TiVoPlex
By John Seal
June 8, 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 06/08/04
2:45am Cinemax
TwentyFourSeven (1997 GB): One of the better low-budget British kitchen-sink dramas of the last decade, TwentyFourSeven treads some pretty familiar territory - local man tries to save working-class kids from a life of crime - but has a game cast, including Bob Hoskins as a boxing trainer with a heart of gold. Particularly good is Danny Nussbaum (later the young man absurdly para-dropped into Serbia in 2000's Beautiful People) as an aimless young man who answers the call of the Squared Circle. Director and co-writer Shane Meadows went on to make the critically-acclaimed Room for Romeo Brass and the popular-in-Britain Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, which flew in and out of US arthouses in the space of a week last year.
12:15pm Turner Classic Movies
Split Second (1953 USA): This surprisingly bleak pseudo-noir stars Stephen McNally, Paul Kelly, and Frank De Kova as a gang of escaped cons who break out of prison, seize five hostages and then unknowingly stumble into a nuclear test site. They’ve got 12 hours to break through the Army cordons and escape, or risk atomic incineration, and desperation soon takes hold. The first film directed by singing actor Dick Powell, Split Second was co-written by novelist Irving Wallace and was superbly shot on location in the Mojave Desert by DP Nicholas Musaraca. The incredibly downbeat ending will appeal to fans of Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and Arch Oboler’s similarly-themed Five (1951).
9pm More Max
The Legend of Suriyothai (2001 THA): This lavish historical epic from Thailand makes its television debut this evening. Sadly, this is the truncated 142-minute US release cut, trimmed of over 40 minutes from the original film, which was later expanded into a five-hour version for DVD release in Southeast Asia. The most expensive (and successful) film in Thai movie history, The Legend of Suriyothai lards on court intrigue, plenty of battle scenes, and a dazzling array of costumes and impressive set design in its tale of a 15-year-old child bride who became Queen of Siam and (spoiler alert!) died in battle fighting her nation’s Burmese enemies in 1528. If you enjoy a good spectacle and aren’t averse to subtitles, this is the pick of the week.
Wednesday 06/09/04
10:30am Encore Mystery
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966 USA): Along with Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead and Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, this is one of my favorite film titles of all time. Alas, the contents of this particular chocolate box are not quite as tasty as the packaging would lead one to believe, but it’s not entirely without merit. TiVoPlex fave James Coburn stars as a master criminal out to break into an airport bank, and the outstanding supporting cast also includes Aldo Ray, Severn Darden, Rose Marie, and Vic Tayback. Would-be superstar Camilla Sparv - then-wife of future Paramount exec Robert Evans - is the love interest (it’s easy to understand how her career faded out once Evans was no longer attached to her) and Dead Heat also features Harrison Ford’s screen debut as a bellboy. Director Bernard Girard’s television roots clearly show through in this low-intensity thriller, but Coburn is, of course, great; and oh, that title!
Thursday 06/10/04
3:30am Sundance
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984 USA): The unfortunately-named Harvey Milk was the first gay elected member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and, along with Mayor George Moscone, was assassinated by former Supervisor Dan White in 1978. White, who claimed to be depressed and amped up on sugar when he committed the crime, served less than five years in prison for double manslaughter, was paroled in 1984, and committed suicide a year later. The winner of the 1985 Academy Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary, this film looks at Milk’s life (including his stint in the US Navy) and the changing social landscape of both the City by the Bay and the United States in the wake of the ferment of the late ‘60s, when Gay Liberation burst into the open after the Stonewall Riots in New York City. Also airs at 2:30pm.
1:30pm HBO
My Flesh and Blood (2003 USA): This flawed but fascinating documentary takes a look at the unique Tom family of Fairfield, California. Consisting of 11 (mostly adopted) children - some terminally ill and others merely handicapped - and the superwoman Mom who rides herd over them, the Toms’ travails were recorded over the course of a full calendar year (Mom stipulated that the filmmakers could have access for 365 days, and not a minute more). Some of the children have physical limitations, one suffers from cancer and a crippling blood disease, another has cystic fibrosis, and another bears the scars of a bad childhood fire. Add in behavior problems and the inevitable conflicts between Mom’s natural offspring and her adopted wards, and the 84-minute running time rapidly flies by. I wish the filmmakers had somehow been able to ferret out exactly what drove Susan Tom to take on this incredible and exhausting task - at one point she glibly claims that six children isn’t that much more work than five, which isn’t that much more work than four - but there’s no denying her incredible commitment and love in the face of tremendous adversity and the looming shadow of death. Also airs at 4:30pm and 6/13 on HBO Signature at 5:30am.
11pm Turner Classic Movies
Rio Rita (1929 USA): Big fans of comedy team Wheeler and Woolsey? Didn’t think so. The erstwhile vaudevillians made over two dozen features in the 1930s, but in 1929 Rio Rita (not to be confused with the 1942 Abbott and Costello feature of the same name) was their film debut, after spending much of the previous year performing the same roles on stage for producer Florenz Ziegfeld. It’s an oddity now, and a lot of the musical interludes are hard to take (especially when Bebe Daniels is doing the singing), but Wheeler and Woolsey are fairly amusing, and it’s certainly a rarity.
Friday 06/11/04
8:15am Sundance
Gotham Fish Tales (2003 USA): Yes, Virginia, you can go fishing in New York City. At least such is the claim of this documentary, which takes a look at both commercial and recreational fishing in the environs of the Big Apple. From sharks to tropical fish, they all swim through the region’s waters, and hardy New Yorkers are waiting to catch them. It’s no shaggy dog tale, but I’m not sure I’d want to eat ANYTHING pulled from the Hudson.
8:45pm Encore True Stories
Das Experiment (2001 GER): When this German film made its American television premiere earlier this year, I had no idea how topical it would be just a few months later. In light of everything that has transpired since then, this disturbing film - based on a real-life experiment conducted at Stanford University in 1971 - quickly establishes that brutality and cruelty are lurking beneath the civilized surface and are easily accessible parts of human nature, as students "act out" the roles of prisoners and their wardens at a German research institute. This is hard going and definitely not for all tastes, but strongly recommended nonetheless, and thankfully, Starz! is utilizing a subtitled print. Not likely to be screened at the White House anytime soon.
Saturday 06/12/04
9am IFC
The Cars That Ate Paris (1974 AUS): My memories of seeing The Cars That Ate Paris were dark ones. The horrific pan-and-scan video print that we all grew up with seemed to be a succession of dank and dreary night scenes, and poorly-composed night scenes at that. Now that the film is fully restored on DVD, however, viewers can truly appreciate this masterpiece of the macabre. Filled with sunshine-brilliant shots of a beautiful Australian town and buoyed by Peter Weir's magnificent screenplay, this is an outsider classic about a bizarre cargo cult in the middle of an otherwise "civilized" country. Amongst a raft full of fine performances, John Meillon stands out as the town mayor, and, as accident victim Arthur Waldo, Terry Camilleri (most recently seen in, God forbid, Gigli) effortlessly channels the spirit of Dudley Moore's down-in-the-dumps Stanley Moon from the original version of Bedazzled. There's also a magnificent score by Bruce Smeaton that deftly blends the romanticism of Nino Rota with the majestic sweep of Morricone's best work and adds a dash of electronic dissonance for good measure. Viewers anticipating a film about real man-eating cars are best advised to avoid Peter Weir's freshman feature. All others, you're in for a treat. Also airs at 3pm and 6/13 at 7am.
Monday 06/14/04
3am Turner Classic Movies
A Lady Without Passport (1950 USA): A few weeks back I recommended Joseph H. Lewis’ East Side Kids film, Boys of the City, an old dark-house comedy well suited to the director’s atmospheric style and predilection for shadow-play. Here’s a more typical Lewis film, a noir-police procedural hybrid about an INS agent investigating refugee smuggling from Cuba. Our hero is played stolidly by John Hodiak, but most of the fun to be had is thanks to villainous George Macready, whose newest client is a beautiful Holocaust survivor (Hedy Lamarr) trying to get into the good ol’ US of A. If you can believe that Lamarr spent time in a concentration camp, you’ll enjoy this MGM intriguer.
5pm HBO
Heir to an Execution (2004 USA): This week’s speculative pick is a documentary about the 1953 executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted in 1951 for supplying atomic secrets to the Soviet Union (It now seems apparent that Julius was a Soviet spy, but the innocent-but-loyal Ethel was shopped by her brother, David Greenglass). Filmmaker Ivy Meeropol, the granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, visited the Lower East Side haunts of the demonized couple, and interviewed old colleagues and friends, including 103-year-old Harry Steingart. Heir to an Execution isn’t likely to be the most objective non-fiction film ever made, but it should prove interesting.
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