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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 10/30/07

7:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Tender Comrade (1943 USA): Ground Zero for the Hollywood Blacklist? Perhaps that's the most significant legacy of Tender Comrade, a rarely seen RKO drama written by fellow traveller Dalton Trumbo and directed by commie simp Edward Dmytryk. The film stars Ginger Rogers as Jo, the erstwhile leader of a group of female factory workers waiting for their men to return home from the war. In order to save money, Jo suggests that the group pool their resources and take up residence in a communal home where they can raise their children together and enjoy some sisterly solidarity. What's that got to do with the blacklist, you ask? Well, Rogers was a rock-ribbed Republican, and felt uncomfortable delivering Trumbo's seditious dialogue - lines such as ‘share and share alike' got her dander up, as she wrote in her autobiography, Ginger: My Story. Between Tender Comrade and Mission to Moscow (also 1943), Hollywood reactionaries had all the ammunition they needed with which to weed out Tinsel Town's reds - and Trumbo and Dmytryk both spent considerable time in exile or jail as a result. As for Tender Comrade itself, well, it couldn't be more of a sentimental flag-waver if it tried, and it's truly hard to believe Rogers got her knickers in such a twist over such mundane and warm-hearted fare.

10:00 PM IFC
Three Times (2005 TAI): Apparently influenced by Virginia Woolf's Orlando, this Taiwanese drama features Qi Shu (Millennium Mambo) and Chen Chang (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) in three stories of relationship in pre-and post-imperial China. Set in 1911, 1966, and the present day (though not presented in that order), these are languid ruminations on the more melancholy aspects of love and romance, with the 1911 segment shot entirely sans dialogue. Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien (who also utilized the triptych format in 1995's Good Men Good Women), Three Times is art-house stuff for hardcore cineastes - it looks stunning, but won't get your heart racing any faster than normal.

Wednesday 10/31/07

9:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Cry of the Werewolf (1944 USA): Awooooh! Not sure how you would actually put the cry of the werewolf into words, but that's the best I can do. As for CoIumbia's Cry, it features Nina Foch as Celeste, a young gypsy woman (in Louisiana, no less!) who is also the daughter of a lycanthrope, and unwitting heir to all that entails. Her dark secret is threatened, however, when meddling Dr. Morris (Stephen Crane, not the author) discovers the truth behind the curse and plans to ride it to professional success via academic monograph (because we all know everyone reads those things, right?). Driven to despair (and probably a little hungry for human flesh), Celeste is determined to put a stop to Morris' nefarious research project - and will stop at nothing, including a little voodoo, to do it. This tame and confused genre entry (which also, believe it or not, was titled Bride of the Vampire at one point) co-stars Osa Massen and Barton MacLane. It's followed at 10:30 AM by the shoddier but more enjoyable 1956 chiller The Werewolf, in which two well-meaning scientists bring out the inner beast in a car crash victim (Steven Ritch) under their care.

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