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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 03/20/07

9:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Dudes Are Pretty People (1942 USA): Hal Roach produced and directed a trilogy of western ‘streamliner' comedies in the early forties, and all three appear on TCM in chronological order this morning. Dudes Are Pretty People kicks off the proceedings, and introduces the characters of Jimmy and Pidge (Jimmy Rogers and Noah Beery, Jr.), a pair of hapless cowpokes who've lost their horses in a poker game and have been forced to take employment at a local dude ranch. The two find themselves smitten in equal measure with ranch guest Marcia (Marjorie Woodworth), and the bulk of the film's running time involves them trying to outsmart each other in order to win her heart. Though the title would make Steven Tyler and Joe Perry proud, the results are mediocre, and the laugh quotient pretty low. It's followed at 10:15 AM by Calaboose (1943), in which the lads confront a big city tough played by Marc Lawrence, and at 11:15 AM by Prairie Chickens (1943), the last (and counter-intuitively, best) of the threesome, featuring Jack Norton as a pill-popping Easterner and Noel Neill, Mike Mazurki, Milton Kibbee, and Glenn Strange amongst the supporting cast.

4:00 PM Cinemax
Iraq In Fragments (2006 USA): I still haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth, and while I'm not necessarily at odds with its criticized, simplified-for-the-big screen climate change conclusions, for my money the Oscar-nominated Iraq In Fragments is just as deserving of attention and of equal political and social significance. Structured as a triptych, the film investigates the divergent lives of three Iraqi families - one Kurdish, one Sunni, and one Shiite - whose nation has been torn asunder by war, occupation, and sectarian conflict. Viewed through the prism of this film, it's hard to imagine how a post-Saddam Iraq can possibly remain intact - and, judging from the Kurds' complicity with the invasion, even harder to avoid the conclusion that that was one of the goals of the war from the get-go. Well, that and the oil. Also airs at 7:00 PM.

5:00 PM Starz In Black
Summer of Sam (1999 USA): Starz In Black celebrates director Spike Lee's birthday with a full slate of the rabble-rousing filmmaker's features, including this out of character rumination on the ‘Son of Sam' killings that terrified the outer boroughs of New York during the long hot summer of 1977. Set in an Italian-American nabe in The Bronx, the film stars John Leguizamo as Vinnie, the macho-est hairdresser this side of Shampoo's George Roundy, and Adrien Brody - perhaps the world's least likely paisan - as Richie, an Anglophile punk rocker who earns a living taking his kit off in front of gay men. They each have skeletons in the closet: Vinnie is trying to keep his roving trouser snake's adventures hidden from wife Dionna (Mira Sorvino), whilst Richie is simply embarrassed about stripping for cash. But these problems and peccadilloes pale in comparison to those of killer David Berkowitz, whose conversations with Dog convinced him of the need to fold, spindle, and mutilate as many dark-haired women as possible. Berkowitz is really only a secondary character in the film - his presence is seen largely in a series of violently cut, disorienting montages - but the dread he spread was palpable, and the film does a fine job of recreating that atmosphere. Summer of Sam isn't in the same league as Spike's best films - Do the Right Thing, Bamboozled, and much of Malcolm X - but it marked a fascinating change of pace for the director, and makes its widescreen television debut this evening.

7:00 PM Sundance
Head-On (2004 GER-TUR): Two German Turks with some serious personal problems are united by happenstance in this unusual kitchen-sink drama from director Fatih Akin. The two are Cahit and Sibel (Birot Unel and Sibel Kekilli), who meet in a psychiatric ward after a pair of unsuccessful (and in Cahit's case, perhaps subconscious) suicide attempts. Sibel needs a man to get away from her overbearing and hyper-traditionalist family, and Cahit simply needs someone to feed him and wash his hair. At first the pair finds their new relationship quite agreeable, but these truly star-crossed lovers soon learn that when you put two self-destructive personalities together, things can go wrong in a hurry. The winner of the Golden Bear at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival, Head-On is further proof that German cinema is undergoing a bit of a revival at present.

Wednesday 03/21/07

5:45 AM More Max
I'm No Angel (1933 USA): Back in the 1970s, Mae West was a near fixture on Million Dollar Movies from coast to coast, and remained in the public eye thanks to her tireless devotion to plastic surgery and her status as a sex symbol who actually seemed to enjoy sex during an era when enjoying sex was distinctly frowned upon. Nowadays, she's largely forgotten, and most of her films have been consigned to the vaults. The delightful I'm No Angel gets a rare airing this morning on More Max, and provides a potent reminder of the saucy seductress's box office prowess during the early ‘30s (it grossed more than ten times its production costs). Mae stars as Tira, a gold-digging circus girl determined to parlay her lion-taming act into comfort and fortune via the bank account of handsome socialite Jack Clayton (Cary Grant), whose cousin Kirk (future Al Adamson regular Kent Taylor) is also smitten with her. Laden with double entendres and wink wink nudge nudge dialogue, I'm No Angel's popularity attracted the attention and disgust of the Legion of Decency, amongst other bluenoses, which ultimately led to strict enforcement of the Production Code - taking the wind out of West's career sails, and forcing her into screen retirement by the end of the decade.

10:45 AM Turner Classic Movies
She Played With Fire (1957 GB): Jack Hawkins stars as an insurance investigator besotted with a bad girl in this excellent British noir from the Sidney Gilliatt-Frank Launder production team. Originally released as Fortune Is A Woman, the film features Hawkins as insurance investigator Oliver Bramwell, on assignment to investigate a minor conflagration at the stately home of Tracey Moreton (Dennis Price). Arriving on scene, he is unexpectedly reunited with old gal pal Sarah (Arlene Dahl), now married to Moreton and not too happy about it. A second fire - and the death of the squire - leaves Sarah once again available, and Oliver finds himself inexorably pulled back into her malign orbit, leading to further complications - and blackmail. Co-starring Christopher Lee, Greta Gynt, and Bernard Miles, She Played With Fire features a knockout nightmare sequence in the early going and excellent cinematography throughout.

2:05 PM Turner Classic Movies
My True Story (1951 USA): I have to admit a minor fascination with the still-ongoing career of the indestructible Mickey Rooney, and here's one of his resume's many fascinating footnotes. My True Story was one of only two films directed by The Mickster - the other is the even more obscure Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960) - and stars the ill-fated Helen Walker as Ann Martin, a female jewel thief with an opportunity to go straight when she's offered a job in a candy store (!). After she learns that store-owner Ed Praskins (Emory Parnell) is actually a front for a mobster eager to have Ann ply her old trade on his behalf by stealing some rare perfume (!!), friendly fishing enthusiast Bill Phillips (Willard Parker) notices a change in her attitude - and is determined to get to the bottom of things. There's an awful lot of plot packed into this 67-minute morality tale, but it's never less than entertaining and Rooney proves himself an adept if unoriginal director - which may explain why he got hired by Shawn Levy for that thankless role in Night At the Museum.

Thursday 03/22/07

3:00 AM Turner Classic Movies
Kill Her Gently (1957 GB): Another enjoyable (if low rent) British thriller, Kill Her Gently stars Griffith Jones as Jeff Martin, a former mental patient whose desire to murder wife Kay (Maureen Connell) dovetails with the needs of hitchhiking escaped cons Connors and Svenson (Marc Lawrence and George Mikell). Jeff offers to help the crooks if they'll ‘help' him - but even hardened criminals sometimes have a conscience, and his plans go awry. Kill Her Gently is double-billed at 4:30 AM with the camp classic Girl In Black Stockings (1957), a surprisingly well made Utah-set murder mystery starring sultry Anne Bancroft, bottle blonde Mamie Van Doren, former Tarzan Lex Barker, and Marie Windsor.

9:30 PM IFC
Morvern Callar (2002 GB): Samantha Morton plays a supermarket checker who takes a trip to Ibiza for fun, sun, and rave music in director Lynne Ramsay's breakthrough feature Morvern Callar. Our titular heroine awakens one morning to find her boyfriend has killed himself, leaving her his bank account information and the manuscript of his novel, which he wants submitted for publication at the soonest opportunity. Suffering from shock and uncertain what to do, Morvern ultimately disposes of his body in ignoble fashion, replaces his by-line with her own, sells the novel, pockets the proceedings, and heads off with pal Lanna (Kathleen McDermott) for a package holiday of aimless hell-raising in the Balaerics. The enigmatic Morton is the perfect actress to play the determinedly inscrutable Morvern, and her quietly mysterious performance earned her the Best Actress prize at 2002 British Independent Film Awards.

Friday 03/23/07

8:15 AM Turner Classic Movies
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960 GB): A Karel Reisz drama featuring a ferocious Albert Finney performance, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning blends kitchen sink drama with angry young man polemics into a unique and powerful cinema cocktail. Finney plays Arthur Seaton, a hard drinking Nottingham working man whose rebellious nature and way with the ladies brings him grief via an unwanted pregnancy and an unwelcome residency on a tidy new council estate. Filmed on location and with extras drawn from the streets and factories of Nottingham, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is still one of the most realistic screen depictions of British working class life, thanks in no small part to Alan Sillitoe's unblinking adaptation of his own novel. Shot by Freddie Francis and edited by Seth Holt - both future directors themselves - it remains the best film of Reisz' career, and was the feature that made Finney a star.

11:15 AM Sundance
Decryptage (2003 FRA): Long time readers know that I tend to skew Palestinian in the apparently endless Arab-Israeli conflict, but in the interest of The Fairness Doctrine, equal time, and all those other good liberal values, here's a film that skews the other way. Decryptage is a documentary that explores the apparent ‘anti-Israeli' bias of the French press, and whilst that's a bias virtually impossible for those of us in the United States to imagine, the film does a pretty good job of making its case. Can't we all just get along?

9:00 PM IFC
Quiet Cool (1986 USA): One of my favorite action movie actors, the little heralded James Remar, plays a New York City copper working the California dope beat in this silly but satisfying crime flick. He plays Joe Dylanne, a plainclothesman responding to a call for help from old friend Kate (Daphne Ashbrook) in her ongoing struggles against the local ganja growers. The growers have already offed most of Kate's relatives, and it's up to Joe - with an assist from sole surviving nephew Joshua (Adam Coleman Howard) - to put the boot in and bring the potheads back down to earth. A thoroughly enjoyable reactionary thriller in the vein of Death Wish and Dirty Harry, Quiet Cool also airs 3/24 at 12:05 AM.

Saturday 03/24/07

7:00 PM Sundance
Stoned (2005 GB): It's not great, but rock fans may still want to check out this paint by numbers biopic of doomed Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, which makes its American television premiere this evening. Based on the contentious claim that Jones (Leo Gregory) was murdered by brickie Frank Thorogood (Paddy Considine, good as always), the film can't avoid the many flaws typical of the style - including a lead actor who bears little resemblance to the iconic figure he's playing. It's not a complete disaster, and music geeks will get a kick out of it on several levels, but it doesn't rise above the level of extremely average.

Sunday 03/25/07

9:00 PM Sundance
Vital (2004 JAP): I'm not an enthusiast for the films of Shinya Tsukamoto, but that's probably the whole point of the man's chilly oeuvre. Here's one of the most recent Tsukamoto efforts, which, like his earlier Tetsuo features, ruminates on the rectitude of decaying human flesh. Ichi the Killer's Tadanobu Asano stars as Hiroshi, a young med student stricken with amnesia after being in a car accident that also kills his girlfriend. He helps himself recover by re-enrolling in medical school, where his past struggles turn to success - and his relish for dissection turns to tragedy. Vital is not as gruesome as some of Tsukamoto's efforts, but thematically it doesn't stray too far from his comfort zone - so if you're in the mood for a meditative take on the nature and meaning of anatomy, look no further.

11:05 PM Encore Action
Live and Let Die (1973 GB): The latest of the Bond films to (finally!) get a widescreen airing on Encore, Live and Let Die is middling 007 at best. This time Roger Moore's on the trail of a big time New York heroin dealer (Yaphet Kotto), and there's a nasty (dare I say racist?) edge to the film which has always left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. On the other hand, the Wings theme song still sends a chill down my spine whenever I hear it, so I'll be tuning in for the opening credits at the very least.

11:40 PM Showtime
Beyond the Law (1992 USA): It's been a while since I've been able to trumpet the small screen debut of a bone-headed action flick in widescreen format, but the drought is over. Beyond the Law stars Charlie Sheen as Dan Saxon, a be-whiskered undercover cop masquerading as a biker in order to ingratiate himself with - and ultimately bust - a cycle gang called the Jackals, who are led by a guy named Blood (Michael Madsen, in tip top badass mode). Along the way he messes with cocaine (not a good thing) and professional shutterbug Renee (Linda Fiorentino, not a bad thing), who's been working on a magazine feature about the stinky cyclists, who also include delightful guys named Oatmeal and Dirt. Also airs 3/26 at 2:45 AM.