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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 10/5/10

2:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Scapegoat (1959 GB-USA): Alec Guinness and Bette Davis make an unusual but enjoyable screen couple in this Robert Hamer-helmed mystery. Based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier, the film features Guinness in two roles: as French count Jacques de Gue and as milquetoast English school teacher John Barratt. De Gue is angling to murder wife Francoise (Irene Worth), and sees the perfect opportunity when he meets doppelganger Barratt at a local estaminet and plies him with drink. But will the Count’s drug-addled mother (Davis) throw a spanner in the works? Produced by Michael Balcon (though not on behalf of Ealing Studios), The Scapegoat makes a rare widescreen appearance on TCM this afternoon.

11:15 PM Turner Classic Movies
…tick…tick…tick… (1970 USA): Avuncular and ubiquitous George Kennedy stars as John Little, the (white) former sheriff of a southern town trying to negotiate treacherous racial shoals after a (black) sheriff (Jim Brown) is elected to the position thanks to the burg’s sizable African-American population. Brown is new man in town Jimmy Price, a straight-shooter who starts arresting good ol’ boys previously above the law, and the white establishment doesn’t take kindly to the changes. Amongst the crackers are died-in-the-wool racist Bengy Springer (Don Stroud), go along to get along Mayor Parks (Fredric March), and John’s worldweary wife Julia (Lynn Carlin), whilst the other side of the tracks is represented by Bernie Casey and Ernest Anderson. It all looks a bit dated now—and perhaps already did in post-In the Heat of the Night 1970—but …tick…tick…tick… offers solid dramatic value nonetheless.

Wednesday 10/6/10

12:30 PM Showtime Extreme
Targets (1968 USA): With yet another recent shooting at the Austin campus of the University of Texas, this may not be the most auspicious occasion for a re-airing of this classic tale of gun-nut gone wild, but such is the unpredictable nature of schedule-making—and at least Targets relocated the action from Austin to Los Angeles. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, it tells the story of Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly), a disturbed young man who, apparently on a whim, murders his family and then sets his sights on a drive-in movie theatre, where aging horror star Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff) is about to make a promotional appearance. It’s still a deeply disturbing film which refuses to supply an easy explanation for its anti-hero’s actions, and provided Karloff a great opportunity to make his final screen bow (well, if you’re willing to overlook those awful movies he made in Mexico shortly before his death).

6:40 PM Encore Westerns
The Frisco Kid (1979 USA): Ah, the venerable Jewish western. This thoroughly amusing buddy movie features Gene Wilder as a Polish rabbi en route to his new synagogue out west. Along the way his Torah is stolen, and he hooks up with reluctant outlaw-with-a-heart-of-gold Harrison Ford, who helps him maneuver his way through inhospitable territory, recalcitrant villains and uncooperative Native Americans on his way to San Francisco, a city Wilder’s character believes to be “somewhere near New York”. Director Robert Aldrich’s penultimate film, The Frisco Kid successfully blends action and comedy elements and features cinema villain William Smith, Vincent Schiavelli, and Hollywood old-timer Ian Wolfe in supporting roles. It’s not quite Blazing Saddles, but it has its moments, including a hilarious dance sequence featuring Wilder and a tribe of Indians.

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