Briefs for Dec. 6-7, 2022

I haven't been paying attention to the TCM schedule at all, thanks to being swamped with work. I didn't notice until this afternoon that TCM is running a documentary on composer Max Steiner this evening. It's going to be on at 8:00 PM, although I doubt anybody is going to read this post before that. Thankfully, as with a lot of these documentaries getting a premiere on TCM, there will be the first airing at 8:00 PM, one feature movie, and then a second airing of the documentary. With that in mind, we get Casablanca at 10:15 PM, followed by the repeat of the documentary at 12:15 AM.

Tomorrow is December 7, which means Pearl Harbor Day and the anniversary of the entry of the US into World War II. TCM is marking the occasion as always, with a bunch of movies related to the Pacific theater of the war, or at least the war as it affected the west coast. One thing I don't think I've mentioned before is the short Victory Quiz at 10:45 AM. It's a Pete Smith short asking questions about the war and military inventions in general. As one of the IMDb reviewers says, it's probably more interesting if you can watch with other people and see who gets the most right answers.

Slightly more surprisingly, FXM is also running a bunch of military-themed movies tomorrow, although not all of them are World War II related. The day starts with Thunder Birds at 7:10 AM, followed by the interesting Destination Gobi at 8:30 AM. Robert Wagner shows up for Between Heaven and Hell at 10:00 AM. Marines, Let's Go, at 11:40 AM, is set in Tokyo, although it's against the backdrop of the Korean War. Finally, there's Edgar Ulmer's final film, The Cavern, at 1:25 PM.

I was surprised and sadded to read of the passing yesterday of Kirstie Alley, at the age of 71. Alley was of course best known for her role on Cheers, but she was also a star of Look Who's Talking, one of those 80s movies that I have to admit I haven't seen before. She was also Lt. Saavik in the second of the Star Trek movies.

I actually do have movies to blog about for the rest of the week, or at least Wednesday and Friday, considering that I'll be doing a post for the Thursday Movie Picks blogathon on Thursday.