This is lost in the sense that no one has probably ever seen it, but Sweettalker is fairly obscure. It is set in Australia, and is about a con man. We saw it because Richard Thompson did the music, and we own the soundtrack. We wanted to find out what the damn movie was about. I’ve seen worse.
Speaking of Australia…I lived “Dogs in Space” one summer…except the part with someone ODing.
I noticed one playing on TCM tomorrow:
Never released in the theater, or any home video version. I’ve never heard of it. It has a SNL pedigree, and sounds seriously weird. Or stupid.
I just programmed my TiVo. We shall see if it was shelved for a reason!
Did you get to see it? I just watched it tonight.
It plays like an extended Schiller film from SNL (which it sort of is). More like a collection of disconnected vignettes rather than a cohesive movie. Not as stupid as it sounds, not as good as it could have been (best comparison - it’s a low budget Brazil).
But it was right that it was never released in the theaters - it would have made about a hundred bucks. But I think it could have a life if it were released on DVD.
I’ve paid to see worse movies, that’s for sure.
Fear, Anxiety, and Depression - Todd Solondz’s first movie it was a lot of fun and not as bleak as it’s name, and his other material, would have you believe
Deathtrap - A great adaptation of the play starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve - looks like it is now available streaming
The Pope Must Die- Later changed to The Pope Must Diet - a not so high quality religious spy spoof movie with Robbie Coltrane as the titular pope.
Modern Problems- A really cheesy film about a schlub (Chevy Chase) who gets supernatural powers and uses them to pull wacky hijinx. This recently started showing up on movie channels after many years hidden.
Let’s Get Lost, a ca. 1988 documentary about Chet Baker
Ben Webster: Tenor Sax Legend, a more recent biopic, but I’ve never seen it shown on TV
Scavenger Hunt. I remember Richard Benjamin in a light blue suit trying to get a fox tail of a motorcycle gang members bike.
I was going to mention Cold Turkey and If It’s Tuesday This Must Be Belgium, but others beat me to it. I think they’ve both been on TV, but I haven’t seen them since they were in the theaters.
I saw Harry in Your Pocket on TV at least 30 years ago, but not recently.
My contribution to the list is What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? with Mary Tyler Moore and George Peppard (of all people) as a pair of nihilistic beatniks. I actually found it online and rewatched it last year, so it must have been on TV or released on VHS or DVD at some point.
Two of my favorites that only I apparently ever saw are Heartbreakers and Up the Creek.
Heartbreakers starred Peter Coyote and Nick Mancuso in a story about friendship and love in the LA art world in the 1980s. Up the Creek was a Porky’s/Animal House ripoff starring actors from both films that was much wittier than you would give it credit for. Both sank without a trace and haven’t been seen or heard from since.
Check Amazon.
Booth exist on DVD, but at a high price.
Mary Tyler Moore in What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?
I remember that one.
How about A Fine Madness, with Sean Connery and Joanne Woodward, with a bit part played perfectly by Sue Ane Langdon? A pretty good film that faded to obscurity.
Well, that’s pretty much the point, isn’t it?
I didn’t say they were unavailable. My point is that these flicks have virtually disappeared from public view. They’re not on cable, I haven’t seen them on streaming sources, they’re not on the shelves at Best Buy or in the Redboxes or even on the shelves at the disappearing ranks of DVD purveyors (like Newbury Comics here in Boston).
And Dick van Dyke was a considerable and popular star in the 1960s. And two of the movies of his I list were Disney flicks, and Disney has a reputation for keeping a lot of its older stuff "in play"I’ve seen some relatively obscure Disney stuff easily available on VHS or DVD on store shelves, but not these films.
Recently I’ve been looking for copies of some relatively obscure flicks from my childhood. I’m outraged at the prices for DVD copies. The Toho studios films Matango and The Mysterians cost an arm and a leg! Meanwhile, other toho films of the same vintage, and equally obscure, can be bought very cheaply.
Under the Rainbow with Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher solving a mystery while escorting the Munchkin actors from Wizard of Oz. I remember it being funny, but it has become hard to find.
How about Saturday the 14th?
And regarding a different post, I also saw Up the Creek It was funny in a Making the Grade kind of way.
I think the trend developing here is if it’s a Chevy Chase movie where he isn’t on vacation or playing golf, it’s obscure.
I just saw, on videotape, Follow the Boys from 1944. I don’t believe there’s a legal region 1 DVD.
It’s a breaking-an-arm-patting-yourself-on-the-back Hollywood salute to itself for providing entertainment to the troops in WWII. Worth watching only as anthropology, a collection of what worked as entertainment in a number of genres in 1944. I wanted it because it’s not only W. C. Fields’ last movie appearance but he reprised his famous pool game act from vaudeville. For completists only. You can’t imagine anyone ever laughing at this painfully slow series of silly gags. They added special effects for the movie to pep it up but balls flying out of screen aren’t themselves funny.
Donald O’Connor, still a teen, was paired with Peggy Ryan, all of 20, as hyperactive, hypercute newcomers. They act like battling brother and sister, and hit, slap, and shove each other in a way that would destroy Twitter if shown today. Great dancing, though.
Two different black acts were included, Louis Jordan and His Orchestra and the Delta Rhythm Boys, not merely presented uncondescendingly but allowed to sing a song about tolerance.
The most amazing act was Leonard Gautier’s Bricklayers. Who did not lay bricks. That’s a dog act. It is the eye-poppingest dog act I’ve ever seen, which makes it the one segment that still holds up completely.