Last night I stumbled upon, “Blotto” on YouTube, Laurel & Hardy, one I had never seen before & I haven’t laughed so much for a long while. It has also been beautifully restored.
Also Slash (not really him, but come on, it’s him) is Death. Great fucking movie.
I’m glad you gave it a shot. And even more glad that you liked it!
Hellzapoppin with Olsen and Johnson. Based on a Broadway show. I saw it as a kid on TV, and when I got the bootleg DVD (not officially released yet) it was better than I remembered. Hilarious, with a mess up the theater production scene better than Night at the Opera.
I’d add the followup film Crazy Street but I haven’t been able to find it yet. (Not that I’ve looked very hard.)
Tampopo about a woman setting up a noodle shop in Japan and a lot more.
Much more recently, Puzzle about a woman liberated by doing jigsaw puzzles.
Get Crazy is actually the first movie I thought of when I saw the thread title. Lou Reed in what looks like the cover of Dylan’s Bringing it All Back Home blew my mind. I also loved King Blues’ speech at the funeral of his guitar player; “take good care of him, Lord, cause if you don’t I’m gonna wax your ass.”
Bubba Ho-Tep. Elvis and JFK fight a soul-sucking mummy in an old age home. Except it’s not what you think. And what you’re thinking now, it’s not that, either. It’s immensely entertaining, and way better than it has any right to be.
Seconding already mentioned (# of IMDb ratings-r):
L’Argent (1983) Robert Bresson (7200r) - masterpiece, everything Bresson, really.
Fear of a Black Hat (1993) Rusty Cundieff (3700r) - I liked this better than This Is Spinal Tap, managing to both out-love and out-skewer the subjects.
Black Robe (1991) Bruce Beresford (6000r) - an Australian sets North Americans straight on a lot of history
Ridicule (1996) Patrice Leconte (6800r) - well worth all the ongoing work into perfecting the English subtitles
Tampopo (1985) Itami Jûzô (13,600r) - over 10K IMDb ratings, but still nowhere near enough. A cinephiles 2-hour Japanese vacation!
everything Aki Kaurismäki - starting to be better known, film buffs are in the seats opening day
I didn’t get far with my own suggestions, noticing early in my list that the two full feature films French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant directed combine for fewer than 500 IMDb ratings. A few more before I start drinking:
Zama (2017) Lucrecia Martel (4200r)
Les convoyeurs attendent (1999) Benoît Mariage (1200r) and Au poste! (2018) Quentin Dupieux (2100r) Biased about these, but Benoît Poelvoorde is the greatest actor.
Prince of Broadway (2008) Sean Baker (386r) I understand if there’s little money or talent behind translating gems from other cultures, but this is 100% American!
Have to add: All the Jacques Tati Mr. Hulot films, don’t even need translation! Criminally underseen, Criterion has begun rectifying this.
Have to also add: Hirokazu Kore-eda, everything! OK now I’m really angry 
I don’t think Bresson ever made a bad movie… I like Kaurismaki, too, and I especially love “Shadows in Paradise” and anything with Pellonnpaa and either Kaurismaki (but prefer Aki)
Everything about that movie is just fun–especially the Electric Larry bits and the evil bad guys of Colin Beverly. It really deserved a lot more notice than it got. Now I’m gonna go watch it again because I CAN! 
I watched it on YouTube last night and felt a little guilty; we librarians are supposed to be outspoken against copyright violations.
If nobody involved with that movie can be arsed to make it available they’re basically abdicating any rights because they’re forcing anyone who wants to watch it into doing so “illegally.” Dog in the manger, if you ask me.
Just back to quickly second True Stories (1986)(4900r!) which I missed first time around and would have thought was much too popular to mention.
Nov 27, 2018 Criterion released a “New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director David Byrne and cinematographer Ed Lachman, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, supervised by Byrne, on the Blu-ray.”
This should be all the validation and encouragement you need. You’ll watch this again and again like a two year-old watches The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Criterion is doing the Lord’s work, and this is an excellent purchase in support of legit film lovers.
I seem to remember preferring this one to the other rap spinal tap movie, CB4, which starred Chris Rock (before I knew of him). I think it’s worth going back and checking again, they both may have merged into one film in my mind…
Ikuru by Akira Kurasawa, starring the great Kanji Watanabe - The leader of the seven samurai
Apparently this was one inspiration for Witness (1985), a favorite film of mine, so I should check it out.
I haven’t read the entire thread, so forgive any repetitions (although some are intentional). I’ve seen several films listed here. Some are weird, but I can’t say I love them. Others aren’t at all obscure (seriously – Seven Samurai?). But here’s a list of some obscure flicks I like:
The Adventures of Mark Twain – Will Vinton’s only feature-length film in Claymation, and a treat for Twain lovers. It adapts parts of a lot of Twain stories, including obscure ones.
Creation of the Humanoids – 1960s low-budget science fiction film with some truly awful acting, but very interesting ideas and writing. Definitely worth a look.
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavera and its sequel The Lost Skeleton Returns Again. Not really that obscure, I think. But I can name which movies they’re spoofing at which point
Kronos – 1950s science fiction film about a giant robot that invades the earth. Clearly a big influence on Brad Bird, who used bits of it in The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. The story is mind-numbingly dumb, but the special effects, by much of the same team that did Forbidden Planet, is mind-blowing. You wouldn’t believe that a plain cubical shape could be made so visually interesting. Too bad it’s only in black and white.
Atomic Submarine – another 1950s SF flick, about the first nuclear sub fighting invading aliens underwater. How is this film not better known? More effects work from the Forbidden Planet team.
Panic in the Year Zero – 1960s film. The Russkies (not named, but we know it’s them) blow up LA with an atomic bomb, and probably other places. Ray Milland and his family are fortuitously out of town, and have to survive amidst the chaos and rioting. Surprisingly well-made drama. How do you cross a line of traffic refugees fleeing the city when NOBODY wants to let you cross?
Operation Moonbase – Heinlein wrote the scripts for a 1950s TV series that never made TV, but they mashed together what they had into a movie (which Heinlein hated). There are alternating moments of really good and understated science fiction and extrapolation mixed in with things that make you simply cringe. A weird roller coater ride. It features cordless telephones, the casual use of zero-G, the first astronaut (who is a woman), and a female president of the US. But the way it treats its female characters will make you want to rip your eyes out. Or tear up your monitor.
Angry Red Planet – interesting trip-to-Mars film with a bullet-shaped spaceship. All the scenes on Mars were filmed in “Cinemagic” (which seems to be extremely solarizing of the film, followed by printing onto red stock). It certainly gives the Mars scenes a different and (dare I say it) “otherworldly” feel. Directed by Moe Howard’s (of The Three Stooges) son-in-law, who was actually a pretty talented individual. The film also features the most unexpected and scientifically believable solution to a puzzle that still blows me away. Featuring a female astronaut who screams way too much (but actually does things), a woman-eating plant, a bat-rat-spider, a giant Space Amoeba that ingests one of the crew (and has a giant rotating eye), and a suitably weird-looking Martian. Also, a long-shot of a Martian city.
Seventh Voyage of Sinbad – not really obscure, but one of the first fantasy films I saw in the theater. Excellent special effects and animation, and Bernard Herrmann’s score is superb. I didn’t notice when I first saw it that Sinbad’s ship changes from shot to shot from an Arabian dhow with lateen sail to an 18th century European square-rigged three-masted sailing ship. The first appearance of Harryhausen’s fighting skeletons. It also has not one but two Cyclops and a Fire-Breathing Dragon, among other animated delights. The four-armed rubber-limbed dancing snake girl is wonderful.
Jack the Giant Killer – Producer Edward Small (who did the most successful version of Last of the Mohicans, Witness for the Prosecution, and other films) decided he wanted to copy Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, so he hired the same actors who played the hero and the villain (Kerwin Matthwes and Torin Thatcher, respectively) and the same screenwriter (Nathan Juran, who also directed), but skimped in getting Jim Danforth instead of Ray Harryhausen to do the effects. The animation isn’t as good, but the film is entertaining, if more puerile. There’s a dragon in this one, too, but his face makes him look less threatening than Harryhausen’s – he looks more like an angry puppy dog. Apparently they later added music and turned it into a musical, something I;'m glad I’ve never seen. Worth a look.
Should have realized to mention this in my Purple Hearts post since it also has Annie McEnroe in it.
Other films she’s been in that I like are The Hand and Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf but those are in the “so bad they’re good” realm.
Ikiru is one of my favorite movies ever… And the first I saw by Kurosawa, and have been meaning to re-watch it.
**Ikiru **is one of the finest movies ever made. If there is a better “study” (for want of a better word) of human psychology, I’ve not seen it. And some humorous digs at government bureaucracy as well.
I was gobsmacked when I first watched it. I rewatched it with the commentary (Criterion), which was VERY interesting and informative. The commentary provides a perspective of Japanese culture and politics at the time that really deepened my understanding, and appreciation of, the film.
**Ikiru **is a masterpiece rarely matched. I would hope it falls well outside of the category of “not many others have seen.” It’s Kurosawa at his absolute finest.