TiVoPlex
By John Seal
January 30, 2007
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 01/30/07
5:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Clairvoyant (1935 GB): Claude Rains stars in this unusual Gainsborough Pictures production as Maximus, a phony clairvoyant who suddenly acquires the skill of making disturbingly accurate predictions. He's been earning a good living ripping off the suckers on the music hall circuit, but finds he really has second sight after meeting rich heiress Rene (Fay Wray). At first it's all fun and games, with the erstwhile seer using his talents to earn a pretty penny at the race track, but after foreseeing a mining tragedy, he's brought to court under suspicion of causing the accident - and must now use his unwanted gift to save himself from a life behind bars. Shot on a very low budget (and looking it), The Clairvoyant relies on a solid screenplay co-written by Charles Bennett and Bryan Edgar Wallace (son of renowned mystery writer Edgar Wallace) and the talent of its two leads to hold the audience's attention - at which it succeeds admirably.
10:40 AM Showtime Extreme
The Long Riders (1980 USA): A few weeks back I overlooked the small screen return of this entertaining Walter Hill western, so it's time to make amends. Airing for the first time in widescreen, The Long Riders depicts for the umpteenth time the exploits of the infamous James-Younger bank robbery gang. Starring James Keach and David Carradine as, respectively, Jesse James and Cole Younger, as well as their extended families as assorted brothers in crime, hangers-on, and Old West groupies, Hill's film does an above average job with the familiar material. Though the casting gimmick- which also encompasses Carradines Keith and Robert, Quaids Randy and Dennis, Guests Christopher and Nicholas, and the Keach you've actually heard of, Stacey - is a bit of a distraction, the film is still a good one, if weakened by the bizarre decision to cast the wrong Keach in the lead role. Treading ground already covered by 1972's Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, Hill's feature episodically traces the gang's hoof-prints from Missouri to Minnesota, with stops along the way for whoring, hoedowns, and inter-gang squabbling aplenty. Firmly within the ‘revisionist western' genre, The Long Riders also looks great thanks to Ric Waite's cinematography, which belies his small screen roots and hints at his excellent future work on films as disparate as The Border (1982) and, ahem, Red Dawn (1984). Add in an elegiac Ry Cooder score, and you've got ample reasons to saddle up with The Long Riders.
Wednesday 01/31/07
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Spiral Staircase (1946 USA): Few American films blend the influences of expressionism, noir, and suspense as effectively as The Spiral Staircase, a Robert Siodmak thriller set in an Old Dark House circa 1916. Dorothy McGuire stars as Helen, a mute domestic servant stalked by a serial killer who has already had deadly dealings with a number of ladies in the neighboring village. Helen is taking care of bedridden Mrs Warren (Academy Award nominee Ethel Barrymore), whilst other relatives and servants (including George Brent and Elsa Lanchester) go about their business - until night falls, when she finds herself alone with the helpless old lady and a secret someone lurking in the shadows. Though the film doesn't stray far from the conventions of Hollywood mystery cinema, it masterfully maintains tension throughout, slowly stripping Helen of the ‘protective layer' provided by the supporting cast and setting up a magnificent thunder and lightning finale for the final reel.
Thursday 02/01/07
3:30 AM Showtime
The Chicken Chronicles (1977 USA): Super rarity alert! Oh sure, it may not be much of a film, but The Chicken Chronicles has been cooped up in some musty film vault for far too long, and finally gets sprung in the wee, wee hours of this Showtime morning. Starring Phil Silvers as a very dirty old restaurateur and Steve Guttenberg as his randy young employee, it's a sex comedy of the lowest order set in the bland Los Angeles suburbs of the late 1960s. Penned by Paul Diamond, who went on to write an episode of Married With Children and little else of note, the plot revolves around the efforts of chicken slinger David Kessler (Guttenberg) to get laid, and the efforts of his boss (Silvers) to get a bird's eye view of the action. That's about it, though the presence of Ed Lauter as David's high school principal adds a modicum of respectability to the proceedings. Also airs at 6:30 AM and 2/5 at 3:15 AM and 6:15 AM.
11:50 AM Starz In Black
A Boy Called Twist (2004 SAF): This modern day retelling of Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist takes place in Capetown, South Africa, where a 'Boy Called Twist' moves from orphanage to street life to middle class comfort thanks to a series of happy and not so happy coincidences. Though not quite able to match either the David Lean or Roman Polanski adaptations, this is still a very worthwhile effort with a superb cast, including young Jarrid Geduld as Twist, dreadlocked Lesley Fong as Fagin, Bill Curry as the businessman (here reimagined as a Muslim named Ebrahim) who takes pity on the young lad, and the stunning Kim Engelbrecht as Nancy, about whom I can say 'rrrowww' with considerable emphasis. Though the film stays reasonably true to the novel, it adds some gritty local details - the Dodger and co. spend time huffing glue, for example, and the muezzin's call to prayer is an important counterpoint throughout the film. All in all, it's a fine production, marred somewhat by careless telecine work which results in awkward framing and subtitles that 'fall off' the screen.
Friday 02/02/07
5:00 AM Sundance
Open City (1946 ITA): One of the prime examples of Italian neo-realist cinema, Roberto Rossellini's Open City set the standard for the genre and still remains a powerful piece of filmmaking. Shot almost immediately after the liberation of Rome in 1944, it tells the story of a disparate group of Italian resistance fighters - including communists and Catholics alike - battling the German occupiers and the Quislings who collaborated with them. Open City made a star of both Anna Magnani, a then little known actress who had survived on bit parts throughout the lean wartime years and parlayed her performance here into considerable international success and an Academy Award, and Aldo Fabrizi, who would go on to enjoy massive popularity in his native land on the strength of his performance as an anti-fascist priest. The story is told brutally and frankly, and the artifice of tinsel town seems a million miles away from this cinematic burg. Also airs at 1:15 PM.
8:15 AM Sundance
Zoot Suit (1981 USA): I have fond memories of a 1978 High School trip to see the original production of this Luis Valdez' stage play about Mexican-American youth culture during the 1940s, memories which even include a few verbatim lines of dialogue. Considering the wild success enjoyed by the play - which was Anglo Los Angeles' introduction to a heretofore hidden or ignored subculture - a film version was inevitable, and Universal hired Valdez himself to do the job. As a result, the big screen version is little more than a filmed play, and lacks the immediacy and energy of a live stage production whilst also foregoing the many advantages offered by cinema's ability to open up and expand a narrative beyond the confining boundaries of the proscenium. Nonetheless, the story remains, as does the music, which together tell a fascinating and lively based-on-fact tale of racial prejudice and injustice in the barrios of East L.A. As much a celebration of Chicano culture as condemnation of white racism, Zoot Suit is also blessed by the presence of Edward James Olmos, who reprises his stage role as narrative device El Pachuco, and of lead Daniel Valdez as protagonist Henry Reyna, unjustly accused, indicted, and convicted of first-degree murder.
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