By John Seal
November 25-30, 2002
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated - they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times PST. (Sunday December 1st will be included in next week's column.)
Monday 11/25/02
5:05 AM Encore Action
The Naked Prey (1966 USA): Another of Cornel Wilde's idiosyncratic and quite personal films, The Naked Prey relates the story of an anonymous man on safari (Wilde) whose hunting party falls afoul of some unhappy tribesmen. As he is pursued across the South African plains, Wilde shed his clothing, supplies, and weaponry, rapidly losing the 'advantages' of Western civilization. The film features some brutal (for 1966) violence and beautiful location photography (luckily we're spared stock footage from old Tarzan movies), and Wilde is terrific. He was also in great physical condition considering he was over 50 when he made the film. Sly Stallone, take note!
5:00 PM Encore Mystery
Sorry Wrong Number (1948 USA): This Barbara Stanwyck thriller about a woman being terrorized by mysterious phone calls has lost some of its scare power over the years, but remains a good, suspenseful mystery. Stanwyck is a bed-ridden woman whose phone line gets crossed up with those of some bad guys plotting a murder. Burt Lancaster is on hand as her overly busy, inattentive husband, and there's good support by Wendell Corey and Ed Begley the Elder. Also airs 11/26 at 5:00 AM.
8:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
A Patch of Blue (1965 USA): It could have been painfully corny, but Guy Green's sensitive direction and screenplay have kept A Patch of Blue fresh and watchable today. Green (also still alive, and who recently celebrated his 89th birthday) was also responsible for The Mark (1961 GB), another overlooked gem of socially conscious cinema. Sidney Poitier is the lead here, and as good as you'd expect, but he's ably supported by Elizabeth Hartman as the blind (white) girl who falls in love with him. Shelley Winters isn't as satisfying as Hartman's ogreish mother, delivering one of the over-the-top performances that marred her career.
10:15 PM The Movie Channel
Theatre of Blood (1973 GB): Vincent Price and Diana Rigg in the same film; how can you go wrong? Of course you can't. Theatre of Blood is a delightfully gruesome horror comedy based on the works of Shakespeare, and features a virtual who's who of great British character actors: Jack Hawkins, Harry Andrews, Arthur Lowe, Eric Sykes, Ian Hendry, Dennis Price, and the unforgettable Robert Morley. Price plays a critically underappreciated Shakespearean actor who has had his fill of bad reviews and decides to take his revenge in ways of which the Bard of Avon would truly have approved. Also airs 11/26 at 1:15 AM.
Tuesday 11/26/02
6:30 AM Showtime 3
Thief of Paris (1967 FRA): I recommended this several weeks ago because it was a Jean-Paul Belmondo film I wasn't familiar with. Surprisingly, the film turned out to be a quite serious period piece about a bored turn of the 20th century society boy (Belmondo) who resorts to thievery to give his privileged and boring life some excitement. The film isn't another frothy Belmondo vehicle, so if you're hoping for some laughs and some chases this isn't the film for you. I still recommend it for the star's out-of-character performance, smashing photography by Henri Decae, and the interesting if low-key story. Also airs 11/27 at 2:15 AM.
7:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Welcome to Hard Times (1967 USA): I've never seen this western, but the title has always intrigued me, TCM is airing a letterboxed print, and the film has a terrific cast: Henry Fonda, Keenan Wynn, Aldo Ray, Warren Oates, and Lon Chaney Jr. amongst others. Directed by Burt Kennedy, who was one of the most prolific (and best) directors of westerns during the 1960s, Welcome to Hard Times doesn't show up often on TV, so I'll be tuning in. Did I mention the superb cast, which also features Denver Pyle, Elisha Cook, and Royal Dano?
10:20 PM Showtime Extreme
Bangkok Dangerous (1999 THA): Another film I earlier recommended sight unseen, I can now report that Bangkok Dangerous is an above average Asian thriller that occasionally suffers from the overwrought emotional overload that seems prevelant in other genre films from the region. The film bears some similarities to Raymond Lee's The Other Side of the Sea(1992 HK), another film about a hit man (or woman) trying to find love and escape from their past. Bangkok Dangerous is much more violent than Lee's film, but the narrative arc is similar and the action doesn't detract from the outstanding performances by a cast of actors I'm totally unfamiliar with. There are times when director Oxide Pang Chun doesn't trust his own instincts and resorts to unnecessary tricks and flourishes, but overall this is an interesting and worthy little film.
Wednesday 11/27/02
3:15 AM Cinemax
Gentleman's Agreement (1947 USA): The first film to confront anti-Semitism in contemporary America, Gentleman's Agreement looks fairly benign in retrospect. In 1947 it may have come as a shock to some Americans that the prejudices that had helped grease Hitler's path to power in Germany were still quietly simmering at home. The first of director Elia Kazan's message pictures, the film features a fine performance by Gregory Peck, an actor whose moral gravitas was only outdone on the silver screen by Henry Fonda. Also airs at 6:15 PM.
5:45 PM HBO Family
Osmosis Jones (2001 USA): I may be stretching things here - this is a pretty quiet day for TiVoPlex recommendations - but I really, really enjoyed this animated feature which crashed and burned in theatres during the Summer of 2001. Directed by the Farrelly Brothers (There's Something About Mary), Osmosis Jones was neither fish enough for the children's market nor fowl enough for the Farrelly's usual gross-out audience (though there is some humour revolving around bodily functions, it's not the focus of the story). Metaphorically casting deadly germs as invaders poised to destroy the body (politic), the film is a gorgeous example of top-of-the-line, old-fashioned line animation. There is terrific voice acting by Chris Rock, William Shatner, and especially David Hyde-Pierce as the heroic cold pill riding to the rescue. Also airs at 8:45 PM and 11/30 at Noon and 3:00 PM.
Thursday 11/28/02
12:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Hot Water (1924 USA): I'm very excited about this one. I think I've made my position on silent comedies clear in previous columns, but in case I haven't, here it is: I love 'em. Keaton is my comedy King, but Harold Lloyd runs a close second, and here he is in an obscure (and self-produced) series of vignettes about the tribulations of modern married life, none of which appear to involve Lloyd dangling from high places.
12:45 AM Showtime 2
Cecil B. Demented (2000 USA): If John Water's Pecker (1999 USA) seemed to signal the arrival of a more mature and warm-hearted Waters, this film pretty much put the kibosh on the notion. His razor-sharp wit honed to an axe-like dullness, Waters skewers the Hollywood fame and money machine in this wicked satire. In other words, this film is no subtle Bergmanesque essay. At the same time Cecil B. Demented is no Freddy Got Fingered, relying on its audience's intelligence and film knowledge to provide the laughs rather than jokes about anal rape and animal masturbation. Waters is much too old to be considered the enfant terrible of American cinema, but his films are still laugh-out-loud funny, which is more than can be said for those of pretenders like Tom Green. Filled with copious quotable hilarities ("Action fans! Help us!", "Power to the people! And punish bad cinema!"), Cecil B. Demented got an undeservedly cool critical reaction. Now's your chance to watch it and see what none of the fuss was about.
Friday 11/29/02
3:15 AM Encore Mystery
Up to His Ears (1965 FRA): Now this is what I'm talking about! Jean-Paul Belmondo in a wacky caper and chase movie! Directed by Phillipe de Broca, who was about to embark on his great international and repertory hit King of Hearts (1966 FRA), this is a typical light and frothy cinematic souffle for Belmondo, who had starred in the success That Man From Rio a year earlier. Based on a story by Jules Verne, this film was a direct influence on Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones series.
5:00 PM IFC
Crumb (1994 USA): Before Terry Zwigoff made the incomparable Ghost World (2001 USA), he made this grueling documentary about the troubled and talented Crumb family. The focus is on R. Crumb, the counterculture hero of the comics who came to loathe the burden his accidental fame brought him, but there's also considerable time spent with Robert's brothers Charles and Maxon. Charles and Maxon make Robert look like a rock of success and stability, and the film is uncomfortable viewing, never sparing the viewer sordid but true stories of sexual abuse, insanity, and suicide. Zwigoff luckily doesn't mistreat his subjects, keeping an appropriate distance that would be entirely impossible for a documentarian like Nick Broomfield to maintain. Also airs 11/30 at 3:00 AM.
6:00 PM Sundance
No Man's Land (2001 GB - lots of European and Balkan countries): I wanted to see this when it came out, but the usual flood of decent art-house fodder at the end of 2001 caused me to miss it on the big screen. (Of course, when you're talking about an art-house release like this, it's really only going to make it to the postage-stamp sized screen at the back of the multiplex, but you know what I mean.) At any rate, I get to catch up on it here, and I'm looking forward to seeing last year's Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film (even though some of the dialogue is in English!).
10:35 PM Showtime Extreme
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 fellow Lord, 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 Warriors and The Wanderers (both 1979).
6:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Solaris (1972 USSR): DISCLAIMER: I don't enjoy the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, nor do I particularly care for this one. But with the imminent release of Steven Soderbergh's remake, this is a golden opportunity to see the source material for the new film and compare it with Soderbergh's version. With the remake clocking in at a brief 93 minutes (sans credits), we can hope that a lot of the lingering shots of Tarkovsky have been trimmed down. Whether Soderbergh can make anything out of the story is another matter. Aired by TCM in its correct aspect ratio (2.35:1), this is one for hardcore film fans and Soderbergh groupies (of which, admittedly, I'm one).
Saturday 11/30/02
1:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Diabolique (1955 FRA): It's been many years since I last saw Henri-Georges Clouzot's psychological murder mystery, but I do remember the film being one of the scariest cinematic experiences of my life. (Luckily I never got around to seeing the Sharon Stone remake, so I have been spared some scares of a different kind.) I still shudder when I think about the bathtub scene in this film, but to tell more would be spoiling things for the uninitiated.
5:00 PM Fox Movies
Raising Arizona (1987 USA): I'm not the world's biggest fan of this Coen Brothers film. Its sneering attitude toward the uneducated white working class (otherwise known as crackers or rednecks) has always rubbed me the wrong way. But there is something undeniably sweet at the heart of the film, and the performances by Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, while still grounded in stereotypes, nonetheless won me over the second and third time I watched the film. Featuring Coen regulars John Goodman and Frances McDormand and an especially good performance by Trey Wilson (who saved the otherwise hard to watch Great Balls of Fire as record producer Sam Phillips), Raising Arizona is also getting the letterboxed treatment this time out.
5:00 PM IFC
King of New York (1990 USA): Abel Ferrara's take on mob warfare in the Big Apple is a typically gritty film from the man who brought us The Bad Lieutenant and Ms. 45, but Christopher Walken's performance as Frank White, the drug lord out for revenge, raises the film to almost mythic levels. Ferrara's films are not for all tastes, and if you dislike violence or have a problem with characters bereft of the milk of human kindness, this is not the film for you. For fans of Walken it's a must see, and it's one of the best films of Ferrara's ongoing career. Also airs at 10:15 PM.
