This month’s list represents a veritable potpourri of interesting finds that have missed stateside video distribution, from a Jimmy Stewart romance classic, to a Michael J. Pollard western and a B-noir staple – many culled not from recent years, but from the annals and vaults of classic Hollywood. So keep your remotes handy, uncork and pour yourself a glass of a classic vintage, and get ready to rock, as we go channel surfing.

Editor’s Note: For some reason, I’ve been able to keep this list ongoing every month (except July) since February 2008, despite the flood of almost everything conceivable now available on DVD, online, or on old out-of-print VHS tapes. I can only attribute that to the fact that valuable movies are continuing to fall through the cracks. Whatever the case, I do plan to keep doing these lists, provided that I can find interesting titles along these lines. I’m still waiting for the two be-alls (if not the end-alls) of this list, The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder and So Long at the Fair - a couple of excellent offbeat movies that show up on cable once in a blue moon. Not this month, but perhaps one of these days… Until then…

Dirty Little Billy (Stan Dragoti, USA, 1972) – Nathan’s #1 Pick of the Month. Michael J. Pollard fans (I among them), do take heart: one of that way-offbeat character actor’s only lead performances is finally making the cable rounds once again. The “Billy” in question is Billy the Kid, of course, and in this most-unusual western (laced with comic touches), he’s presented as a deranged, mentally-retarded killer suffering from more than passing bloodlust. (I know, it’s so difficult to picture Pollard in that role, isn’t it?) The film is as deliberately muddy and grimy as its reputation, and thus scores points as an uncommonly revisionist portrait of the Old West, much as McCabe and Mrs. Miller had one year prior. Don’t miss this! Airs on Encore Westerns, Mon. 10/6 at 11:35pm, Tues. 10/14 at 9:35pm, Sat. 10/18 at 4:15pm, Sun 10/19 at 12:30am.

Vivacious Lady (George Stevens, USA, 1938) – Nathan’s #2 Pick of the Month. This gleefully light-hearted, down-to-earth romcom starring Hollywood heavyweights Jimmy Stewart and Ginger Rogers isn’t as well known as, say, Harvey or Swing Time, but still merits attention. He’s an assistant professor of biology, she’s a nightclub singer; the two couldn’t be more different, but fall in love nevertheless, then trek off to his college town (Old Sharon) and face the prospect of telling his parents. When Stevens directed this, he had just come off of Laurel and Hardy, and imparts some of the same flavor here. Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Wed. 10/15 at 9:45

It’s a Free World (Ken Loach, UK, 2007) – This unusual social consciousness drama both extends Loach’s career-long fascination with the working class and explores labor issues from the perspective of the one doing the exploiting (much as Jerzy Skolimowksi’s 1982 Moonlighting had). It concerns an East Ender named Angie (Kierston Wareing), who sets up her own employment agency with the goal of reeling in uneducated, foreign blue-collar stiffs and virtually eating them for breakfast – little recognizing the repercussions this will have, or (more specifically) the emotional toll it will take on those victimized. The movie is as grimly serious as one can imagine, but that’s appropriate given the subject matter. It received a video release in Britain but went overlooked in the States despite handling by IFC Films. Airs on Sundance, Wed. 10/15 at 10pm, and Thurs. 10/16 at 5am.

John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (J. Lee Thompson, USA, 1964) – Thompson’s way out-there sports farce received a harsh critical drubbing when it first bowed in the early ’60s but has since received some reconsideration; it stars Richard Crenna (Body Heat) as the title character, a football character recruited to spy on the USSR, who crash lands in the apocryphal Middle Eastern kingdom of Fawz and gets railroaded into a local football game involving Notre Dame University. Thompson fills the screen with sight gags and wild physical comedy that recall Richard Lester. Only in the ’60s! Airs on the Fox Movie Channel, Saturday 10/11 at 6pm.

Choices of the Heart (Joseph Sargent, USA, 1983) – One of the finer made-for-television movies of the early 1980s, this one stars Little House mainstay Melissa Gilbert as Jean Donovan, an Irish missionary murdered in El Salvador in 1980. Utilizing a complex, non-linear narrative structure, the film dramatizes Donovan’s transformation from selfish materialist to human rights crusader. Like John Duigan’s excellent Romero, it explores the intersection between Christianity and leftwing social activism in the Third World. Martin Sheen does excellent supporting work as the priest who mentors Donovan. Airs on the Fox Movie Channel, Mon. 10/13 at 4am.

Light in the Piazza (Guy Green, USA, 1962). – It’s hard to believe the same Julius J. Epstein who wrote the colossally-different black comedy classic Reuben, Reuben (1983) also brought us this emotional, deeply affecting soaper. Olivia de Havilland stars as Margaret Johnson, a wealthy society woman touring Europe with her 26-year-old daughter Clara (Yvette Mimieux). Clara, it seems, is mentally impaired, the casualty of a bizarre childhood accident, and has the mentality of a 12-year-old; while her father wants her institutionalized, her mother wants her to have a “normal” life, and would like to ultimately relinquish control over her daughter. She perceives an out when a handsome Italian (George Hamilton) falls for her and requests her hand in marriage. Yet problematically, he isn’t fully aware of Clara’s deficiencies thanks to his poor command of the English language, and Margaret lacks confidence about Clara’s ability to handle the demands of marriage and motherhood. Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Friday 10/10 at 10pm.

The Snorkel (Guy Green, USA/UK, 1958) – This British suspense film appeared on television several times in the late ’60s and very early ’70s, almost always after 11pm – a reflection on the film’s fundamental night-owl charm. In this variation on Dial M For Murder, Peter Van Eyck stars as Jacques Duval, who cooks up a diabolical scheme to murder his wife: he puts her in a sealed room, dopes her, and turns on the gas jets to make it look like suicide, then hides in the room, breathing through a snorkel, and flees when the authorities abandon the scene of the crime. The only problem is that Duval’s stepdaughter (Mandy Miller) grows increasingly suspicious. Airs on Turner Classic Movies, Mon. 10/13 at 6:45pm.

Old Enough (Marisa Silver, USA, 1984) – Though admittedly no masterpiece, this low-key slice-of-lifer feels almost irresistibly pleasant; it benefits from an ingenuousness that won many a viewer over back in the mid-1980s. Sarah Boyd and Rainbow Harvest (a terrific name for an actress) star, respectively, as Lonnie Sloan and Karen Bruckner, two young women from opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum who meet, grow fascinated with one another’s differences, and forge a bittersweet friendship with many ups and downs. Airs on FLIX, Wed. 10/8 at 4:45pm, Thu. 10/9 at 4:45am, Sat. 10/11 at 11:20am, and Tue. 10/14 at 8:30am and 3:10pm.

My Name is Julia Ross (Joseph H. Lewis, USA, 1945) – Alongside The File on Thelma Jordon (which also ran on TCM earlier this year), this represents one of the two most famous noirs that are still unavailable on video for inexplicable reasons. Director Lewis was known for his countless B-budget westerns and East Side Kids comedies, but with this film, Hollywood took the first of two gambles with Lewis on noir material – and he excelled. The setup is fantastic – Nina Foch stars as a young American woman receiving medical treatment in London, who makes the mistake of her life when she signs on as secretary to a matriarch (Dame May Whitty) – then mysteriously passes out after lunch and wakes up in a mental institution, with everyone claiming she’s the wife of the matriarch’s facially-scarred son! The film holds one in a tight and sweaty grip from setup to denouement, and isn’t to be missed. Screens on Turner Classic Movies, Thu. 10/23 at 8:30am.

Things to Do Before You’re 30 (Simon Shore, UK, 2004) – Shore’s witty and ingratiating ensemble film interweaves tales of several characters enjoying free-spirited London lives during their 20s, but beleaguered by the daily demands of adulthood. Stars Dougray Scott, Jimi Mistry, Emilia Fox and others, and airs on Sundance, Sat. 10/18 at 4:30am.

*Nathan’s Pick of the Month that IS on Video*:

Mirage (Edward “Buy a Vowel” Dmytryk, USA, 1966). – This represents a rare non-Hitchcock thriller that sits on par with Hitch for its unusual labyrinthine narrative, cliff-hanging suspense and expert perfs by Gregory Peck, the sexy Diane Baker, Kevin McCarthy, and Walter Matthau. I wouldn’t dream of giving it away – best to go in blind on this one. But remember: the suicide was just like a watermelon, falling from the sky and hitting the pavement… Screens on Encore Mystery, Tues. 10/7 at 2am, Fri. 10/17 at 5am, Mon. 10/20 at 12:05pm.