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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 10/18/11

6:30 AM Showtime
The Boxer and the Bombshell (2008 AUS): Though it sounds like an ABC Movie of the Week, The Boxer and the Bombshell is actually an Australian drama originally released as The Tender Hook. Why someone concocted such a terrible new title for the film’s stateside home video release, I can’t imagine! As for the film, it stars Hugo Weaving as a hoodlum who gets mixed up in a love triangle with the bombshell (Rose Byrne) and the boxer (Matt Le Nevez). Hey, I guess that new title does make sense! Set in Sydney, The Tender Hook (sorry, I can’t bring myself to call it anything else) is a solid if unspectacular tale of crime, love, and pugilism during the roaring ‘20s. Also airs at 9:30 AM.

3:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
Stop, You’re Killing Me (1952 USA): Broderick Crawford headlines this amusing Warners’ comedy, a remake of the studio’s 1938 feature A Slight Case of Murder. Crawford is Remy Marko, a former bootlegger who’s turned his previously illicit Prohibition-era sideline into a beer business strictly on the up and up. He has a few problems, however: his brew is foul tasting stuff; the old strong arm marketing tactics no longer work; and worst of all, four corpses show up on Remy’s doorstep, unsurprisingly drawing unwanted attention and further complicating his efforts to go legit. Co-starring noir regular Claire Trevor as wife Nora, Sheldon Leonard and Harry Morgan as thugs, and Margaret Dumont as a snooty society dame (shocking casting, I know!), Stop You’re Killing Me is slight but decent fun.

Wednesday 10/19/11

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Follow That Dream (1960 USA): Contrary to general opinion, there were a few good Elvis movies after King Creole. Repeat after me: there were good Elvis movies after King Creole, and this is one of them. Admittedly it's no Jailhouse Rock, but it's miles better than unwatchable fluff like Frankie and Johnny and It Happened At the World's Fair. In Follow That Dream, Elvis has a decent role as a sharecropper's son trying to find a new home with his extended family - and he doesn't sing a lot. (I'm as big an Elvis fan as any, but when Elvis sings in one of his '60s movies, it's frequently embarrassing.) Arthur O'Connell is marvelous as Elvis' dad, Simon Oakland plays a hood who can't come to grips with the King's disingenuous manner, and there's the usual assortment of Memphis Mafia types floating around in the background. Elvis doesn't Do the Clam, nor does he have Room to Rhumba In a Sports Car, but he does the humble thing right fine, ma'am. Incidentally, I think this is the first time this film has aired on TCM in widescreen. Not sure why it took them so long, but previous screenings have been in pan and scan.

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