Monday, August 12, 2019

Ann Sothern Day on TCM

August 12 on TCM's Summer Under the Stars is given over to the films of Ann Sothern. When it somes to Sothern and TCM, I'd guess the most common thing to see are the Maisie movies since there was a whole slew of them made at MGM and TCM can get the library that Ted Turner bought (the MGM/WB/RKO movies) more easily than the stuff other conglomerates own.

As such, it should be unsurprising that today's lineup includes five of the Maisie movies, running from 9:00 AM through to 5:00 PM. But I'd like to mention some of the dramatic work that follows later in the day. First at 5:00 is another chance to see the recent Noir Alley selection Shadow on the Wall that I blogged about not too long ago.

At 8:00 PM, there's the excellent A Letter to Three Wives, in which Sothern is one of the wives who is informed by an unseen fourth woman that she (the fourth woman) is going to run off with one of the husbands. Sothern actually gets to play the wife of Kirk Douglas, which is an interesting pairing.

Then at midnight, there's The Whales of August, with Sothern playing the neighbor to summer visitors Bette Davis and Lillian Gish. Sothern is the one who got the Oscar nomination, although Gish really deserved one too.

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