Sunday, November 3, 2013

November 3 shorts repeats

I'm not certain whether I've blogged about Joan Crawford's 1932 film Rain before; it's airing tonight at 10:00 PM. For some reason I thought I had posted about it, but Blogger's search function, which has been acting up, hasn't been able to find a post. I really need to catalog my posts, but that would be a time-consuming affair. At any rate, while I try to figure out whether or not I've done a post on Rain, enjoy some of the many shorts TCM has put in today's line-up. At least Rain, and the remake Miss Sadie Thompson are both available on DVD from the TCM Shop.

Back in March, I mentioned the fate of poor Jan Savitt and his Band. Obviously, Warner Bros. would have had no idea that Savit wasn't going to live too much longer after the short was made. TCM is running the Jan Savitt short again this morning at 11:49 AM, following Kismet (10:00 AM, 100 min)

I don't think I've seen That Mothers Might Live before. This one, airing at 9:47 PM just after Miss Sadie Thompson (8:00 PM, 90 min) tells about one doctor's struggle to introduce concepts of modern hygiene into childbirth to reduce the number of deaths of newborn infants and new mothers. It's directed by Fred Zinnemann, before he became a director of feature films.

Coming up overnight at 1:28 AM is 24-Hour Alert, Jack Webb's 30-minute short about the necessity of having an airborne defense system, even it if inconveniences the people who live near the local air force bases. The Jack Webb style is quite evident here, and the short is an interesting historical document.

Finally, at 3:50 AM is Where is Jane Doe?, in which hte police try to find a girl who's gone missing, and it takes them all of nine minutes to do so! This short always strikes me as giving off a vibe of, "This is the worst people had to deal with back in the mid-1950s?" It's kind of like Teenagers on Trial in that regard.

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