End of the month briefs

I sat down to watch the beginning of The Man Who Understood Women on what's left of the Fox Movie Channel this morning. Mostly, it was to see if they were finally going to air a letterboxed print. I think the last time it showed up was on TCM several years ago as part of a night dedicated to Nunnally Johnson. Johnson was mostly a screenwriter, but in the 1950s he directed a couple of films, of which this was one. Surprisingly enough, FMC did show a letterboxed film. But I was reminded quickly enough why this is one of those films I find so hard to sit through. Henry Fonda is badly miscast as a difficult to work with Hollywood director married to Leslie Caron. In fact, I find it difficult to care about any of the characters.

TCM's prime time lineup tonight is dedicated to the people who were honored some months back in AMPAS' Governors Awards. It's the one part of the Academy Awards I ought to care about, but to be honest, I don't even sit down to watch these. Now that they've been separated from the regular Oscar broadcast -- presumably, it's the wrong demographic of people who would care about the recipients of these awards -- I wouldn't even know when or what channel these were on. Or if they were even on at all.

Speaking of the Oscars, tomorrow starts TCM's annual 31 Days of Oscar programming block, with the first film being 1953's Beneath the 12-Mile Reef at 6:00 AM. This is another Fox film that was shown in an ugly pan-and-scan print the last time it showed up on the Fox Movie Channel. TCM is claiming they're showing it letterboxed, but I wouldn't know.