By John Seal
June 24-30, 2003
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or under-appreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times PDT.
Tuesday 06/24/03
1:30am Turner Classic Movies
Men Are Like That (1930 USA): This week's trip to the TiVoPlex kicks off with a very obscure Paramount comedy about a local loud-mouth (circus performer and Broadway star Hal Skelly) who drives his neighbors crazy. Directed by Hollywood stalwart Frank Tuttle, the film features a cast of unknowns, with the exception of Eugene Pallette as a traffic cop. TCM had to dig pretty deep into the vaults for this one, so treat it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enjoy the thespic skills of Mr. Skelly, who tragically died four years later when his car was hit by a train.
3:35am More Max
Full of Life (1956 USA): This pleasant if inconsequential comedy/drama stars the always fun-to-watch Judy Holliday as a mother-to-be pressing a reluctant husband (Richard Conte) into building an addition to their house. Opera star Salvatore Baccaloni plays her father, a carpenter who takes on the task and pours scorn on Conte's soft American ways. Written for the screen by John Fante, who based his work on his own novel, Full of Life is an old-fashioned and sweet look at the bonds that tie families together.
Wednesday 06/25/03
12:15am Showtime 2
Canvas (1992 USA): Mmm, thin pickings indeed this Wednesday, so now is the perfect time for this week's Guilty Pleasure. Canvas will never be anyone's idea of a classic, but deft casting and a reasonably interesting story help it to overcome its low budget. Gary Busey does his usual bug-eyed bad guy thing, which is always fine with me, but John Rhys-Davies makes the film work as an art thief with a heart of gold. The rest of the cast is strictly minor-league level, though Vittorio Rossi is not bad as an artist caught up in a web of crime. It's a thoroughly reasonable way to spend 90 minutes in front of the tube, especially when there's not much else on!
5pm Turner Classic Movies
King Kong (1933 USA): There's no good reason for me to include this film in this week's column, as it's widely acknowledged as a classic and shows up on the schedule fairly frequently. However, King Kong fans in the San Francisco Bay Area should be aware of an upcoming big-screen showing at Oakland's beautiful Paramount Theater (www.paramounttheater.com) on July 11th. For those who appreciate Art Deco architecture, pre-show organ music, and unfeasibly large apes, mark the date on your calendar. Would it be too much to hope that star Fay Wray will be in attendance? Regardless, there's no better way to see the giant ape than on a full-size screen. Also airs 6/29 at 1am.
Thursday 06/26/03
1:30am Turner Classic Movies
The Finger Points (1931 USA): Continuing a brief block of Fay Wray features, TCM offers this obscure Warner's social drama about an idealistic young reporter (Richard Barthelmess) who gets mixed up with gangsters and ends up in the hospital when he crosses them. His idealism goes the way of the dodo, and Barthelmess is soon taking kickbacks from the bad guys, much to the chagrin of good girl Wray, who wants her man to keep to the straight-and-narrow. You can guess how this one ends up, but it's a solid piece of filmmaking nonetheless, and it features a young Clark Gable as the hoodlum who puts the young journalist on the gangland payroll.
4am Sundance
McLuhan's Wake (2002 CAN): Marshall McLuhan was a brilliant Canadian media analyst who coined the phrases "the medium is the message" and "global village." This film, a production of the National Film Board of Canada, is a timely reminder of this visionary's great impact on the late 20th century, and his continuing relevance in a world where war and reality television disturbingly blend together.
12:45pm More Max
Baby Blue Marine (1976 USA): A few weeks back I briefly touched on the rise and fall of actor Jan-Michael Vincent. He was at the height of his success when he made this old-fashioned story of a young boot-camp enrollee who doesn't make the grade, returning to a hometown desperate to welcome him as a conquering hero. Vincent is fine, but the supporting cast is the real prize here: Katherine Helmond (the woman subjected to horrendous plastic surgery in Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985 GB)), Kenneth "The Thing" Tobey, not one but two Barrymores (John Drew and John Blythe), and youngsters Adam Arkin and Richard Gere. László Kóvacs' cinematography is, as always, a plus, making up for the somewhat torpid screenplay and the fact that Baby Blue Marine was produced by television schlockmeister Aaron Spelling.
5pm Turner Classic Movies
Mother India (1957 IND): It's back to Bollywood one final time, with this week's selections coming from an earlier time than most of what has preceded. This week's lead-off film is Mother India, written and directed by Mehboob Khan and starring Nargis as a woman struggling against poverty, illiteracy, and - most desperately - usury in her small farming village. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 1958 Academy Awards, losing out to Jacques Tati's Mon Oncle. It's followed at 8pm by 1953's Do Bigha Zamin, a similarly-themed tale of a farmer who, his land is threatened by seizure, moves to Calcutta and gains employment as a rickshaw driver in a determined attempt to earn enough money to pay off his landlord. This film won the International Prize for director Bimal Roy at 1954's Cannes Film Festival. Finally, Pyaasa (1957) airs at 10:30pm, and stars Guru Dutt as a poet who falls in love with a prostitute (Mala Sinha) and ultimately ends up in a mental hospital. These three films are much closer to the more traditional (and well-known in the West) work of Satyajit Ray, concentrating on social problems and inequities and less on the musical numbers we've come to associate with Indian cinema. TCM's four-week festival has barely scratched the surface of the sub-continent's prodigious film output, even avoiding the easy option of airing any of Ray's films. Here's hoping they offer us more of these hidden and frequently forgotten gems in the near future.
7:30pm Fox Movies
Young Frankenstein: Building the Perfect Beast (1999 USA). It's a pleasure to report that this Fox original documentary is rising from its tomb to stalk your television screen once again. This is essential viewing for fans of Mel Brooks' classic Young Frankenstein (1974 USA), featuring interviews with cast and crew, including Brooks, Gene Wilder, Cloris Leachman, and Peter Boyle, narration by co-star Kenneth Mars, and some fascinating outtakes. Also airs 6/29 at 10am.
Friday 06/27/03
5am HBO
Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001 USA): I just recommended this a few weeks back but feel compelled to give it one more plug. This astonishing HBO documentary (co-produced by Pathe of France) is a bare-bones affair detailing the trial of a 15-year old African-American boy for murder. All the classic elements are here - incompetent and corrupt police, incipient racism, and a righteously indignant public defender - but it's all the more powerful because it's all true. This is well above average for an HBO documentary and outstanding by any measure.
4:15am More Max
Seven Thieves (1960 USA): For those who like their caper films handsomely mounted and studded with stars, this Henry Hathaway-directed Fox flick scores top points in both categories. This airing will sadly be pan-and-scan, but if you can put up with that indignity, you'll enjoy watching Edward G. Robinson, Joan Collins, Eli Wallach, and Rod Steiger as they go about plotting to rip off a casino in Monte Carlo. Mr. French, Sebastian Cabot, appears as the casino manager, but rumors of an appearance by two-year old Anissa Jones are entirely false.
5pm Turner Classic Movies
The Harryhausen Chronicles (1998 USA): The master of cinema stop-motion effects, Ray Harryhausen, is celebrated in this hour-long documentary that originally aired on American Movie Classics back when that channel had a clue. Now it's on the station that it should have called home all along. Featuring interviews with Harryhausen as well as animator Henry Selick, actor Leonard Nimoy, and author Ray Bradbury, this is a charming look at a humble genius who learned his trade at the feet of King Kong creator Willis O'Brien. It's followed at 6pm by an even more special event, a rare appearance of Harryhausen's incomplete (till now) Tortoise and the Hare. Filmmakers Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh convinced Harryhausen to come out of retirement to help finish the work he had put on hold in 1949 when he had the opportunity to work with O'Brien on the original Mighty Joe Young. This 12-minute mini-epic has been on the festival circuit, and now makes its world television premiere. Don't miss it. The Harryhausen Chronicles also airs at 8:15pm.
Saturday 06/28/03
9am Encore
Aliens (1986 USA): I'm not a huge fan of the second film in the Alien franchise - I go so far as to heretically prefer the third film - but Encore is airing this wide-screen, reason enough to put up with James Cameron's über-macho approach to the story. Sigourney Weaver and Lance Henriksen are good, lots of things explode, and people run around. Avoid the pan-and-scan screenings that appear later in the day. Also airs at noon and (in wide-screen) 6/29 on Fox Movies at 6:30pm.
Sunday 06/29/03
2:45am Turner Classic Movies
The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1917 USA): Buried deep in the TCM schedule and virtually overlooked in other "what's on" guides, this is a truly exciting hidden gem. A stop-motion precursor to 1920's The Lost World, this Willis O'Brien one-reeler features a magical telescope that allows its users to see the prehistoric world, complete, of course, with giant dinosaurs. O'Brien and fellow filmmaker Herbert Dawley were responsible for everything seen on-screen, including appearing as the film's two-person cast. I suspect this is a television premiere, and to my knowledge the film doesn't appear on DVD or VHS. Gentlefolk, start your TiVo's engines.
3:15am Showtime Extreme
The Spikes Gang (1974 USA): Smilin' Leonard Maltin may not like it, but this is a thoroughly enjoyable and little-known western that features a terrific low-key performance by Lee Marvin and an on-the-cusp-of-stardom turn by Ron Howard. Professionally directed by Richard Fleischer, the film also features a well-written screenplay by Irving Ravetch (The Long Hot Summer (1958 USA), Norma Rae (1979 USA)).
9pm Turner Classic Movies
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926 GER): Silent Sunday Night has a real treat for animation fans who remain unsated by the appearance of The Ghost of Slumber Mountain. This opportunity to see a once-rare (and now on DVD) German feature may finally fulfill your lust for the rare and unusual. Directed by Lotte Reiniger, The Adventures of Prince Achmed blazed new animation trails, incorporating paper cut-outs, wax, and sand, and featuring superb camerawork to bring the old Arabian Nights stories to life.
Monday 06/30/03
3:30am Cinemax
The Tall T (1957 USA): I'm not entirely sold on the revisionist history that places Budd Boetticher just a tad behind Ford and Leone in the pantheon of Great Western Directors, but this is a good one, featuring Randolph Scott as an aging rancher facing off against bad guy Richard Boone. Written by genre specialist Burt Kennedy, The Tall T also features Maureen O'Sullivan as the love interest and a young Henry Silva as one of Boone's evil henchmen. Also airs 6:30am.
2:30pm Sundance
Pie In the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story (2000 USA): If you like feeling vaguely uncomfortable when watching a film, this one is for you. The story of Brigid Berlin, an heiress who became a denizen of Andy Warhol's Factory and the New York art scene, this is also a disturbing look at addiction, in this case to something as apparently innocuous as key lime pie. Many documentaries try to comfort the viewer with some of that much-vaunted psychobabble condition "closure", but this one leaves you feeling that Ms. Berlin is only one slice away from tumbling into a new spiral of overeating, causing her to descend once again into an hermit-like existence in her Manhattan apartment. You'll never look at your dessert the same way again.
