Great but Forgotten: 
My favorite entertainment you've never seen.

I see a lot of movies.  Some big hits, some not so.  And in among them are a few gems that have either been forgotten by time, or were forgotten from the start. Everything is a crapshoot, and sometimes a very deserving film never quite catches on.  I wanted to take a little time to commemorate the best I've seen.

I had originally conceived this as a one-shot article listing a few movie favorites.  But as I look through my list of films, I realize the task is a lot bigger.  It quickly became an ongoing series of capsule reviews of movies that deserve better than they got. I also started thinking about TV shows and musicians that deserve to be remembered. There are plenty of fine movies, TV, and CDs that have been overlooked, and I wanted to commemorate them.

Important Note: These are my older reviews.  Reviews since mid-December of 2007 are at   http://greatbutforgotten.blogspot.com.

• All These Women — Slapstick comedy.  By Ingemar Bergman.  Really.

• American Flagg! (Comic) — In a dystopian future, only Reuben Flagg can hold things together!

• Best Boy — Heartwarming documentary about a retarded man learning to live life.

• Black Moon — Louis Malle's mysterious film.

• Bob (TV) — Bob Newhart as a mild mannered comic book artist, in a show killed by its network

• Brassed Off — British comedy about music and coal mining.

• Brewster McCloud — Robert Altman comedy about a man who tries to fly.

• Brute Force — 40s prison break movie with Hume Cronyn as the sadistic guard.

• The Body Snatcher — Boris Karloff as the title character, one of film's great performances.

• The Carpet Makers — Truly great SF novel about the mysteries of a galactic empire.

• Comfort and Joy — Quirky gang war comedy set in Glasgow, Scotland.

• Cry Uncle! — The raunchiest sex comedy ever.

• Cobb — Tommy Lee Jones as one of baseball's great psychotics.

• The Court Jester — "The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon."

• Days of Heaven — The most beautiful movie ever made.

• Deathwatch — Harvey Keitel in the ultimate in reality TV

• The Doberman Gang — Better Than It Has Any Right to Be film about robbing banks using dogs

• The Duck Factory (TV) — Very young Jim Carrey in TV series about a cartoon studio.

• East Side Story — Fun Documentary about Marxist movie musicals.  Really.

• Ella Enchanted — Delightful postmodern fairy tale with Anne Hathaway

• Emitt Rhodes (music) — The American Paul McCartney

• The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T  — Live Action Dr. Seuss from the 50s.

• Flower Drum Song — Not politically correct any more, but a fine musical.

• Flying Blind (TV) — Romantic sitcom that made Tea Leoni into a star.

• Force of Evil — Sophisticated 40s film noir about the numbers racket and organized crime.

• God, the Devil, and Bob (TV) — James Garner as God in this animated treasure.

• Hear My Song — Charming British comedy.

• Hearts of the West — The wild west was not like in the movies.

• The Heartbreak Kid (1972) — A man on his honeymoon has a change of plan.

• The Heckler (comics) — Part superhero, part Bugs Bunny, one of the oddest comics ever.

• Hoodwinked — Witty animated retelling of Red Riding Hood. 

• It Came from Outer Space — Science fiction classic in 3-D.

• Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring — Superb French tragedy.

• The Last Waltz — Greatest rock concert film ever.

• Little Voice — A shy girl with an amazing voice.

• Lost in La Mancha — How a great movie doesn't get made.

• Magic — A young Anthony Hopkins as a ventriloquist who isn't sure of his sanity.

• Max — "What if" film about a Jewish art dealer who befriends a young Adolph Hitler.

• Medium Cool — Politics, Protest, and the press in the 60s.

• Million Dollar Legs — Wild, absurdist 30s movie comedy.

• Movie Movie — Delightful pastiche of 30s movies -- and two movies in one!

• Mother Night — Fine adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut novel

• My Bodyguard — How to deal with a bully -- and look who's in it!

• Neighbors — The neighbors from hell.

• NBC Experiment in Television — Quality TV plays and documentaries, commercial free.

• Once a Hero (TV) — A superhero for the Real World.

• The Onion Field — Realistic police drama, with James Woods at his best.

• Picking Up the Pieces — Woody Allen as Tex.  Sharon Stone as his wife.

• Putney Swope — "Rockin' the boat's a drag. You gotta sink the boat!" 

• Resurrection — Ellen Burstyn as a woman who can work miracles.

• Return to Oz — Dark sort-of sequel of the classic -- and still pretty good.

• Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles — Chinese film about fathers and sons.

• Saboteur — Hitchcock classic that was a trial run for North by Northwest.

• The Sandbaggers (TV) — British spy series that shows the less glamorous side of spying.

• Scarface — The original classic gangster film by Howard Hawks.

• Screen Door Jesus — Faith and humor in a Texas town.

• The Smallest Show on Earth — Charming British comedy about running a movie theater.

• Star Cops (TV) — Intelligent BBC hard science fiction/mystery series

• Stevie — An intriguing look into the life of a smart woman poet.

• Support Your Local Sheriff! — Terrific comedy western with James Garner.

• The Stunt Man — Peter O'Toole as a mad film director in a great film about moviemaking.

• The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe — Long title, very funny spy spoof.

• Targets — Boris Karloff as an aging horror actor facing real horror.

• The Tenant — The best horror film ever.

• Truly Madly Deeply — A love story from beyond the grave -- done right.

• 200 Motels — Glorious mess from the mind of Frank Zappa.

• VR.5 (TV) — Great science fiction TV series about virtual and not-so-virtual reality.

• War with the Newts (book) — Great SF satire by an author better known for a much lesser work.

• The Well — A film ahead of its time.

• Wish You Were Here (TV) — TV comedy series about a man and his camcorder