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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 11/23/10

6:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
West of Shanghai (1937 USA): Five years after his remarkable performance as "the yellow peril incarnate" in The Mask of Fu Manchu, Boris Karloff took on another inscrutable Asian villain role in this seriously outdated but well-made and exciting Warners second feature. Stylishly directed by John Farrow, West of Shanghai features Karloff as General Wu Yen Fang, a warlord holding a group of westerners hostage in a remote village that also happens to be the location of vast oil reserves. There’s a boring romantic sub-plot involving the characters played by Beverly Roberts, Ricardo Cortez, and Gordon Oliver, but Karloff is the main reason to watch.

8:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
Rising Sun (1993 USA): It might be my imagination, but I think this is Fox’s first widescreen airing of this much more recent "yellow peril" film. Over half a century after West of Shanghai, Hollywood was still scared of Asians, though in Rising Sun it’s their cutthroat business practices that are causing problems. Sean Connery stars as John Connor (not the Terminator kind), a policeman of indeterminate origins investigating the brutal death of an L.A. model in the boardroom of a Japanese company’s U.S. headquarters. Connor immediately suspects boyfriend Eddie Sakamura (Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa), but is he a red herring? And will sidekick cop Web Smith (Wesley Snipes) manage to get a word in edgewise? I don’t remember Rising Sun being very good, but Connery is always watchable, and it’s the only film I’ve ever seen in which a laserdisc plays a primary role in solving a crime! Also airs 11/24 at 2:30 AM.

Wednesday 11/24/10

11:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Big Jack (1949 USA): Big Jack marked the final screen appearance of screen legend Wallace Beery, who died three days after the film opened. Beery, a huge star in the ‘30s who wielded considerable box-office power until the end, stars as the title character, an Old West cowpoke with a nasty leg wound. Unable to visit a regular doctor, Jack has his men grab Alexander Meade (Richard Conte), a scientist and convicted graverobber about to be hung for conducting some questionable experiments. Meade offers to patch up Big Jack in exchange for help with continuing his experiments. Saving your life wasn’t enough, bub? This bizarre feature about men who rob both the living and the dead co-stars Marjorie Main, Edward Arnold, and Minerva Urecal, and though it wasn’t exactly the highest note upon which to end Beery’s career, it’s good fun anyway.

8:00 PM Sundance
What Alice Found (2003 USA): Another dark indie drama for those who can’t get enough ennui in their lives, What Alice Found features Emily Grace as the titular fresh-faced sweet young thing whose Florida road trip diverts her to the rocky side road of truck-stop prostitution. Shot on a shoestring (as well as on digital video), the film features a remarkable performance from Judith Ivey as a Good Samaritan who moonlights as Alice’s pimp. Co-starring Dogville’s Bill Raymond, What Alice Found will make you think twice about getting roadside help from kindly strangers.

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