TiVoPlex
By John Seal
June 15, 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 06/15/04
2am The Movie Channel
Easy Wheels(1989 USA): It’s not going to be placed on the National Film Registry any time soon, but if you’re a Sam Raimi fan you’ll want to take a look at this low-budget comedy. Raimi co-wrote Easy Wheels with brother Ivan after the completion of Evil Dead II and immediately prior to 1990’s Darkman, the big studio breakthrough that ultimately led him to the Spider-Man franchise. Additional incestuous links are provided by brother Ted (who appears in a small role) and by Evil Dead actor Bruce Campbell, who co-produced this flick with frequent Raimi collaborator Rob Tapert. Starring Paul Le Mat and Eileen Davidson as leaders of rival biker gangs (respectively, the Born Losers and the Women of the Wolves), Easy Wheels’ story pits Le Mat’s gang against Davidson’s, who are engaged in kidnapping and black market baby-selling. Really. Look for raconteur George Plimpton’s cameo appearance as a surgeon. Also airs at 5am.
9am Turner Classic Movies
Above Suspicion(1943 USA): This enjoyable if inconsequential MGM meller features a sterling cast that more than makes up for the script’s inadequacies. Set on the eve of World War II, Above Suspicion (based on the Helen MacInnes novel of the same name) features Fred MacMurray as a professor sent to the Continent on a spy mission for British Intelligence under cover of a honeymoon trip. Casting the affable and All-American MacMurray as an Oxford don may have been a mistake, but the balance of the acting talent is exemplary, including Joan Crawford as Fred’s new wife, Basil Rathbone as a villainous Nazi agent, and Reginald Owen and the great Conrad Veidt as MacMurray’s European contacts. (This was Veidt’s final performance before he succumbed to heart disease). Directed by the reliable Richard Thorpe, Above Suspicion is great fun for fans of Golden Age cinema, who will also enjoy picking out other familiar faces like Peter Lawford and Peter Van Eyck.
Wednesday 06/16/04
Noon Sundance
Cunnamulla (2000 AUS): This grim documentary about life in Australia’s Outback offers a depressing set of world-weary real-life characters living a bleak existence at the end of the railway line. There’s the pregnant teenager, the bright young man struggling with substance abuse, the harsh father, the prejudiced mother, and the Aborigines the white folks love to kick around. The film doesn’t abuse its subjects, simply presenting them as-is and without commentary. If you’ve ever been tempted to up sticks for the 100-degree heat of the Simpson Desert, this film may change your mind, though the Queensland Tourist Board will no doubt protest.
11:30pm Sundance
Read My Lips (2001 FRA): For more than a decade, Gerard Depardieu was the ugliest man in French cinema, but at last we can report that the torch has been passed to a new actor with an equally unfeasible and unphotogenic proboscis. Yes, now that Gerard is slipping into his twilight years and can blame his advancing age for his repulsive looks and Mr. Potatohead schnoz, it’s time to recognize the new winner of the Jean-Paul Belmondo Prize for Least-Likely Leading Man, Vincent Cassel. From humble beginnings in the gritty working-class drama La Haine (1995), Cassel has scaled the heights and is now a matinee idol in his native France and is poised for bigger things in America thanks to the forthcoming Ocean's Twelve. Read My Lips was a sizable hit on the Continent and features the lantern-jawed Cassel as an ex-con grudgingly trying to go straight. His first job interview results in an offer from hearing-impaired property developer Emmanuelle Devos, a lonely and restless woman on the cusp of a mid-age crisis clearly fascinated by her new employee’s roughhewn features and questionable background. Complications ensue when the two develop a relationship and Cassel’s criminal past - and a devious parole officer (Olivier Perrier) - start to catch up with him. It adds up to a unique, low-key thriller filled with solid performances and some surprising plot twists. And one very large nose.
Thursday 06/17/04
1:15am Showtime
The Border(1979 GB): A surprisingly decent Telly Savalas thriller, The Border features the chrome-domed cigar aficionado as an INS agent facing off against a bracero-smuggling coyote whose human cargo regularly makes the treacherous run from Mexico to the United States. Gritty and reasonably realistic, the film spends more time than you would expect on the harsh realities of life as an illegal worker, including some grim slaughterhouse footage. Well scored by the great Stanley Myers and shot by Buñuel’s favorite Mexican cinematographer, Gabriel Rodriguez, this obscure gem offers unexpected social commentary along with its action sequences. Also airs at 4:15am.
1:45pm Turner Classic Movies
Terror on a Train (1953 GB): You might want to choo-choo-choose this forgotten British thriller (originally released as Time Bomb) starring Canadian Glenn Ford as a demolitions expert called in to defuse a bomb that a would-be saboteur has placed aboard a railcar full of explosives. Terror on a Train is a typical British film of the period, unambitious and clearly on a budget, but it benefits from terrific location work by cinematographer Freddie Young (Lawrence of Arabia) and some nifty train footage. Carry On veteran Victor Maddern plays the bad guy, and love interest is provided by future Radley Metzger star Anne Vernon.
1:15pm IFC
Shower(1999 CHI): A delightful look at family bonds and tradition in a rapidly transmogrifying late-20th-century China, Shower stars Pu Quanxin as a successful businessman called home by his mentally-retarded brother to care for his ailing father and help run the family bathhouse. Unfortunately for him, his dad is perfectly all right, and once back, Quanxin can’t quite extricate himself from his old stomping grounds and ends up massaging flabby old men and cleaning showers instead of closing big-money deals in the big city. The film is both heartwarming and bittersweet, and is one of the most satisfying films to come from the Mainland in quite some time. Strongly recommended. Also airs 6/18 at 1:15am and 10:30am and 6/21 at 9:15am.
Friday 06/18/04
4:30am Turner Classic Movies
Mad Love (1935 USA): After Lon Chaney’s painful death from cancer and the enforced post-Freaks retirement of director Tod Browning, MGM lost interest in producing films dealing with the macabre or fantastic. Mad Love is one of the few post-Hays Code movies from the studio that can even remotely be considered a horror film, but it remains one of The Lion’s great triumphs and is crying out for rediscovery and DVD restoration. Directed by Mummy-helmer Karl Freund, the film stars Peter Lorre (in only his second American big screen appearance) as Doctor Gogol in a story of physical disability that would certainly have appealed to the Man of a Thousand Faces. Gogol is a brilliant but deranged surgeon whose experiments in skin grafting come to the attention of concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive from Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein) whose moneymakers have been crushed in a train accident. Driven to near madness by his inability to tickle the ivories, Clive asks Lorre to give him a new pair of hands, which, in a noteworthy surgical sequence, he does. Unfortunately for Clive, the new appendages have been donated courtesy an executed murderer named Rollo (again, a name one can easily imagine being utilized in a Chaney feature), whose maleficent spirit continues to control the actions of his physical remains. There’s a fine performance by Keye Luke as Lorre’s assistant, the requisite madness of the newly-bloodthirsty Clive, and an astonishing finale featuring Lorre and a remarkable contraption that has to be seen to be believed. Stunningly photographed by Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane), Mad Love is an unforgettable, overlooked gem which you need to see.
9:05am Starz!
Invincible(2001 GER-FRA-GB): It’s no Aguirre The Wrath of God, but Invincible still has enough Werner Herzog flourishes to be worthy of your attention. Tim Roth is the (relatively) big name no doubt attached to assuage the film’s international financiers, but the real star is gentle giant Jouko Ahola, a Finnish strongman cast as Jewish blacksmith Zische Breinbart. Breinbart’s feats of strength are spotted one day in 1932 by a traveling German theatrical agent who convinces the simple-minded craftsman to relocate from rural Poland to Berlin, where his skills will be put to use by the popular clairvoyant Hanussen. Hanussen’s theater is a wildly popular nightspot where the Nazi elite rub shoulders with the bourgeoisie and where everyone solemnly soaks up the astrological hokum supplied by the eponymous snake-oil salesman, played here with grim-visaged determination by the aforementioned Roth. In real life, Hanussen was truly a favorite of Hitler, who always had a fair amount of time for (non-Christian, pagan) mysticism, and was either unaware of - or chose to overlook - Hanussen’s Jewish roots. Whilst Roth is a true pro, Ahola - by no means a good actor - brings pride, strength, and a sense of ethics to his role and is certainly a better thespian than fellow man-mountain Andre the Giant. There are deeply affecting moments throughout the film, as Zische discovers his might is being used to further Nazi ideology, and whilst the film ends on an overwrought note, the first 90 minutes-plus are quietly and consistently effective. Herzog may no longer be amongst the greatest of active directors, but Invincible proves that he still has a fair amount of gas left in the tank. Also airs at 12:05pm.
10:20pm Black Starz!
Little Senegal(2001 ALG-FRA): This remarkable little film features a noteworthy performance by Sotigui Kouyaté as a Senegalese tourist guide who decides to trace his roots across the Atlantic and find his American relations. Employed to guide visitors around an old coastal fortress used to house slaves immediately prior to their shipment to North America, Kouyaté’s character is a straight-shooter whose reverse pilgrimage to New York City’s Senegalese enclave results in a predictable culture clash and a less predictable romance with a sharp-tongued local woman (Sharon Hope). Kouyaté - also seen recently in Dirty Pretty Things and The Truth About Charlie - is one of many fine African actors who are only just beginning to have opportunities in English-language films, and it’ll be interesting to see how this talented man’s career develops over the next few years.
Sunday 06/20/04
9am Sundance
Hush!(2001 JAP): This week’s speculative pick is a Japanese comedy/drama about a gay couple who get involved in surrogate parenting. Probably more interesting for its insights into Japanese society and culture than for any dramatic highlights, Hush! was written and directed by Ryosuke Hashiguchi (1995’s Like Grains of Sand), and probably isn’t going to be filled with explosions or blood squibs. For those who don’t like to worry and enjoy being happy, however, the film also features an original score and songs by the much-reviled Bobby McFerrin.
5:30pm Turner Classic Movies
Hootenanny Hoot(1963 USA): If smart-looking young men in striped shirts and crew cuts warbling anodyne folk music is your idea of entertainment, you’ll definitely want to check out this rarely-seen musical. In pre-Beatles 1963 the pop music scene was wide open, and with rock-and-roll in retreat, producer Sam Katzman no doubt detected an opportunity to exploit the burgeoning Greenwich Village folk music scene. There’s a paint-by-numbers marriage-on-the-rocks plot involving stars Peter Breck and Ruta Lee but folk fans will be more interested in the musical performances by (amongst others) Joe and Eddie, The Gateway Trio, and The Brothers Four, whilst more pop-oriented viewers may be attracted by the presence of The Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash, and Mr. Purple People Eater, Sheb Wooley. Look for young Maureen Reagan - who predeceased her father by several years - in a small role as a music fan. If you were intrigued or amused by A Mighty Wind, here’s the real deal, minus the postmodern cynicism.
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