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What Are Your Favorite Obscure Movies?
At the bottom of a webpage, between the “Actresses Who Age Badly” and “Bizarre Creatures of the Sea,” was a clickable list I couldn’t resist — “9 Great Movies You’ve Never Seen”. It turns out I had seen two of the movies, both of which I liked; the original Das Boot (with subtitles), and Fearless. The ones I hadn’t seen were:
- Amazon Women on the Moon
- Swimming With Sharks
- The Wild Blue Yonder
- May
- Secretary
- Hard Eight
- Bob Le Flambeur
Have you seen these films? If so, opinions please! What other lost gems should I be watching?
Published in General
The Horse’s Mouth with Alec Guinness, who also wrote the screenplay based (very loosely) on the Joyce Cary novel of the same name. An absolute delight of a movie.
Good list. I haven’t seen “Gregory’s Girl” in years, but I really liked it, and it might be the most obscure of the Forsyth movies.
And Andrew Klavan wrote “A Shock to the System”!? My esteem for him just went way up–bippity, boppity, boo.
I don’t think it is on DVD but a couple of years ago I saw on TCM No Highway in the Sky, starring Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, but it is really about him and his relationship with his daughter. I notice it can be seen through Amazon.
My fave later-Stewart is Flight of the Phoenix.
Mystery Men. A frivilous yet hilarious take on Super Hero wannabes. Great cast including William Macy, Ben Stiller and Hank Azaria.
Bang The Drum Slowly from the 70s. Robert Deniro plays a hick ballplayer from the south who has a terminal disease. Lots of pathos, lots of laughs and lots of heart.
I echo support for Das Boot, Outland and In Bruges in particular from some of those listed. Some other obscure suggestions:
I liked Brassed Off OK until Pete Postlethwaite’s screed against Thatcher at the end. That ruined it for me. The economic illiteracy of the script bugged me, but the human interest approach and the performances were brilliant.
A couple more really funny obscure comedies:
OSS 1117: Cairo, Next of Spies and OSS 117: Lost in Rio. Jean Dujardin is brilliant in this pair of high-camp send-ups of 1960s spy movies. They are like Austin Powers without the subtlety. That they are French is part of what makes them so funny. They are full of spoofs and “inside” jokes. Very. Funny.
In particular I agree with Local Hero. How could I have forgotten that? It’s definitely a desert island DVD. Streets of Fire is good too, but Local Hero is timeless and brilliant in every respect. I’m not familiar with the others.
Yes it is great.
I just saw him speak here at Cornell, and I asked him that exact thing: You wrote “Bippity, bobbity…..boo? Dude!” His eyes crinkled when he smiled with a tiny nod.
Oh, I loved Gregory’s Girl. I saw it at the theater that showed all the ‘foreign’ films – my girlfriend couldn’t understand a word of it! Watched it with my teens a few years back and they enjoyed it, too. “I bruise like a peach – see, a bruise”
Primer is fantastic – I have watched it 10 times at least, still seeing new things.
I liked “Rancho Deluxe” in which Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston played cattle rustlers, believe it or not. Slim Pickens, as the detective who is hired to catch them, gives a great comic turn.
“Reuben, Reuben,” in which Tom Conti plays a rapidly deteriorating poet with questionable morals who gets his comeuppance from a cuckolded dentist and a big shaggy dog.
I’m not sure how much of a sleeper it is, but “Waking Ned Devine” is one of my all-time favorites. Pure pleasure from start to finish.
Thanks. I was starting to worry about myself. I also like “Dark City” a lot too.
“Mr. Quick is dead.”
Not sure how obscure the 2006 Stranger Than Fiction with Will Farrell is, but I thought it was the best thing he ever did, and the movie seemed to vanish from theaters very quickly. Well worth a viewing, just to see Will Farrell in a serious and sweet romantic comedy with a science fiction twist.
Here’s another underrated gem. Sort of a spiritual successor to Fletch:
The Zero Effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSH8Y3h5j-g
(When this movie came out, I told anybody who would listen that the director, Jake Kasdan, was one to watch. How wrong I was. I weep for his subsequent career. Bad Teacher. Sex Tape.)
FYI: It’s currently free to watch at http://www.crackle.com/c/stranger-than-fiction
Little Known Facts:
The OSS 117 novels predate James Bond by four years.
The first OSS 117 movie was made in 1957, beating Dr. No by five years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSS_117
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isz4yifzhzY
I have enjoyed reading all the suggestions. It seems to me that many of the suggestions are of movies that I would not necessarily call obscure. So with that said, may I offer up a movie starring Peter Lorre called “The Beast With Five Fingers”. In this movie, “locals in an Italian village believe evil has taken over the estate of a recently deceased pianist where several murders have taken place. The alleged killer: the pianist’s severed hand” (IMDb). It is wonderful to see Peter Lorre in this very melodramatic story. It left such an imprint on me from childhood. Another one is “The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao” starring Tony Randall in the role of his life. “A mysterious circus comes to a western town bearing wonders and characters that entertain the inhabitants and teach valuable lessons” (IMDb). The movie was directed by George Pal and also features Barbara Eden and Arthur O’Connell. It is a wonderful fantasy that is good for the whole family.