José Ferrer, 1912-1992

Today marks the centenary of actor José Ferrer, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1950 for his starring role in Cyrano de Bergerac. That movie is airing at 8:00 PM, although the last time I saw it on TCM, the print didn't look so good.

Actually, quite a few of Ferrer's films are airing today, which is a bit odd since TCM doesn't often do birthday salutes on the weekend. I've recommended The Caine Mutiny before (October 2009 to be specific), which kicks off the salute at noon. That's followed by another underrated film, Crisis, an August 2009 selection which airs at 2:15 PM.

I don't know if I've recommended I Accuse! (4:00 PM) before. Ferrer plays Alfred Dreyfus in this telling of the Dreyfus Affair, in which Émile Zola wrote the famous open letter J'accuse!. I'm pretty certain I've recommeded The Life of Émile Zola before, which covers much of this same material, albeit in black-and-white and without any location shooting.

Ferrer plays composer Sigmund Romberg in Deep in My Heart (6:00 PM). I very briefly mentioned Sigmund Romberg once, back in May 2008, as part of a post about the short An Intimate Dinner in Celebration of Warner Brothers' Silver Jubilee, in which Romberg has a cameo as one of the men responsible for the songs in musicals.

The last of the Ferrer movies showing today is in fact the first film Ferrer made, the Ingrid Bergman version of Joan of Arc, at 10:00 PM.