The Pen in Hand Guide to the Movies: Great Films That Have Faded Into Obscurity

The Lost and Forgotten

Illustration by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

Movies are more than entertainment, more than art, and more than artifact. Scenes and moments from film have become so embedded in our cultural that they are part of our national—and international—consciousness. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”, “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse”, “I’ll be back”, and “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” are all too easily recognized Hollywood mantra. They’ve become part of the vernacular. So are scenes like West Side Story’s “America” dance number and Saving Private Ryan’s harrowing D-Day opening sequence.

Feature-length narratives, like Dazed and Confused or American Graffiti can also capture the atmosphere or the cultural sensibility of an era. Movies like Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, or Good Night and Good Luck can (more or less) accurately portray significant moments in our history.

In the relatively short history of cinema, hundreds of thousands of films have been released—some brilliant, some gripping, some funny, some bad (see The Room), and some absolutely transcendent. It stands to reason in the sheer number of films made over the years and across the world that some excellent movies would get lost in the shuffle. And many outstanding films have. Some have never gotten the attention they deserved while others have faded away—if not into obscurity, then into the fog of memory.

Some older films have simply gone out of fashion. Some younger viewers dismiss black and films outright as old-fashioned or lame. They obviously haven’t seen Night of the Hunter, Psycho, or In Cold Blood. Some movies didn’t—or never would—make money, and so have suffered a slow slide into obscurity. Others have become entangled in licensing and legal squabbles, preventing them from being streamed or distributed. They are all, for one reason or another, underappreciated.

Many of these films can still be acquired on eBay or other vendors, but, for the most part, they are not easily accessible on streaming channels. Many more recent films, like The Elephant Man, are not even readily available to stream. Others, like Silkwood, are only available on insanely overpriced Blu-ray or DVDs.

The films chosen here represent the lost, the forgotten, and the underappreciated. If you haven’t seen them, please try to do so. Some are available on The Criterion Channel, some can be purchased as seriously overpriced DVDs, and some will occasionally appear on late-night cable stations—if you still have such outmoded technology. They should all—in The Pen in Hand’s humble opinion—be seen.

The Ten Best of the Lost and Forgotten

Silkwood: This 1983 Mike Nichols biopic follows the saga of Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep), a worker in the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication plant that manufactures nuclear fuel rods. She shares a house with boyfriend Drew (Kurt Russell) and friend Dolly (Cher) and leads a somewhat free-spiritedd lifestyle. After becoming a union activist because of worker safety concerns, she begins her own investigation of manufacturing processes and uncovers the fact that management is cutting corners and endangering workers. After becoming contaminated with radiation, Silkwood is accused by the company of sabotaging them. On her way to see a journalist from the New York Times, she dies in a mysterious car accident. Silkwood, like most Mike Nichols works, is a well-constructed and moving story of a woman caught up in something bigger than herself.

Children of Paradise: The beautifully wrought French classic romance is about a beautiful courtesan Garance (Arietty) and the four men who love her. Shot in war-torn France and Vichy France during World War II, the film transcends the sentimental scaffolding of its plot to become what some critics have called the perfect film. Set in the 1830s between the worlds of French theater and the street, with a mild incursion into the aristocracy, its relationship between reality and theater underlines the thin line between desire, romance, and fantasy. It is a poetic examination of the vagaries of the human heart. As the mime Baptiste, (Jean-Louise Barrault) gives a wonderfully sensitive portrayal. Although available on The Criterion Channel, the groundbreaking beauty and tumultuous history behind the making of this film have been buried.

The Elephant Man: This transcendent David Lynch film follows the misadventures of David Merrick (John Hurt), a man so horribly disfigured he is billed as the Elephant Man at freak shows. He is discovered by Dr. Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) as part of a physician’s game to uncover the most freakish in London, the doctor discovers that Merrick is not the imbecile he supposed, but a sensitive and intelligent man. Along with his supervisor, Mr. Carr Gomm (John Gielgud), he provides John with shelter. He soon becomes the toast of London high society but is eventually kidnapped by his former freak show boss Mr. Bytes (Freddie Jones) and spirited off to Europe. Merrick eventually escapes and makes his way back to London, where he is welcomed back by Treves and the staff. Lynch’s highly stylized direction and the beautiful black and white cinematography and montages are breathtaking. Hurt’s depiction of Merrick as the Elephant Man and Hopkin’s performance are nothing short of brilliant.

A Fish Called Wanda: A comic masterpiece from the people who brought us Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Written by John Cleese and Charles Crichton. Professional diamond thieves George Thomason (Tom Georgeson) and Ken Pile (Michael Palin) enlist the help of Americans Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her brother Otto (Kevin Kline). After the robbery, Georgeson is double-crossed by Wanda and Otto. Figuring they would betray him, George moves the diamonds to a safety deposit box, entrusting Ken with the key. Learning this, Wanda sets out to seduce George’s barrister Archie Leach (Cleese) in order to find the key. Curtis is wonderfully hilarious as the lovely but manipulative Wanda, while Kline’s Otto is a study in paranoid absentmindedness. A brilliantly written comic tour-de-force that has slowly disappeared from the public eye.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot: In this comic crime film, Bridges plays “Lightfoot” an exuberant and flighty petty thief who teams up with Thunderbolt (Clint Eastwood), a bank robber notorious for using a 20mm cannon to break into safes and who is trying to escape retribution from his old gang who mistakenly believes he betrayed them by keeping the loot from a previous robbery. After reconciling with his old mates Red Leary (George Kennedy) and Eddie Goody (Geoffrey Lewis), Thunderbolt proposes they rob the same bank again. They pull it off but are undone when they are—again—betrayed by one of their own. Notable for Bridges’ engaging performance as the flamboyant, glib, hilarious, and constantly bewildered Lightfoot is excellent. Also notable for being one of Michael Cimino’s early works.

Shoot the Moon: An unnerving domestic drama that follows George Dunlap (Albert Finney), his wife Faith (Keaton), and their four children through the final terrifying stages of a disintegrating marriage. After years of his infidelities and betrayals, Faith confronts George, who blows up and then moves into his beach house with his newest mistress Sandy (Karen Allen). Faith begins an affair with Frank Henderson (Peter Weller), the contractor who is working on their house. When George arrives to give his oldest daughter Sherry (Dana Hill) a birthday present, she refuses to see him. Enraged, George breaks into the house and confronts Sherry until Faith forces him out. After they begin divorce proceedings, George returns and has a final devastating encounter with the family. Notable for Keaton’s performance as a woman experiencing an emotional roller coaster of rejection, anger, violence, infatuation, and love.

Ms. Hulot’s Holiday: Jacques Tati is a giant of cinema. His brand of physical comedy is the linchpin of this wonderfully conceived French comedy. Tati’s M. Hulot is a long-legged bumbling man bewildered at the strange contrivances of modern life. When Hulot goes to vacation at a seaside resort, he is beset by any series of mishaps such as opening a door to a sea wind that causes chaos inside a hotel to a horse that locks a man in a trunk. The film only uses dialogue as a background, placing the visuals into the forefront, and the subtle contexts Tati uses to place his sight gags does not dull their comic edge but instead makes them less ludicrous—more possible. His genial but clueless Hulot is a perfect metaphor for the easily foiled humanity of the time. While this film is available on The Criterion Channel, its genius seems lost to a new generation of cinephiles.

The Pope of Greenwich Village: A hard-to-find gritty New York City crime film about two cousins who get in over their heads while trying to pull off a big-time score. Charlie (Mickey Rourke) and his cousin Paulie (Eric Roberts) get fired from their restaurant jobs after Paulie is caught skimming checks. Paulie tells Charlie about a big score he has lined up and introduces Charlie to Barney (Kenneth McMillan), a hotshot locksmith who says he can crack the safe in question. Things go sour when a cop (Jack Kehoe) shows up and is accidentally killed. When he discovers that Paulie has led them to vicious gangster Bedbug Eddie’s (Burt Young) stash, he goes ballistic and has to figure out how to bail them out. A fun (and enthusiastically) well-acted movie with great comedic overtones a finely textured NYC vibe.

A New Leaf: Elaine May has always been an underrated talent. This beautiful little film follows New York heir Henry Graham (Walter Matthau) who has been informed he has squandered his entire fortune. Unwilling to change his lifestyle, he decides to marry into wealth and settles upon Henrietta Lowell (May), a shy and socially inept botany professor who is heiress to a huge fortune. Over the objections of her attorney (Jack Weston), she marries Henry who takes charge of her disorganized household. He takes charge of her estate and—being uncharacteristically responsible—takes charge of her accounts, all the while planning to kill her for her money. When Henrietta discovers a new fern and names it after Henry, he is touched but is resolute in his plans. Matthau is at his grumpy best in this movie, brusquely patient with his bride while barely hiding his aggravation—along with his reluctant affection for her. May is simply brilliant as the clueless Henrietta and as the director of this beautiful—and scarcely known—romantic comedy.

Josie and the Pussycats: One might think that another film based on a comic book or a cartoon would end up as yet another silly piece of dreck, like Scooby-Doo or The Flintstones. Yet writer/directors Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan turned a cartoon series about an all-girl band into a hilarious and cutting social satire. The film begins with a boy band “Du Jour” who begin to ask their bosses too many questions. Their manager Wyatt Frame (Alan Cumming) decides to (literally) deep-six them and, in search of a new band, stumbles upon Josie. What follows is a brilliantly hilarious takedown of teenage consumer culture, cultural manipulation, and (yes) overtly brash product placement. The film is funny as hell (its satirical digs have the bite of a pit bull) and the music is great. With Rachel Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson, and Tara Reid as the Pussycats and Cumming and Parker Posey as the corporate villains, the cast simply shines. Throw in Missi Pyle as the somewhat vestigial character Alexandra and you have a comic rock and roll masterpiece. This film is extremely hard to find. DVDs are extraordinarily expensive and—at this point—it can only be rented or bought from streaming platforms.