TCM Guest Programmer: Shirley Jones

Shirley Jones and Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry (1960)

Academy Award-winning actress Shirley Jones sits down with TCM host Robert Osborne tonight to select four of her favorite movies and discuss why she likes them. First up happens to be Jones' Oscar performance in Elmer Gantry, at 8:00 PM ET. It might perhaps be a bit egotistical of her to select one of her own movies, but it also wouldn't be the first time a Guest Programmer did that. When Jack Klugman was one of the invitees during the Guest Programmers' Month in November 2007, he picked 12 Angry Men for one of his choices. Editor Thelma Schoonmaker didn't select her own work; instead, she picked three movies directed by her late husband, Michael Powell. I suppose that if you really enjoyed working on a movie and the result was a very good movie indeed, why wouldn't it be one of your favorites?

Jones' other three selections are:

For Me and My Gal, the movie that marks Gene Kelly's Hollywood debut, at 10:30 PM;
Love Me or Leave Me, Doris Day's attempt to escape from James Cagney, at 12:30 AM; and
Random Harvest, a movie I personally consider one of the more retch-inducing love stories, at 2:45 AM.

Please note that although Elmer Gantry is in a 150-minute slot, its running time is right around 147 minutes. By the time you get Robert Osborne's opening interview with Jones and the closing one, it's liable to run over the allotted time. Either that, or the opening theme might start several seconds before 8:00 PM.