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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 6/4/13

1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Last Ride (1944 USA): It’s hard to go wrong with a Warner Bros second feature, and this one has the additional attraction of being, well, a little out of the ordinary. Directed by D. Ross Lederman, The Last Ride stars Richard Travis as a police officer investigating (wait for it) tire bootlegging. Of course, this being World War II and all, rubber was in short supply and needed for the war effort, but in hindsight it really is a rather odd conceit on which to hang a plot. Eleanor Parker is along for love interest, Wade Boteler pops up in his trademarked bluff police chief role, and there’s young William Hopper – a decade before Perry Mason – as a garage mechanic. When the rubber hits the road, you’ll want to go along for this ride!

3:15 PM Showtime
Car Wash (1976 USA): If you’re still in the mood for something with an automotive theme, here’s the ever popular and impossibly cheery Car Wash for your consideration. Penned by the legendary Joel Schumacher and helmed by the almost as legendary Michael Schultz, the film is an ecstatic salute to the funky ‘70s, when disco dancing could break out at the drop of a knit hat – even during working hours. This cheery episodic comedy is good, lowbrow fun with a terrific cast, including Richard Pryor as an unctuous televangelist named Daddy Rich; Clarence Muse, Antonio Fargas, and Bill Duke as car wash employees; and token whitey George Carlin as a taxi driver. As long as you can overlook the broad caricatures (Fargas’ character is stereotypically gay, Duke’s an overly earnest Islamic convert), you’ll have a great time. Also airs at 6:15 PM.

Wednesday 6/5/13

12:15 PM Showtime Extreme
Age of Heroes (2011 GB): It sounds like it should be a video game, and frankly it might have been a bit better if it were. This Brit war flick relates the story of 30 Commando, an elite unit created in 1942 at the behest of James Bond author Ian Fleming (who spent the Second World War in Naval Intelligence, and is played here by James D’Arcy). Sean Bean headlines as Major Jack Jones, a talented supper club singer – er, sorry, officer in charge of the usual assortment of ne’er do wells and stockade dwellers – sent on a mission impossible along the Norwegian coast to steal the secrets of the Third Reich’s latest radar equipment. There’s material here for a good film, but writer-director Adrian Vitoria doesn’t seem capable (or interested) in thinking outside the box, and the dramatic developments are predictable at best. Still, Bean is always decent in a gruff sort of way, and if you’re in the mood for an old-fashioned war movie you could do worse.

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