Private Screenings: Liza Minnelli

TCM is premiereing a new Private Screenings interview with actress Liza Minnelli tonight at 10:00 PM ET. It's rather an odd time to premiere it, although there will be a repeat on Tuesday at 8:00 PM. Tuesday's airing is part of a night of Liza Minnelli movies; tonight's comes as part of a night of films directed by her father, Vincente Minnelli. At 8:00 PM is the week's Essential, Meet Me In St. Louis, a movie that I personally dislike. Sure enough, the run-up to this week's airing of Meet Me In St. Louis included Hugh Martin's Word of Mouth piece in which he talks about how Arthur Freed didn't just want Martin to write a song for the people to sing on the trolley; he wanted a song about the trolley.

A better film, and one that I've also recommended in the past, is The Clock, which comes on at 11:00 PM, immediately following the Private Screenings interview.

The proceedings will be ended tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM with a 1980s documentary in which Liza looks back at her father's movies.