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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 05/06/08

1:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1957 GB): Tales of British wartime heroism were as mother's milk to most boys growing up in 1960s England, including this one. One such story was that of the Royal Navy's efforts to destroy the German pocket battleship Graf Spee on the River Plate in Uruguay, and that feat is re-enacted in this first-rate flag-waver from The Rank Organisation. (Incidentally, my wife and I spent much of our youth in rep houses, and she always chuckled when the Rank name and logo appeared on screen. It's no laughing matter, dear!) Directed by The Archers, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (two names not usually associated with genre filmmaking), the film recreates the events of December 1939 and stars Anthony Quayle as Commodore Henry Harwood, commander of the South American Cruiser Squadron. His naval units dogged the footsteps of the Graf Spee, which had been playing havoc with merchantmen throughout the South Atlantic, and successfully battled the German vessel to a draw, forcing her to retreat to neutral waters where she was eventually scuttled. Pursuit of the Graf Spee (originally released as Battle of the River Plate in Britain) also features a who's who of British actors both above and below deck, including Christopher Lee, John le Mesurier, Bernard Lee, Patrick Macnee, Peter Finch (as Captain Langsdorff, the Graf Spee's commanding officer), Roger Delgado, and Anthony Newley, amongst many others. The film's realism is enhanced by the use of real naval vessels, rendering this the next best thing to Noel Coward's The Cruel Sea in the Royal Navy movie sweepstakes.

1:35 AM HBO Signature
Al Final del Espectro (2006 COL): Last week the TiVoPlex put out the welcome mat for its first Egyptian film. This week we do the same for our neighbors to the south, Colombia, who are responsible for this decent if derivative thriller. Influenced by a host of J-horror features and more than a little reminiscent of Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965), the film stars Noelle Schonwald as Vega, an agoraphobic whose condition is rapidly worsening in the tiny apartment her father has rented for her. As fearful of leaving her home as of staying in it, Vega becomes convinced that her flat is haunted by the ghost of a young woman, and in order to prove her hypothesis sets up video cameras to record her every waking (and sleeping) moment. A beautifully shot and atmospheric little picture, Al Final del Espectro may owe a considerable debt to other (and, yes, better) productions, but horror fans will still probably enjoy it.

1:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Frontier Hellcat (1964 BRD): Believe it or not, our friends in Germany are huge fans of the western genre, especially the Old Shatterhand and Winnetou novels of Karl May, a good dozen of which were adapted for the silver screen in the 1960s. British star Stewart Granger appeared in several as Shatterhand (changed to Surehand for American audiences) and Pierre Brice played his loyal Native American sidekick, Winnetou, in all of them. The two team up here, along with Elke Sommer and future Trinity star Terence Hill, in this tale of good guys - guess who - versus bad guy-bank robbers who disguise themselves as Indians! Director Alfred Vohrer was also responsible for a number of German Edgar Wallace films, another Teutonic taste treat that never really caught on in the United States. Unless you've invested in the PAL format Karl May Collection, you probably haven't seen this sauerkraut western in its correct aspect ratio, so tonight's airing qualifies as a special occasion. Presumably TCM is airing the English-dubbed print of Frontier Hellcat, so you'll still have to pony up for the DVDs to see it in its original Deutsch (with English subtitles)!

11:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Kid Blue (1973 USA): Having aired on Fox many times in pan and scan, Kid Blue finally makes its widescreen television debut this morning. Like Frontier Hellcat, it's also a western, but one that firmly belongs in the revisionist camp. Dennis Hopper stars as Bickford Waner, a train robber trying to put his sordid past behind him with a fresh start in beautiful Dime Box, Texas. Waner will do any kind of odd job for a living, including assembling ceramic Santas on behalf of The Great American Novelty Company, but when his old girlfriend (Janice Rule) shows up one day and hauls his skeletons out of the closet, he falls off the wagon pretty quickly. Co-starring Warren Oates, Peter Boyle, Clifton James, Ralph Waite, Howard Hesseman, and M. Emmet Walsh, Kid Blue is an odd but entertaining blend of action and quirky humor.

Wednesday 05/07/08

3:10 AM IFC
Umberto D (1951 ITA): In recommending Bryan Forbes' The Whisperers earlier this year, I made passing reference to another film about the inequities and cruelties heaped upon the aged. Here's that selfsame film, which features Carlo Battisti as the title character, an elderly Roman barely surviving on his pension and reduced to selling his watch in order to have enough food to eat. After being hospitalized with a respiratory infection he returns to his apartment to find his beloved pet dog missing, setting up the film's heartbreaking final reel. Directed by Vittorio de Sica, Umberto D is one of the saddest films you'll ever see, but also one of the best.

6:00 PM IFC
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2006 GB): A Steve Coogan/Michael Winterbottom double bill kicks off this evening with this critically acclaimed meta-movie about the filming of Laurence Sterne's ‘unfilmable' novel Tristram Shandy, which famously takes 600 plus pages to go exactly nowhere (or everywhere, depending upon your perspective). Coogan plays both himself and the title character of the film within a film, which also features Rob Brydon and Gillian Anderson in double roles as well as Jeremy Northam as the director of ‘Tristram Shandy' (the ‘fake' one, not the ‘real' one you're watching on IFC tonight). It's all rather post-modern and very, very cheeky in the understated British style, but I love it. It's followed at 7:45 PM by 24 Hour Party People, a more straightforward but less enjoyable biopic about Manchester music entrepreneur Tony Wilson (Coogan). Both films repeat afterwards, Tristram at 9:30 PM and Party People at 11:25 PM.

Thursday 05/08/08

8:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Green Helmet (1961 GB): Bill Travers plays Rafferty, an auto racing champion on the verge of retirement, in this unexceptional but rarely aired drama. After Rafferty has one accident too many, his manager (Sid James) tries to convince him to hang up his car keys - but would-be American tire magnate Bartell (Ed Begley) offers our hero $25,000 a year if he will help him design and test drive some new tires. $25,000? A year? Who could say no to that? Rafferty naturally takes him up on the offer, and we're soon enjoying a plethora of automotive stock footage and a rather bland romance involving Bartell's daughter (Nancy Walters). If you like watching vintage race cars go round and round, you'll want to watch The Green Helmet - all others can probably give it the red flag.

8:00 PM Showtime
This Filthy World (2006 USA): Nothing more than a filmed comedy performance, This Filthy World is not the sort of thing I would normally watch or even recommend. When the performer is bad boy auteur John Waters, however, an exception must be made! This is 90 minutes of the great man holding forth on many aspects of his career, and if you're a fan, it's absolutely essential viewing. If, on the other hand, you're offended by blue language or suggestions about what to wear to an execution, you'd best stick to The Green Helmet today. Also airs at 11:00 PM.

Friday 05/09/08

4:30 AM Sundance
The Legacy (2006 GEO): Directed and written by the Babluanis (son Gela and father Temur, also responsible for the excellent 2005 thriller 13 Tzameti), The Legacy treads similar ground in its depiction of below-the-surface ritual in the remote Central Asian republic of Georgia. Set in and around the city of Tbilisi, the title refers to an ancient castle inherited by brash young Frenchman Jean (Stanislas Merhar). Accompanied by two friends, Jean soon finds himself a stranger in a strange land - and when he meets an old man and his grandson travelling with a coffin, things get stranger still. A brisk, 77-minute psychological thriller, The Legacy isn't quite as satisfying as 13 Tzameti, but offers plenty of twists and turns and is never boring.

6:45 AM Sundance
Mad Dog Morgan (1976 AUS): If Kid Blue didn't provide you with enough Dennis Hopper for one week, this should do the trick. It's an outback western featuring Hopper as Irish villain Daniel Morgan, a prospector evading the law in the deserts of New South Wales circa 1850. After his gold prospecting comes to naught, Morgan does the Dick Turpin stand and deliver routine and develops a Robin Hood-style folk hero reputation amongst the locals. Co-starring legendary Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil as sidekick Billy, this violent tale of corruption was directed by Philippe Mora, who later graced us with Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf. Caveat: I'm hoping Sundance is airing a genuine widescreen print of this film, and not the pan and scan travesty released on DVD by Troma. We shall see.

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Five (1951 USA): One of the most mature and thoughtful American films of the 1950s, Five is Arch Oboler's story of a handful of nuclear war survivors trying to get along and get by in a California hilltop hideaway. The presence of a pregnant woman and a black man amongst the five opens up a can of worms for the three white guys in the group, as they try to jockey for pole position in the mating game whilst keeping the African-American in his proper place. Five used to show up occasionally on TNT's 100% Weird; I believe this is its first TCM appearance, and it remains the pinnacle of Oboler's screen career.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Reefer Madness (1936 USA): What better way to start the weekend than with a trio of hysterical 1936 exploitation pics masquerading as educational anti-drug screeds? First up tonight is the legendary Reefer Madness, a midnight movie staple that entertained thousands of addled hippies back in the day with its tale of innocent young things transformed into raving loonies by a puff of the wacky tobacky. Produced by George Hirlman, whose resources were not even up to the standards of Poverty Row, Reefer Madness is now considered a classic of its kind and will have even straights gasping at its absurd depiction of the ravages of marihuana abuse. And speaking of marihuana, it's followed at 12:15 AM by the equally over-the-top Dwain Esper pic Marihuana—Weed with Roots in Hell, in which a sweet young thing becomes a dope pusher, and at 1:30 AM by Cocaine Fiends, in which kids succumb to the temptations of ‘headache powder'.

Sunday 05/11/08

8:50 AM Encore Dramatic Stories
Joyeux Noel (2005 FRA-GER-GB): The story of the Christmas Truce of 1914 is retold from the perspective of French, German, and Scottish troops in this fine historical drama from writer-director Christian Carion. By the winter of 1914, the First World War had already bogged down into an endless series of pointless attempts to break through the opposing side's trench system. Far from home, frozen to the bone, and convinced that the war couldn't possibly last more than a few months longer, soldiers on both sides decided to get the peace party rolling a little early on Christmas Eve, and the supposed enemies exchanged gifts and played games together over the course of three days. The truce didn't hold firm along the entire front line, but it was also more than a single isolated incident, and officers and men on both sides were punished by their superiors for fraternizing with the enemy. The film is a straightforward and deeply bittersweet look at those few moments when uniforms and languages were overlooked in recognition of our common humanity.

Monday 05/12/08

10:00 AM Encore Action
Beyond the Mat (1999 USA): Pro wrestling sure is fun to watch, and it sure seems to be choreographed, but don't those guys really get hurt sometimes? If you prick them, do they not bleed? If you body slam them, do they not writhe in genuine agony? The real lives of those who enter the squared circle are examined in this excellent, non-exploitative documentary from Barry Blaustein. Needless to say, Vince McMahon was not pleased.

4:30 PM Sundance
Sir! No Sir! (2005 USA): Vietnam War protestors weren't all hippies, druggies, and far left no-goodnicks - many of them were troops on active duty who had figured out the war was a lie they were no longer prepared to die for. That's the message of this decidedly impartial documentary, which examines the anti-war movement within the Army — a movement that compelled the Joint Chiefs of Staff to rely more and more on aerial power and less and less on unreliable grunts in the field who had taken up opium and fragging as hobbies. Featuring interviews with more than a dozen Vietnam vets, Sir! No Sir! is a reminder that the courage of one's convictions can be as powerful a force as courage on the field of battle.