Improper Channels (1981)

Improper Channels tells the story of Jeff Martley, an architect who is enduring a fairly horrible week. Recently separated from his wife, he is living out of his

car, while his wife tries to 'find herself'. During a routine trip to the grocery store with his young daughter, he has a minor car accident, and the girl hits her head

on the seat in front of her. Just as any other concerned parent might do, Martley rushes his daughter to the Emergency Room. Unfortunately for him, an overbearing

social worker (who sees victims even where there are none) notices the injuries, and is convinced that the girl is a victim of child abuse. When Arkin's character

discovers that he can't take his daughter home, he gets agitated, swings at some orderlies, and accidentally hits a police officer, before running out of there. Of course,

with this action, the social worker "sees blood" and goes about finding information that she can use against Martley. Conveniently for her, there is a Japanese hacker/IT

person in the records department who, as a favor, looks up Jeff Martley's name on the computer database, where he uncovers an arrest record for an incident involving

indecent exposure (a college prank), as well as other bits of private data.

Because of this violation of privacy, not only does Martley's daughter go into protective custody, but he also loses his job, and is threatened with the possibility of a

jail term (for punching the cop). Most of the rest of the movie entails the Martley family's struggle against the system to get their daughter back.

Now based on that summary, it sounds like an interesting movie, and I suppose that, in different hands, it could have been. However, it falls a bit flat.

First off, the comedy/drama balance is very uneven. Essentially, 90% of the movie plays as a drama, with incidental comedy. Then, at the end, instead of an

ending with at least some amount of logic, drama, or sense, you have something closer to a screwball comedy. Another problem lies in the actual characters. Arkin's

Martley seems to be the only multi-dimensional character in the movie, with the rest just written as stereotypes.

In reading that, it sounds like I hated the movie. On the contrary, I actually enjoyed the movie fairly well. The reason that I point out its flaws is that as long

as your expectations aren't high, it's a fun romp. So the characters aren't very full or realistic - the issue of invasion of privacy is very real, especially in modern

times. Many people can empathize with characters being slowly choked to death by the bureacracy. Or failing that, we can all do with some mindless entertainment in

the form of 80's B-Movies on the weekends.

Where Can I Find It?

Not surprisingly, Improper Channels never received a DVD release. However, fear not. Vestron video flooded the market enough with their videotapes in the 80's that

many used copies (mostly former rentals) can be found on Ebay, Amazon, and similar websites. Failing that, if you keep on the lookout long enough, you're bound to see

the movie on your television, eventually. Encore and FLIX both air a lot of random movies from the 70's and 80's.