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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 11/06/07

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
To Trap A Spy (1964 USA): Wildly popular during its original four season run on NBC, the demand for Bond-style spy show The Man From U.N.C.L.E. outstripped the supply - hence To Trap A Spy, the first of eight (!) films prepared for big screen release in the US and around the world. For the first time ever, all eight features are airing on television this morning, back to back to back to...well, you get the idea. Created by re-editing old TV episodes (supplemented with footage deemed too ‘hot' for the boob tube), these films performed surprisingly well at the box-office. Adapted from U.N.C.L.E.'s black and white pilot, The Vulcan Affair, To Trap A Spy served as a big screen introduction for main characters Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum), two super secret agents battling against the villainy of T.H.R.U.S.H., an organization with an acronym as tortuous as their nefarious activities. The film co-stars Shakespearean actor and future Blacula William Marshall as an African president threatened with assassination by bad guy Andrew Vulcan (Fritz Weaver), and it's up to Napoleon Solo to protect him. It's followed at 4:45 AM by One of Our Spies Is Missing (1965), in which Illya Kuryakin and U.N.C.L.E. overseer Mr. Waverly (Leo G. Carroll) assume prominent roles; at 6:30 AM by One Spy Too Many (1966), featuring a scenery gobbling Rip Torn as megalomaniacal baddie Alexander; at 8:15 AM by The Spy With My Face (1965), in which a doppelganger takes Solo's place; at 9:45 AM by The Karate Killers (1967), a star-studded martial arts affair with cameos from Joan Crawford, Herbert Lom, Telly Savalas, and Terry-Thomas; at 11:30 AM by The Spy In the Green Hat (1966), wherein Jack Palance tries to change Earth's climate; at 1:15 PM by The Helicopter Spies (1968), featuring an adventure in Iran; and at 3:00 PM by How to Steal the World (1968), in which T.H.R.U.S.H. attempt world domination by kidnapping the world's leading scientists. If you're like me, a little Man From U.N.C.L.E. goes a long way, and these glorified TV movies will satisfy your spy cravings - at least for a week.

3:00 AM More Max
The Palm Beach Story (1942 USA): My second favorite Preston Sturges film (Sullivan's Travels being number one, natch), The Palm Beach Story stars Joel McCrea as Tom Jeffers, an inventor struggling to make ends meet at home whilst trying to raise funds for his research work. He's married to Gerry (Claudette Colbert), who can't stand the fiscal strains placed on their marriage by his pie in the sky schemes, and when Tom turns up his nose at a $700 gift from The Wienie King (hilarious Robert Dudley) she embarks for the titular resort, a quickie divorce, and re-marriage to wealthy philanthropist J. D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee, also terrific), who she hopes will then provide the necessary funding for Tom. Co-starring Mary Astor as Hackensacker's man crazy sister, The Palm Beach Story avoids the more extreme caricatures of some Sturges pictures and hilariously pushed the limits of the Production Code about as far as they would go in 1942.

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