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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 11/17/09

3:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Her Private Affair (1929 USA): A typically immobile early talkie, Her Private Affair is still worth a look if you're an admirer of actress Ann Harding. Harding plays Vera Kessler, wife of a Viennese jurisprudent (Harry Bannister). Their relationship isn't an entirely happy one, and during a period of estrangement Vera writes some letters to cad Arnold Hartmann (Lawford Davidson) that she later comes to regret. One thing leads to another, Hartmann turns up dead, and butler Grimm (Elmer Ballard) ends up taking the rap. Will Vera come clean and admit to the crime - or will she allow her faithful man-servant to do the time? The only directorial credit for actor Rollo Lloyd, Her Private Affair also features an early appearance by character actor Frank Reicher and one of the first American film performances of John Loder.

2:45 PM IFC
Sweeney Todd (2005 GB): I'm not the biggest fan of Tim Burton's recent Sweeney Todd adaptation, mostly because the vast majority of post-1935 musicals just don't do it for me. It pleases me mightily, therefore, to report the American television premiere of this all-non singing, all-non dancing version of the classic tale, produced for the BBC a mere two years prior to Burton's effort. This time it's Ray Winstone who portrays the murderous barber who works a second job as a purveyor of fine meat products, and as you might expect, he's superb. Though the story is presumably apocryphal, Jonathan St. Johnston's screenplay suggests society was as much to blame for the Demon Barber of Fleet Street's transgressions as Todd's greed or lust for pox-stricken pie-maker Mrs. Lovett (Essie Davis). As long as you're not put off by the absence of a singing Johnny Depp, you'll be pleasantly satiated by Sweeney Todd.

Wednesday 11/18/09

1:05 AM Encore Mystery
Cemetery Man (1991 ITA): For a few years, this zombie gut-muncher got quite a bit of exposure over American airwaves. It's been a while since it last showed up, though, so I'm happy to report its return this morning. A throwback to the classic age of the Italian zombie movie, Cemetery Man stars Rupert Everett as Francesco Dellamorte, a gravedigger who really enjoys his job - he'd rather exhume than quit! Francesco maintains a small town cemetery, but the corpses left in his care are restless and keep insisting on coming up for air. When they do, our hero shoots them in the head and has mute assistant Gnaghi (Francois Hadji Lazaro) rebury them, but the trend gets out of hand after Francesco has, ahem, relations with a widow (Anna Falchi) atop her husband's grave. Not a good idea. Directed by Dario Argento collaborator Michele Soavi, whose La Setta remains an unheralded horror classic, Cemetery Man doesn't quite ascend to that level, but remains an enjoyably off-kilter exercise in sex and death in a low society.

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