William Shatner & Yvette Mimieux in Disaster on the Coastliner (1979)

The glut of disaster movies in the 70's included a second tier of television films. In this one, a deranged computer programmer (Paul L. Smith) distraught at the loss of his wife and child, reprograms a rail system's computer to put two trains on a collision course, endangering the lives of the passengers. Will they be able to circumvent disaster? Along for the ride is charming grifter, Stuart Peters (Shatner) and an unhappy Paula Harvey (Mimieux). At home base, trying to solve the problem are Al Mitchell (Lloyd Bridges), Estes Hill (Raymond Burr) and Roy Snyder (E. G. Marshall). Though a fromage fest, this film has a lot of entertainment to offer. If you're a fan of bloated, second tier star spectacles, give it a try.

Though not available on DVD, you can find this film in full on YouTube. It's above in full, uploaded by TheGialloGrindhouse.

Obscurity factor: 8 (not on DVD, available on YouTube, largely forgotten except for a small cadre of fans)

Angela Lansbury & Raymond Burr in Please Murder Me 1956

The phenomenon of film noir produced quite a few obscure specimens. By its very nature, film noir was a low budget medium, despite its more high profile, high budget examples. This week I'll be covering some fun examples of the more obscure film noir titles, thanks to a DVD set that was loaned to me by my neighbor, Steven Menendez.

Angela Lansbury seemed to be cast in more than her share of film noir titles. Please Murder Me is one of them. She plays a femme fatal, one of the stock characters of film noir, who falls in love with her husband's best friend. When the husband turns up dead, his friend defends her for the murder. After he gets her off he finds out that she was never in love with him at all. She used him to murder her husband and get away with it, though his brilliance as a defense attorney. It's then that he plots to have her murder him so he can be sure she'll receive justice. The film has all the elements of good noir. It's moody in its cinematography, clever in its plot points and heavy handed in its acting, in a good way. Raymond Burr is a great counterpart to Lansbury.

 

This film is available on the Hollywood Bombshells Collection compilation put out by Pop Flix. The quality isn't great, but good enough to get the idea. It's also available on YouTube in its entirety, uploaded by VideosbyBob. Installment 1 is above. The poster is available at MoviePosterShop.com

Obscurity factor: 6 (available on DVD and YouTube, rarely screened on TV, largely unknown)