Tuesday, June 4, 2024

TCM "Star" of the Month June 2024

Now that we're into the first full week of a new month, it's time for a new Star of the Month on TCM. This time, we don't get one star. Instead, TCM is putting the spotlight on Fox and a bunch of the contract players who became stars. Every Tuesday in prime time, TCM will be highlighting them, a whole bunch of stars with most of them getting one or maybe two films.

I'm sorry to say I'm not the biggest fan of this, as I feel it would be better if some of them could get a real tribute. But I wouldn't be surprised if that was more difficult for TCM to get the rights to a bunch of films from one star, since some of those would be rather lesser-known movies.

Anyhow, looking at the lineup, Shirley Temple kicks things off tonight with Bright Eyes, which is a movie that I love although it's more for the presence of Jane Withers who's tremendous as the child villain of the piece. There's also The Gang's All Here, which has Carmen Miranda and some absolutely ridiculous musical numbers from Busby Berkeley.

Linda Darnell is one of the people who gets a pair of movies, both of those coming on June 11. Even Marilyn Monroe only gets one (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes on June 18). On June 25, there's the 1933 version of State Fair, which is listed for Janet Gaynor, although it's as much of a vehicle for Will Rogers, who really deserves to be mentioned more as one of Fox's early stars. (And speaking of Rogers, I still have that box set that I'll finally start getting through the rest of now that I've got the upstairs Blu-ray player and can watch movies any time without being disturbed.

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