, Bonnie Bedelia, Severn Darden, and - in his greatest role - Gig Young as the down-at-heel master of ceremonies whose enthusiastic jawing keeps his charges tripping the light fantastic. Directed by Sydney Pollack and featuring a terrific score comprising plenty of jaunty ‘30s tunes, this is a grim and at times disturbing examination of these bizarre contests that rewarded winners with anything from thousands of dollars in cash to simple food and shelter (According to www.badfads.com, the longevity record stands at 5,148 hours and 28.5 minutes). It’s unfortunate that Encore is airing a pan-and-scan print, but considering how long its been since this film was last on the boob tube, I’ll happily offer a recommendation. Also airs at 4am.
6am Turner Classic Movies
Success At Any Price (1934 USA): This forgotten RKO crime drama features Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as a poor boy determined to make good, regardless of the consequences. Along the way he woos beautiful Genevieve Tobin, my current 1930s "It Girl" and the main reason to watch this film. If you missed her as Della Street in the recently-aired Perry Mason feature, The Case of the Lucky Legs, make her acquaintance this evening. She’s a little bundle of fire who should have been a star, but chose to retire from Hollywood shortly after marrying director William Keighley in 1938. Co-starring Edward Everett Horton and Frank Morgan, Success At Any Price is a terrific period action film for those who like both their dialogue and their hat brims snappy.
4pm HBO Signature
The Good Thief(2002 USA): One of my cinematic blindspots is about to be revealed: I’ve never seen Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1955 crime film, Bob Le Flambeur. As a result, you won’t get to read my complaints about how this remake is a tasteless and unnecessary updating that brings shame to director Neil Jordan, who should have known better than to fiddle with a beloved masterpiece. Instead, I’m going to praise Jordan for creating an intricate and thoroughly enjoyable caper flick, and offer kudos to Nick Nolte for taking Method acting to the extreme as a strung-out master criminal trying to pull off (take a deep breath) ONE…LAST…BIG…JOB (Nolte claimed to dabble with heroin whilst on the set of this film in an effort to get into character). Whilst unburdened by a surfeit of originality, The Good Thief does a fine job delivering the entertainment goods, and is the sort of film that should - but for reasons I don’t understand, doesn’t - pack them in at the multiplex. Look for an uncredited Ralph Fiennes as a cranky-pants art enthusiast, as well Saïd Taghmaoui (La Haine, Three Kings) as one of Nolte’s gang of miscreants. The Good Thief makes its American television debut this evening, and also airs 6/5 at 9:30am.
Wednesday 06/02/04
1am Encore
Cruising (1980 USA): William Friedkin’s oft-maligned film about a serial killer stalking gay men in The Big Apple returns to Encore this evening. Initially released to general opprobrium from both the gay and straight communities, the film plays better now that the sexual orientation wars are starting to die down somewhat (Of course, if the killer decided to stalk legally-married gay couples instead of leather men, we’d be right back at Square One). Al Pacino stars as an undercover cop who dives into the gay bar scene in an effort to unmask the killer, and one of the most interesting aspects of the film is not only watching him try to pass as a gay man, but adjusting to the reality of both discrimination and sexual harassment at the hands of straights and gays. It’s a fine performance, ably supported by Paul Sorvino, Karen Allen, and Joe Spinell, and features the sexually-ambiguous (and less-than-dulcet) tones of Germs frontman Darby Crash on the legendary soundtrack. Not for all tastes, Cruising also airs at 4am.
3:30am Sundance
Rififi (1954 FRA): I’ve recommended it before, but I feel I need to do penance for that whole Bob Le Flambeur thing, so Rififi gets another mention in this week’s column. Jean Servais stars as Tony, an unrepentant jewel thief out to score one last time (sigh) before his chronic lung disease does him in. He hooks up with a group of fellow baddies (including director Dassin as a dapper safecracker) and plans an elaborate heist. Indeed, the job goes off without a hitch, but when Dassin’s character makes a tiny error of judgment, a competing gangster decides to muscle in on the action, leading to a litany of murder, revenge, and kidnapping. The 20-minute robbery sequence is the bit everyone remembers from this film, but the rest of the film is also terrific, most notably Servais’ performance as the doomed protagonist and Philippe Agostini’s stunning cinematography. If you’ve never seen Rififi, make some time for it this week.
5pm Fox Movie Channel
Edward Scissorhands (1990 USA): I can’t recall this dark Tim Burton fantasy getting a wide-screen airing any time recently, so this is cause for some celebration. The film that heralded the transformation of Johnny Depp from pretty face to pretty damn good actor, Edward Scissorhands is a near masterpiece, a sweet and sour blend of darkness and light set in a ticky-tacky Florida housing tract that just happens to abut a spooky old castle. Pretty-in-pink Dianne Wiest stumbles up to the drawbridge one day in an effort to bolster her door-to-door makeup sales, but she’s soon distracted by the lonely and heartbroken title character, whom she immediately adopts and brings home to the chagrin of daughter Winona Ryder and others. Gorgeously lensed by Stefan Czapsky (Ed Wood, and, erm, Wild Wild West) and intelligently written by Caroline Thompson (currently working with Burton on the forthcoming Corpse Bride), Edward Scissorhands will have the most stony-hearted cynic in tears by the end (I should know, because I saw it on New Year’s Eve 1990, and was awash in Kleenex during the final reel). And was there any better way for Vincent Price to take his final cinema bow? I think not.
Thursday 06/03/04
12:45am Turner Classic Movies
The Human Factor (1978 GB): By no means one of the better Cold War thrillers, The Human Factor is based on Graham Greene’s late-period novel of the same name, which also happens to be one of his least interesting books. Nevertheless, I’m giving it a qualified reservation, as the film remains unavailable on DVD and is getting an extremely rare wide-screen airing this morning. The final film of director Otto Preminger’s long and turbulent career, it’s a step up from his 1975 feature, Rosebud - an execrable love song to Mossad - but still falls far short of classic status. Featuring an all-star British cast, including Derek Jacobi, Richard Attenborough, John Gielgud, Robert Morley, and Nicol Williamson (my personal choice for most unappreciated British film actor of the last 30 years), The Human Factor was adapted for the screen by playwright Tom Stoppard. The film’s pedigree can’t elevate its uncharacteristically slipshod source material - a mundane tale of a British spy defecting to the Soviet Union - but it remains an interesting film for hardcore Britfilm buffs and Greene fans, of which I’m both.
1:45pm HBO 2
Judgment Day: Should the Guily Go Free(2003 USA): Joe Berlinger - whose Paradise Lost films for HBO remain that network’s finest in-house documentary productions - directed this short feature about the role of parole boards in the American justice system. It makes its television premiere this evening, and while I’ve yet to see it, Berlinger’s previous work suggests that this will be a thought-provoking and solidly-researched film. Also airs at 4:45pm.
Friday 06/04/04
11pm Turner Classic Movies
Walpurgis Night (1935 SWE): If you enjoyed the marvelous Ingrid Bergman romantic comedy Dollar - aired by TCM a few weeks back in this time slot - you’ll definitely want to make time for this film, a drama featuring Bergman as a secretary in love with her boss (Lars Hanson from The Story of Gosta Berling). Hanson’s marriage isn’t an entirely happy one, and things get complicated when his wife - who doesn’t want children - has an abortion. Walpurgis Night deals with issues that American film couldn’t possibly confront in the years prior to or during the Second World War and co-stars Victor Sjostrom (back in Sweden after his lengthy stint in Hollywood) as Bergman’s father.
Saturday 06/05/04
5am Encore Westerns
The Western Code (1932 USA): As part of my sworn, solemn duty to draw your attention to the most obscure movies available on the small screen, I bring you The Western Code, an under-an-hour Columbia program from the dawn of the sound era. I’d be telling fibs if I told you I’d seen it, but just the thought of getting a chance to view this ancient oater has me salivating. Tim McCoy (a cowboy star from the renowned ranching town of Saginaw, Michigan) plays a lawman who rescues a maiden in distress (Nora Lane) from a local hardcase and gets tangled up in the machinations of a slimy local rancher (Wheeler Oakman). Apparently there’s a murder mystery and a lynching thrown in for good measure, and the cast also includes Mischa Auer and (in-between Universal horror films) Dwight Frye.
5pm Turner Classic Movies
Papillon (1973 USA): You couldn’t get away with a moniker like this these days. The producers of Gigli tried, but if your average cinemagoer can’t pronounce the title correctly, your movie’s gonna bomb (In a bizarre twist of fate, Gigli is making its television premiere on another channel this evening, but we’ll spare you those details). Back in ’73, though, this film raked in an impressive $53 million, a lot of dosh, considering the film only cost $12 million to produce. Star Steve McQueen plays a turn-of-the-20th-century French criminal sent to Devil’s Island after the penal colony in French Guiana is unable to hold him. Did you know that French Guiana still exists? The penal colony closed in 1951, but the French Empire lives on in this remote corner of South America, where it serves as the base for the European Space Agency. Anyhoo, Papillon was directed by Patton-helmer Franklin J. Schaffner and co-written by blacklistee Dalton Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple Jr., and co-stars a whole host of cinema tough guys, including Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Anthony Zerbe, George Coulouris, Vic Tayback, Richard Farnsworth, and a pre-Barney Miller Gregory Sierra. A big-budget existential classic of sorts, Papillon is getting a wide-screen airing on TCM this evening. It also airs on 6/6 at 3pm.
Sunday 06/06/04
9:30am Sundance
American Waitress, New Mexico (2002 USA): It’s hardly earthshattering news, but the life of a waitress is by no means an easy one. This documentary profiles four all-American gals slinging hash in the desert heat of the Southwestern United States. If you’ve ever waited tables yourself, or simply empathized with the poor person who’s balancing plates, cleaning up your mess, and taking orders for far too little in the way of compensation, you’ll appreciate the efforts of the working women depicted in this film.
Monday 06/07/04
3am Turner Classic Movies
Last of the Pagans(1935 USA): Last month TCM aired the rather insipid Enchanted Island, a 1958 RKO screen adaptation of Herman Melville’s Typee. Here’s an earlier version of the same story, and whilst I must profess ignorance of the source material, I can’t imagine that it can be much duller than Enchanted Island was. Starring nobody I’m remotely familiar with - with the possible exception of Lotus Long, an Asian-American actress who ended her career playing Tokyo Rose - Last of the Pagans at least benefits from having a good director (Richard Thorpe), an experienced screenwriter (John Farrow), and MGM’s usual high-quality production values.
11:15pm Turner Classic Movies
Smile (1975 USA): This marvelous comedy/drama stars Bruce Dern and Barbara "Agent 99" Feldon as beauty pageant organizers desperate to put on a good show regardless of the turmoil in their private lives. Feldon’s marriage is on the rocks, and Dern’s son is an amateur pornographer whose hobby has the potential to damage his father’s All-American reputation. Filmed in Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite American small town, Santa Rosa, California, and directed by the erratic Michael Ritchie, this is a perceptive and very funny look at the mores of middle America circa 1970. Look for an 18-year-old Melanie Griffith in a supporting role.
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