Great films that are hardly ever, if ever, shown on TV.

D

Doug Graves-Witherspoon

New member
I saw this on tv some time back in the 70's or maybe 80's. But I am pretty sure it has not been on mainstream tv for ages.

The only time I have ever seen Roger Moore even tryin g to act...and he is not too shabby either. Definitely his best performance.

Good film too. A sort of Twilight-Zone style mystery involving an evil double who starts taking over his life.

I have the Region 1 dvd of it, not sure if it is available on region 2.
 
THEM! and many other classic 50s & 60s B-Movie sci-fi flicks, Forbidden Planet get a regular run on TCM and It Came from Beneath the Sea has been on Sci-Fi, but not for years have I seen any of the following:

The War of the WorlRAB
When WorlRAB Collide
The Thing from Another World
This Island Earth
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms
The Angry Red Planet
The Blob
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Invaders from Mars
The Fly
Any of the Japanese Godzilla Movies (in particular Destroy All Monsters and All Monsters Attack)

Also there's been a few mentioned it would be good to see:

Enemy Mine
Battle Beyond the Stars
Damnation Alley
Flight of the Navigator
The Last Starfighter
A Boy and his Dog
The Intruder Within
Night of the Comet
Mosquito Squadron
The Dam Busters (really it's not been on for Ages)
Reach for the Sky
Sink the Bismark
Whoops Apocalypse
 
The War of the WorlRAB, The Blob, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Fly, Enemy Mine all currently on Sky Movies.

Flight of the Navigator, I remember seeing this not that long ago I think it might have been on Disney.

All great films :D
 
I've been waiting ages for 'Hawks' to be shown again, especially as it hasn't had a dvd release yet.
Also:
Girl6
Virtual Sexuality
The Philadephia Experiment
Circle of Iron
The Boy Who Could Fly.
White Nights
 
Freaks is great, it's a shame you can't get hold of the original ending. I'm not a fan of the 'happier' one.

I wish there were more great documentaries on tv. I'd love to see Etre et Avoir on there.

There's also classics like Nosferatu, Metropolis and Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari that I've never seen on tv. Though I may be wrong and not looking out for them on the right channels.
 
It is the absence of B&W films that annoys me now. Used to be on a lot on BBC2 and Channel Four but far less now. Great to see CH4 showing "Cross of Lorraine" last week but this type of thing is too rare now.

So many great black & whites aren't on dvd. "The More the Merrier" is one that springs to mind. I ended up buying boxsets for the likes of will hay and laurel & hardy as they have vanished as well. I miss those good old british comedies of a weekday afternoon I watched as a student.

interesting thread though. People should check out the file-sharing site cinemageddon. It's great for cult films & TV along the lines of what has been mentioned. I've been a member for about a year now and have found all kinRAB of rare things on there, I suspect most of the rare films mentioned in this thread are there. Hawks for one:)
 
I have just watched the great movie "Leon", which came out in the mid 90's. I got it off Itunes and had not seen it in years, but it was still fantastic. I dont think its been shown much on tv (ie freeview/ film four/ terrestial) since it came out, yet is seen by many as a modern classic (no.34 on imdb top films ever)

Other great films that never seem to be on ?

heres another...

The Usual Suspects
 
I have a friend who has it on region 2 ...so yes it is availble....good film made around 1970 between his saint and bond days !!
 
One of my favourite films as you say quite strange but very enjoyable.
One of a handfull of films in my collection I make a point of watching at least once a year.
And of course it stars one of my favourite actresses Sharon Tate.
 
I grew up as a teenager recording Channel 4's matinee film each day of the week and watching it that evening, in addition to any number of other films that happened to be on - especially BBC2 in the mornings during the school holidays. This was 1992-1995 or so, and those schedules were absolutely full of what I collectively call 'black and white' films - of course a great deal many of them were colour features, but I refer to the era as 'black and white' for putting me in mind of a distinctive 'calibre' of film.

Of course in those days, multi-channel viewing wasn't the norm in the way it soon became not very long after that. The BBC and Channel 4 had libraries/packages or whatever of films from the entire range of the old Hollywood 'major' studios - Warners, MGM, Fox, Paramount, Columbia, RKO and whoever else I've missed. Unfortunately, with the explosion of choice and television consumption like never before, those days are gone forever. The major networks will now only stick to what's 'safe' ie they know can pull in the viewers, which basically boils down to John Wayne and the same old British/American war films in unending rotation. For that reason, I still have to rely on my ageing old Scotch tapes if I fancy for example a splash of inconsequential, unassuming 20th century Fox 40s technicolour musical. And that's Ditto DVD releases, although the back catalogue range available is much, much broader of course Region 1.
 
I think there is a list somewhere on the net that shows what films haven't been shown on UK TV before, can't remember what site this is though.

I've noticed many of the terrestrial channels seem to show the same films over and over again every 6 to 12 months or so, especially on BBC1 and BBC2. I think the trouble is, Sky now has the rights to most of the big films these days, so the terrestrial channels don't get a look in.
 
The Witches,

I was complaining about it never being on the telly so I went and bought the dvd. One week later guess what was on telly?
 
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