Shelley Winters and water don't mix

TCM is showing the 1951 classic A Place in the Sun at 10:30 AM ET on Valentine's Day. It's interesting to think about TCM's Valentine's Day line-up, since A Place in the Sun is being followed at 12:45 PM by Norma Shearer in The Divorcée. There are two movies that show you how to treat the people you love....

However, I find myself thinking about what happens to poor Shelley Winters. In A Place in the Sun, she gets knocked up by Montgomery Clift, who in the meanwhile has fallen in love with Elizabeth Taylor. When Winters confronts Clift, he tries to get out of his predicament by arranging for her to drown.

It wasn't the only time Winters was drowned. Robert Mitchum did it to her in Night of the Hunter, complete with a memorable shot of Winters underwater.

Winters had other bad luck with water, too. Despite the fact that she claimed to be a swimming champion in her younger days, in The Poseidon Adventure she's gained weight, and having to swim underwater gives her a fatal heart attack.

She should have learned her lesson when she was younger. In He Ran All the Way, she meets John Garfield at a public swimming pool, and likes him. Unfortunately for her, he's a criminal on the lam, and repays her by taking her family hostage.

He Ran All the Way is not available on DVD, which is too bad since it's a pretty good movie. The other three movies, however, are already on DVD.