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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 07/15/08

7:00 AM The Movie Channel
Fair Game (1989 ITA): Also released as Mamba, Fair Game is a bizarre Euro-trash thriller about a sick, twisted, and extremely jealous video game designer who has a very special way of showing his love — or contempt — for his spouse. Perennially underappreciated Gregg Henry plays computer whiz Gene, whose wife Eva (British telly thesp Trudie Styler) has decided he's a few gig short of a hard drive and has left him in favor of a more stable system (Bill Moseley). Gene plots his revenge and locks Eva up in a room with a venomous, sex-mad Mamba, and the bulk of the film consists of her attempts to dodge the deadly Dendroaspis. Featuring only three human characters (not even a single extra!), Fair Game is a strangely fascinating, set-bound film that plays like a bizarre hybrid of Waiting for Godot and Snakes on a Plane. Also airs at 10:00 AM.

7:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Desert Sands (1955 USA): I'm a sucker for films about the French Foreign Legion (John Ford's The Lost Patrol is my favorite), so naturally I'm excited at the opportunity to reacquaint myself with this obscure effort produced by the tireless Howard W. Koch. Set in contemporary Morocco, the film stars Ralph Meeker as Captain David Malcolm, commander of a relief column en route to remote Fort Valeau. Sent ahead by helicopter, Malcolm is informed by sneaky local sheikh Jala (John Carradine) that radio contact with the column has been lost — and sure enough, the mutilated corpses of legionnaires soon begin to show up on the doorstep. Can Meeker keep his men from panicking — and will a second relief corps arrive before the fort is overwhelmed by the forces of wily Arab El Zanal (Keith Larsen)? The fine cast (which also includes J. Carrol Naish and Ron Randell) and some superior action sequences render Desert Sands a thoroughly enjoyable, if less than politically correct, adventure. It's making its widescreen American television debut this morning.

9:00 PM HBO
China's Stolen Children (2008 GB): Produced by Britain's Channel 4, China's Stolen Children documents the unanticipated consequences of that nation's One Child policy: a boom in child stealing, swapping, and trading. Narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley, it's an eye-opening and sobering film that highlights the deep emotional damage wrought by this well-intentioned but cruel and poorly designed example of social engineering at its worst. Perfect pre-Olympics viewing! Also airs 7/16 at midnight.

Wednesday 07/16/08

9:00 PM Sundance
Tulse Luper Suitcases 3: From Sark to the Finish (2003 GB): The final chapter of Peter Greenaway's daring, ornate, and frequently baffling Tulse Luper trilogy premieres this evening. For some reason Roger Rees replaced J.J. Feild in the titular role, but the luggage remains the same.

Thursday 07/17/08

9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Trial (1963 FRA): I've yet to read Despite the System, Clint Heylin's recent book about Orson Welles, but I'll be very curious to see what he has to say about this film. From my perspective, it's one of the finest of Welles' features, and seems to have been made (for once) with a minimum of interference from his producers — in this case, Alexander and Michael Salkind. Though the film doesn't quite capture the full-bore existential dread of Kafka's nightmarish novel of the banality of bureaucratic evil, it comes damn close, and Anthony Perkins makes for a brilliant Josef K, his calm insouciance not a million miles away from that of Norman Bates. The cinematography is credited to Edmond Richard, but Welles' fingerprints are all over it, with camera angles and set design reminiscent of his finest work in Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil. I know I'm probably alone in considering The Trial superior to both of those films, but even should you disagree you'll find much here to savor.

8:00 PM Sundance
Streamers (1983 USA): One of the more obscure entries in Robert Altman's filmography, Streamers features Matthew Modine as a raw recruit about to be sent to the meat-grinder in Vietnam. Modine plays Billy, one of four newly minted GI's spending their last days of freedom desperately trying to subsume their fear in a welter of boys-only misbehavior and verbal abuse. Based on a hit play by David Rabe and set within the confines of a single room in an Army barracks, the film predictably but effectively dissects the dehumanizing lengths the military goes to in order to produce obedient and quiescent foot soldiers. Modine is excellent as always, but he's matched by Michael Wright as a streetwise African-American soldier and George Dzundza as a drunken sot of a sergeant.

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