Briefs for April 25, 2014

I wonder who's got the rights to True Grit. I thought I mentioned it someplace during one of my mentions of John Wayne as this month's TCM Star of the Month, but True Grit wasn't included in the salute, which is odd since it's Wayne's Oscar-winning role, and it's not a bad movie. Either Scott Eyman had a hand in programming the prime time themes that didn't include True Grit or, more likely, TCM weren't able to get the rights. Even if the various prime time themes included other Wayne movies, I'd think the TCM programmers would want to include True Grit during the daytime.

I haven't seen The Greatest Story Ever Told (overnight, or very early tomorrow morning, at 4:45 AM, depending on your point of view or time zone), so I don't know exactly how small John Wayne's role, listed in the IMDb page as "Centurion at crucifixion" is. And no, I don't have any desire to sit through a three-and-a-half hour movie about the life of a Swedish Jesus. I should also apologize for missing Max von Sydow's 85th birthday earlier in the month, although I did do a birthday post for von Sydow back in 2008.

IMDb might be worse than TCM in terms of the interface with whatever TV schedule data they use. To be fair to IMDb, they're not a TV channel or a listings site, so having the info on when a movie is coming up on TV should really be seen as a bonus. But I found it slightly humorous when looking up Max von Sydow on IMDb this morning that it's listing von Sydow as coming up in the movie Judge Dredd, at 9:00 AM on April 24. I only use the IMDb schedule when I'm too lazy to open up my copy of the TCM monthly schedule, though.

As for the shorts, there's a "making of" piece on Westworld a little after 12:30 AM, or following McClintock! (10:15 PM, 127 minutes plus an intro/outro from Scott Eyman). I presume I've seen this one, since I tend to enjoy the behind the scenes or making of pieces when they show up on TCM between movies, but I honestly can't remember.