From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or under-appreciated - they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times PDT.
6:45 PM Turner Classic Movies
Bed of Roses (1933 USA): Is the rose bed half full, or half empty? Constance Bennett and Pert Kelton play a pair of loose women, newly released from prison and out to find themselves some new sugar daddies. Bennett is terrific as usual, but Kelton is hard to take, coming across like Glenda Farrell on steroids. There's enough good stuff in this lightweight RKO drama to make up for Ms. Kelton's presence, though, including Jane Darwell, Joel McCrea, and prissy Franklin Pangborn. Directed and written by Gregory La Cava, responsible for the remarkable Gabriel Over the White House the same year, Bed of Roses is a decent but familiar fairy tale of the Depression.
7:00 PM Fox Movies
Celebration at Big Sur (1971 USA): If you missed this obscure folkumentary when it aired a few months back on Fox, it's back for an encore engagement. The music isn't exactly my bag, but there's no denying the historical interest of this low budget film about a low budget festival that took place in 1969 at the Esalen Institute, one of the premier psychobabble headquarters of the day. If you enjoy footage of folks flying their freak flag high, this is for you. Fans of folk music will be in heaven, but others will find the sounds pretty thin gruel - and sometimes, especially in the case of Joni Mitchell's caterwauling, the musical equivalent of a high colonic. Neil Young looks and sounds cool, especially on an organ-heavy number early in the film, and the Edwin Hawkins Singers are excellent. The film has a grittiness that sets it apart from Woodstock, and the small nature of the crowd - and the fact that the "stage" is one side of a swimming pool - make this a valuable record of what seems to have been a genuinely communal experience.
10:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Animal Kingdom (1932 USA): This excellent pre-code drama is thematically similar to last week's Westward Passage. This time the obsessed writer (Leslie Howard subbing for Laurence Olivier) is married to Myrna Loy, when all he really wants is the love of Ann Harding. Jeez, Leslie, I'd settle for Myrna if I were you. A still suave Neil "Commissioner Gordon" Hamilton co-stars, and the film is ably brought to the screen by co-director George Cukor.
5:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Big Clock (1948 USA): One of my favorite films noir, The Big Clock (surprisingly never subjected to an 'X' rated remake along the lines of Driving Miss Daisy Crazy or Face Jam) is a faithful adaptation of a terrific novel by Kenneth Fearing. Ray Milland stars as George Stroud, a man with a two very big problems - a murder, and an inadequate alibi. That doesn't do the intricate plot full justice, but suffice to say that, true to the genre, there are some implausible but awfully enjoyable twists and turns involving Milland, Charles Laughton as haughty businessman Earl Janoth and Mrs. Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, as a stereotypically eccentric painter. Also airs 5/31 at 7:00 AM.
12:35 PM More Max
Exile Express (1939 USA): Here's a real oddity. I wouldn't be saying that if this were on TCM, but someone at Cinemax decided to schedule this instead of another erotic thriller, so it really sticks out on the schedule. Produced by Poverty Row studio Grand National, Exile Express stars Ukrainian born Anna Sten in a low budget tale of suspense involving spies - as usual for pre-war American films, of the non-specific Teutonic variety - and some scientific secrets. There's a solid if unspectacular supporting cast, including bitchy Jerome Cowan, TiVoPlex favorite Irving Pichel, and ubiquitous "B" movie utility man Byron Foulger.
10:55 AM Showtime Extreme
Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976 HK): Wow. Thanks to the good folks at Showtime, we're being treated to a widescreen (if slightly worn) print of this outrageous martial arts epic. Director Jimmy Wang Yu stars as a one-armed boxer engaged in a battle to the death against a blind man with a grudge. If you enjoy watching disabled people fight each other, decapitation by flying guillotine (a weapon that looks a little like a red velvet lampshade lined with blades), or Indian mystics who can lengthen their arms at will a la Stretch Armstrong, this is your movie.
11:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Diabolique (1955 FRA): One week, and two disastrous Sharon Stone remakes are aired in their original format. Gloria was the first, and here's the second, Henri-Georges Clouzot's suspense classic about murder and a disappearing body. Simone Signoret is outstanding as the calculating Nicole and there are performances by Clouzot's spouse Vera and French matinee idol Michel Serrault. One thing is guaranteed: after watching this film you'll look twice before stepping into your next bubble bath.
8:00 AM Sundance
Ballad of a Soldier (1960 USSR): This beautiful film is a very simple story of a Russian infantryman (Volodya Ivashov) who stumbles into committing an act of bravery on the Eastern Front. Impressed by his ability to knock out two German tanks, his commanding officer grants him a leave to fix the family roof. He has six days to get home, fix the roof, and return to the front, and numerous obstacles get in his way, including an overburdened rail system, a legless Russian veteran (played brilliantly by Yevgeni Urbansky, who looks a bit like Marlon Brando) in need of help, a recalcitrant railway guard who responds to bribery, and - most importantly - a young woman (Zhanna Prokorenko) who falls in love with him. The film is deeply moving without being in the least bit sentimental and is gorgeous to look at, featuring magnificent and superbly framed black and white cinematography by Vladimir Nikolayev and Era Savelyeva. Try watching it without at least getting a lump in your throat.
5:30 PM Turner Classic Movies
The Andromeda Strain (1971 USA): This solemn big budget science fiction film presents Earth with the ultimate challenge: an alien virus hitches a ride to the big blue marble via a returning Army satellite. I guess that's slightly more believable than the premise of more recent apocalyptic fare such as Armageddon or The Core, but Robert Wise's adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel treats it all with deadly seriousness. Richard H. Kline's sleek widescreen photography looks great, anticipating his sterling work on 1972's dystopian classic Soylent Green. If you're feeling nervous these days about the emergence of new infectious diseases, you'll want to give this one a miss.
9:00 PM Turner Classic Movies
Scaramouche (1923 USA): Well, swash my buckle! Or buckle my swash! Here's hunky Ramon Novarro in a terrific Metro silent, based on a Rafael Sabatini novel. Sabatini also wrote The Sea Hawk and Captain Blood, so Hollywood was only getting started on adapting the Italian novelist's work. Directed by Rex Ingram and starring many of the same cast members as Ingram's earlier Prisoner of Zenda (1922 USA), this is topflight silent entertainment for those who appreciate rum, sodomy, and the lash. Well, perhaps you'd believe derring-do, swordplay, and revenge?