As seen on TCM

I know there are people out there who complain about the number of repeats on TCM. Sure, movies get more than one airing, and sometimes, because TCM only has the rights to a movie for a limited amount of time, the movie airs enough times in that short window to make it look as though TCM is running a movie into the ground. I'll have to look through my monthly schedules to see how long TCM had the broadcast rights to All About Eve, for example: it was in The Essentials one season, and seemed to get a good half dozen airings in all, including outside The Essentials. But I don't think it's shown up since. TCM also sometimes mis-schedules movies in that a film will show up at the end of one month and the beginning of the next, an oversight which I'd bet happens by programming movies on a month-to-month basis. It must be easy to firget about what you've done in previous months.

That having been said, I think I finally saw something that's been rerun to the point of making me almost yell at the TV asking TCM to stop. It's Marlo Thomas' remembrances of Star of the Month Loretta Young. Thankfully, it's only in heavy rotation for this month, while Loretta is still Star of the Month, and will then only show up occasionally when TCM wants to promo a movie starring Young. Think of Kurt Russell's piece on Elvis -- yeah, we know how Elvis wants to wear his hat in a western. That, or the Michael Caine piece on Cary Grant. You never do see a star in Hollywood, but you sure see them all the time on TCM. Anyhow, getting back to Loretta, I wasn't really planning on watching any of the movies in yesterday's lineup until the Hitchcock movies in prime time. I turned the TV on about 9:50 to watch the replay of the Australian Open tennis, and there was the piece on Loretta Young, filling out a two-hour time slot held by The Crimson Pirate. Later in the day, about 15 minutes before King's Solomon's Mines, I turned the TV back on to catch a sports score, and saw that TCM was running the end of the Loretta Young tribute again. And then when I turned on TCM to watch the Alfred Hitchcock films, there was Marlo Thomas a third time just before the first Hitchcock movie.

Speaking of King Solomon's Mines, TCM had enough time following the preceding movie to run not only the piece on Loretta Young, but what must have been a barter deal between MGM and Dodge/Chrysler (was Dodge a part of Chrysler back in 1950?). Apparently, MGM used Dodge trucks to get the cast and crew into the remote parts of Africa where they filmed King Solomon's Mines and darn it if they weren't going to let us know. I hope TCM got paid well for running this extended infomercial for Dodge. At least the piece had nice Technicolor. And, as a plus, it's available on Youtube: