New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.

Tuesday 5/11/10

12:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Murder in the Fleet(1935 USA): An uneven blending of comedy and mystery, this MGM second feature remains an option for Robert Taylor fans and/or warship mavens. Taylor essays his first starring role as Lieutenant Tommy Randolph, the officer in charge of installing the U.S.S. Carolina’s new firing system, which will, apparently, revolutionize naval warfare. When the equipment is damaged by saboteurs, Tommy becomes wrapped up in the ensuing intrigue, which also involves the murder of engineer Al Duval (Raymond Hatton). Are the Asian dignitaries visiting the Carolina responsible, or could a white man be to blame? Co-starring Una Merkel, Nat Pendleton, and Jean Hersholt, Murder in the Fleet was shot aboard a genuine U.S. warship and features an impressive scene set in a flooded powder magazine. The ship, naturally, out-acts Mr. Taylor.

7:00 PM Sundance
Edge of Heaven (2007 GER-TUR): Writer-director Fatih Akin, previously responsible for 2004’s rapturously received feature Head-On, returns with this equally fine ensemble piece about Turks living in Germany (and, to an extent, Germans living in Turkey). Nejat (Baki Davrak) has reconciled himself to the fact that his father’s live-in lover Yeter (Nursel Köse) was once a lady of the night. After Dad kills her in a drunken rage, Nejat goes in search of her daughter, Ayten (Nurgül Yesilçay), who he believes to be a college student in Turkey. But Ayten has actually been in Germany all along, where her political activities have attracted the attention of the police and upset the mother (Hanna Schygulla) of her lover Lotte (Patrycia Ziolkowska). It’s appropriate, perhaps, that Werner Fassbinder vet Schygulla is in The Edge of Heaven, which by coincidence or design channels some of the legendary German director’s spirit and political intensity—and, as with Akin’s Head-On, won scads of awards on the festival circuit.

9:00 PM IFC
Galaxina (1980 USA): Camp alert! Camp alert! The film that was supposed to make a star out of tragic Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten is actually an outre classic, which naturally means it has a home in the TiVoPlex. Stratten, the starlet who never made a good movie (unless one considers the biopic Star 80 a Stratten feature), was murdered in 1980 by scumbag boyfriend Paul Snider, and her paltry cinematic legacy rests uneasily on this wretched science fiction ‘parody’. How Stratten's agent allowed her to be cast opposite the unattractive and unfunny Avery Schreiber (as Captain Cornelius Butt) is a mystery for the ages, but for those who appreciate Le Bad Cinema, Galaxina is a must-see, and makes its widescreen television debut this evening. Look for little Angelo Rossitto (Freaks, Dracula Vs. Frankenstein) as the Monster From the Egg.

Thursday 5/13/10

9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Big Gusher (1951 USA): A trio of 1951 Columbia obscurities appear on TCM today, commencing with this forgotten tale of life and adventure in the Nevada oil fields. Preston Foster and Wayne Morris star as Hank and Kenny, buddies celebrating four thousand dollars worth of good fortune at a casino. Waitress Betsy (Dorothy Patrick) eyes their wad of cash and decides she’d like a piece of the action, too, and after getting Kenny plastered convinces him to lease some land owned by crooked pal Jim (Emmett Vogan). Jim’s sold the land several times before, each time promising his tenants that it’s rich in hydrocarbons, but the oil remains strangely elusive. Hooking up with fellow wildcat Cappy (Paul E. Burns), our heroes determine to strike it rich—but will lose their investment to Jim if they don’t find oil within sixty days. Directed by the always busy Lew Landers, The Big Gusher is the very definition of bill-filler. It’s followed at 10:15 AM by Flame of Stamboul, a set-in-Turkey thriller featuring Norman Lloyd, George Zucco, and Nestor Paiva, and at 11:30 AM by Smuggler’s Gold, starring Cameron Mitchell as a diver who gets involved with the daughter (Amanda Blake) of a gold smuggler.

Continued:       1       2       3