Briefs for May 14-15, 2017

I've got a full-length review coming up later in the day, but I was looking through the TCM and FXM Retro schedules and there are a few things I wanted to mention.

First, in my last briefs posts earlier in the week, I mentioned one of those Canadian "Spotlight" posts. The one that first brought the series to my attention when I saw it on TCM some years back, Spotlight No. 3, is going to be on TCM this morning after the Noir Alley selection, so around 11:45 AM. This one includes the value of the elements in the human body (not much), as well as a hill in New Brunswick that has strange magnetic qualities.

This being Mothers' Day, TCM brings out a lot of the usual suspsects for films about mothers. Mildred Pierce, for example, gets its umpteenth Mothers' Day showing at 2:00 PM, and there's I Remember Mama at 8:00 PM. Pocketful of Miracles, the remake of Lady for a Day, shows up at 10:30 PM, and that one doesn't show up quite as often. Frankly I wouldn't mind seeing a programmer daring enough to show things like Throw Momma From the Train, Our Mother's House, or Autumn Sonata on Mothers' Day.

This week's Silent Sunday Nights is a series of five one-reelers, so as always I have no idea what order they're going to show up in. They run from 1:00 to 2:00 AM, and are all Mack Sennett-directed shorts that are over 100 years old.

Finally, FXM Retro has brought Gospel Road out of the vault, showing it twice tomorrow, at 3:00 AM and 1:35 PM. They probably should have brought it out last month for easter. It's not quite my thing, but people who like the music of Johnny Cash will probably find it interesting.