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 10/12/10

3:00 AM Fox Movie Channel
Mother Didn’t Tell Me (1950 USA): Mama may have told you there’d be days like this, but what she didn’t tell you was that one day your doctor husband may (shock! gasp!) go into partnership with one of them new-fangled lady doctors. That’s the wispy premise upon which this Fox comedy rests, and probably isn’t enough to entice the average movie junkie, but what Mother Didn’t Tell Me does offer is a decent second-string cast, including Dorothy McGuire as the jealous wife, William Lundigan as her hubby, and, in supporting roles, Gary Merrill, June Havoc, and Leif Erickson. Forgotten now, this film was popular enough back in the day to spawn not one, but two, radio adaptations.

8:20 AM Flix
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973 ITA-GB): Snore. Mmmph. What’s that? Award-winning, critically acclaimed religious drama airing on Flix? Wake me when it’s over. What? It’s directed by Franco Zeffirelli? The guy who later directed that Jesus of Nazareth mini-series? Hmm. Still not terribly impressed. Alec Guinness plays the Pope, you say? Okay. Might get out of bed for that. Say what? Judi Bowker plays Clare of Assisi? The same Judi Bowker who played Princess Andromeda in the original Clash of the Titans? Oh well, that’s different, then - turn on the TV! Also airs 10/17 at 2:05 AM.

Wednesday 10/13/10

1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Make Me A Star (1932 USA): The siren song of Hollywood gets skewered in this rarely seen Paramount comedy from director and TiVoPlex hero William Beaudine. The forgotten Stuart Erwin stars as Merton Gill, a small town grocery clerk who dreams of becoming a cowboy star on a par with his screen idol, Buck Benson. Discouraged and ridiculed by everyone in town except erstwhile screenwriter Tessie (Helen Eddy), Merton ups sticks for Tinsel Town and sets his sights on Majestic Studios, where Benson rides the celluloid range. Rejected by the casting office but with his confidence unshaken, he finally lands a role as a comic straight man thanks to the machinations of actress Flips Montague (gorgeous Joan Blondell). Trouble is, Merton thinks he's been cast in a serious role, but when the film's premiere reveals otherwise, tears and recriminations are the order of the day. Make Me A Star also features ZaSu Pitts, silent comic Ben Turpin, and a host of bigger Paramount stars in "on set" cameos, including Gary Cooper, Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert, and Fredric March. It’s tremendous fun.

Thursday 10/14/10

Midnight Turner Classic Movies
Tension (1949 USA): I was never much of a Richard Basehart fan until, earlier this year, I finally scoped his performance in 1962’s Hitler. So impressed was I by his turn as Der Fuhrer - the second best of all time, I would suggest, after Bruno Ganz’s - that I decided it was time to reassess Mr. Basehart’s body of work. And so it was that I revisited La Strada, Moby Dick, Cry Wolf, and others…but not, till now, Tension. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Tension, but it sounds like a doozy: Basehart plays Warren Quimby, a milquetoast pharmacist cuckolded by wife Claire (Audrey Totter) and plotting revenge against salesman lover Barney Deager (Lloyd Gough) by creating an alternate, murderous persona for himself. Only someone murders Barney before Warren can get to him…the perfect noir set-up! Look for Cannon himself, William Conrad, as one of the coppers on the case.

Continued:       1       2       3