TiVoPlex

By John Seal

January 13-19, 2004

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From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times PDT.

Tuesday 01/13/04

3am Cinemax
The Day I Will Never Forget (2002 GB): Ouch. Directed in straightforward and blunt fashion by Kim Longinotto, the filmmaker responsible for the equally fine Divorce Iranian Style (1998 GB), this is a painful and at times grueling look at the female circumcision ritual practiced throughout Africa. Focusing on the ritual’s role in Kenya and featuring interviews with proponents, opponents, and subjects of this rite of passage, the film was a festival hit worldwide, including at Sundance 2003. No one’s going to mistake this for light entertainment, but it’s an important film casting much-needed light on an issue of tremendous importance to African women around the world.

10:45am Turner Classic Movies
I Found Stella Parish (1935 USA): Another day, another blackmail drama on TCM. Back when people actually felt guilty about the skeletons in their closets, this theme seemed to be quite popular in Hollywood, and here’s another obscure example of the genre, albeit one that’s a bit above average. Produced at Warner’s and directed by the great Mervyn LeRoy, I Found Stella Parish stars Kay Francis as the titular victim, an actress trying to keep her long-buried past well interred. There’s the usual cast of familiar faces here, including Paul Lukas, Barton MacLane, Milton Kibbee, and Ian Hunter, and the film is based on a story by John Monk Saunders, Fay Wray’s first husband, who committed suicide in 1940 shortly after divorcing her.

Wednesday 01/14/04

12:35am Showtime Extreme
Hammer (1972 USA): This black action film has been missing from the airwaves for quite some time. Truth be told, it’s not terribly good, but here’s a rare opportunity to see it, so if stickin’ it to the Man is your bag, baby, here’s your film. Starring Fred Williamson (who else?) as Hammer, the film makes up with its cast what its inadequate Charles Johnson screenplay lacks, with Vonetta McGee and D’Urville Martin providing Williamson back up and the always-reliable William Smith on hand as the Evil White Guy. Three other reasons you might want to take a look: legendary ringside announcer Jimmy Lennon is here, as is future WWF blowhard Gene Le Bell, and the music is by the King of Rock and Soul himself, Solomon Burke. Wow, I’m starting to get excited about Hammer, even bearing in mind it WAS produced by schlockmeister Al Adamson! Also airs 1/19 at 7pm.

10:15pm Showtime
Shiner (2000 GB): Michael Caine fans will want to take a look at this overlooked British crime feature about a second-rate ex-prizefighter-turned-gangster (Caine) doing the bull-in-a-china shop routine when his inadequate son (Matthew Marsden) is soundly beaten in the ring by a cocky American boxer (Derrick Harmon). Directed by John Irvin - best known as the director of the Glenda Jackson/Ben Kingsley romancer Turtle Diary (1985 GB) - Shiner stretches credulity at times, but the power of Caine’s performance overcomes most of the glaring plot discrepancies. Add in a performance by Andy “Golem” Serkis as a tattooed goon and Martin Landau as an egotistical Yank promoter, and you have an enjoyable little flick. Also airs 1/15 at 1:15am.

Thursday 01/15/04

8pm Starz!
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001 JAP): I’ve never been a fan of anime. Whilst I admire the animation style - especially the background work - of this increasingly popular genre, the half-baked plots and unengaging characters generally leave me cold. Even Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001 JAP) didn’t particularly impress me, so I’m sure this sci-fi thriller won’t be my cup of tea. Nevertheless, this is something of a breakthrough, with a mainstream cable channel giving Cowboy Bebop a substantial series of bookings this month, and it deserves a mention in the column. Something to do with one of those deadly viruses poised to wipe out humanity, Cowboy Bebop even had a (brief) US theatrical run in 2003. Presumably it’ll be better than Pokémon. Also airs at 11pm and 1/18 at 8:30 and 11:30am.

Friday 01/16/04

3:30am Cinemax
Rachel, Rachel (1968 USA): Here’s a bit of a surprise: Paul Newman’s directorial debut, starring his wife Joanne Woodward as a harried middle-aged schoolteacher, still isn’t on DVD. I probably shouldn’t be that shocked, of course, as there are tens of thousands of films out there waiting for a digital upgrade, but c’mon; Paul Newman! Griping aside, this is an excellent drama about a woman in the throes of what today would be called a midlife crisis. Woodward is outstanding as the still-living-with-Mom schoolmarm confronted for the first time by a potentially serious relationship with a man (James Olsen, from Governor Gropenator’s 1985 opus Commando). The film also features excellent performances by Estelle Parsons and Geraldine Fitzgerald and was nominated for four Academy Awards. Though it didn’t win any - 1968 was one of the year’s Hollywood opted in favor of fluff like Oliver! and Funny Girl - the film has aged fairly well and remains a quiet but effective drama. Also airs at 6:30am.

11pm Turner Classic Movies
Grand Illusion (1937 FRA): You don’t need me to tell you about Jean Renoir’s great antiwar classic, but I would be derelict in my duties were I not to point out that it’s airing tonight on TCM. Perhaps best remembered as the film featuring Erich Von Stroheim in an unfeasibly tight collar, Grand Illusion’s real star is matinee idol Jean Gabin, here playing a prisoner of war plotting to escape the camp commanded by Von Stroheim. The film is an effortless blend of wartime thrills and social commentary and is rightfully considered one of Renoir’s two greatest films (on any given day, Rules of the Game is the other, with Boudu Saved by Drowning, La Bête Humaine, and The River not far behind). If you’ve never seen it before, see it tonight.

Saturday 1/17/04

3:30am Sundance
The Business of Fancydancing (2002 USA): I’m only peripherally familiar with the writings of Native American poet and polemicist Sherman Alexie, but his work on 1998’s Smoke Signals indicated the man was capable of concocting a powerful and funny screenplay. Lo and behold, not only can the man write, he can also direct, as proven by his first film behind the camera, The Business of Fancydancing. Apparently autobiographical, the film stars Smoke Signal’s Evan Adams as the oddly-monikered Seymour Polatkin, a young gay man who escapes the reservation to become a successful poet in Seattle. When his childhood playmate Mouse (the excellent Swil Kanim) dies after taking too many pills, he returns to the res for a funeral service, where he tries to reconcile his success in the “white” world with his tribal roots. There isn’t a bad performance in sight here, with particular kudos going to Michelle St. John as Adam’s Jewish-Native American friend Agnes and Gene Tagaban as the embittered Aristotle Joseph. Beautifully filmed and movingly scored, this is a remarkable directorial debut. Look for character actor Leo Rossi in a small role as a high-school counselor. Also airs at 2pm.

5pm Fox Movie Channel
People Will Talk (1951 USA): An intriguing blend of romance, comedy, and political commentary, People Will Talk stars Cary Grant as Dr. Praetorius, a college professor whose out-of-step views lead to a witch-hunt by colleague Hume Cronyn. Praetorius is, of course, a variation on the name of the character played by Ernest Thesiger in Bride of Frankenstein, another medical man with some unorthodox views of his own. People Will Talk unfortunately pulls too many of its punches, not terribly surprising considering the period in which it was produced, but it remains a somewhat out-of-character oddity for both Grant and the Fox studio, and is well worth a look for fans of ‘50s cinema.

Sunday 1/18/04

3am Cinemax
Dinosaurus! (1960 USA): One of the silliest films you’ll ever see (though admittedly it’s not as silly as the similarly themed Eegah!), Dinosaurus! was produced by the same team that brought us 1958’s The Blob, Jack Harris and director Irwin Yeaworth Jr. Unfortunately, they couldn’t quite catch lightning in a bottle a second time, and this tale of prehistoric beasties running amuck in the modern world - and a friendly defrosted Neanderthal man - is now a bad movie classic. Come to think of it, I guess you could say the same thing about The Blob, but that film still manages to send a chill up my spine when the space gelatin digests poor old Olin Howlin. Anyhoo, Dinosaurus! has much worse special effects than its predecessor, an incredibly annoying juvenile lead in Paul Lukather, and a laugh-out-loud screenplay co-scripted by Yeaworth’s wife Jean, which all adds up to a ripping good time for those who appreciate camp cinema. Also airs at 6am.

6pm Sundance
Bloody Sunday (2002 IRE-GB): Today’s “oops, how did I miss it in theaters?” speculative pick of the week makes its television premiere this evening. Based on the true story of the January 30th, 1972 civil rights protest that ended in bloodshed at the hands of British Army paras, the film won a boatload of awards, including BAFTAs for actor James Nesbitt and director Paul Greengrass, who has since graduated to Hollywood for the forthcoming Bourne Supremacy.

9pm Turner Classic Movies
Cabiria (1914 ITA): The great granddaddy of pepla, Cabiria remains an impressive-looking epic 90 years after its initial release. This appears to be the shorter version - still a generous 125 minutes long - but is well worth a look for silent film fans and those who wonder where D. W. Griffith got a lot of his ideas for Intolerance (1919 USA) from. Perhaps most impressively, the film displays early dollying and panning techniques (some of them courtesy Eugenio Bava, father of horror auteur Mario Bava), and as a result has a distinctly modern feel to it. One of the few films from the Teens that still has the power to move and entertain a 21st-century audience, Cabiria is an astonishing and, at times, breathtaking work of art.

Monday 1/19/04

7am Fox Movie Channel
Hello-Goodbye (1970 GB): It’s a rarity, all right. Sadly, this comedy starring the annoyingly chirpy Michael Crawford as a car salesman engaged in an adulterous affair with countess Genevieve Gilles is flat and lifeless, thanks to a fairly awful screenplay by Roger Marshall, whose talents were stretched once away from the comfy television confines of The Avengers and The Edgar Wallace Mysteries. The only rays of light are Curd Jurgens’ performance as the cuckolded husband and Henri Decae’s gorgeous photography. Original director Ronald Neame was fired (he went on to better results with Scrooge the same year) and replaced by Jean Negelusco, who promptly retired after wrapping this one. No, it’s not very good. But did I mention it’s a real rarity? Also airs at 9pm.

7:30pm Sundance
The Cockettes (2002 USA): Love them or loathe them, there’s never been another theater group quite like San Francisco’s Cockettes. Founded in the late 1960s by a hippie named Hibiscus, the troupe took to the stage of the City by the Bay’s Palace Theater, where their outrageous improvisational drag act started to draw big crowds. Their guerrilla theater developed and became more polished and rehearsed, and the Cockettes soon were treading the boards in New York, where the reaction they drew was decidedly unkind. Their demise was assured, though the group soldiered on for a little longer on the West Coast, but the political chasms accentuated by the trashing given the troupe in the Big Apple eventually led to a break-up. This film is an amazing time capsule, featuring a generous selection of impossibly rare footage as well as numerous interviews with surviving cast members, not all of whom were (or are) male or gay. The original home of soul-disco singer Sylvester, The Cockettes were also the starting point for Screamers singer and performance artist Tomata Du Plenty, though Tomata, sadly, doesn’t warrant a mention in the film.

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