TiVoPlex
By John Seal
September 27, 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 09/28/04
6:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Ministry of Fear (1944 USA): Fritz Lang’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel of the same name apparently was not well received in the Greene household, but I like it anyway. It’s a wartime noir starring Ray Milland as a former asylum inmate who wins a mysterious cake at a village fete and ends up entangled with a Nazi spy ring. The film looks great, the story is engrossing and unpredictable (no mean feat in the era of the Production Code), and Milland is excellent. Despite Greene’s disapproval, take a look—and read the book, too.
5:00 PM Encore True Stories
Crumb (1994 USA): Before Terry Zwigoff made the incomparable Ghost World and the astonishingly crude Bad Santa, he made this grueling documentary about the troubled and talented Crumb family. The focus is on R. Crumb, the counterculture hero of the comics who came to loathe the burden his accidental fame brought him, but there's also considerable time spent with Robert's brothers Charles and Maxon. Charles and Maxon make Robert look like a rock of success and stability, and the film is uncomfortable viewing, never sparing the viewer sordid but true stories of sexual abuse, insanity, and suicide. Zwigoff luckily doesn't mistreat his subjects, keeping an appropriate distance that would be entirely impossible for a documentarian like Nick Broomfield or Michael Moore to maintain.
11:05 PM The Movie Channel
The Passage (1979 GB): There’s only one reason to watch this bloated World War II actioner: the cast. Featuring James Mason, Anthony Quinn, Christopher Lee, Patricia Neal, Malcolm McDowell, and Jim Broadbent as a Nazi soldier (!), The Passage doesn’t lack for master thespians. Sadly, the screenplay lacks polish or subtlety, as a Basque shepherd (Quinn) escorts an escaping scientist (Mason) across snowbound enemy lines into neutral Spain. They’re pursued by a bonkers SS officer (McDowell) whose performance is, put kindly, unrestrained. The film is unavailable on DVD and hasn’t been on TV in a great while, so if you’re a fan—or simply want to watch great actors struggling with a lousy script—make time for The Passage. Also airs on 9/29 at 2:05 AM.
Wednesday 09/29/04
1:15 AM Showtime
The Wild Angels (1966 USA): The disreputable biker genre took a big step into the mainstream with this AIP feature about gang leader Heavenly Blues (Peter Fonda) and his club of motorcycle miscreants (Bruce Dern, Nancy Sinatra, Diane Ladd, Michael J. Pollard, and others) criss-crossing the nation raising hell, drinking beer, and popping wheelies. By the time Fonda’s Easy Rider stormed cinemas three years later, the cycle movies had passed their peak. In the interim, we’d had Hell’s Angels on Wheels, Hell’s Belles, The Miniskirt Mob, and dozens of other hogsploitationers. It all started here courtesy Roger Corman, and The Wild Angels remains one of the best examples of the genre, with splendid widescreen photography (sadly last seen when Speedvision used to show this film, and absent from Showtime’s print), a super Davie Allan soundtrack, and Charles Griffiths’ entertaining if defamatory screenplay. Look for Corman and Joe Dante regular Dick Miller in a small role. Also airs at 4:15 AM.
Thursday 09/30/04
9:35 PM Showtime 3
The Believer (2001 USA): I was highly skeptical of this film’s premise on its initial release, but after watching it recently I came away a believer myself, if not in Henry Bean’s screenplay, then certainly in the power of Ryan Gosling’s performance. Gosling plays Danny Balint, an angry young Nazi who’s hiding a dangerous secret: he’s actually Jewish, and was once a dedicated Yeshiva student. Loosely based on the true story of a young Jewish man who joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s - and committed suicide when the New York Times blew his cover - The Believer is a fascinating look at faith, fear, and self-loathing, amongst other big philosophical issues. Theresa Russell co-stars as a hard right fundraiser who takes Danny under her wing, and A.D. Miles (Bamboozled) appears as a newspaper reporter who knows Balint’s secret. One of the better American indie films of recent years, The Believer won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2001.
Friday 10/01/04
3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Treachery Rides the Range (1936 USA): If singing cowboys are your bag, TCM has a saddle bag’s worth of them for you this morning. No less than eleven musical oaters are on offer during this marathon, all of them featuring Dick Foran, Warner Brothers answer to Republic’s wildly popular Gene Autry. These bill fillers are, by and large, interchangeable—Foran basically played the same heroic cowpoke in each, though the name of his character changed from picture to picture—but they’re generally well made and, with running times of an hour or less, don’t wear out their welcome. You can also have fun spotting the hidden talent in these features, including Iron Eyes Cody in Treachery Rides the Range, a very young Bonita Granville in Song of the Saddle (1936, 4:00 AM), Olympian Jim Thorpe in Trailin’ West (1936, 5:15 AM), Roy Rogers in California Mail (1936, 1:00 PM), and future Frankenstein monster Glenn Strange in no less than six of the eleven features on offer throughout the day.
9:15 PM Skinemax
Emmanuelle vs. Dracula (2004 USA): Every now and then I include films such as this, where the concept alone is worthy of praise. Without knowing a thing about the production in question, I can spin all sorts of fantasies regarding it: for example, perhaps Sylvia Kristel will drive a stake through a digitally reconstructed Bela Lugosi’s family jewels. Alternatively, Laura Gemser might nail Christopher Lee in his coffin, or Krista Allen could provide wirgin blood for Udo Kier…until this made-for-TV softcore epic airs for the first time this evening, the sky’s the limit. Somehow I doubt Emmanuelle Vs. Dracula will fulfill my expectations, but considering the film doesn’t appear on IMDb and lacks cast or crew information on the Cinemax website, it would be foolish not to dream. Also airs 10/2 at 12:15 AM.
Saturday 10/02/04
6:30 AM Black Starz
The Howlin’ Wolf Story (2003 USA): Few blues singers were as aptly named as Howlin’ Wolf, the pseudonym of Mississippi born Chester Burnett. Wolf’s voice, a deep, gruff, and powerful holler that dominated classic tracks like The Killing Floor and Smokestack Lightning, served as inspiration for countless musicians and was first recorded (at the age of 41) by Sam Phillips, the musical visionary who would discover Elvis Aron Presley three years later. This is a truly amazing documentary that is required viewing for anyone interested in the history and development of American popular music, be it rhythm and blues, country, folk, or rock and roll. Filled with incredibly rare footage of Wolf on the mid-sixties television show Shindig and featuring excerpts from the home movies of Sam Lay, Wolf’s erstwhile drummer, The Howlin’ Wolf Story is a fitting tribute to one of the forgotten giants of blues music.
8:00 PM Sundance
AKA (2002 GB): Taking a page from The Talented Mr. Ripley’s playbook, AKA is a working class tale of identity and subterfuge starring Matthew Leitch as Dean, a young Briton whose ambitions extend far beyond getting a good job in a factory or tending to upper class twits like Lord and Lady Gryffoyn (acerbic Diana Quick and the always watchable Bill Nighy). Exposed to the lifestyles of the rich and famous by his mother, a chambermaid for Lady Gryffoyn (pronounced, of course, ‘Griffith’), Dean decides to change his accent and his attitude and manages to pass himself off as the son of his mother’s employer. His playacting takes him around Europe and in and out of various boudoirs, including that of David, a moneyed toff played to perfection by David Asprey. This is an ambitious effort from writer-director Duncan Roy, and whilst the film sometimes overextends itself in the suspension of disbelief department, it’s an impressive low budget effort nonetheless. Caveat: AKA is NOT being aired in the split screen format utilized during its theatrical run. Whilst that’s unfortunate, it’s probably also a blessing for home viewers who have yet to invest in a very large widescreen TV—which is probably most of us.
Sunday 10/03/04
3:35 AM Encore Action
Bush Christmas (1983 AUS): Ah, Christmas with the Bushes. Collateral damage roasting on an open fire, cocaine nipping at your nose, Lee Greenwood songs being sung by a choir, and body bags lined up toe to toe…no, this isn’t a film about the Yuletide celebrations of America’s ruling tribe, but an obscure Australian film about three youngsters searching for a stolen horse. In her first starring role, 17-year old Nicole Kidman plays one of the youngsters, and she’s probably the only reason this is getting this single airing on American television. Bush Christmas is a wonderful family film directed by Henri Safran, also responsible for the terrific children’s drama Storm Boy (about which you can read more at http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/seal/stormboy.asp).
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Judex, Chapters 1-4 (1917 FRA): Recently issued on DVD by Flicker Alley, a new reissue company specializing in silent rarities, the World War I-era serial Judex makes its television premiere this evening thanks to TCM. Starting tonight, it’s being shown in three segments of four chapters each over three consecutive Sundays. Directed by Louis Feuillade, creator of the earlier spy serials Fantomas and Les Vampires (in addition to over 300 other films in the pre-sound era), Judex features the eponymous caped super-hero fighting for truth, justice, and the Francophone way. This was also a serial before serials had calcified into absurd exercises in cliffhanging happenstance, relying on traditional linear storytelling rather than a series of hair-raising denouements. Long considered too low brow to be of interest to serious film fans, Judex was rediscovered in the late 1940s, served as an inspiration for France’s Nouvelle Vague directors, and is now available for general audiences to watch and enjoy.
Monday 10/04/04
9:00 AM Sundance
Persons of Interest(2004 USA): I haven’t seen this documentary about the detention of Muslim-Americans in the wake of September 11th, but in light of the recent Cat Stevens brou-ha-ha (apparently the result of a spelling error) it couldn’t be airing at a more apt time. More than 5,000 Arab and Muslim citizens and immigrants have been held in indefinite detention since the destruction of the twin towers, and this film—which debuted at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival—interviews twelve of them. Without legal representation or rights, these people became victims of an overzealous and willfully ignorant system of ‘justice’—and unless we all start reasserting our constitutional rights, the rest of us may also soon become ‘persons of interest’. Also airs at 7:25 PM.
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