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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 05/02/06

2:05am Sundance
Wall (2004 FRA-ISR): This bluntly titled documentary about the barrier being built to separate West Bank Palestinians from Israelis has an appropriately clear thesis: the wall is a mistake. Designed as a neat and simple solution to the "Arab problem" (and unsurprisingly in complete disregard of international law), the wall will eventually span a breathtaking 670 kilometers and house over 50,000 Palestinians within its ghetto confines. Wall - a co-production of French and Israeli television - suggests that the "security barrier" will be about as useful as the Maginot Line and is environmentally unsound, economically devastating, and immoral to boot. The film won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance 2005. Also airs 5/7 at 5:45am.

4:05am Encore Mystery
Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001 USA): Is there gold in them thar hills? Cynics would suggest another substance entirely, but fans of the amply bosomed horror hostess will be delighted with this goofy comedy set in 19th century Mittel Europa. Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) stars as a prospective can-can dancer whose trip to Paris is interrupted by an unscheduled stopover at the creepy castle of Lord Hellsebus (Rocky Horror's Richard O'Brien). Seems she bears an uncanny resemblance to his lordship's late wife, and our heroine is soon stumbling through a predictable assortment of dusty rooms, dank dungeons, and hidden passageways in an effort to avoid locking lips with the creepy nobleman. Though the Elvira shtick wears thin pretty quickly - it's best served in small doses - Haunted Hills still has a couple of endearing points in its favor. I'll leave it up to the viewer to identify them.

3pm Fox Movie Channel
Royal Flash (1975 GB): This rarely seen Richard Lester swashbuckler was clearly designed to cash in on the success of his Three Musketeers features, but Royal Flash's distinctly British flavor failed to play in the United States and the film has long been out of circulation here. Adapted for the screen by novelist George MacDonald Fraser (who also wrote Lester's Dumas' adaptations), Royal Flash follows the exploits of Harry Flashman, a Victorian-era Beau Brummell with a taste for the ladies and a talent for swordplay. He's played with surprising subtlety by Malcolm McDowell, allowing co-star Oliver Reed to dominate the proceedings as the villainous Count Von Bismarck. The film doesn't work as well as the Musketeers pictures - it fails to achieve the same balance of comedy, frock flick glamour, and derring-do - but it's populated by a remarkable supporting cast, including Florinda Bolkan, Britt Ekland, Alan Bates, Michael Hordern, Alistair Sim, Lionel Jeffries, Roy Kinnear, and Bob Hoskins. Even the infamous Rula Lenska is on hand as a busty wench. Beautifully shot by the great Geoffrey Unsworth, Royal Flash is making its American wide-screen television debut this afternoon.

9:15pm Turner Classic Movies
Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927 USA): Once a Hollywood staple, Uncle Tom's Cabin has fallen on fallow times of late. Filmed on at least ten different occasions during the silent era, this 1927 Universal production was the biggest - and, with an astounding $2 million budget, by far the most expensive - version yet. It also remains, for understandable reasons, the LAST American screen interpretation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel of slavery in the Old South, though a 1965 European film (with Herbert Lom as the cruel Simon Legree) briefly returned the story to theaters. According to TCM's Web site, Universal's picture played on the drive-in and backwoods circuit for many years - until the early ‘50s! - and was even re-released in 1958 with a "sensitive" Raymond Massey commentary layered atop it. Thankfully, TCM is airing the original version, which features James Lowe in the title role, Virginia Grey as Little Eva, George Siegmann as Legree, and (in blink-and-you'll-miss-them performances) Louise Beavers, Stymie Beard, and the niece of producer Carl Laemmle, Carla, who turns 97 later this year. Though predictably burdened by the conscious and unconscious racism of the times, this is still a moving and effective telling of the tale, and Laemmle deserves kudos for allowing Lowe, a real honest-to-goodness African-American, to be cast in the lead role.

Wednesday 05/03/06

1:30am Cinemax
Oh, What A Lovely War! (1969 GB): This remarkable musical remains unavailable on home video, and hasn't been seen on American television in many years. Based on the London stage hit of the same name by Joan Littlewood, it's a unique recreation of the bloody days of The Great War, when the flower of British manhood was decimated on the battlefields of France and Belgium. Visually and thematically audacious, Oh, What A Lovely War! features John Mills as Sir Douglas Haig, the deservedly maligned Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force whose orders led to the deaths of tens of thousands, and Laurence Olivier as Sir John French, the failed officer Haig replaced. A heady blend of music, biting satire, and dazzling cinematography by Gerry Turpin, the film is hard to describe but is strongly recommended. One caveat: the film was shot in 2.35:1 Panavision, and is apparently airing tonight in pan-and-scan. Also airs at 4:30am.

7:30am Turner Classic Movies
The Lash (1930 USA): This creaky old costume drama stars Richard Barthelmess as Don Francisco, a Spanish nobleman who returns to California only to discover his land has been stolen by greedy, meddlesome Americans. How dare they; the King of Spain himself issued the land grant to his forefathers! Donning the disguise of El Puma (not, of course, to be confused with a chap called Zorro), Don Francisco is determined to regain his land (and presumably his peasants) from the pernicious grip of Harkness (Fred Kohler), the local Americanos' crooked land commissioner. It's far from being a forgotten classic, but The Lash gets a recommendation based on the presence of Latin jazz genius Xavier Cugat, here shown leading his band during a ballroom sequence.

7pm Starz! In Black
XXX: State of the Union (2004 USA): Every now and then, even an unrepentant film snob such as myself has to let his hair down and endorse a film that the average person has actually heard of. Today, this is that film, or should I use the more lowbrow term "movie'? I didn't see the original xXx, but this semi-sequel - with the loquacious Ice Cube cast in place of Vin Diesel - is one of the best action films of the new century. And it is an ACTION film, as most of the running time involves shoot ‘em ups and explosions of all varieties whilst Mr. Cube (can I call him Ice?) casts withering glances at the numbskulls he has to work with (or against) and dispenses witty bon mots and political and social commentary (yes!) with aplomb. It's great good fun, features a first-rate score from Marco Beltrami, and airs tonight in wide-screen, which is the only way State of the Union should be seen.

Thursday 05/04/06

1:05am More Max
Days of Santiago (2004 PER): After weeks of harping about the Argentinean domination of our airwaves - I bet they're fluoridating our water, too! - redress finally arrives in the form of this gritty Peruvian drama. Set in the back streets of Lima, the story focuses on a returning veteran (Pietro Sibille) who comes home to find himself unwanted and unemployable. Though eventually hired as a cabbie, he finds it increasingly hard to overcome his paranoia and emotional instability, and his episodic story takes a turn for the darker in the final reel. Superficial similarities to Taxi Driver aside, Days of Santiago is welcome proof that quality South American cinema exists beyond the moneyed confines of Buenos Aires and Brasilia.

5:15am Turner Classic Movies
The Dark Horse (1932 USA): My main man, Warren William, headlines as Hal Blake, an oily political operative in this delightful First National comedy. He's advising neophyte Zachary Hicks (Guy Kibbee), a Progressive Party candidate whose bald pate and bumbling manner don't mark him as a likely winner in the baby-kissing sweepstakes (Yes, kiddies, there really WAS a political party called the Progressive Party for many years! And they even won some elections!). Hicks is facing off against a seasoned right-winger (Berton Churchill) and needs some assistance from a fixer who knows his way around a smoke-filled room. Sadly still relevant today - has anyone seen Karl Rove and Hal Blake in the same room together? - The Dark Horse also features a young Bette Davis as love interest.

7pm Showtime Extreme
Bangrajan (2000 THA): This historical epic from Thailand will appeal to those who enjoyed the colorful (if confusing for Westerners) The Legend of Suriyothai. Set in 1765, Bangrajan retells the patriotic story of a rural village's efforts to see off a looming Burmese threat without the aid of the Royal Thai Army, who apparently were on leave that year. Against overwhelming odds, and with the assistance of some Seven Samurai-esque archers for hire, the village fends off the repeated advances of the reputedly 100,000 strong Burmese army in lavish but repetitive battle scenes. A tourist attraction to this day, the centrally located Bangrajan is a source of national pride in Thailand. Meanwhile, it's recently been reported that the secretive and paranoid Myanmar (Burma) junta continues to beef up their border defenses in apparent fear of a rumored American-Thai invasion. Time to break out the bows and arrows again, methinks.

Friday 05/05/06

5pm IFC
Short Cuts (1993 USA): It's a bridge too far for me, but hardcore Altman admirers will definitely want to take a look at the great man's Short Cuts, his curiously titled, Southern California-based take on the Nashville trope. Laden with a truly astonishing array of onscreen talent, including Julianne Moore, Tim Robbins, Jack Lemmon and many more, it's actually a collection of short stories (ah, now it makes sense) about a day in the life of a disparate assortment of Angelenos. The stories are loosely bound together by the presence of a Medfly-spraying helicopter, which raise the question: Nashville, M*A*S*H, Short Cuts; what is it with Altman and helicopters? Clocking in with a running time in excess of three hours, Short Cuts lost me by the midway mark, but your mileage may vary.

Saturday 05/06/06

1:50pm Sundance
Tom Dowd and the Language of Music (2003 USA): Tom Dowd's influence on American popular music can't be exaggerated. As the main recording engineer at Atlantic Records, he worked with a wide range of musicians in many different genres, including jazz, soul, rock, and blues. How much you enjoy this documentary may depend on how interested you are in the music of the late 20th century, though my disinterest in and dislike of the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for the film. There's some great footage of Aretha Franklin in the studio and some stunning excerpts from the Stax/Volt European tour of 1967, plus enlightening interviews with Atlantic execs Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the film is the amount of time spent on Dowd's teenage years spent working on the Manhattan Project, but director Mark Moormann manages to make it an integral and important part of this tribute to a wonderful and talented human being.

4:15pm Showtime
The Assassination of Richard Nixon (2004 USA): The release date says 2004, but the feel of this first-rate drama is distinctly ‘70s. Sean Penn stars as Samuel Bicke, a frustrated furniture salesman who snaps and decides to, erm, well, you know. Penn is brilliant, his occasional tendency to over-emote (see: Mystic River),reined in by director Niels Mueller's intelligent and thoughtful screenplay, and even the presence of screen irritant Naomi Watts can't dim my enthusiasm for this picture. This unheralded and swiftly forgotten soon-to-be classic also airs at 7:15pm and 5/7 on Showtime 2 at 6pm.

Sunday 05/07/06

10:10am Encore Love Stories
The Seagull's Laughter (2001 ICE): It's not often I get to recommend a film from Iceland: I think this is only the third one that's been on American television in the last five years. Of course, 20 years ago, that count would have been considerably less, so I guess in the great scheme of things we're actually spoiled by a wealth of choices, Icelandic cinema-wise. At any rate, The Seagull's Laughter is a good little comedy about Freyja (Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir), a man-hungry woman who returns to her small hometown after her apparent marriage to an American GI has mysteriously come a cropper. She's back in the market for a husband, but this being a small town in Iceland, the choices are limited, and her aggressive, proto-feminist style soon starts to affect the other women. The Seagull's Laughter swept the board at the 2001 Edda Awards (that's Iceland's Oscar to you, bub) and makes its small screen debut this morning.

1pm IFC
Mighty Peking Man (1977 HK): This wacky fantasy is a particular favorite of Quentin Tarantino, but don't let that dissuade you from giving it a look. It's a most peculiar Asian take on King Kong, with genre vet Danny Lee cast as Johnny, an intrepid adventurer who finds a gigantic ape in the Himalayas and decides to bring him back to Hong Kong. Because that's what you ALWAYS do with a gigantic ape towering ten stories over your head, right? Sadly, this looks to be the same pan-and-scan print that aired on Trio a few years ago. Also airs 5/8 at 3am.

9pm Sundance
Samaritan Girl (2004 ROK): More jolly fun from South Korean bad boy Ki-duk Kim, Samaritan Girl is a convoluted relationship drama about an underage prostitute (Seo Min-Jung) and her social secretary (Yeo-reum Han) who are jointly trying to fund a trip to Europe. This seemingly foolproof plan - what could possibly go wrong when two teenagers go into the sex business together? - fails to bear fruit, and the girls' lives rapidly go off the rails. This being the product of Ki-duk Kim's twisted imagination, the film also features healthy doses of suicide, deep remorse, and sweet potatoes. Produced in the brief interim between Kim's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring and 3-Iron, Samaritan Girl won the Silver Bear at 2004's Berlin International Film Festival.

Monday 05/08/06

7pm Fox Movie Channel
The Boys in Blue (1983 GB): If you're a fan of the bawdy-but-silly Benny Hill brand of British humor, you might want to save time for this daft comedy from veteran director Val Guest, who hasn't made a film since. Read into that what you may. Starring the unknown-outside-of-Britain comedy team of Bobby Ball and Tommy Cannon as a pair of inept village coppers, The Boys in Blue revolves around an art theft and its impact on the residents of bucolic Little Botham. Based on an old Will Hay feature called Ask a Policeman, this lowbrow comedy also features Edward Judd, Jon Pertwee, Eric Sykes, and Roy Kinnear, and, against all odds, appears tonight in wide-screen!