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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 07/24/07

9:30 AM Encore Action
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974 USA): A modest box office hit in its day, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot must now be considered one of the least well known of all Clint Eastwood films. That's a shame, as it's a hugely enjoyable caper flick, well written and directed by Hollywood wunderkind (and, thanks to the fiasco that was Heaven's Gate, future whipping boy) Michael Cimino, and featuring Eastwood at his most likable. He plays bank robber and gunnery specialist John 'Thunderbolt' Doherty, who, with the aid of brash sidekick Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges), plots the recovery of some hidden loot from a previous heist. Naturally, things don't go as smoothly as the pair envision, and they discover the 'sure thing' hiding place has undergone an unexpected transformation that requires a bold new approach involving an artillery piece. Add in the presence of fellow nogoodniks Eddie and Red (Geoffrey Lewis and George Kennedy), also anxious to get their hands on the dough, and you have a top-notch buddy movie with lots of action, comedic overtones, and most surprisingly, an Academy Award nominated performance from the cross-dressing Bridges. Sadly, it's airing in pan and scan, but this is its first television airing in quite some time — so give it a look. Maybe it'll show up in widescreen during TCM's next 'Thirty Days of Oscar'.

11:10 PM Starz
Memory of A Killer (2003 HOL): A police procedural set in the rustic Belgian city of Antwerp, Memory of A Killer stars Jan Decleir as Angelo Ledda, a hit man with a difference: he's in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, and he knows it. Sent on a final job, Angelo balks at the assignment and finds himself pursued by both sides of the law — even as his mind begins to betray him on the back streets of the ancient port town. The winner of the Audience Award at the 2003 Flanders International Film Festival, Memory of A Killer is a first-rate policier keynoted by a superb performance by Decleir, who brings a world weary puissance to his role worthy of a Jean Gabin or Lino Ventura. If you missed this one when it made its American television premiere back in May, make time for it tonight. Also airs 7/25 at 2:10 AM.

Wednesday 07/25/07

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Murder (1930 GB): Alfred Hitchcock's early British films generally (and 1936's Sabotage aside, correctly) aren't considered career highlights, but they're well worth watching as fascinating progress reports on the development of Hitch's style. Such is definitely the case with the creaky Murder, which features a young and dashing Herbert Marshall as a jurist who has second thoughts about his role in condemning a young actress (Norah Baring) to death for the murder of a stage colleague. Though slowly paced at times, Murder is an essential film for Hitchcock admirers, features Una O'Connor (Bride of Frankenstein) in one of her prototypical screeching landlady roles, and reputedly features the first interior monologue ever put to film.

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