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

Tuesday 12/7/10

Midnight Cinemax
Flashpoint (1984 USA): No, this isn’t a sequel to Flashdance. Flashpoint stars Kris Kristofferson as Texan border guard Bobby Logan, who, whilst making his appointed rounds, finds an abandoned jeep containing $800,000 in cash, a rifle, and some skeletal remains with a 1962 driver’s license. When the feds begin to give this chilliest of cold cases considerable attention, Bobby begins to suspect conspiracy is afoot…and that the jeep and its contents may have something to do with the assassination of President Kennedy. The first film produced by HBO, Flashpoint co-stars Rip Torn, Kurtwood Smith, Roberts Blossom, and Treat Williams, and is a lot better than you might expect. It airs again at 3:00 AM.

3:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Submarine Raider (1942 USA): Celebrate Pearl Harbor Day the Submarine Raider way! Hollywood’s very first attempt to come to terms with Japan’s perfidious airborne assault, Submarine Raider was released in June 1942, and features John Howard (formerly Bulldog Drummond in six Paramount billfillers, and not the former Australian Prime Minister) as Chris Warren, an American naval officer in command of a submarine which intercepts the Japanese fleet — on December 6th! When Warren tries to radio a warning to Hawaii, his message is intercepted by IJN Captain Yamanada (Italian actor Nino Pipitone!), who dispatches aircraft to sink the good sub Sea Serpent. If you can overlook the film’s horrendous miscasting — as well as its many historical inaccuracies — you’ll probably enjoy this patroitic potboiler, which co-stars Marguerite Chapman, Philip Ahn, Forrest Tucker, Larry Parks, Keye Luke, and Bruce Bennett.

3:25 PM Showtime Extreme
Breakthrough (1980 BRD): This forgotten West German war pic — ostensibly a sequel to Sam Peckinpah’s immeasurably superior 1976 actioner Cross of Iron — gets a very rare airing this afternoon. Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, Breakthrough stars Richard Burton as Steiner, a Wehrmacht non-com involved in a plot against Der Fuhrer during the late days of World War Deux. Ordered by General Hoffman (Curd Jurgens) to go behind enemy lines and inform the Americans that plans are afoot to oust Hitler, Steiner makes contact with Colonel Rogers (Robert Mitchum) and General Webster (Rod Steiger), but things go awry, Hoffman’s plan fails, and a bloody battle ensues. Burton really phones this one in and is no substitute for James Coburn, who played Steiner in Cross of Iron, and the film relies far too much on stock footage. Only war film completists, rare movie mavens, and Burton fanatics need apply.

Thursday 12/9/10

10:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
Niagara (1953 USA): It's a shame this Henry Hathaway-helmed feature was shot in 1952, because it would have looked great in Cinemascope two or three years down the road. Nonetheless, it remains a terrific and somewhat underrated thriller, and at least it was shot in Technicolor! Joseph Cotten and Marilyn Monroe star as George and Rose Loomis, an unhappily married couple staring daggers at each other whilst spending an awkward vacation trip at the legendary falls. Their motel neighbors are the Cutlers (Casey Adams and Jean Peters), a pair of happy honeymooners who soon notice things aren't exactly copacetic in the Loomis bungalow. Indeed, Rose is plotting with her secret lover (Richard Allan) to bump off hubby - but her plans go awry and she soon finds herself on the receiving end of George's husbandly ire. The film blends noir sensibility with Hitchcockian plot twists, and provides proof positive that Monroe had dramatic talent underutilized by Hollywood producers who couldn't see beyond her physical charms.

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