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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 01/16/07

6:45 AM Showtime
A Hard Day's Night (1964 GB): It's been a while since Richard Lester's Beatlerific feature got a premium channel airing, and as the lads from Liverpool remain my favourite group of all time (sorry, Nirvana, Syd-period Floyd, and Television), it's only right that I give it a mention. Without taking away anything from the Fabs, however, it should be pointed out that this is resolutely Lester's film, incorporating many of the then-revolutionary filmmaking techniques the expatriate American director developed in The Running Jumping Standing Still Film (1959) and It's Trad, Dad! (1962). Kudos also to screenwriter Alun Owen, who managed to capture the insouciance and charm of the group without turning them into caricatures, and to the film's uncredited casting director, who snagged both Wilfrid Brambell and Victor Spinetti for plum roles. Now, to whom do I speak about getting Help! re-released on DVD?? Also airs at 9:45 AM.

9:00 PM More Max
Jamon, Jamon (1992 ESP): Spanish director Bigas Luna has been plowing the sex comedy field for many years now (he also wrote and directed the post-modern horror film Anguish, which I highly recommend), but Jamon Jamon marked his only exposure to the American art-house market to date. Though the presence of pre-stardom Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz may have helped plop a few more butts into cinema seats, the film itself is far from being a star-driven affair and is basically a first-rate example of this much-maligned (and in most cases, deservedly so) genre. Set in a backwoods town where the main employer is an underwear factory, the story details the love affair of the son of the factory owner (Jordi Molla) and the daughter of the local bordello operator (Cruz). When the lad's parents get wind of the affair, they hire a local stud (Bardem) to steal the heart of the lusty lass - but things take an unexpected turn when Mom (Anna Galiena) takes a fancy herself to the aptly named ‘el chorizo'. A sex comedy unafraid of wearing its skimpy undergarments on its sleeve, Jamon Jamon also performed well on the festival circuit, where it picked up the Silver Lion at the 1992 Venice Film Festival.

Wednesday 01/17/07

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
London Belongs to Me (1948 GB): A day of rather obscure British features from the ‘40s and ‘50s kicks off this morning with this tale of the residents of a single south London street in the years immediately prior to the outbreak of World War II. It features a young Richard Attenborough as Percy, an auto mechanic who finds himself embroiled in murder and theft after moving into a gone to seed boarding house. After meeting some of the wrong sort of people and learning that stealing cars can be more lucrative than fixing them, a tragic accident in a purloined automobile finds him facing a stiff prison sentence - unless the locals can convince the judiciary that they can set him straight. Though ostensibly a comedy-drama, Sidney Gilliatt's film displays some noir influences, dashes of social realism, and straightahead suspense, making it a hard film to categorize but an easy one to enjoy. Notable in the cast is Alistair Sim as fellow boarder and phony psychic Henry Squales, and Joyce Carey as one of the would-be seer's credulous victims. It's followed at 5:00 AM by the slightly more familiar Miranda (also 1948), a breezy British comedy about a mermaid who takes up residence with the doctor who catches her, at 6:30 AM by 1949's All Over the Town, about which I know less than nothing, at 8:00 AM by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's portentous 1944 fable A Canterbury Tale, at 9:45 AM by the romantic-comedy English Without Tears (1944, and starring Penelope Ward as a young woman of substance in love with - shock! horror! - the butler, played by Michael Wilding), and at 11:30 AM by 1949's Poet's Pub, a comedy thriller starring the always wonderful James Robertson-Justice and Joyce Grenfell.

8:30 PM Showtime Extreme
Vice Squad (1982 USA): Go on hiatus for a couple of weeks, and see what happens? You miss out on the widescreen television premiere of films like Vice Squad, which re-airs tonight and is essential viewing for fans of grindhouse cinema. Directed by the undervalued Gary Sherman (Deathline, Dead and Buried), the film features Season Hubley as a Southland prostitute helping the police track down a brutal pimp named Ramrod (a malevolant Wings Hauser). The film is extremely violent and certainly not for everyone, but as an example of a certain type of cinema - the kind that populated seedy Times Square cinemas for several decades - it can't be beat.

Thursday 01/18/07

3:00 AM Showtime 2
Together (2002 CHI): After watching Vice Squad (and taking your subsequent shower), you might want to chill out with this lyrical and charming character study about an ambitious father and his violin prodigy son. Determined to put their working class roots behind them, Cheng (Liu Peigi) packs himself and his offspring Xiaochun (Tang Yun) off to Beijing, where fame and fortune surely awaits them. The two meet a shabby music teacher (Wang Zhiwen), but soon decide he doesn't have a great deal to teach Xiaochun and move on to a more famous instructor (writer-director Chen Kaige) who can offer the boy broader horizons - at a price. 13-year-old Xiaochun must decide whether to shoot for the stars or go back to helping Dad cook meals at his rundown restaurant. Will he choose Chen Yi - or chow fun? Tune in to find out.

Friday 01/19/07

4:20 AM More Max
Panic In the Streets (1950 USA): A terrific suspense film with a noir twist, Panic In the Streets chronicles the efforts made by a doctor and a policeman (Richard Widmark and Paul Douglas, respectively) to track the source of bubonic plague before it spreads throughout the city of New Orleans. Directed by Elia Kazan and adapted by Richard Murphy, the film features one of Widmarks' best performances as Doctor Clint Reed, as well as the debut of Jack Palance as an unwitting carrier of the dread disease. The underappreciated Douglas plays police officer Tom Warren, and he and Widmark make an excellent pairing in this early take on the buddy movie meme.

9:45 AM Sundance
Secret Ceremony (1968 GB): It's unfortunately airing in pan and scan, but this Joseph Losey feature - not to be confused with last week's whipping boy, Boom! - is still worth your while. Liz Taylor (yes, her again) stars as Leonora, an aging sex worker who finds herself adopted by immature 22-year-old Cenci (Mia Farrow), who accosts her one day on the bus after mistaking her for her dead mother. Disturbed at first by the stalkiness of it all, Leonora tries to give her admirer the slip, but soon warms to her presence when she learns Cenci is a young woman of some means. After a suitably sunny honeymoon period, creepy stepdad Albert (Robert Mitchum) shows up on their doorstep, jolting Leonora and Cenci back to reality and setting off a disturbing series of recriminations, rape accusations, and seedy sexual shenanigans. Unless you've invested in Universal's region 2 PAL disc - or, like me, have an old videocassette hanging around - this is the only way to catch this quaintly perverse oddity, which also features a slumming Dame Peggy Ashcroft as Cenci's light-fingered aunt.

9:00 PM IFC
Awakening of the Beast (1970 BRA): The fourth feature in the still ongoing Coffin Joe series, Awakening of the Beast features a decidedly different Joe (Jose Mojica Marins, naturally) from the one seen in last week's At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul: he's a figment of the imagination of four characters being dosed with LSD as part of a series of psychological experiments! The film also features Marins in a second role - as a filmmaker forced to defend himself against accusations of over-the-top lewdness and depravity by state censors and other guardians of public morality. Considering the outrageous nature of this film, which makes At Midnight seem trite in comparision, those accusations look pretty spot on - thank goodness! A truly bonkers example of psychotronic cinema mayhem, Awakening of the Beast must not be missed! Also airs 1/20 at 12:15 AM.

Saturday 01/20/07

10:00 PM Starz
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005 USA): I missed this one in cinemas, but it got very good notices, and is making its premium channel debut this evening. Director Tommy Lee Jones stars as Pete, a rancher determined to fulfil the last wishes of his murdered friend Melquiades (Julio Cedillo), who wants to be buried back in his Mexican hometown. Trouble is, the body has already been buried - and it's a long way to Mexico by mule. Country singer Dwight Yoakam appears as a border patrolman, and the film re-airs 1/21 at 1:00 AM.

Sunday 01/21/07

1:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
Heaven With A Barbed-Wire Fence (1939 USA): This wonderful and long-forgotten Fox quickie (shot in two weeks) stars newcomer Glenn Ford as a New York sales clerk travelling cross-country (and on foot) to claim his Arizona property - a purchase made with his life savings. Along the way he meets up with a hobo (Richard Conte, also in HIS first film) and an illegal immigrant from Mexico (er, Jean Rogers) for a series of adventures. If you can find it in your heart to accept the raven-haired Ms. Rogers as a Latina, you'll enjoy this quixotic, short and sweet road movie, which was directed by actor Ricardo Cortez.

11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Munchhausen (1943 GER): If memory serves, TCM aired this World War II vintage epic a year or two ago - but for some reason, I don't seem to have recommended it at the time. Silly me. If you can overlook the underlying propaganda message - which frankly isn't all that different from Hollywood's imperial costumers of the same period - you'll be impressed by the scale of this fantasy feature, produced to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Germany's UFA Studios. Oddly enough, Munchhausen creator Ernst Kastner was persona non grata in Nazi Germany, but apparently even Dr. Goebbels couldn't overlook the box office potential and gave this production the green-light.

Monday 01/22/07

4:50 AM Encore Mystery
The Babysitter (1980 USA): Fans of William Shatner, rejoice! ABC Movie of the Week The Babysitter is back on the air! Shatner plays Jeff Benedict, an overworked doctor who leaves the childcare decision-making in the hands of stressed-out wife Liz (Patty Duke Astin). Liz decides 13-year-old Tara (Quinn Cummings) needs an in-house companion, and hires 18-year-old orphan Joanna (Stephanie Zimbalist) for the job. Personally, I'd have second thoughts about hiring an 18-year-old to care for a 13-year-old, but hey, that's the hand we're dealt by The Babysitter, and the results are predictably and hysterically messy. As friendly Doctor Lindquist, avuncular co-star John Houseman tries to warn the Benedicts about their grave mistake, whilst director Peter Medak tries, successfully, to prove that 1972's The Ruling Class really WAS a flash in the pan.

11:20 AM Encore Dramatic Stories
Coogan's Bluff (1968 USA): It's been a VERY long time since this Clint Eastwood crime drama has been aired, so we'll overlook the fact that Encore is offering it in pan and scan. Clint plays a fish out of water Arizona lawmaker sent to the Big Apple to pick up and transport a prisoner (Don Stroud) back to the Southwest. When his charge breaks free and escapes, the chagrined sheriff determines to get him back at any cost - and Manhattan may never be the same! This hugely enjoyable Don Siegel feature probably inspired Dennis Weaver's light-hearted early-'70s TV series McCloud, but is a much grittier affair, with Eastwood getting to display some proto-Dirty Harry moves. Add in Lee J. Cobb as a seen-it-all NYPD detective and cameos by Seymour Cassel and Conrad Bain, and you can't go wrong.

6:30 PM Sundance
New York Doll (2005 USA): The life (and sudden death) of New York Dolls' bass player Arthur ‘Killer' Kane is explored in this good-natured rockumentary from director Greg Whiteley. The Dolls were a failed band of the mid ‘70s who tried to put an American spin on glam rock, hooked up with future Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren in an ill-fated venture that saw them falsely advertised as left-wing revolutionaries, and released a couple of less than awesome albums before breaking up. Kane descended into alcoholism (band-mate Johnny Thunders opted for heroin), converted to Mormonism, and got back together with surviving Dolls David Johanson and Sylvain Sylvain for a brief too little, too late 2004 reunion. Sadly, Kane died three weeks later from leukemia, lending this lovely little film extra piquancy.