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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 10/24/06

Noon Turner Classic Movies
Key Witness (1960 USA): This minor crime drama was almost impossible to see for decades, but TCM dug it up in late 2002 and is airing it again this morning. The film's claim to fame is a very early performance by Dennis Hopper as a nasty street-punk named Cowboy who kills a rival and then terrorizes the only witness willing to talk, the straitlaced Jeffrey Hunter. Directed by hard-boiled auteur Phil Karlson (Kansas City Confidential, The Phenix City Story), the film looks great thanks to cinematographer Harold Wellman, but is let down somewhat by a pedestrian script. It's still essential for fans of Hopper and Karlson, and it may disappear again for another 30 years, so catch it while you can!

9:10 PM IFC
Wages of Fear (1953 FRA): If you haven't already splashed out for the wonderful Criterion DVD of this title, set the timer this evening. Directed by France's answer to Alfred Hitchcock, Henri-Georges Clouzot (whose equally-memorable 1943 classic Le Corbeau is also now included in the Criterion Collection), this epic adventure follows a group of hired hands on a dangerous trek through South American jungles as they attempt to transport a load of deadly nitroglycerine. Whatever they do, drivers Yves Montand, Peter Van Eyck, and company must somehow navigate 300 miles of atrocious roads without shifting the contents of their vehicles and agitating the explosives within. Clocking in at a generous and thoroughly unboring 156 minutes, this is a gorgeously shot thriller that will keep you completely involved to the end. Add a memorable Georges Auric score, and you have one of the greatest suspense films ever made. Also airs 10/25 at 2:50 AM and 1:50 PM.

Wednesday 10/25/06

12:45 AM More Max
The Naked Prey (1966 USA): Another of Cornel Wilde's idiosyncratic and quite personal films, The Naked Prey relates the story of an anonymous man on safari (Wilde) whose hunting party falls afoul of some unhappy local tribesmen. As he's pursued across the South African veldt, Wilde shed his clothing, supplies, and weaponry, rapidly losing the 'advantages' of Western civilization. The film features some brutal (for 1966) violence, beautiful location photography (luckily we're spared stock footage from old Tarzan movies), and Wilde is terrific. He was also in great physical condition considering he was over 50 when he made the film. Sixty-year old Sly Stallone hopefully took notes before wrapping his forthcoming Rocky Balboa sequel.

11:55 PM HBO Signature
Te Doy Mis Ojos (2003 ESP): Briefly released to American arthouses earlier this year as Take My Eyes, this Spanish drama examines the painful details of an abusive relationship. The film stars Laia Marull as Pilar, the wife of hotheaded Antonio (the imposing Luis Tosar), whose violent moodswings bring to mind those of Temuera Morrison's in Once Were Warriors. Pilar periodically flees from his violent outbursts, decamping with the couple's young son for the comparative safety of her sister's house whilst Antonio takes a chill pill. With alarming regularity, however, Antonio coaxes her back with promises of therapy and undying love, and the cycle continues - even after Pilar takes a job in an art museum to minimize her time at home. Avoiding the easy bromides of a typical Hollywood feature, Te Doy Mis Ojos is powerful stuff that refuses to reduce its designated bad guy to one-dimensional villainy. Written and directed by Iciar Bollain, the film was a huge hit on the festival circuit, and won a remarkable six awards at Spain's Cinema Writers Circle Awards.

Thursday 10/26/06

1:00 PM Fox Movie Channel
The Last Shot You Hear (1969 GB): This is an oddly engaging, rather badly made thriller featuring Hugh Marlowe as marriage counselor Charles Nordeck. Nordeck has made a fortune from his best-selling advice books, and has grown to love his wealth more than his wife, pouty blonde Anne (Patricia Haines). Desperate for children, Anne has engaged in an extramarital affair with tall dark and handsome Peter Marriott (William Dysart), but Charles must keep up appearances and refuses to give his unhappy spouse a divorce. Anne and Peter hatch a murder plot, but their plans are overheard by Nordeck's mousy secretary Eileen (Zena Walker), an ambitious young woman who wants in on the plot, too. Can Detective Inspector Nash (John Nettleton) unravel the intrigue, or will the troublemaking trio get away with it? Hamhandedly written for the screen by Walking With Dinosaurs creator Tim Haines, The Last Shot You Hear also suffers from poor cinematography and clumsy editing. Somehow, though, the film - directed by the generally reliable Gordon Hessler - manages to entertain whilst being thoroughly predictable, at least until the final reel. Comic relief is ably supplied by Thorley Walters and Joan Young, and there's a passable jazz-inflected score from Bert Shefter, the man who created The Bostweeds for Russ Meyer's Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! It's far from a classic, but fans of obscure British films will probably get some mileage out of The Last Shot You Hear.

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