TiVoPlex
By John Seal
August 23, 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 08/24/04
6am Turner Classic Movies
Sunnyside (1919 USA): TCM is re-airing a passel of popular Chaplin films today, but trust the best cable channel in the world to add a rarely-seen obscurity into the mix. This one features Charlie as a fantasizing farmhand out to win the hand of frequent co-star Edna Purviance. Shot for First National during a period when that company was reluctant to let Chaplin expand into feature films, Sunnyside also marked Chaplin’s first attempt at scoring, as he composed sheet music to accompany the film in theaters. If you’ve seen the compilation feature The Chaplin Revue you’ve seen Sunnyside, but if you haven’t, here’s your chance to take a look at one of Charlie’s last short subjects.
9am Fox Movie Channel
Bigger Than Life (1956 USA): It’s overdone and a bit florid, but this drug-addiction drama was pretty hot stuff in 1956 and remains relatively entertaining today. James Mason stars as a teacher who becomes hooked on cortisone, of all things. Based on a true story about a New York City educator, the film features a superb performance from the eminently watchable Mason, who slips quietly into madness and abusive behavior whilst undergoing treatment for a serious heart ailment. Directed by Nicholas Ray, whose finale for this film seems to have been culled from the Johnny Guitar playbook, Bigger Than Life also features Barbara Rush as Mason’s wife and Walter Matthau as a sympathetic colleague. Look for little Jerry Mathers in an early, pre-Leave It to Beaver cameo. Also airs at 11pm.
Wednesday 08/25/04
10am Encore Mystery
Once Upon a Spy (1980 USA): TV-Movie-of-the-Week alert! Ted Danson stars in this cheesy thriller about a prototypical super-spy (Danson) and his lovely computer-literate assistant (Mary Louise Weller) matching wits with super-villain Christopher Lee. Directed by the creepy Ivan Nagy - best known as Heidi Fleiss’ abusive, one-time boyfriend - this CBS-TV production was co-written by Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster. It didn’t win any Emmys, but I do recall it being reasonably entertaining, and it hasn’t been on TV in some time.
Thursday 08/26/04
6am Sundance
Salt (2002 ICE): This odd Icelandic road movie displays evidence of the influence of the Dogme manifesto, even though it cheats from time to time with the odd bit of artificial lighting. The story of two sisters (cute-as-a-button Brynja Dora Guonadottir and the more mature Melkorka Huldudottir) fighting over the same fella (Davio Orn Haldorrson), the film is a methodical character study that finds its protagonists moving at an appropriately glacial pace. If you don’t find the deliberate storytelling style to your taste, however, you may still enjoy this film, which takes full advantage of its Icelandic locales and at times looks quite stunning. The cast is uniformly fine, apparently improvising much of their dialogue, and the film hardly wears out its welcome, clocking in under an hour-and-a-half. Also airs at 6pm.
Friday 08/27/04
11am Encore Action
The Challenge (1938 GB): The Challenge can be recommended for the 15 or 20 minutes of mountain-climbing footage that serve as the film's narrative bookends. Directed by and starring Austro-Hungarian mountaineer and filmmaker Luis Trenker, these segments are truly thrilling and at times brilliantly shot by Trenker's long-time DP, Albert Benitz. The Matterhorn, long since emasculated by the persistent presence of Mickey Mouse and Goofy on its slopes, has certainly never looked more imposing than it does here. Sadly, the balance of the film is taken up by deadly dull stuff about Briton Edward Whymper's race to beat the bally Eye-ties to the top of the mountain, and you'll be challenged indeed to keep your eyelids propped open during the tedious second act of the film. For those who like their oxygen thin or simply yearn to see a good avalanche, however, this is well worth a look.
9pm Fox Movie Channel
Pretty Poison (1968 USA): Eight years after the fact, Anthony Perkins’ career was still being hamstrung by his unforgetable performance as Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s Psycho. He’s cast as another troubled, itchy-twitchy young man in this psychological thriller opposite Tuesday Weld, at this point in her mid-20s but still able to pass for a teenager. The two matinee idols play disturbed young folks who get into a boat load of trouble, but to reveal more would be to spoil the story. Pretty Poison’s clean-cut stars give the film a decidedly early-‘60s look, but there’s a sting in the tail of this unusual feature that places it firmly in the cynical half of the decade. Directed by Noel Black and penned by Lorenzo Semple Jr., this is a surprisingly twisted major-studio production.
Saturday 08/28/04
3:45am Cinemax
Roustabout (1964 USA): Whenever Elvis returned to his rebel roots, his product improved. Roustabout provided him with his meatiest ‘60s role, a leather-clad itinerant musician who falls in with Barbara Stanwyck's traveling carnival. He's lean and mean and his songs actually work as part of the film instead of serving simply as a distraction. It’s a shame this hasn’t been aired recently by TCM - like all Elvis’ films, it’s better in wide-screen - but for once the screenplay carries the story and doesn’t embarrass the King. Add in a solid supporting cast of old-time troupers, including Jack Albertson, Dabbs Greer, and Pat Buttram, and you’ve got a winner. Watch for Teri Garr and Raquel Welch in non-credited appearances as, respectively, a carnival dancer and a college girl. Also airs at 6:45am.
5am IFC
Three Outlaw Samurai (1964 JAP): Here’s a samurai obscurity I’d never heard of before now, never mind seen. This week’s speculative pick marked the debut of director Hideo Gosha, none of whose other enticingly titled features (including Prison Release Celebration and Bandits vs. Samurai Squadron) are readily available in the Western world, and features Tetsuro Tamba from last week’s sake-and-swordplay epic, Samurai Spy, as well as Kurosawa regular Kamatari Fujiwara. Filmed in 2.35:1 black-and-white Shochiko "Grandscope", a process I’m completely unfamiliar with, this is a super-rarity that you won’t want to miss. Well, maybe YOU will, but I won’t. Also airs at 10:45am and on 8/29 at 3am.
5pm IFC
Frazetta: Painting with Fire (2003 USA): I don’t like to recommend films I haven’t seen, much less films I’m not really interested in, but this one caught my eye. If, like me, you grew up during the 1970s and were even remotely nerdy, you read some science fiction and/or fantasy novels with this man’s cover art adorning them. Apparently impressed by big muscles and big breasts (and featuring these exaggerated physical attributes on both men AND women), Frazetta’s covers were soft porn for the pre-pubescent geek set, blending beefcake and T&A with space aliens and dinosaurs on hundreds of pulp covers. I always hated his art, but it WAS distinctive, and really summed up the attitudes of the "let it all hang out" decade. If you’re between the ages of 35-50, you may want to check out this nostalgic look at the man behind the muscles. And breasts. Also airs at 7:45pm.
Sunday 08/29/04
1:45am Sundance
Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth (1998 USA): If you're only familiar with Bruce because of the (admittedly excellent) 1973 Dustin Hoffman biopic Lenny, you're only getting part of the story. This is, quite simply, one of the best documentaries you'll ever see, a heartrending look at a comic targeted and ultimately killed by the Powers That Be. Essential viewing, and one of the very few films I consider a 10 out of 10 (or a 5 out of 5, depending on your ratings scale).
Monday 08/30/04
6pm Sundance
A Female Cabby in Sidi Bel-Abbes (2000 ALG): It’s not easy to be a working woman in the Arab world, and when you’re a taxi driver, you get an earful about it from your customers. This documentary tells the story of Souchima, the only female cab driver in the strife-torn Algerian city of Sidi Bel-Abbes. A mother of three who inherited her taxi from her deceased husband, she risks daily danger to put food on the table for her children. It’s inspiring stuff that explores the complexities of living in a supposedly-secular nation threatened by the proponents of religious extremism.
7pm Showtime Extreme
Demolition University (1997 USA): Oh, yeah! Nothing like a Corey Haim film to get the workweek started right! Sadly, this straight-to-video feature doesn’t have room for the second of the two Coreys (Feldman, that is), but it does feature the special talents of Mr. Haim as a physics major trying to save his town from destruction at the hands of swarthy Middle Eastern terrorists who have a supply of deadly nerve gas poised for distribution in the local water system. Aiding him in his struggle are gal pal Ami Dolenz and former SNL comedienne Laraine Newman, here playing Haim’s stuffy-but-brave professor. Reliable Robert Forster appears as a stressed-out Army colonel. It’s absolute junk, but good fun anyway.
Print this column
