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Obscure strange films that showed up on terrestrial TV back in the day

Started by George White, September 20, 2017, 09:53:57 AM

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Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Phil_A on September 21, 2017, 12:25:32 PM
Back when BBC2 used to run films in the late afternoon/early evening they once put on George Pal's 7 Faces Of Dr Lao, a film which I suspect is not shown much now to due to the issues involved with a white actor putting on "yellow face" (Tony Randall in this case). Shame, as it's not a bad film apart from that.


I adore that movie! Got it on Region 1. Dr Lao is clearly a Time Lord pre-dating The Doctor. He can multi regenerate and has a circus big top tent that is bigger on the inside than the outside.  I don't think Tony Randall's make up (the great William Tuttle on prosthetic duties) is particularly offensive. He genuinely looks oriental as opposed to Sean Connery's laughable 'transformation' in You Only Live Twice (1967). His initial ting-tong-ting delivery and cartoon Chinaman persona plays on the stupid townsfolks prejudices but we soon discover it a ruse to conceal the real noble measured character.
Randall apparently was hurt by accusations of racist overtones that were thrown around in later years and disowned the film. He eventually came round to its charms again since the film has been reappraised. It's a wonderful attack on capitalism too.

Also Randall's Medusa even manages to be more disconcerting than the one from Clash Of The Titans (1980) IMO


thraxx


As a bairn in the 80s and 90s couldn't beat a late night surf round BBC2 and Channel 4.  Remember when there would be those really weird and disturbing animations on BBC2 in seemingly randomly between other programmes?  The following films particularly struck me.

Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire.
Lair of the White Worm.  (The actress cutting about in stocking one of my earliest wank fodders).
For some reason this disturbed the fuck out of me.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jtLTS7T8cc

Moviedrome was a real treat.

phantom_power

It is definitely much harder to find that sort of thing now, with the proliferation of channels and (for me) less time to idly flick through the telly. Not to mention all the great telly to watch at the moment that makes you feel like you are missing out if you aren't actively watching something rather than passively channel surfing.

I remember those halcyon days of discovering Hal Hartley and wondering if I would ever get to see the films they talked about on The Incredibly Strange Film Show

Wet Blanket

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on September 20, 2017, 04:58:19 PM
Not au fait with that.

However...



Another example of Sunday afternoon in the mid-seventies matinee joy was this 1962 gem from the reliable George Pal stable. Again, I haven't seen the film since but remember being bewitched by it as a kid. Terry Thomas is at his most dastardly. It appears to have never been released in an English speaking format ever. God, I love a Blu-Ray.  Yet you can buy the soundtrack on iTunes. Frustrating.


They're showing this in actual Cinerama in Bradford next month, the only surviving three-strip print. https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/whats-on/wonderful-world-brothers-grimm-u

LanceUppercut

Twenty bucks was on TV late at night on a random day of the week, long before the internet and loads of channels so I gave it a watch.

Very weird seeing so many famous people in a film I'd never heard of and was so random.

George White

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on September 20, 2017, 01:44:45 PM


This 1948 film parable starring a very young Al from Quantum Leap turned up on telly in the mid-seventies when I first saw it. Not seen it since but according to Genome it has sporadically appeared a few times on BBC2 and last screened in 2004. It really spoke to nine year old me as I felt I didn't quite 'fit in' at my school. (Probably, because I didn't like bloody football, Kung Fu or British Bulldog, preferring to be in my own little imaginary world of robots, ghosts and monsters)  I've never met anyone else who had seen TBWGH and they used to think I imagined it. You couldn't remake it now because every other young person has green or blue hair these days.

It used to be all fields round here... etc
Yes, I caught the 2004 screening.

Quote from: Phil_A on September 20, 2017, 12:29:11 PM
Delusion(1991)

Very odd road movie/thriller with no real "name" actors, although I think it was intended to be a breakout vehicle for model-turned-actress Jennifer Rubin.

There's a trailer on youtube which I won't link to as it pretty much gives away every plot point.

Ran a few times on BBC2 in the 90s, then BBC1 in the early hours(the last time was 2002 according to the ol' Genome)

It has cult classic written all over it, but didn't see a DVD release at all and is pretty much impossible to see unless you're prepared to deal with VHS resellers. Just about the only thing that's easily found is the score by Barry Adamson, no less.

RTE showed it too. But then RTE showed a few weird things, like Mastermind, a Japanese-shot Charlie Chan spoof with Zero Mostel in yellowface that was delayed for years, made by ABC TV's film arm in 1969, then released in 1976.

Shaky

I recall catching eerie early 70's mystery film "Who?" on BBC1 about 15 years ago. Set in a "future" where the Cold War went all nuts and shit, it features Elliott Gould as a detective trying to work out if a critically injured, now mostly metal scientist is who he says he is. The Americans v Soviets stuff dates it horribly but the central conceit is pretty well done, from memory, and it kept me guessing until the end.


Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Wet Blanket on September 22, 2017, 09:03:53 AM

They're showing this in actual Cinerama in Bradford next month, the only surviving three-strip print. https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/whats-on/wonderful-world-brothers-grimm-u

Arses!

Bradford is too far for me. Thanks for the tip off though.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Shaky on September 24, 2017, 10:02:14 AM
I recall catching eerie early 70's mystery film "Who?" on BBC1 about 15 years ago. Set in a "future" where the Cold War went all nuts and shit, it features Elliott Gould as a detective trying to work out if a critically injured, now mostly metal scientist is who he says he is. The Americans v Soviets stuff dates it horribly but the central conceit is pretty well done, from memory, and it kept me guessing until the end.


Pretty ropey el-cheapo stuff, but if you want to confirm that it's shown on one of the freeview channels (can't remember which one) quite regularly.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 24, 2017, 07:16:24 PM

Pretty ropey el-cheapo stuff, but if you want to confirm that it's shown on one of the freeview channels (can't remember which one) quite regularly.

I'll need to keep an eye out then. Quite like 70's Gould.

mothman


Shaky

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on September 24, 2017, 07:16:24 PM

Pretty ropey el-cheapo stuff, but if you want to confirm that it's shown on one of the freeview channels (can't remember which one) quite regularly.

Oh, it's no classic and the robo-scientist is particularly laughable now but it's got that slightly unsettling, queasy 70's vibe to it.

Shit Good Nose

Actually, despite singing the praises of the various freeview channels, I have remembered that, between them, BBCs 1 and 2 used to have Richard Dreyfuss' more off-beat 80s and 90s comedies on very regular rotation - What About Bob?, Down and Out In Beverly Hills, Moon Over Parador, Once Around and, my particular favourite, Let It Ride.

Haven't seen any of those on any channel for donkeys.

Oh, and Tin Men always used to be on 4.  "Aloo-min-umm".  First time I ever heard that and didn't have a fucking clue what they were talking about.  It seriously wasn't until about 5 years later I worked out they were talking about aluminium.

Those were the days.

Dr Syntax Head

I saw Man Bites Dog on TV. I think it was late channel 4 in the early 90s. I'm now concerned that it might not have been on TV but a VHS. Long time ago. Either way I clearly remember the room I was in.

I definitely watched Linklater's Slacker on TV though and bloody loved it as a gen x counter culture grunge loving' teen.

Edit. A boy and his dog, that was deffo on late night telly. I was too young to 'get it' but I remember absolutely loving the apocalyptic wasteland stuff.

George White

Just got the Sunday Times Guide to Movies on Television which is the guide to all movies in UK TV syndication in 1980, such obscurities as Wanda (1970), Mastermind (1969/76 with Zero Mostel - cancelled by Cinerama and released by tiny Goldstone in 1976), the Virgin and the Gypsy, Agent for HARM, Alfie Darling (my dad's favourite film as a teen, unaware it was a sequel/remake), the Violent Enemy (Tom Bell IRA adventure shot in my hometown), Yellow Dog (Terence Donovan-directed Japanese cop movie), the Wonders of Aladdin (Italian panto adaptation with Donald O'Connor), Roger Corman's Big Bad Mama, both 1965 versions of Harlow, Blue Blood (Lord Bath's adaptation of his own potboiler with  Oliver Reed as Derek Jacobi's killer butler), the Adventures of Barry McKenzie, the Black Torment, Black Zoo, the Steel Claw (60s war movie repackaged as a slasher in the 80s on video), Sting of Death, Shonteff's Curse of Voodoo and Licensed to Kill, The Legend of NlGGER CHARLEY, Wild in the Streets and a lot of AIP stuff sold to ITV, Castle of Evil, Embassy  (1973), early Corman stuff like the Day The World Ended, Charles Bronson's Cold Sweat, Chimes at Midnight, the 1972 Call of the Wild, Brother, You Can Spare A Dime, The Very Edge, the Brain, Town Called Bastard, the Boy Cried Murder, Grand Slam (Italian heist movie with Edward G. Robinson), Gorgo and early trans/gay film Girl Stroke Boy, five man army, Five Golden Dragons, The Flesh and the Fiends, Mario Gariazzo's Craig Hill-Ty Hardin-Rossano Brazzi western Drummer of Vengeance, Five (1952), the Destructors, Shonteff's Devil Doll, Destination Inner Space, Dark Places, Cry Blood, Apache, the Harder they Come, the Hand of Night, Timothy Bateson vehicle the Golden Rabbit, 1963's House of the Damned, House of Dark Shadows, Johnny Got His Gun, Internecine Project, Tigon-released Juan Antonio Bardem's Last Day of the War, the Last Grenade, Charley One Eye, the Last Safari, Last of the Secret Agents, Light at the End of the World, Little Malcolm, Bert I Gordon's Mad Bomber, 70s Roy Rogers vehicle Mackintosh and TJ, Made, the Mad Room, Marco the Magnificent, Matchless, the McMasters, Midas Run, 1968's Mission: Mars, Trip to Kill/Clay Pigeon, the Triple Echo, Target Earth, Under Ten Flags, Sumuru, Stork Talk, Roger Corman's Swamp Women, Fox second-features like Spaceflight IC-1 and the Earth Dies Screaming, Snakewoman, Womaneater, Soldier Blue, George Montgomery Filipino flick Samar, Crown international's VT Glenn Ford film Santee, the Seven Minutes, Seven Seas to Calais, Shark's Treasure, Neptune Factor, Neither the Sea nor the Sand, Night Tide, AIp's Phantom Planet, Persecution with Lana Turner, Private Road, Psychomania, Pixcture Mommy Dead, early Manson international joint the Quick and the Dead (1963)

mothman

The Internecine Project. Sure I saw that on the EPG recently.

Blumf

Quote from: mothman on October 20, 2017, 03:23:37 PM
The Internecine Project. Sure I saw that on the EPG recently.

TalkingPictures TV again.

Had it on in the background and there's a large chunk of it that just seems to be heavy Foley work, just footsteps and phone ringing.

mothman

Yeah, that was it. They've also featured Who? as well, that's been mentioned here I believe. They don't make 'em like that anymore. Except they probably do. The early Seventies were THE half-decade for really odd - not weird - sci-fi movies.

Spoon of Ploff

A shout out here for Vincent Ward's "Vigil"
The Early Eighties!!! Can't remember which station it was on. Doesn't seem to be available to buy anywhere... just a naff quality upload on that there you tube. Can't decide if I should re-watch it ... might hate it now. But at the time - late night and tired it was truly weird and haunting stuff.

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: mothman on October 20, 2017, 06:05:41 PM
They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Thank fuck.  Both Who? and The Internecine Project are pretty gash.

mothman

That's the thing. These films can't ever have been good, it's not (just) that they've not aged well. But they're not cheap productions, they have established stars of Seventies cinema headlining. Elliott Gould! James Coburn!

Weirdly considering I chose these two at random, they both date from 1974. And they look it. Who? is a SF film that came out three years before Star Wars. Just three years. That's the difference between Looper and The Force Awakens. Of course, for real shits & giggles, watch Damnation Alley, widely predicted to be THE hit SF box-office smash of 1977, with state of the art visual effects that will terrify and enthrall you!

https://youtu.be/gjiOb8WZoEo

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: mothman on October 20, 2017, 11:17:08 PM
Elliott Gould!

Elliot Gould was in quite a few shit films in the 70s, mind.

People just seem to think cos he was in Mash, The Long Goodbye and A Bridge Too Far he had an uncheckered run of films, but you've got the likes of Matilda, Spys, that one with Diane Keaton and the barrel bath, Whiffs, that Disney one where he's a pilot, Harry and Walter Go to New York, not to mention Who?

Blumf

Quote from: mothman on October 20, 2017, 11:17:08 PM
Weirdly considering I chose these two at random, they both date from 1974. And they look it. Who? is a SF film that came out three years before Star Wars. Just three years. That's the difference between Looper and The Force Awakens.

And 6 years after 2001, but, Who? was never meant to be a SFX extravaganza, it's a mystery/thriller. A better comparison would be with The Parallax View. Who? still fails against that.

You're right about Damnation Alley, but I think they spunked all the budget on that ATV thing (wiki says $8mil film, $350k on the Landmaster)

Replies From View

Quote from: Keebleman on September 20, 2017, 10:50:19 PM
The reason this doesn't get shown much (I saw it on late-night ITV circa 1993) is because it was filmed in three-strip Cinerama and thus is borderline unwatchable in any other format.  On TV the letterboxing is extreme and where the strips of film meet it looks as if the image is curving in on itself.

It looks great though (trailer):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiASEIz3qrg

Replies From View

Quote from: Shaky on September 25, 2017, 05:45:47 AM
that slightly unsettling, queasy 70's vibe

I've never quite managed to put a finger on precisely what causes this.  Is it the quality of the film stock?

Phil_A

Talking Pictures recently ran Warp Speed(1981), a cheaply made TV sci-fi thriller starring Adam West during one of his leaner periods, not to be confused with Time Warp(1981), also starring West. The concept is a ship on a deep space mission doesn't have enough fuel or supplies to make the return to Earth, so the crew play a game in order to determine who gets chucked out of the airlock so the others might survive.

Managed to have a bit of atmosphere and tension to it despite the obvious shortcomings of budget, although the ending was a bit limp.

mothman

There were so many of that sorts of film I've seen late at night on TV back in the days when there were only four channels and I had chronic insomnia. Terrible special effects, often reused from other films (I gather Corman was a dab hand at this, but can't recall if he had anything to do with any of these soecifically).

Shit Good Nose

I remember just after the demise of Moviedrome (which was when Alex Cox bailed - I don't consider the Cousins era as canon), which was probably around the time all four channels (5 hadn't yet started) slowed down their "obscure strange films" airings, the cable channel Bravo was my go-to replacement.  All sorts of weird and wonderful stuff was on there.  That's where I got my first taste of Hong Kong films that didn't star Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, 70s exploitation that even The Incredibly Strange Film Show didn't mention, and horror from around the world.

mothman


George White

RTE would show weird family films like Charge of the Model T's, Al Adamson's Lost and Katharine Hepburn's Ollly Olly Oxen Free, shown on Christmas alongsideBBC imports like the yewtree double bill of Jim'll, and Rolf's creepy (not because of Rolf) film the Little Convict,  a morning showing of Late late Breakfast and a tribute to Eric Morecambe. They also showed RAI SF miniseries like Frankenstein's Aunt, Secret of the Sahara and Treasure Island in Space.
Plus Spencer and Hill films and Brian Clemens' German series Blue Blood.
Other weird foreign stuff shown included Light at the End of the World, Salvage-1, the whole Harry Towers oevure, 92 in the Shade, Tales from the Darkside and Monsters, the Shell Seekers, Afrikaner Jim Reeves vehicle Kimberly Jim, Czech western Lemonade Joe, Michael Strogoff series, TV movie Crawlspace, Aussie adaptations of Under Capricorn and NZ thriller Under the Mountain, German soap the Guldenbergs after Simon and the Witch and the TV series of Billy Liar. Plus HTV Canadian coproduction Mrs. Amworth. They showed Ghosts of Motley Hall, Tomorrow People, Sunday classics galore, Dick Turpin, Never the Twain, Sale of the Century, Now Get Out of That, Selwyn, the Further Adventures of Oliver Twist, Peter Jeffrey in Chelworth, Children's Film Foundation, the Creeping Flesh, Hunter's Gold, Filmation's Ghost Busters, Super Gran, Bill Fraser's Flesh and Blood, CTV'S George, Whistle Test, Escape to Jupiter, Children of the Stones, Into the Labyrinth, Blake's 7, Francis Durbridge, Brendon Chase, the Cedar Tree, Michael J Bird serials, but never Doctor Who.