Forgive TCM for repeating a five-year-old schedule

TCM's daytime lineup for tomorrow, January 30, includes six Philo Vance films. I was pretty certain I had made a few comments about Philo Vance before, he being one of those upper-class detectives that were popular in 1930s Hollywood. And sure enough, I had done so back in May 2009. As I was reading that post and looking at tomorrow's schedule, I noticed that the lineup looked quite familiar. I only mentioned three of the movies back in 2009, and referenced a fourth coming in between. But the ones I mentioned in 2009 are airing in the same order tomorrow as they did back then, which got me to open up my copy of hte May 2009 schedule. Sure enough, all six Philo Vance movies are airing in the same order as they did five years ago. For the record, the six Philo Vances are:

Basil Rathbone in The Bishop Murder Case at 8:15 AM;
William Powell in The Kennel Murder Case at 9:45 AM;
Warren William in The Dragon Murder Case at 11:00 AM;
Paul Lukas in The Casino Murder Case at 12:15 PM;
Edmund Lowe in The Garden Murder Case at 1:45 PM; and
James Stephenson in Calling Philo Vance at 3:00 PM.

Edmund Lowe you might recall as the doctor having a thing with Jean Harlow in Dinner at Eight; James Stephenson played Bette Davis' lawyer in The Letter.

The rest of tomorrow's daytime lineup includes three films in the "I Love a Mystery" series from the mid-1940s, a series that I have to admit I don't know all that much about.

As for TCM running all of the Philo Vances in the same order they did five years ago, it's kind of difficult to get too irritated. After all, they don't show up very often unless TCM is doing a salute to one of the stars; The Kennel Murder Case, for example, will be running again in March due to the presence of Star of the Month Mary Astor's being the female lead. And as for running them in the same order, TCM's running them in chronological order, which makes perfect sense if you're talking about running a mystery series. So if this says anything it's more a commentary about how long I've been blogging.

One final note: TCM lists only The Kennel Murder Case as being available from the TCM Shop. With William Powell and Mary Astor in the cast, and having been directed by Michael Curtiz early in his Hollywood career, it's no wonder.