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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 03/31/09

9:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
The H-Man (1959 JAP): This super scarce Japanese science fiction feature makes a rare small screen appearance tonight on TCM. One of the more thoughtful fantastic films of its time, The H-Man tells the story of a radioactive blob that likes to turn people into green slime, though NOT the same green slime as is featured in 1969's The Green Slime. Directed by the legendary Ishiro Honda, the film reflects Japan's post-war concerns regarding nuclear power and organized crime; there's a significant sub-plot here about dope peddling that will throw space opera fans for a loop. Caveat: TCM is airing this Tohoscope feature in pan and scan. Response to caveat: there's no DVD release of this film, so your options are limited anyway. Skip The H-Man at your own peril.

Wednesday 04/01/09

12:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Lost Missile (1950 USA): A young Robert Loggia stars in this middling William Berke-helmed programmer. Loggia plays David Loring, a patriotic scientist working on a new delivery system for nuclear warheads. Way to go, Dave — let's move that Doomsday Clock forward another minute or three! When a mysterious missile shows up in Earth's orbit and gets knocked off course by a retaliatory Soviet projectile, David and the good folks at Havenbrook Atomic Laboratory leap into action to divert it from its apparent landing point: the Eastern Seaboard of the good o' U.S. of A.! Part science fiction, part cold war thriller, The Lost Missile doesn't offer much in the thrills and spills department, but does benefit from a decent Gerald Fried score. It also marked the film debut of African-American actor Hari Rhodes (The Satan Bug, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes), here seen tinkling the ivories in a nightclub scene.

3:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937 USA): This fanciful Depression-era musical comedy features the inimitable Eddie Cantor as Aloysius Babson, a boxcar bum who dreams of a better life serving at the behest of a wealthy sultan. After stumbling onto a desert movie set, Babson is hired as an extra in an Arabian Nights-style fantasy — then promptly falls asleep and dreams he really IS living in old Baghdad. This isn't one of Cantor's classics — those all come three or four years earlier — but it's still great fun, as long as you can cope with the blackface routines, seemingly a contractual obligation for the comic.

6:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Tell it to the Marines (1926 USA): This deeply satisfying Lon Chaney drama displays the actor in an unusual setting: without makeup. Chaney plays a Marine drill sergeant cursed with a lackadaisical recruit (William Haines) who is also competing with Chaney for the love of a girl (Eleanor Boardman). The film climaxes with an exciting (if racist) rescue mission in China, but it's Chaney's touching performance that is the major reason to watch this underappreciated silent classic. Chaney befriended Marine Corps Commandant Smedley Butler during the making of this film: Butler went on to write one of the greatest anti-war tracts, War Is A Racket (http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm), which should be required reading for anyone interested in American foreign policy and the government's relationship with big business.

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