By John Seal
April 7-13, 2003
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated, they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times PDT.
Monday 04/07/03
4:15am Flix
A Night To Remember (1958 GB): Before Leonardo, Kate, and Titanic (1997 USA) set sail, Britain's Rank Organisation produced this relatively historically-accurate rendering of the events of the night of April 12, 1912. Based on Walter Lord's excellent book of the same name, A Night To Remember is the best version of the tragic tale, eclipsing the glossy and star-studded Fox film Titanic that had been released a mere five years earlier. This film relies on a solid British cast, including Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, and Alec McCowen, but there are some decent special effects as well as outstanding photography by Geoffrey Unsworth. Also airs 4/12 at 9pm.
10:15am Sundance
My Father's Son (2001 USA): Most homeless people don't choose to be homeless, but this documentary investigates one of the loners who have made a conscious decision to rough it. Detailing the life of a scavenger who lives on the outskirts of Orlando, Florida, My Father's Son also probes the American mythology of the rugged individualist. Also airs at 4:35pm and 4/13 at 11am.
10:50am Black Starz!
Visit to a Chief's Son (1974 USA): This film is a strange mixture of anthropology, travelogue, and social commentary. Beautifully filmed by Ernest Day, who went on to work on several James Bond films, it's the story of scientist Richard Mulligan and his attempts to get close to the Masai people of Kenya. His son, played by John Philip Hogdon in a commendably understated performance, gums up the works, and an educated-in-London Masai (Johnny Sekka) further complicates matters by messing with Mulligan's preconceived notions about "the natives". It's not very exciting, but it is an interesting and serious look at the pressures put on tribal peoples by modernism and progress. It would be nice to see the film in its correct aspect ratio, as the TV print really doesn't do Day's work justice. Black Starz! usually does a good job of utilizing wide-screen prints, but unfortunately they don't seem to have one available for this film.
7:15pm Sundance
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl (1993 GB-GER-FRA-BEL): Leni Riefenstahl, still active today at 100 years of age, was Hitler's favorite filmmaker, a woman of prodigious artistic talents who hitched herself to the Nazi wagon and produced classic propaganda films such as Triumph of the Will (1934 GER) and Olympia (1938 GER). This documentary, whilst generally sympathetic, doesn't avoid probing Riefenstahl's culpability. It's a lengthy but never boring three hours, and you'll find yourself whipsawed between two uncomfortable extremes: either Riefenstahl was an unreconstructed Nazi, or she was so subsumed by her art that she couldn't recognize the obvious and apparent evil that she was helping to promote. That her films remain classics is undisputed, but even ten years after the making of this film, her legacy remains in question.
6pm IFC
Girlfight (2000 USA): You've come a long way, baby. The 1950s was the era when the concept of women in the ring became acceptable, with lady wrestlers like The Fabulous Moolah leading the charge. By the 1990s, we had experienced the pumped-up, comic-book-style American Gladiators, as well as the ladies of World Wrestling Entertainment, whose sharply defined bodies made Moolah look like your grandmother. With the release of Girlfight in 2000, ritualized female fighting established a toehold in the intellectual consciousness of art-house patrons everywhere. While the film itself isn't particularly original and channels many of the hoariest boxing movie clichés, it does feature the debut of Michelle Rodriguez, a fine young actress whose work since has elevated otherwise mundane fare such as Resident Evil and Blue Crush. Also airs at 10:15pm, 4/11 at 5pm and 9:15pm, and 4/12 at 2:30pm.
Tuesday 04/08/03
5:30am Turner Classic Movies
Heart of New York (1932 USA): This forgotten Warners comedy doesn't have much of a reputation, but it's one of the few comedies directed by the great Mervyn LeRoy, so it's worth a look. Taking place in New York City's Lower East Side, the film details the rise and fall of a Jewish inventor (George Sidney) who invents a new dishwashing machine but chooses to stay in his down-at-heel neighborhood rather than relocate to posh digs uptown. It's hard to imagine the great Aline MacMahon playing a Jewish character, but here she is, along with the vaudeville comedy team of Joe Smith and Charles Dale.
5:10pm Encore Action
Time Limit (1957 USA) : I recommended this one sight unseen a few weeks back, and I'm happy to report that for once I didn't steer my readers wrong! The only film directed by Karl Malden, Time Limit is the story of a Korean War vet (Richard Basehart) under threat of court-martial for treason whilst imprisoned as a POW. Richard Widmark is excellent as usual as the colonel assigned to prosecute the case, a man who won't be satisfied by the guilty plea Basehart seems determined to make. Dolores Michaels is excellent as Widmark's secretary (there's little indication of office romance for once), and Martin Balsam is fine as a rough-edged non-com. Though the film can be viewed as a typical 1950s anti-Communist screed, it arrived late enough in that cycle - as well as several years removed from HUAC and the Army-McCarthy hearings - to paint a picture of events with some shades of grey. Also airs 41/12 at 4am.
Wednesday 04/09/03
11am Fox Movies
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957 USA): Directed by Jerry Lewis auteur Frank Tashlin, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? has long been overshadowed by the director's 1956 Jayne Mansfield vehicle, The Girl Can't Help It. Mansfield had a brief but brilliant career as a comedienne, and she's at the top of her game here, playing Rita Marlowe, an outrageously accoutered movie star whose endorsement for a new brand of lipstick is sought by television ad man Tony Randall. Drenched in glorious color by Deluxe, this is '50s eye candy of the highest order, and is a pretty funny film to boot.
1pm Turner Classic Movies
Johnny Guitar (1954 USA): Nicholas Ray's highly stylized western about a woman barkeep in the Old West plays a bit like a 19th century Mildred Pierce, but maybe that's because Joan Crawford is the woman in question. This film has become infamous on the postmodernist circuit for its lesbian "subtext," which arguably is there, but not to the extent some might hope. Top acting kudos go to Mercedes McCambridge (why didn't she work more?) as Emma Small, the town bluenose determined to get rid of the den of iniquity owned and operated by Ms. Crawford. Lushly shot in Trucolor (there's a process we all miss), Johnny Guitar has acquired a camp reputation it doesn't really deserve. Either way you view it, it's pretty good.
Thursday 04/10/03
3am HBO Signature
Testament (1983 USA): This is the most grueling film about nuclear war I've ever watched. Granted, I haven't seen 1983's infamous Threads, but I have seen Peter Watkin's The War Game (1967 GB) as well as the usual suspects like Panic in Year Zero (1962 USA) and The Day After (1983 USA). Testament is simple, quiet, and devastatingly effective. Jane Alexander plays a mother in a small Northern California town - probably somewhere in Marin or Sonoma County - who must somehow keep her family functioning in the wake of a nuclear war that destroys San Francisco, amongst other big cities. The film doesn't feature any special effects or ghastly makeup, instead concentrating on the grim realities of adjusting to a completely changed world where radiation sickness is slowly but surely about to destroy your community. Be forewarned: if you watch this film, you will be moved and disturbed.
9:30pm Turner Classic Movies
The Killing (1956 USA): After the failed experiment that was Killer's Kiss, director Stanley Kubrick made his first classic with The Killing. Co-written by Kubrick and the great noir novelist Jim Thompson, the film stars Sterling Hayden as an ex-con setting up a foolproof racetrack heist that spirals out of control. Bad girl Marie Windsor complicates matters, and the great Timothy Carey makes one of his earliest and most prominent scene-stealing appearances. Brilliantly filmed by Lucien Ballard, The Killing was the first indication of the great talent that was about to blossom in Paths of Glory (1957 USA).
Friday 04/11/03
6pm Sundance
CQ (2001 USA): I still can't understand how I failed to see CQ on its initial release. A highly stylized movie about filmmaking in 1960s Europe? I should have been there on opening day. This is a purely emotional and speculative pick, but I'm as excited about CQ as I am about anything else this month. Its terrific cast includesRushmore's Jason Schwartzmann, Giancarlo Giannini, Dean Stockwell, and even John Philip Law, the star of 1968's Barbarella, a film that deeply influenced CQ director Roman Coppola. Also airs 4/12 at 9:50pm and 4/13 at 6pm.
11pm Turner Classic Movies
La Notte (1960 ITA) : This early film by Michaelangelo Antonioni stars Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau as a beautiful couple whose relationship is crumbling. Not as abstract as some of Antonioni's later films, such as the great Blow-Up(1966 GB) or the wretched Zabriskie Point(1970 USA), La Notte also has a prominent role for the great Swiss actor-director Bernhard Wicki, a family friend whose death precipitates the couple's breakup. The film is slow and mannered, reflecting the inner boredom of Mastroianni and Moreau's characters, but it's exceedingly well-shot by Gianni de Vananzo who went on to shoot the incredible Juliet of the Spirits with Federico Fellini, and any film with Monica Vitti is surely worth a look.
Saturday 04/12/03
2:05pm Encore Action
Project A (1987 HK) : If, after watching La Notte, you feel like treating yourself to a good, old-fashioned and silly action film, here's the perfect movie. Project A is one of Jackie Chan's most enjoyable works, dealing with turn-of-the-20th century piracy in the waters just off the coast of Hong Kong. Jackie and Sammo Hung are both in top form, and there's a deliciously evil performance by Dick Wei as the chief baddie. Also airs 4/13 at 2:20am.
7:45pm Sundance
Spirits of the Dead (1968 FRA-ITA): Presumably this will be the fully restored version of this terrific horror anthology that features segments directed by Louis Malle, Federico Fellini, and Roger Vadim. Of those three, only Vadim is remotely associated with the horror genre (we could really use a DVD restoration of his Blood and Roses at some point), though Fellini's work certainly betrayed a secondary love for the grotesque and gothic. Based on three Edgar Allan Poe short stories, this film was picked up for American distribution by AIP, no doubt in an effort to capitalize on their own series of Poe adaptations, and was released in a cut and semi-dubbed version. The cast includes English speakers Jane Fonda, Terence Stamp, and James Robertson Justice, as well as European stars Brigitte Bardot and Alain Delon. If your only experience with Spirits of the Dead was 30 years ago at the drive-in, now's the time to acquire a new appreciation for it.
Sunday 04/13/03
9am Fox Movies
A High Wind in Jamaica (1965 GB): Fox is airing a nice letterboxed print of this pirate adventure directed by Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers, Sweet Smell of Success). Nigel Davenport and Isabel Dean play parents of an English family in Jamaica who decide to send their children back to the home country in order to give them a more "civilized" upbringing. Unfortunately, a ship of cutthroats, commanded by Anthony Quinn, waylay the children's vessel, resulting in more complications for the pirates than for the kids. The supporting cast is great, including James Coburn and Gert Frobe, and there's a unique score by harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler. Also airs at 11pm.
1pm Turner Classic Movies
The Great Train Robbery (1979 GB): This little-seen Michael Crichton film deserves a much wider audience. If you enjoy caper films, you won't want to miss this one set in Victorian England and featuring Sean Connery as a master criminal out to, erm, rob a train. The film isn't particularly original, but it is very enjoyable, has a good supporting cast, including Donald Sutherland, Michael Elphick, and Andre Morell, and is another showcase for Geoffrey Unsworth's flawless cinematography.
5pm Turner Classic Movies
The Milky Way (1936 USA): Tonight's lineup of Harold Lloyd features concentrates on his sound films, and leads off with probably his poorest post-silent work, The Milky Way, a film about a milkman-turned-boxer who knocks out the current champion in a barroom brawl. The film has a fine pedigree, co-directed by comedy experts Leo McCarey and Norman Z. McLeod, but it doesn't do much for me. It's followed at 6:30pm by the obscure Welcome Danger (1929 USA), Lloyd's very first sound effort, about a student who tries to halt a Chinatown crime wave in San Francisco. Originally filmed as a silent, Welcome Danger was hurriedly adapted to the sound format. Feet First (1930 USA) airs at 8:30pm, and ranks as one of Lloyd's best soundies, detailing a shoe salesman's love for his boss's daughter. The film recycles a lot of Lloyd's sight gags from the silent days but is still incredibly funny. It's followed at 10pm by Movie Crazy, a film I haven't seen, in which Lloyd plays a no-talent who tries to make it big in Hollywood. Harold, meet John Travolta! Finally, The Cat's Paw (1934 USA) airs at 11:30pm. This time, Lloyd plays another innocent thrust into the heart of darkness, as a young man unwittingly used as a front by corrupt politicians attempting to influence an election. Unfortunately for them, Harold wins and goes on a reforming rampage as the town's new mayor. The Cat's Paw isn't amongst Lloyd's best but it still has its moments, and it features two of the greatest character actors of the 1930s in Una Merkel and Nat Pendleton.
