By John Seal
April 28 - May 4, 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 04/28/03
12:45 AM Showtime
Africa (1999 RSA-GB): Here’s the speculative pick of the week. This South African-British co-production concerns a fashion model (Dorette Potgieter) stranded in the bush as a result of a car accident. The only recognizable names in the cast are Irish actor Patrick Bergin and Showgirls star Elizabeth Berkley, and I know nothing about the director, whose most recent work was a viking film called Berserker. This one’s a total shot in the dark, but for whatever reason, I’m intrigued.
3:20 AM Encore
Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Movie (1996 USA): Okay, you all know about this one, but it’s been a while since it aired on cable and I can’t resist the siren song of Tom Servo and Gypsy, even if they are lampooning a decent film (This Island Earth). If you enjoyed the schtick of the TV series, you’ll enjoy the movie - and on a side note, Rhino is doing a nice job re-releasing MST3K on DVD, frequently offering viewers the option of watching the films both with and without comedic counterpoint. Also airs at 6:20 PM.
4:05 AM Encore Mystery
Our Man in Havana (1960 GB): It’s not one of Alec Guinness’ best films, but this droll adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel (written by the author himself) is eminently watchable and quite amusing. Guinness plays a vacuum cleaner salesman in Cuba who, short of money, is hired by British intelligence to spy on Cuban officials. Unfortunately, he has little to report, so he starts manufacturing stories in order to earn his keep and seem useful. Need I tell you that complications ensue? The supporting cast is superb, including Noel Coward, Ralph Richardson, and Ernie Kovacs, and the film is nicely shot by Oswald Morris.
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
West Side Story (1961 USA): Robert Wise’s terrific adaptation of the stage musical gets a nice letterboxed airing thanks to the good folks at TCM. The film was a huge popular and critical success, taking home ten Academy Awards, including wins for actors Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, as well as for Daniel Fapp’s gorgeous cinematography. Featuring terrific music - well, except for that sappy Maria song - outstanding choreography, and a super supporting cast including Russ Tamblyn and Simon Oakland, this is a musical for people who don’t really like musicals. Like me.
6:00 PM Sundance
Chile: Obstinate Memory (1997 CAN-FRA): Sundance’s weekly Doc Day brings us this short (52 minute) meditation on the CIA-engineered overthrow of Chile’s elected Allende government in 1973. Director Patricio Guzman returned to his native land in 1997 to show his film The Battle of Chile (1975-9 VEN-FRA), a three part documentary detailing the horrors and agonies of the period. Chile: Obstinate Memory catches the reactions and feelings of ordinary Chileans after seeing The Battle of Chile for the first time. Most interesting are the responses of those who were first hand witnesses to the events of the coup, as they point out the names and faces of victims still officially missing. It’s followed at 7:05 PM by a re-airing of The Trials of Henry Kissinger (2001 USA), a perfect companion piece that I’ve strongly recommended in the past.
9:05 PM More Max
Rabid (1977 CAN): Before director David Cronenberg somehow morphed into a “respectable” director, he made some very disturbing horror films, including the sexual shocker They Came From Within (1975 CAN), a film guaranteed to dim your libido, and this film, a story of a young woman subjected to experimental surgery that results in her acquiring a taste for blood. The woman in question is played by porn star Marilyn Chambers and the cast is, er, fleshed out with Canadian stalwarts including Frank Moore and Susan Roman. The 1970s were the last decade when horror films took themselves seriously, and Rabid has lost none of its power to shock and surprise.
Tuesday 04/29/03
5:55 AM Sundance
The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (1980 USA): The work and wartime effort of American women was belatedly acknowledged by this terrific documentary which has since been added to the prestigious National Film Registry. The film convincingly makes the case that the seeds of the Women’s Liberation movement were sown during World War II, when wives and girlfriends around the United States took over the factory jobs previously held by their husbands and sweethearts now fighting overseas. Newsreel footage, music, and contemporary interviews with a number of typical “Rosies” combine to make this a fascinating and watchable history lesson.
10:00 PM IFC
Black Cat, White Cat (1998 FRA-GER-YUG): This romantic comedy of errors is a bit more light-hearted than director Emir Kusturica’s bitter and magnificent Underground (1995 FRA-GER-HUN-YUG), but its tale of a bizarre arranged marriage still maintains a political edginess beneath the surface, elliptically dealing with the still ongoing sectarian wars of the former Yugoslavia. You can either appreciate it for those subtleties or simply watch it as a very dark and quite twisted comedy - with lots of Romany music to boot. Not to be missed by fans of art-house cinema.
Wednesday 04/30/03
1:20 AM More Max
Dog Day Afternoon (1973 USA): It’s lost some of the cachet of outrage that helped make it a hit in 1973, but Sidney Lumet’s crime drama still brims with energy. Al “Attica” Pacino and the underappreciated John Cazale play a gay couple in need of money to pay for medical expenses, so naturally they decide to rob a bank. What should have been simple, of course, turns out to be very complicated, as the robbery turns into a hostage situation fueled by a media circus outside. It’s still one of the highlights of Pacino’s amazing career.
10:15 PM Showtime 3
The Education of Sonny Carson (1974 USA): This is a forgotten '70s film that foregoes the visceral thrill present in so-called “blaxploitation” films in favor of a more realistic approach to a similar tale of crime and redemption. The film bears some similarities to the verité approach of Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song, but is infinitely superior to that movie in the storytelling department. Based on Carson's autobiography, the title character (played with absolute conviction by Rony Clanton) is a bright young man who gets sucked into gang turf warfare that ends with him doing time in the slammer. There are good supporting performances by B.T. Taylor as a fellow gang member, Crazy, and Joyce Walker as Sonny's girlfriend Virginia, whose addiction to heroin ultimately turns Carson's life around. The location footage in Bedford-Stuyvesant is excellent, and the battle between the Lords and the Hawks anticipates similar scenes in The Warriorsand The Wanderers(both 1979).
Thursday 5/01/03
3:30 AM Showtime
So Evil So Young (1961 GB): Now here’s an irresistible title if ever there was one. Jill Ireland stars in this quota quickie as a young woman sent to a reform school where she is victimised by a brutal warden. This one is here simply because it’s very rare—any film produced by the Danziger Brothers is unlikely to be particularly good, though it provides an opportunity to see a very young Mrs. Clint Eastwood. Director Godfrey Grayson’s only other claim to fame was directing the West German horror-nudie Horrors of Spider Island (1959) whilst the balance of the cast is made up of a solid if unspectacular lineup of British “B” talent. Also airs at 6:30 AM.
4:00 AM Cinemax
The Gambler (1974 USA): James Caan stars as Axel Freed, a literature professor with a gambling problem, in Karel Reisz’s high stakes classic. Written by James Toback before he ran out of good ideas, this takes a fairly routine plot device - man gets in over his head in debt to gamblers - in some surprising directions. With a strong supporting cast, including Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutton, M. Emmet Walsh, and Vic Tayback, as well as Jerry Fielding’s score, this is a typical 1970s style character analysis with a twist ending. Also airs at 7:00 AM.
Friday 5/02/03
Midnight Turner Classic Movies
Libel (1959 GB): This excellent courtroom drama stars Dirk Bogarde as a well regarded barrister suddenly confronted by accusations of being an impostor. Olivia De Havilland plays his trusting wife who slowly starts to turn on him, and the solid supporting cast includes Robert Morley, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Anthony Dawson, as well as Robert Shaw in an early cameo as a newspaper reporter. Watch and find out why this was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound!
1:15 AM Black Starz
Black Samurai (1976 USA): Action fans, rejoice! All other film fans, cover your eyes! Anti-auteur Al Adamson - the tortured (and murdered) genius who brought us such genre classics as Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971 USA), Blood of Ghastly Horror (1972 USA), and Blazing Stewardesses (1973 USA) - tried his hand at the martial arts genre with this film. The great Jim Kelly (Enter the Dragon) stars as a millionaire out for revenge against the slavery ring that abducted his girlfriend. Featuring an unforgettable fight scene between Kelly and a vulture, there’s also a good supporting cast on hand, including the already slumming Aldo Ray and the great D’Urville Martin. Also airs at 4:15 AM.
7:00 AM Cinemax
Scarecrow (1973 USA): Here’s another forgotten ‘70s gem well deserving of reappraisal on DVD, or at least a letterboxed airing on TCM. It’s the episodic story of a couple of drifters (Gene Hackman and Al Pacino) criss-crossing the country, with Hackman intent on making it back to his hometown of Pittsburgh to open a car wash. Beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, Scarecrow suffers severely from cropping and pan and scanning but is good enough to warrant your attention until such time as Warners decides to restore it to its former glory. Also airs at 10:00 AM.
8:10 AM Encore Action
The Southern Star (1969 GB-FRA): This minor caper film set in Africa gets a nod in the TiVoPlex for one reason only: it’s another odd entry in the Orson Welles directorial resume. That’s a bit of a cheat, really, as he was only responsible for the opening scenes, with reliable Sidney Hayers taking the reins the rest of the way. Welles also stars as the bad guy, a gay alcoholic ex-Army officer, and the rest of the cast is interesting, including as it does George Segal, Ursula Andress, Harry Andrews, Ian Hendry, and Johnny Sekka. It won’t make you forget Citizen Kane (1941 USA) or The Trial (1963 FRA), but if you’re an Orson fan you should make time for this silly tale of a purloined diamond.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Ashes and Diamonds (1958 POL): No real diamonds, stolen or otherwise, appear in this Iron Curtain classic, directed by Andrzej Wajda a year after his equally well regarded Kanal. Ashes and Diamonds is also set at the end of World War II and stars Zbigniew Cybulski as a resistance fighter ordered to kill a Communist district leader - who also happens to be one his fellow soldiers. Expertly shot by Jerzy Wojcik, this is one of the greatest Polish films and is a must-see for fans of international cinema.
Saturday 5/03/03
7:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Strip (1951 USA): Mickey Rooney’s recent appearance at the Academy Awards has no doubt rekindled interest in his long film career. Well, maybe. At any rate, here’s one of many obscure entries in his filmography, with Mickey featured as a Sunset Strip drummer up to his elbows in bad dames and badder mobsters. Of particular interest to jazz fans, The Strip features appearances by Louis Armstrong, Earl “Fatha” Hines, and Jack Teagarden, in addition to Hollywood regulars Sally Forrest and William Demarest.
6:00 PM Trio
Blue Suede Shoes (1980 GB): Trio continues to provide programming surprises, trumping the annoyance of editing and commercial breaks with impossible-to-find rarities like this documentary about the then resurgent Teddy Boy culture of late ‘70s Britain. There’s memorable footage of Bill Haley and the Comets, Ray Campi and His Rockabilly Rebels, and (in archive footage) Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, as well as lots of glimpses of greasy haired rockers and their outrageously coiffed gal pals.
Sunday 5/04/03
3:35 AM Encore Action
Yongary Monster From the Deep (1967 ROK-JAP): South Korea’s first entry into the kaiju eiga sweepstakes isn’t much better than the worst of the Japanese monster movies it emulates but does have some unique points in its favor, including the opportunity to see downtown Seoul take a pasting instead of Tokyo. Long a favorite on late night TV in the 1970s, it’s been a while since Taekoesu Yonggary has roared his way across America’s airwaves, so here’s your chance to revisit a small part of your childhood - or mine, at least.
9:35 AM Fox Movies
Think Fast Mr. Moto (1937 USA): Peter Lorre stars as the great Japanese detective in the second entry in the popular series - which soon lost popularity with the advent of World War II. The films aren’t classics, but they’re thoroughly enjoyable and fairly typical detective films in the vein of Charlie Chan, The Falcon, and Lone Wolf, with enough entertainment value to fill an hour and a cast - including Sidney Blackmer, Sig Ruman, and John Carradine - that will satisfy fans of Golden Age Hollywood.
10:00 AM Sundance
Passion of Joan of Arc (1928 DEN): Best ten lists come and go, but one thing’s a certainty: this film resides comfortably on my own list of all time greats, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. Decidedly not for all tastes, this is nonetheless the only Joan of Arc film worth your time, starring the astonishing Maria Falconetti in the title role. Superlatives can’t really do this film justice, but be assured that it is one of the most beautiful and moving films ever made, magnificently shot by future Hollywood director Rudolph Mate and directed with simple brilliance by Carl Theodor Dreyer.
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Red Kimono (1925 USA): Silent Sunday nights are back on TCM, and this rarity - produced by Mrs. Wallace Reid Productions - leads the charge. Directed by long time Hollywood filmmaker Walter Lang, whose final film was the lamentable Snow White and the Three Stooges, The Red Kimono is yet another expose of the white slave trade, a popular topic in the teens and twenties. Adapted for the screen by Adela Rogers St. John and Dorothy Arzner, the film features Tyrone Power Sr. as the father of the young lady abducted by slavers.
