New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

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

Tuesday 9/21/10

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Wild Guitar (1962 USA): The wild, wild world of rock ‘n’ roll gets the special Hall family treatment in this supremely goofy musical. When aspiring Presley clone Bud Eagle (Arch Hall Jr.) rides into town on his chopper, he meets cute with sexy hash slinger Vicki (Nancy Czar), who helps him get a gig on a local TV show. Unscrupulous scumbag Mike McCauley (Arch Hall Sr.) likes what he sees and signs Bud to an exclusive contract, but our hero quickly learns that showbiz ain’t nothin’ but a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Featuring a handful of Hall Junior’s wacky compositions (since collected by Norton Records on a must-have CD of the same name), Wild Guitar was written by Daddy Hall and directed by the legendary Ray Dennis Steckler (The Thrill Killers, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies). Unsurprisingly, there’s no other film quite like it.

9:00 PM IFC
Hush (2009 GB): The British social phenomenon known as "white van man" - usually a middle-aged Caucasian with a clean-shaven head and a white van he uses to deliver goods and services around the country - gets the cinematic treatment in this decent thriller from writer-director Mark Tonderai. William Ash and Christine Bottomley play Zakes and Beth, a young couple who, whilst driving along Britain’s main arterial road, the M1, espy a woman apparently being held against her will in a transit van. When Zakes decides discretion is the better part of valor and refuses to get involved, Beth storms off in disgust, only to herself be snatched up by the mysterious motorist. Will Zakes finally put on his man-pants and rescue her? Filmed on location in Yorkshire, this British blend of Duel and The Vanishing is a pretty decent effort, especially considering it’s Tonderai’s first feature film.

Wednesday 9/22/10

2:35 AM More Max
The Glory Brigade (1953 USA): Victor Mature leads his men into battle in this average but well cast Korean War drama. Big Vic plays Lieutenant Sam Pryor, commander of a platoon of G.I.’s assigned to provide cover for a unit of Greek troops reconnoitering behind enemy lines. Pryor is himself of Greek descent and considers the mission an honor - that is, until the Spartans disintegrates under fire and his squad gets decimated by the Chicoms. In addition to Lee Marvin as demolition expert Bowman and Alexander Scourby as Greek commander Niklas, The Glory Brigade also co-stars Richard Egan, who strangely won a Golden Globe for his performance as Sergeant Johnson. Why strange? Because the award was for "Most Promising Newcomer," and Egan had already appeared in almost two dozen films!

8:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Brewster McCloud (1970 USA): Remember last week, when I proclaimed Quintet to be Robert Altman’s worst film, beating Brewster McCloud by a nose? Well, my opinion is about to be put to the test, and I’ll either come out of this smelling like a rose or smelling like…something else. As for the film, it stars Bud Cort as the titular character, an oddball who has taken up residence in the (then relatively new) Houston Astrodome’s fallout shelter (do all baseball stadiums have one?). Brewster has constructed a set of wings with which he intends to fly - within the confines of the ‘dome, of course. For some reason, whenever I think of this film, I also think of Philip Kaufman’s 1967 "comedy" Fearless Frank…which is, I believe, even worse than Brewster McCloud.

Continued:       1       2       3       4