TiVoPlex
By John Seal
November 13, 2006
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 11/14/06
3:00 AM More Max
How Green Was My Valley (1941 USA): Throughout my childhood, How Green Was My Valley was the subject of a long-running family joke. I can't remember the exact shape of the joke or even the circumstances in which it was frequently used, but, to the Seals, the film represented all things over-emotive: the ultimate three, four, or five hanky pic, seen through the prism of our own family affairs, of course. As a result I avoided the film like the plague for many years, convinced I would hate it, or at the very least afraid to leave myself open to some extensive (if good-natured) parental ribbing. The predictable punch line of THIS joke, of course, is that once I caved in and watched How Green Was My Valley - in truth, an inevitability for any serious movie buff - it actually turned out to be well worth seeing. Based on a very fine novel by Richard Llewellyn, the story revolves around the lives of the dirt-poor (but extremely honest) residents of a Welsh mining town, and could easily have been turned into the Kleenex nightmare of my family's imagination by ham-fisted Hollywood hacks. Serendipitously, the screenplay assignment was given to Screen Writer's Guild co-founder Philip Dunne, the great Irish-American director John Ford handled matters behind the camera, and the results were first-rate. Given the ‘A' list treatment, the film is beautifully shot, Dunne's screenplay stays just the right side of mawkish, and the cast is near perfect, including Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Donald Crisp (who deservedly took home the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award), John Loder, Barry Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, and teen sensation Roddy McDowall. Studio films didn't come better than this in 1941, and it remains a classic today - even if at times you do have to dab a little coal dust from your eye.
9:00 PM IFC
Loves of A Blonde (1965 CZH): If you enjoyed Milos Forman's Taking Off, recommended in this column a few months back, you'll want to see Loves of A Blonde, an earlier film about love and family in (relatively) liberal pre-Dubcek Prague. The titular blonde is a young woman (Hana Brejchova) who sleeps with a traveling musician (Vladimir Pucholt) - and follows him back to his digs in Prague, much to the distress of both the muso and his parents. It's a slight story, well told and well filmed in black and white by Miroslav Ondricek, last seen behind the camera of Drew Barrymore's Riding In Cars With Boys(2001 USA). Also airs 11/15 at 2:55 AM and 12:30 PM.
Wednesday 11/15/06
6:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Angel Face (1952 USA): Robert Mitchum stars in this above average thriller from director and professional misanthrope Otto Preminger. He plays Frank Jessup, an ambulance driver who falls for Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons), a manipulative young woman whose mother (Barbara O'Neil) Frank saves after an ‘accidental' gas leak. Smitten with the beautiful Diane, Frank shows working class gal pal Mary (Mona Freeman) the door and ends up with a gig as the Tremayne family chauffeur - but things are not as they seem, and he soon finds himself ensnared in a web of intrigue spun by his ‘Angel Face', whose scheming ways have left a trail of dead behind her. Also on hand is Herbert Marshall, stuffy as ever as Diane's stepfather, relative newcomer Jim Backus as the local District Attorney, and a noteworthy and haunting score by Dimitri Tiomkin.
Thursday 11/16/06
1:50 AM Encore Action
Strange Invaders (1983 USA): We're deep in guilty pleasures territory with this low budget science fiction entry. A bit of a cult favorite, Strange Invaders features Paul Le Mat as Charlie Bigelow, a professor investigating the mysterious disappearance of his ex-wife. Returning to the little town of Centerville, Illinois to find her, he uncovers an alien invasion of long-standing if not epic proportions: these strange invaders have been running the town for the last quarter century! Alerted to their presence and presumably evil if slothful intentions, Charlie takes the case to the FBI - but the aliens, alerted to his presence, are on his tail all the way. Not as good as it sounds, the film can't decide if it's a comedy, a satire, or a thriller, and fails on all counts. Nonetheless, there's something oddly engaging about it, and an interesting supporting cast - including Kenneth Tobey, June Lockhart, Louise Fletcher, and Wallace Shawn - move this one into the ‘if you've got nothing better to do, give it a look' category. It was also an early screenwriting assignment for Bill Condon, who has gone on to far better things with films such as Gods and Monsters and Kinsey.
4:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
Bedside (1934 USA): A quintet of Robert Florey-helmed features kicks off this morning with the marvellous Warren William vehicle Bedside. The title implies spicy pre-Code comedy, but this is actually one of William's dramatic features, and stars the dapper thespian as Bob Brown, a failed medical student who insinuates his way into a practice by buying a license from a desperate morphine addict. Bob uses the license to set up shop in a well-heeled Manhattan neighbourhood, but it soon becomes patently obvious that the new doctor isn't all he's cracked up to be. Jean Muir co-stars as love interest, and Allen Jenkins and Donald Meek round out the cast of this enjoyable if far-fetched Warners programmer. It's followed at 6:00 AM by Florey's Registered Nurse (also 1934), starring Bebe Daniels as an RN plagued by the unwanted advances of a pair of amorous doctors (Lyle Talbot and John Halliday), at 7:15 AM by 1935's Going Highbrow, featuring Guy Kibbee and ZaSu Pitts as rubes aspiring to enter high society, at 8:30 AM by 1935's The Payoff, wherein sports reporter Joe McCoy (James Dunn) gets mixed up with the wrestling racket, and at 9:45 AM by 1942's Lady Gangster, with Faye Emerson playing an aspiring actress who goes up the river after taking the rap for a bank robbery.
Friday 11/17/06
9:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
The Effect of Gamma Rays On Man-In-the-Moon Marigolds (1972 USA): A film that deeply impressed me when I was ten, The Effect of Gamma Rays is a classic ugly duckling tale of adversity overcome and love reclaimed. Based on a Paul Zindel play, the film stars Joanne Woodward as the monstrous and embittered single mother of two high school age girls, Ruth and Matilda. Ruth (Roberta Wallach) is the eldest, an increasingly self-confident young woman also starting to display some of her mother's megalomaniacal tendencies. Matilda (Nell Potts, in her second and final feature role) is the inarticulate younger daughter, whose inward drive to create the perfect science fair project is an increasing annoyance for her two housemates. Supportive teacher Mr. Goodman (David Spielberg) wants to help Matilda edge out of her shell, but finds her mother a less than willing participant at the academic cotillion. Never straying too far into predictable or sentimental terrain, Alvin Sargent's bittersweet screenplay ends on an enigmatic note, and Paul Newman's icy, detached direction coaxes a superb performance from his spouse. If you have children in the 10-14 age bracket, this is perfect family viewing.
9:30 AM Sundance
Fahrenheit 451 (1966 GB): Another film I loved as a pre-pubescent, Francois Truffaut's screen adaptation of Ray Bradbury's anti-censorship novel hasn't held up quite as well as Gamma Rays over the years. Cool to the point of inertia, the film features a well-cast Oskar Werner as Guy, a dystopian fireman whose job it is to start, not stop, fires. These fires are the ones kindled by books, which threaten to undercut the security of the state by sowing insidious thoughts in the minds of those reading them, the over-inquisitive types who really should be watching television instead. When Guy meets (and falls for) beautiful bibliophile Clarisse (the saturnine Julie Christie), he also falls under the spell of her secret stash of reading material, and soon attracts the suspicions of his fellow fire-stokers. Fahrenheit 451 has a wonderful mid-60s, pop art look, but the screenplay is dry and aloof, and culminates with a recreation of Bradbury's novelistic denouement, which quite bluntly doesn't work on screen. Nonetheless, I maintain a soft spot in my heart for this Truffaut misfire - not least because I keep an autographed snap of Ms. Christie, resplendent beneath a giant ‘451', on my desk at work.
Saturday 11/18/06
7:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Atom Man vs. Superman (1950 USA): The Man of Steel's second chapter play begins today as part of TCM's Saturday Morning Serial showcase. Produced in the immediate wake of Superman's 1949 heroics, this 15 chapter serial saw Kirk Alyn, Noel Neill, and Tommy Bond return as Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen, but also made an important addition in the person of Lyle Talbot as the screen's very first Lex Luthor. Luthor is threatening Metropolis with destruction unless the city fathers meet his outrageous demands, and it's up to you know who to put the kibosh on his evil designs. The first four chapters air today, with Chapters 5-8 airing on November 25th and the balance in December.
4:15 PM IFC
The Celebration (1998 DEN): One of the best films to issue forth from the Dogme Manifesto, Thomas Vinterberg's gruelling drama of a family reunion is definitely not for all tastes. Ulrich Thomsen stars as a man who attends his father's 60th birthday party, where he artlessly reveals a deep, dark, and very unpleasant family secret - much to the chagrin of not only Dad (Hennig Moritzen) and Mom (Birthe Neumann), but also of sister Helene (the marvelous Paprika Steen), who would much rather have left the skeletons in the family closet. Though adhering to the Dogme restrictions - handheld cameras, ambient sound, et al - The Celebration works as both art AND story, and comes highly recommended to adventurous viewers. Also airs 11/19 at 2:20 AM.
Sunday 11/19/06
1:40 AM HBO2
Methadonia (2005 USA): HBO seems to be - pardon the tasteless pun - addicted to documentaries about drugs and drug addiction. From the sensationalistic and not terribly enlightening Crank: Made In America to the remarkable Dope Sick Love, Home Box Office can't seem to get enough of America's love affair with narcotics and other controlled substances. Thankfully, Methadonia is more than just another example of the pornography of despair, and serves to enlighten viewers about the Methadone experience and how recently developed psychotropics interact with it. The film focuses on a half dozen New York junkies over an 18 month period and their struggles with coping not only with their addictions to heroin and mood elevators but with the detox from Methadone itself. You'll gain a new appreciation for the hardships these folks live through, and the courage it takes for them to try to reclaim a normal life. Moving and uplifting, Methadonia is essential viewing for documentary enthusiasts. Also airs at 4:40 AM.
10:30 AM HBO
Thin (2006 USA): It's disease of the month time on HBO, and this time the ever popular twin plagues of anorexia and bulimia are getting the documentary treatment. Early reviews are good for this look at four Florida women battling their lack-of-weight problem at a pricey clinic. I haven't seen it yet - and apparently, if the film turns sideways, no one else can see it either - but I'll definitely be giving it a look.
Monday 11/20/06
6:00 PM Sundance
Winter Soldier (1972 USA): We complete the end-of-the-week documentary trifecta with the American television premiere of this remarkable feature detailing the testimony of 30 Vietnam War veterans (including one John Kerry) in Detroit, circa 1971. Invited to retell their harrowing tales of war and war crimes, the soldiers calmly and clearly indicted the imperialist machinery that had sent them half way around to world to kill and die for a lie. Long buried in the vaults of the filmmakers who produced it, Winter Soldier got a new lease on life in 2005 via DVD (thanks, Milestone) and now is available for general viewing. In the current political climate, it's absolutely essential stuff.
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