As we return to the hidden treasures of non-video-released cable movies, March ‘08 marks an exciting month indeed. Among other developments, this month witnesses Turner Classic Movies ditching their 31-day Oscar retrospective and returning to the roots of long-forgotten Hollywood melodramas, such as The Great Sinner from 1949 and The October Man from 1948. The most thrilling occurrence, however, is the Encore Love Stories channel’s screening of Albert Finney’s drama Charlie Bubbles - a fascinating little picture that turns up on cable once in a blue moon – plus one of my own personal favorites, Shock Treatment (1964). This macabre drive-in comedy returns to The Fox Movie Channel once again, beckoning unacquainted viewers to discover its charms. So, as always - keep your remote handy and fire up that glitter box.

1. Big-Hearted Herbert (1934) – Guy Kibbee headlines this long-forgotten farce as the title character, a working-class plumber who scores his big break when he moves into manufacturing bathroom fixtures – and finds himself wealthy for the first time. He comes to prefer the welcome company of a bunch of slightly arrogant misers who feel and behave exactly as he does, only to have his priorities dramatically challenged when his wife needs surgery. At a breezy 60 minutes, this winsome slice-of-life comedy is packed with a surprising number of real laughs. Runs on Turner Classic Movies, Thursday 3/6/08 at 7:15am

2. The Great Sinner (1949) – Loosely adapted from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Gambler, this unusual and offbeat drama from legendary director Robert Siodmak (The Killers) stars Gregory Peck – then in the throes of early celebrity thanks to Spellbound and Twelve O’Clock High – as Fedja, a Russian man who falls in love with the alluring Pauline Ostrovsky (Ava Gardner) only to learn that she and her father (Walter Huston) have become enslaved by debt to the wicked gambling lord Armand de Glasse (Melvyn Douglas). Appalled by this situation, Fedja determines to gamble on their behalf at one of de Glasse’s “gaming tables,” thus pulling them out of debt and redeeming their honor. But little can he foresee the complications that will arise. Runs on Turner Classic Movies, Friday 3/7 at 10:45 am.

3. The Beast of the City (1932) Walter Huston stars in this pre-code police detective drama with a surprising onslaught of gritty violence for 1932. He plays Captain Jim Fitzpatrick, a sort of forerunner of Dirty Harry Callahan and Frank Serpico who turns against the inherent corruption of the police department and the violent gangs who are tearing the city asunder – determined to wipe the streets of wrongdoing. Studio mogul Louis B. Mayer reportedly grew so distraught over the rawness on display here (and so concerned that it would ruin his reputation as a purveyor of “family” entertainment) that he insisted on burying the film as the second feature on double bills. Runs on Turner Classic Movies, Friday 3/14 at 7am.

4. Charlie Bubbles (1968) – Nathan’s Pick #1 of Month. Albert Finney’s unusual directorial debut was slated to run at Cannes in 1968 (the year they shut the festival down in light of the Paris riots), and has never fully received its due. The tale of a wealthy, self-made celebrity writer (Finney) battling feelings of intense alienation and ennui, it sports a complex and unusual aesthetic (courtesy of Eastern Promises cinematographer Peter Suschitzky) that visually “flattens” the reality Charlie perceives – a distortion meant to convey, in the words of Pauline Kael, “the world with some vital dimension omitted.” The film’s strengths lie in its five-star performances by Finney and co-star Liza Minnelli, making her screen bow, and in screenwriter Shelagh Delaney’s sharp dialogue. Runs on the Encore Love Stories channel, Tuesday 3/4 at 2:30am.

5. Shock Treatment (1964) – Nathan’s Pick #2 of Month. This hugely underrated movie suffered (and continues to suffer) from being inappropriately tagged by critics who see fit to peg it as a melodrama. That’s certainly worth arguing about; many of the situations are so hilariously over-the-top and outrageous that surely it must have been intended as a black comedy. Either way, it qualifies as one of the most concurrently hilarious and suspenseful movies of its era – a B-movie that’s a guilty pleasure to end all. Stuart Whitman stars as Dale Nelson, a second-rate actor hired to feign psychosis and worm his way into a mental institution. He’s been appointed in a scheme to win the confidence of a nutty gardener (Roddy McDowall) with a nasty penchant for wielding hedge-clippers. Inside the institution, Whitman falls under the thumb of a diabolical psychiatrist played by no less than Lauren Bacall. The initial scene in which Whitman fakes insanity (on a public street, in front of cops) is a real gut-buster – odds are you’ve never seen anything quite like it. And the film is filled with memorable dialogue, from “Call the sheriff’s office! Tell ‘em we got a candidate for county psycho!,” to “Well, let me tell YOU something, Mister…” Runs on the Fox Movie Channel, Tue. 3/11 at 11:30am.

6. The October Man (1948) – In the face of a brutal murder, how does a mentally unstable man set about proving his own innocence to others – when even he isn’t sure of the truth? That’s the question posed by this feature that functions more effectively as an intense and disturbing psychological drama than as a whodunit or a taut thriller. Sir John Mills stars as Jim Ackland, a chemist whose life takes an upsetting turn when he’s involved in an accident that leaves him with a severe brain injury. In the process, a friend’s child is killed; guilt and culpability plague Ackland, and he teeters on the edge of sanity, ultimately moving into a shabby suburban hotel and tentatively resuming his lab work. In the new residence, the path of this miserable and broken man criss-crosses with that of a gorgeous fashion model who promptly turns up dead – and Ackland, tagged as a suspect by the authorities, cannot even say with 100% certainty that he wasn’t responsible. The picture is notable for its willingness to subvert the conventions of the thriller genre and to probe deeply into the recesses of a distraught mind crippled by fear. Rich with period atmosphere, thoughtful performances and mature themes, it marks an outing unique for its era. The director, Roy Ward Baker, previously worked as an assistant to Hitchcock, and it shows. Runs on Turner Classic Movies, Thursday 3/27 at 4:45am.

7. Swimmers (2005) – Tyro Doug Sadler’s sophomore outing ran at Sundance, then appeared and disappeared from view after receiving an undeservedly mediocre write-up from Variety. Understated, melancholic and wistful, this slice-of-lifer deserves a second chance. It observes the coming of age of a 12-year-old girl (Sarah Paulson) from a working-class family of crabbers on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. The narrative developments are beside the point: few U.S. directors have captured preadolescent emotional journeys – or the day-to-day atmosphere of working-class life in the southeastern United States – with the elegance, poignancy and intelligence on display here. Comprised entirely of a cast of unknowns, the film almost certainly would have drawn hearty praise with a couple of marquee names in the ensemble – a sad reflection on the priorities of the film community. This is a small treasure just awaiting re-discovery. Screens on the Sundance Channel –Friday 3/7 at 2pm, Thursday 3/13 at 12pm, Wednesday 3/19 at 2pm and Tuesday 3/25 5am.

8. Mother/Country (2003) Persian director Tina Gharavi’s self-reflexive documentary portrait finds the filmmaker returning to her native Iran for the first occasion since the age of six, where she attempts to work through an array of deeply personal issues including the reasons for her initial exile and the emotional and psychological ramifications of a lengthy estrangement from her mother. Eminently complex – with numerous unresolved issues coming to the forefront – this marks one of the most intimate and revealing documentaries of recent years. Screens on the Sundance Channel, Tuesday 3/4 at 3:30am and Friday 3/7 at 6am.

9. Gelato: An Endless Passion (2005) – Gelato (Italian ice cream) may seem a frivolous and inconsequential subject for an hour-long documentary, so it feels surprising and delightful that director Susan Gray manages to work in so many fun, colorful and entertaining variations on her central topic - from her riffs on the taboo of ice-cream licking in the 19th century to the mysterious and indefinite ethnic origins of ice cream. (Editor’s note: this would make a great double bill with Les Blank’s Yum, Yum, Yum!). Screens on the Sundance Channel, Wednesday 3/5 at 10am.

10. Blind Alley (1939) – In a thrilling melodrama that earns frequent comparisons to Wyler’s The Desperate Hours and to Lewis Allen’s Suddenly, Chester Morris stars as Hal Wilson, an escaped psychopath who seeks refuge and holes up in the home of psychoanalyst Dr. Shelby (Ralph Bellamy), taking the poor man’s entire family hostage. In an attempt to defuse this “human time bomb,” Shelby talks Wilson into undergoing hypnosis, then probes the criminal’s past to search for the origins of his psychotic behavior. Anticipating Hitchcock’s collaborations with Dali in Spellbound, the film works in a number of surrealistic, visually striking dream sequences to give Wilson’s anguished mental state palpability. Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Tuesday 3/25 at 11pm.

* Beginning 03/08 this will become a monthly feature in lieu of a weekly one.