TiVoPlex
By John Seal
November 21, 2005
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 11/22/05
4:30am Turner Classic Movies
Stamboul Quest (1934 USA): Time to don the pith helmet and set off for exotic Turkey in this exciting, if somewhat overheated, MGM spy flick. Set during World War I, Stamboul Quest features Lionel Atwill as Von Sturm, a German counterintelligence officer who suspects one of his Turkish allies (C. Henry Gordon) is feeding information to the other side. The aptly-named Von Sturm doesn't have Mata Hari available, but he does have the next best thing: Annemarie (Myrna Loy), who he dispatches to find out what's going on behind closed doors and, quite possibly, between the sheets. Along the way, though, she encounters handsome (and, this being 1915, still neutral) American Douglas Beall (George Brent), and things get complicated fast. Directed by comedy specialist Sam Wood, this thoroughly enjoyable film also features Mischa Auer, Leo G. Carroll and Douglass Dumbrille.
11am Turner Classic Movies
Sabotage Agent (1943 GB): Another dose of intrigue - this of the World War II variety - is supplied by this obscure British feature more commonly known as The Adventures of Tartu. Tartu, which sounds like it should be the name of a trained dolphin, is actually the secret identity of the film's main character, British secret agent Terence Stevenson (Robert Donat), sent to find out the truth about Nazi weapons-of-mass destruction program-related activities deep behind enemy lines. Stevenson passes himself off as a Czech collaborator and says "Heil Hitler" a lot, whilst his contacts get hauled off by the Gestapo. Also along for the ride are Valerie Hobson as a resistance fighter, Walter Rilla as a stereotypical German officer, and Glynis Johns. It's implausible stuff, but good fun.
12:05pm The Movie Channel
A Dry White Season (1989 USA): Donald Sutherland stars in this apartheid drama about Ben, an Afrikaner school teacher whose impressions of South African society begin to change after the son of his gardener is "disappeared" by the police. When the gardener also vanishes, Ben learns that his country's system of justice is a Kafkaesque hall of mirrors designed to squash dissent and banish troublemakers, and soon enough, he, too, becomes a victim. Based on a novel by Andre Brink, A Dry White Season is set during the 1970s, when anti-apartheid activism was kicking into high gear and it was becoming harder for white intellectuals to justify the system's continued existence. The film features a showy and unnecessary cameo by Marlon Brando - here making his first film appearance in many years - but is redeemed by Sutherland and Zakes Mokae as a crusading lawyer. It's unfortunate that director Euzhan Palcy hasn't done much work since this feature, as the Martinique born director displays considerable ability here. Airing in wide screen, the film also airs at 3:05pm.
5pm Turner Classic Movies
I Am King Kong (2005 USA): Will the real King Kong please stand up? Is he the foot-tall animated rubber beastie seen in the classic 1933 original, the animatronic Dino De Laurentiis monstrosity of 1976, or the CGI marvel we'll all be gaping at in a month's time? Perhaps he's actually a guy in a gorilla suit battling Godzilla. This brand-spanking new TCM original documentary from scholar Kevin Brownlow will reveal the true face of Kong, and like most film monsters, he's been widely misunderstood. Brought to the United States to appear on Broadway, the great ape retired after a successful five-year stage run and ran a school for Method acting in Peoria until his death from an overdose of potassium shortly after viewing the aforementioned de Laurentiis remake. I Am King Kong also airs at 8pm, and is followed by an airing of Merian Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's rarely seen Grass (1925), a riveting documentary look at a nomadic Iranian tribe that for some reason reminds me of this year's March of the Penguins.
Wednesday 11/23/05
11:15am Sundance
Borstal Boy (2000 IRE-GB): Based on the biographical book of the same name by Irish bad boy Brendan Behan, Borstal Boy can't match the power of that masterpiece and really doesn't do justice to the fiery character of its author, but makes for a pretty good piece of redemptive drama nonetheless. Starring pretty boy Shawn Hatosy as the young Behan, sent to a borstal in mainland Britain during World War II, the film is an airbrushed take on events, with Michael York's kindly warden and gorgeous Eva Birthistle's sympathetic love interest stretching credulity at times. An interesting though not entirely successful biopic, Borstal Boy also airs 11/27 at 1:15pm.
7pm Fox Movie Channel
That Thing You Do! (1996 USA): This tribute to the garage bands of the 1960s is close to the top of my guilty pleasures list, so I'm sheepishly happy to report its return to television - in wide screen, no less - this evening. This project was close to the heart of my Oaktown homie Tom Hanks, who wrote, directed and - in a partially successful effort to give his film some box office "oomph" - appears as the manager of The Wonders, a fictional rock band from a small Pennsylvania town. The story is the typical rags-to-riches and back again narrative, this time dressed up with moptops and winklepickers, as our lads defy the odds and end up appearing on national television before it all falls apart. Completely unoriginal, completely predictable, and completely delightful, That Thing You Do! also features a toe-tapping theme tune from Fountains of Wayne bass player Adam Schlesinger.
Thursday 11/24/05
11:35am Encore Mystery
Heavenly Creatures (1993 NZ): Director Peter Jackson started making the transition from gruesome comedies to something more substantive with this outstanding film, based on a true murder case in 1950s New Zealand. The film still bears some of Jackson's cinematic trademarks but is a million miles away from Dead Alive, Bad Taste, and Meet the Feebles (all of which are great films in their own right). Kate Winslet is on hand as one of a pair of schoolgirls who live in a fantasy world that intrudes more and more into real life, and their obsession with Mario Lanza soon turns deadly. Of particular note is the performance of Sarah Peirse as the murder victim, who also happens to be one of the girls' mothers. Also airs 11/28 at 1:30pm.
9pm Sundance
A Tout de Suite (2004 FRA): This black-and-white drama features the previously unheralded Isild Le Besco, who looks a bit like a female Benicio del Toro, as a spoiled young woman who decides to leave her cozy middle-class existence for a life of danger when she takes up with a small-time hood and follows him across the continent and across the Mediterranean to Morocco. It's Badlands on the Barbary Coast, or perhaps even an updating of Godard's Breathless, and though the story is somewhat formulaic, the film is never less than visually gorgeous and Le Besco offers an intriguing performance.
Friday 11/25/05
9:50am Starz! In Black
DROP Squad (1994 USA): A politically charged and somewhat tasteless comedy, DROP Squad anticipated better if similar films such as Bamboozled and Undercover Brother by a full decade. The DROP (Deprogramming and Restoration of Pride) Squad are a group of African-American activists who seize fellow African-Americans off the street and subject them to "deprogramming", liberating them from the brainwashing imposed upon them by dominant white culture. They've been surreptitiously on the job since 1969, but like all underground movements are engaging in an ideological struggle between their founder (Vondie Curtis-Hall) and a younger upstart (Ving Rhames). The film veers wildly from acerbic social commentary to straightforward melodramatics, which doesn't work in its favor, but intentionally or not it raises a lot of interesting questions. This unusual indie from Spike Lee's Forty Acres and a Mule shingle also airs at 8:05pm.
6:30pm Turner Classic Movies
Oliver Twist (1948 GB): I'm a big admirer of Roman Polanski's recent screen adaptation of the classic Dickens novel - its representation of mid-19th century London particularly impressed me - but there's still room in my heart for David Lean's earlier version, which returns to TCM this evening. Featuring a bravura performance by Alec Guinness as the crooked but sympathetic Fagin, Lean's film also stars Robert Newton as a louche Bill Sykes, Kay Walsh as kind-hearted Nancy, John Howard Davies (who later went on to direct episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus) as little orphan Oliver, and Anthony Newley as the Artful Dodger. Hardcore Britmovie fans will also be pleased to see Michael Ripper, Hattie Jacques, Peter Bull, and Diana Dors in supporting roles.
Saturday 11/26/05
11am Turner Classic Movies
The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959 GB): This film seemed to be in heavy small-screen rotation when I was a child, and I think I must have seen it on five or six occasions by the time I hit puberty. Though it's been at least a quarter-century since I last saw it, I still remember the film's eerie atmosphere, not to mention the presence of Charlton Heston as an inquisitive seaman who discovers the (almost) abandoned freighter adrift in the English Channel. I doubt it's as good as my memories think it is, but seeing The Wreck of the Mary Deare in CinemaScope for the first time will hopefully make up for any shortcomings in the story department. Gary Cooper, Michael Redgrave, and Virginia McKnna co-star.
6pm Starz!
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004 USA): I missed this in theatres. Well, actually, I AVOIDED this in theatres, thanks to what I consider to be one of the worst trailers of 2004. And considering everyone involved in making this picture, that trailer had to work pretty hard to turn me off: I'm an admirer of director Wes Anderson, screenwriter Noah Baumbach, and thespians Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Willem Dafoe. Even with all that star power working in its favor, though, The Life Aquatic's preview portrayed it as a dumbed-down action comedy about one man's grudge match with a shark. The film performed poorly at the box office, so I suspect a lot of other equally disappointed Anderson fans will be checking it out for the first time tonight. Also airs at 9pm and on 11/27 at 6:35am, 9:35am, 2pm, and 5pm.
Sunday 11/27/05
9pm Turner Classic Movies
La Bohème (1926 USA): No, it's not a silent-film version of the famous Puccini opera, though considering my opinion of opera in general, that might be about the only way I could stand it. This big-budget King Vidor feature is, however, based on the same stories that Puccini chose to retell in the loud shouting format, and features two of America's most beloved silent actors - John Gilbert and Lillian Gish - as star-crossed lovers in 1830s Paris. Gish in particular is terrific - she was heavily involved in the film's pre-production, and her commitment to the film shows on-screen - and Vidor does his usual fine job behind the camera, sneaking in a little relevant social commentary whenever he can. La Bohème also features Edward Everett Horton, plug ugly Karl Dane, and Renée Adorée.
Monday 11/28/05
12:35am The Movie Channel
Black Robe (1991 CAN): This beautiful Bruce Beresford movie returns to the small screen in its essential wide-screen format this morning. Set in the wilderness of 17th-century Quebec, the film features Lothaire Bluteau (who one day simply must appear in a Popeye movie) as Father Laforgue, a Jesuit priest trying to convert the savage Algonquians to Christianity with the aid of his trusty sidekick Daniel (Aden Young). But young Daniel soon finds himself falling in love with the native culture, not to mention the daughter of the Algonquian chief. It's a pretty dour affair, but is rightly regarded as one of the most realistic screen depictions of Native American life. Also airs at 3:35am.
6pm HBO
Yesterday (2005 SAF): No, I haven't seen this HBO original drama yet, but its trailer aired in front of Good Night, and Good Luck at our local art-house recently, so I'm definitely going to give it a look. This South African AIDS drama played the festival circuit and was even nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film at this year's Academy Awards, but I believe this is the first time it will be widely available for viewing by the American public. Also airs at 9pm.
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