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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 1/25/11

1:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Wise Blood (1979 USA): I'm not the biggest fan of this late-period John Huston flick, but I do like me some Flannery O'Connor. Adapted from O’Connor’s novel of the same name, Wise Blood stars Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes, a lad raised in the fire-and-brimstone American South by his fundamentalist grandfather (Huston). After returning from World War II duty, Hazel trades in his Army uniform for pastor's gear and becomes a traveling evangelist, eager to decry the cant and hypocrisy of his fellow man (and his kinfolk) via the newly established Church of Christ Without Christ. Grim, uncompromising, darkly comic, and laden with Southern Gothic imagery, Wise Blood is a hard slog at times and far from your average popcorn flick, but worth a look for Dourif's bravura performance, which, incidentally, I can't help but think informed that of Paul Dano in P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood. Watch Wise Blood this morning and let me know what you think.

Wednesday 1/26/11

1:40 PM Showtime Extreme
The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988 USA): Did you know that there were not one, not two, but three sequels to The Dirty Dozen? Neither did I, ‘til now. Best of all, Telly Savalas appeared in three of the four, but played a different character in the final two films than he did in the first! Ernest Borgnine is in all four, but at least he got cast in the same role…anyway, The Fatal Mission was shot in Yugoslavia and sees our heroes do battle with Nazi revanchists determined to fire up the ol’ war machine and kickstart the Fourth Reich. They’ll have to get past schizo Telly first.

5:00 PM Flix
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984 USA): A quarter century before Gus Van Sant brought us Milk (the biopic), this outstanding documentary examined the life of groundbreaking gay politician and activist Harvey Milk. From his closeted years in New York to his relocation to and re-emergence in San Francisco’s Castro District as an out and proud city councilman, The Times of Harvey Milk covers material we’re now quite familiar with, but provides additional proof that Sean Penn’s performance in Van Sant’s film was genuinely Oscar-worthy. Directed by Rob Epstein, whose earlier Word Is Out was a GLBT cinematic landmark, The Times of Harvey Milk won the Best Feature Documentary prize at the 1985 Academy Awards.

8:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Phantom Lady (1944 USA): If you’re in the mood for some first-rate film noir, look no further. Directed by Robert Siodmak and based on a story by tortured genius Cornell Woolrich, Phantom Lady stars Alan Curtis as Scott Henderson, an unhappily married man drowning his sorrows at his local watering hole in the company of a mysterious woman wearing an impressive piece of millinery. The sozzled Scott returns home, only to find that someone has murdered his wife whilst he was out imbibing—and the only person who can provide him an alibi subsequently seems to have disappeared from the face of the Earth. It’s up to loyal secretary Kansas (Ella Raines) to do the necessary legwork and keep her boss away from a date with Old Sparky. Woody Bredell’s atmospheric cinematography is excellent, whilst the fine cast also includes Franchot Tone, Thomas Gomez, and twitchy noir veteran Elisha Cook, Jr.

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