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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 02/06/07

4:30 AM Fox Movie Channel
Five of A Kind (1938 USA): It's not quite as outré as Harry Fraser's infamous 1951 Siamese Twin exploiter Chained For Life, but there's definitely a bit of the freak factor involved in Fox's Five of A Kind. The film was the last of four features featuring the world famous Dionne sisters, five Canadians who became overnight celebrities when they beat the odds and became the first surviving quintuplets in recorded history. Removed from the custody of their parents and made wards of the state, the girls spent years on the promotional treadmill on behalf of the Province of Ontario. Now four and a half years of age and more than willing to ham it up for the cameras, the quints appear to be having a great time, custodial status notwithstanding. As for the story, there's very little involved, as sparring reporters Claire Trevor and Cesar Romero spar over who's going to get the big scoop regarding the toddlers' latest shenanigans. Of course, the journos soon fall in love, marking Five of A Kind as yet another predictable late ‘30s rom com, albeit one with a twist. On hand to supervise the children is Jean Hersholt (playing, of course, a kindly doctor), and Slim Summerville, John Qualen, and Jane Darwell put in appearances as well.

Wednesday 02/07/07

8:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
The Entertainer (1960 GB): Laurence Olivier stars as Archie Rice, a washed-up vaudevillian who refuses to recognize his own obsolescence, in this searing film adaptation of John Osborne's play of the same name. The Boys From Brazil notwithstanding, Olivier rarely got to play the bad guy on-screen, but is superb as a bitter and abusive comedian whose career is just about up. Olivier's future real-life wife, Joan Plowright, plays Mrs. Rice, and the cast rounds out superbly with Alan Bates, Albert Finney, Daniel Massey, and Thora Hird. Directed by Tony Richardson and written by Nigel Kneale (the creator of Professor Quartermass), this is a brilliant kitchen-sink drama that stands up well to repeated viewings.

5:15 PM Showtime Extreme
Rolling Thunder (1977 USA): William Devane plays Major Charles Rane, a returning Vietnam war hero who is having trouble readjusting to civilian life. The first two acts of Rolling Thunder slowly outline the coming storm, as Rane's homecoming is first dampened by clueless civilians and then destroyed by even more clueless petty criminals. The final act is action filmmaking at its best, as Rane and his army buddy (played well by a young Tommy Lee Jones) take their violent, but not pointless, revenge. Airing in widescreen format, this above average action pic - still, for some reason, unavailable on DVD - was written by Paul Schrader, so it's a cut above your everyday grindhouse fare.

6:00 PM IFC
Street Mobster (1972 JAP): If you've recovered from IFC's December airings of Kinji Fukasaku's five-film Yakuza Papers series, here's another of the director's nikkatsu (gangster) offerings. Street Mobster features good old Bunta Sagawara as Isamu, a particularly loathsome hoodlum who has a penchant for rape when he isn't knocking heads with the local competition. Isamu is a loose cannon, but he's also got big time aspirations, and is determined to set up his own powerhouse gang with compatriot Kizaki. Unsurprisingly, the incumbent Yato gang doesn't take kindly to this sort of thing, setting in motion the incredibly bloody proceedings that follow. Unlike some of Fukasaku's oeuvre, there's no attempt here to graft social commentary onto the story, which is either a good or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. Also airs at 9:15 PM.

Thursday 02/08/07

12:15 AM Showtime
Frances (1982 USA): Jessica Lange earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance as actress Frances Farmer in this superior biopic, which makes its widescreen television debut this morning. Farmer was a wannabe starlet during Hollywood's Golden Age, a beauty who was also intellectually brilliant and a left-wing troublemaker to boot. She knocked heads with studio bosses, drank too much, and generally didn't play by the rules - leading to hospitalization and a lobotomy thanks to the efforts of her harridan of a mother (played here to fine effect by Kim Stanley). Lange delivers a tour de force performance, and frankly I think she was cheated by the voters, who opted to reward Meryl Streep for her performance in Holocaust weepie Sophie's Choice - a predictable Academy selection that didn't require much introspection. Also airs at 3:15 AM.

1:30 AM Turner Classic Movies
Alibi (1929 USA): Here's a super rarity you won't want to miss. By now I'd assumed TCM had dredged up every Oscar nominee still extant for their 30 Days of Oscar programming - on a side note, I'm getting pretty tired of my favorite channel clogging its February schedule with re-airings of these overly familiar titles - but once again they've managed to dig up something fresh, or at least unfamiliar. Alibi is a doubly exciting prospect, because it not only stars good old Chester Morris - who got the star treatment in Tivoplex a week or two ago - but was directed by one of the overlooked greats, Roland West. West helmed at least two gothic classics, The Bat (1926) and its all-talking remake The Bat Whispers (1930), not to mention the recently new to DVD Thelma Todd pirate vehicle Corsair (1931), also starring Chester Morris. Alibi was West's take on yet another genre, the gangster flick, and features Morris as a murderous tough whose sweetheart - the daughter of a police sergeant, no less - provides him with the titular excuse after her beau spends an evening knocking off a copper. Morris earned himself an Academy Award nomination for his roll as gangster Chick Williams, as did William Cameron Menzies' magnificent art direction, a unique blend of Art Deco and Expressionism.

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