New month, new old movies

Tomorrow is November 1, and with the start of another month it seems we're going to get a couple of movies on FXM Retro that have been sitting in the vaults for a while, which will likely be repeated heavily before going back in the vaults.

The first of these is The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM. This one has Betty Grable as a woman in late 19th century Boston who learns how to use the typewriter so that she can become the first female typist secretary. This turns her into a women's lib icon, but also causes problems with her boss. It's really not very shocking, in part because Fox took Frederica Sagor Maas' screenplay, softened it, and added songs to it for Grable and Haymes to sing. Still, it's not the worst thing out there, and on par with the other 1940s Fox musicals.

Then there's Blue Denim, on FXM tomorrow morning at 11:30 and repeated again Sunday (check your box guide, but it should be well after the end of daylight savings time). Brandon de Wilde plays a misunderstood teen who knocks up his girlfriend, and tries to get her an illegal abortion. Of course, with the Production Code, this all had to be done in circumlocutions. I don't think it's a very good movie, but you might want to watch for yourself just once to wonder what the heck the people making this movie were thinking.

Back on TCM, we've reached the end of the Dr. Kildare movies, but we continue with his boss, Dr. Gillespie, in Calling Dr. Gillespie, tomorrow morning ar 10:30 AM. Lionel Barrymore returns, but not Lew Ayres. I mentioned the reason for the change back in December 2011. World War II came, and Lew Ayres was a pacifist. It just wouldn't do to have him in movies, being a conscientious objector while all those other actors were going off and fighting a war. Ayres would up serving as a medic, and resumed his career after the war more or less.