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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 11/04/08

2:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Roseanna McCoy (1949 USA): Fair warning: this week's column is going to be heavily biased in favor of Turner Classic Movies. Yes, even more so than it usually is, but that's the nature of the TiVoPlex from time to time - and as much as we appreciate the efforts of the programming folks at Flix and IFC, the lay of the TV land is still very much in the Cinemax/HBO/Showtime mainstream. Which is all well and good and perfectly understandable from a business perspective, but a little boring. Anyhoo, on to our feature presentation! Produced by Sam Goldwyn, Roseanna McCoy brought the legend of the Hatfields and McCoys to the big screen for the first, and so far only time, assuming you don't count that 1975 TV movie of the week that had Jack Palance in it. Goldwyn's feature stars Raymond Massey as the patriarch of the McCoys, who engaged in a 20-year feud with the Hatfields over land on the Kentucky/West Virginia border. The film unfortunately tries to shoehorn a fictional romantic plot into the proceedings, with Farley Granger's Johnse Hatfield trying to crossbreed with Joan Evans titular maid o' the mountains. It's numbingly predictable and lacking in excitement, but in addition to Massey's fine performance, we also get plenty of Aline MacMahon and some terrific cinematography from Lee Garmes.

10:50 PM HBO Signature
Radio Corazon (2007 CHI): I haven't seen this film, and frankly the IMDb synopsis ("three fun, sexy and romantic short films based on true stories as told by the show's listeners to 'Rumpy', an unparalleled radio host") doesn't sound all that promising, but this is the first time I've ever had a Chilean film to write about, so I'm still (marginally) excited. Apparently, the delightfully named Rumpy is a popular figure in Chile, and his radio show is South America's rough equivalent of the Penthouse letters column. Additionally, Radio Corazon was co-produced by someone with the first name of "Cake", and I do love my sweets.

Wednesday 11/05/08

4:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Astonished Heart (1949 GB): An only partially successful attempt to mine the same vein of forbidden love that made Brief Encounter such a huge success a few years prior, The Astonished Heart stars Margaret Leighton as the woman who steals Noel Coward from Celia Johnson, now, in one for the "turnabout is fair play" department, the spouse at the receiving end of an adulterous affair. Coward's part was originally intended for Michael Redgrave, who backed out at the last minute, and it's a little hard to accept the avuncular raconteur as a prize women would fight over. It's all veddy, veddy British and extremely stuffy, but Coward lets loose with a few zingers and it's always interesting to watch a pre-Hammer horror Terence Fisher film.

11:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Take a Hard Ride (1975 ITA-USA): A late in the game pseudo-spaghetti western, Take a Hard Ride makes its widescreen television debut on Fox this morning. Directed by jack of all trades Antonio Margheriti and shot on the Canary Islands instead of Almeria, the film stars former football star Jim Brown as Pike, a cattle wrangler transporting $86,000 in cash to the widow of his now deceased boss (Dana Andrews). Naturally, there are other folks who'd like to get their hands on the stash, including bounty hunter Kiefer (Lee Van Cleef), but Pike has some tough guys on his side, too, including Jim Kelly and Fred "The Hammer" Williamson. It's not pure spaghetti, but it's pretty good fun watching three black action stars putting boot in ass in the Old West. It was the second of three picture the trio made together, and a worthy follow-up to their much loved actioner Three the Hard Way.

9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Fire over England (1937 GB): Frock flick alert! Frock flick alert! If you're allergic to historical costume dramas, just skip this paragraph and move on to the next entry in this week's column. If, on the other hand, you don't mind the occasional bustle (the kind that doesn't show up in a hedgerow) or periwig, than this film might be for you. Raymond Massey and Flora Robson star as Philip of Spain and Elizabeth I of England, and naturally enough there's a bit about the Spanish Armada, too. Add in Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, and Leslie Banks, and a very young James Mason, and you have another quality effort from Alexander Korda's London Films. As an extra added bonus, Korda snagged cinematographic genius James Wong Howe to shoot Fire over London, the first of three pictures Howe shot in Britain in 1937.

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