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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 12/02/08

3:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
Skyscraper Souls (1932 USA): It's not quite as grandiose as the title suggests, but any film starring Warren William is worth watching at least once. This time William stars as Dave Dwight, a successful New York financier angling to purchase the hundred-story building housing his business, the Seacoast National Bank. The building towers over the newly opened Empire State Building, and Dave is determined to own the best view in Manhattan by fair means or foul. Of course, life isn't only about money, and he keeps spouse Ella (Hedda Hopper) at arm's length with a surfeit of shopping money in order to spend his off hours wooing office assistant Sarah (Verree Teasdale). There's also a romantic subplot involving office workers Maureen O'Sullivan and Norman Foster, as well as the late, great Anita Page making eyes at Jean Hersholt and his, ahem, ‘humanitarian award'.

9:00 PM IFC
Mad Dog Morgan (1976 AUS): This outback western features Dennis 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: Mad Dog Morgan still hasn't had a widescreen home video release in the US, and unfortunately, IFC's print is sourced from the same lousy pan and scan print utilized on Troma's DVD.

Wednesday 12/03/08

Midnight MGM HD
Mademoiselle(1966 FRA-GB): We welcome MGM HD to the TiVoPlex family of channels! Unfortunately, I won't be welcoming it into my HOME any time soon, as I don't have an HD compatible satellite dish. Instead, I'll be admiring some of their excellent programming choices from a respectful and envious distance, starting with this rarely aired Tony Richardson-helmed drama. Mademoiselle stars Jeanne Moreau as a repressed French schoolteacher who finds herself attracted to manly man amongst men Manou (peplum vet Ettore Manni), a lumberjack whose apparent goal in life is to sleep with every woman in town. He's also suspected by the locals of being an arsonist, whilst Mademoiselle herself possesses a malicious streak that manifests itself in cruelties large and small, so the two seem made for each other. There's not a lot of dialogue in the film, but Moreau's performance is quietly effective, whilst Manni exudes testosterone from every pore.

5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Great Expectations (1946 GB): An intriguing quartet of Valerie Hobson vehicles air on TCM this evening, commencing with David Lean's magnificent adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. It's the memorable tale of orphan Pip (Anthony Wager and John Mills), whose childhood churchyard encounter with convict Magwitch (Finlay Currie) changes his life forever, indirectly leading him to the spooky home of spurned spinster Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt). Miss Havisham is looking for revenge against the male sex, who've left her slightly addled and ever so cobwebby, and her tool is stalking horse Estella (Hobson), who beguiles young Pip in order to disappoint him. Lean's film is arguably the apex of screen Dickens, featuring brilliant performances, luminous black and white photography by future director Guy Green, and a magnificent score by my extremely distant relative Walter Goehr. It's followed at 7:15 PM by The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), an eerie fantasy about a boy with the power to predict race results (Hobson plays his mother); at 9:00 PM by Drums (1938), in which Sabu portrays an Indian prince loyal to the British crown as well as local administrator Roger Livesey (Hobson plays his wife); and at 10:45 PM by The Small Voice (1948), in which our Val finds herself mixed up with on the run Yank criminal Howard Keel.

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