Briefs for the beginning of October, 2021

Ah, so we're into the beginning of a new month. Tht being October, it's the month where Halloween comes at the end. So, unsurprisingly, everybody trots out the horror stuff, and TCM is no exception. They've got a bunch of horror movies peppered throughout the month's schedule, although it climaxes on the weekend of Halloween, October 31 being a Sunday this year. TCM is having a horror marathon starting on the morning of the 29th. However, there are already a bunch of horror films from the 1930s this morning and afternoon.

I watched a couple of shorts recently, most of them unfortunately not being listed on the TCM schedule since the redesign last year. One was a Crime Does Not Pay short, They're Always Caught. If this one seems familiar to you, it's probably because the movie was extended into B-movie length a few years later as Kid Glove Killer, a little Van Heflin B movie that I absolutely love, about CSI as it was 80 years ago.

The other short was Olive Oyl for President, a Popeye short running in the 10:00 AM Saturday portion of the Saturday matinee block. Popeye makes a disparaging remark to Olive about politics, and she responds by concussing him with a frying pan. Popeye has a dream sequence about Olive being elected President. Some may find the dated policies sexist, although I was more reminded of the Simpsons where Homer becomes sanitation commissioner and institutes trash collection policies so extravagant he bankrupts the city. More importantly, however, is that the cartoon ended before the time scheduled for the start of the next B movie; I think they're going through the Perry Mason movies right now. But that started immediately after the cartoon, so if you were trying to record just the B-movie, you missed the start.

If you missed The Innocents which had a TCM airing today as part of their 24 hour salute to the centenary of actress Deborah Kerr, don't worry: it's going to be on FXM again today at 11:25 AM, and tomorrow at 3:00 AM.

As for recent passings, I probably should have mentioned director Melvin Van Peebles, who died a week ago at the age of 89. Mevlin directed such notable blaxploitation movies as Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, and was the father of Mario Van Peebles, who also became a director of such movies as New Jack City.

There's also Tommy Kirk, a Disney child star who's probably best remembered for his role in Old Yeller. Kirk was 79.