Here we go with yet another month of features, documentaries and shorts, airing on cable,
that have fallen through the cracks of domestic video distribution. September’s highlights include a long-unreleased Tuesday Weld psychodrama, a couple of long-unavailable noirs, and a biographical documentary on the most colorful film craftsman now working. So as always, sit back and keep your remotes, TIVOs and (for those of you still in analog mode, like me) VCRs handy - it’s going to be an awesome ride.

1. Red Skies of Montana (Joseph Newman, USA, 1952) – To some, the inimitable Richard Widmark (whom we lost earlier this year) may be indelibly associated with his portrayal of colorful villains in films such as Kiss of Death. For me (after admiring his contributions to Down to the Sea in Ships and Slattery’s Hurricane), he’ll be ere associated with two-fisted portrayals of everyman American heroes in a battery of professions. This exciting adventure falls into that vein; Widmark stars as Cliff Mason, a firefighter for the U.S. Forestry Service unfairly tagged as yellow by a colleague for the death of the colleague’s father. Yes, but the colleague hasn’t yet witnessed Mason’s attempt to lead his fellow firemen to safety through a seemingly impenetrable blaze. Airs Friday 9/5 at 6am on the Fox Movie Channel.

2. Irish Eyes Are Smiling (Gregory Ratoff, USA, 1944) – To be certain, this period musical – a largely fallacious biopic of songwriter Ernest R. Ball (Dick Haymes) – is no classic, but it has two significant assets to compensate: a flurry of classic American songs, including the title tune, “A Little Bit of Heaven,” and “Let the Rest of the World Go By,” and, better yet, the presence of irascible yet genial old Monty Woolley, he of the deep-set eyes and long gray beard. This represents one of the best opportunities to see Woolley in his prime – reason enough to include it on this list. Hats off to Monty. Airs Saturday 9/6 at 6am on the Fox Movie Channel.

3. If You Could Only Cook (William Seiter, USA, 1935) – Here’s the sort of movie that could have only been made during the immediate post-depression years, placing it (roughly) in the same bracket as Lewis Milestone’s Hallelujah, I’m A Bum and Gregory La Cava’s My Man Godfrey. Herbert Marshall, of Blonde Venus fame, stars as Jim Buchanan, a high-rolling auto tycoon who suddenly grows listless with the corporate jungle, impulsively storms out of his office, and strikes up an instant rapport with a young woman he meets in a park, Joan Hawthorne (Jean Arthur). Joan just happens to be unemployed, and mistakenly thinks Jim’s unemployed as well; charmed by him (and vice-versa), she proposes that they take complementary jobs as butler and cook. Naturally, he obliges, and the two enjoy a series of adventures as would-be servants to the filthy rich. The blossoming of romance isn’t far off, though predictability or unpredictability is beside the point in this gentle, irresistibly amiable romantic comedy – the appeal lies in the grade-A execution. Pauline Kael termed the movie “remarkably good-natured and fresh.” Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Friday 9/5 at 8:15am.

4. Johnny Allegro (Ted Tetzlaff, USA, 1949) – Just as Monty Woolley is always welcome company for this viewer, so is another classic character actor – George Raft. A gangster incarnate onscreen, with alleged offscreen ties to the mafia (shades of Tony Sirico!), Raft projected a down-and-dirty mentality that made it, umm, very unwise to attempt to pull one over on him. Producers occasionally used his tough guy persona to comic effect well, as with his turn as Spats Columbo in Billy Wilder’s Some Like it Hot (though he didn’t flip any quarters in that one). In this late ’40s outing, Raft stars as the title character, a reformed crook recruited by the U.S. treasury department to bring a counterfeiter toppling down. (It must have been a sign of the conservative and reactionary times that Hollywood producers thought it appropriate to cast Raft as a T-Man). Anyway, he takes on an assumed identity and wins the hood’s confidence – little realizing that the fellow teeters on the brink of finding him out - and has a nasty penchant for hunting human quarry. Though this outing doesn’t quite qualify as a masterpiece, it clocks in as taut and suspenseful almost by default. Airs Tuesday 9/16 at 3pm on Turner Classic Movies .

5. Play It As It Lays (Frank Perry, USA, 1972) – Nathan’s #1 Pick of the Month – Joan Didion’s slim but haunting, psychodramatic novel – the familiar tale of a young woman’s psychotic breakdown – received this notoriously wild cinematization by Swimmer and David & Lisa director Frank Perry back in 1972. You may or may not buy Tony Perkins as a Seconal-scarfing Hollywood bigshot, or an ugly backroom abortion sequence with a seriously confused actress played by Tuesday Weld (and Chuck McCann as the attending physician!). But the whole thing carries its own level of sickening baroque fascination, much as last month’s pick, The Legend of Lylah Clare, does (though this is far and away a better movie). After all, in what other movie can you see Weld unloading a firearm at road signs on the Los Angeles interstate? It would make a wonderful second bill alongside Henry Jaglom’s underrated Weld starrer A Safe Place. Screens on The Sundance Channel, Sunday 9/7 at 12pm and Thursday 9/25 at 5:20pm.

6. 711 Ocean Drive (Joseph Newman, USA, 1950) - Nathan’s #2 Pick of the Month. In this grade-A crime thriller, Edmond O’Brien stars as the wonderfully-named Mal Granger, an electronics whiz whose savvy lands him a very promising stint with an illegal bookmaking operation. The head bookie (Barry Kelly) wants him to plug into a number of communication centers to get advance word on some horse races. Mal succeeds, and builds up a fantastic amount of wealth – but the more he rakes in, the more careless and reckless he becomes, until he ultimately draws the ire of crime syndicate Otto Kruger. The film culminates with an edge-of-your seat chase at Boulder Dam. Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Wednesday 9/24 at 12:45pm.

7. The Tall Target (Anthony Mann, USA, 1951) – The legendary Mann cast then-A lister Dick Powell in this gripping period tale of a bodyguard hired to protect Abraham Lincoln from an early assassination attempt. He grows convinced that a hit on Lincoln’s life is imminent, but neither his colleagues nor his superiors believe him – making it absolutely necessary for him to track down the villain(s) of his own accord. Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Monday 9/22 at 2am.

8. Conte de Quartier – (Florence Miailhe, France, 2006) - A must for enthusiasts of unusual and inventive approaches to animation. Miailhe drew this court-metrage by painting on pastel, sand and glass, giving it a look unprecedented in filmdom. (One can only imagine that it must have taken eons to do, as well). In it, the director builds a tableau of a lively Parisian neighborhood and the many individualists who live there. Airs on Sundance, Saturday 9/13 at 12:15pm, Sunday 9/14 at 12:15am, and Sunday 9/14 at 5:45pm.

9. In the Mood for Doyle (Yves Montmayeur, France, 2007) – He’s one of the most colorful characters in contemporary filmdom, and certainly one of the most unique. Aussie Christopher Doyle made his name not down under, but in nearby Asia, lensing films with predominantly Chinese and Taiwanese casts. Though born in the suburbs of Sydney in 1952, Doyle quickly fled from the dissatisfying mundanity of that environment and traveled the Herzog route, enjoying tenures as a cow herder on a kibbutz in Israel, a well digger in India and a practitioner of Chinese medicine in Thailand. Eventually, he settled in Taiwan and became a veritable fixture in the local arts scene, meanwhile evolving into a larger than life presence, one of the most respected of all cinematographers… and a rip-roaring drinker. Of course, with that history, Doyle practically lends himself to documentary treatment – a goal realized by Montmayeur in this entertaining film. Screens on Sundance, Saturday 9/6 at 1:05pm.

10. Looking for Leonard (Matt Bissonette and Steven Clark, Canada, 2002) – This delightfully off-center Canadian yarn weaves the tale of four eccentrics, including a computer techie, a young woman unhealthily fixated on Leonard Cohen, and a lunkheaded young man, tooling their way around contemporary Montreal. The enjoyableness lies in the quirky deadpan style, which owes a great deal to Jarmusch, Kaurismaki, Hamer and, arguably, early Ivan Passer. (The subtle comic bits remind one of Passer’s Intimate Lighting). Screens on Sundance, Thurs. 9/4 at 6:30pm, Sat. 9/13 at 12pm, Fri. 9/19 at 4:30pm and Mon. 9/29 at 7:30am.

AND…

Nathan’s Pick of the Month That Is On Video:

The Regular Lovers/Les Amants Reguliers – (Philippe Garrel, France, 2005). Word has it that Garrel felt completely dissatisfied with Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, in which his son starred – and after all, who can blame him? In response, he scripted and shot this supremely anti-commercial tour of Paris in May 1968, which (at 3 hours, in black and white) fully demonstrates his enormous influence by the genius Jean Eustache. It’s a most welcome antidote to the Bertolucci film and a lovely excursion in its own right. Screens on Sundance, Mon. 9/8 at 1am.

SELECT TITLES HELD OVER FROM PRIOR LISTS:
Kentucky – Thu. 9/4 at 10am, FMC
Kill Gil Vol. 1 – Sun. 9/7 at 4am, Sundance
Dragonwyck – Tue. 9/9 at 10:30am, FMC
Kid Blue – Tue. 9/30 at 11:30am, FMC
Charlie Bubbles – Fri. 9/12 at 4am, Encore Love
Down to the Sea in Ships – Fri. 9/19 at 6am, FMC
Joanna (P/S) – Thu. 9/25 at 2pm, FMC
Hudson’s Bay – Fri. 9/26 at 7:30am, FMC