TCM Star of the Month November 2017: James Stewart

I know it's not November yet, but I wanted to bring up the new Star of the Month on TCM because of the different scheduling. TCM's Star of the Month for November is James Stewart, who made a ton of memorable films at MGM before World War II and then made even more memorable movies after coming back from the War.

There are enough movies that TCM could run five nights of Stewart's movies, and have them continue into the next morning. That's something that TCM has done with several stars whose movies are in the old Turner library where TCM has an easier time getting the rights to run them. But this month, there are five Wednesdays and five Thursdays, and Thanksgiving comes up on the 23rd. I can understand TCM not wanting to have their Star of the Month on Thanksgiving night, and if you started prime time Wednesday into Thursday, you'd still have the star's movies going into Thanksgiving morning, a time that TCM probably wants to program differently. So TCM is starting off on Wednesday mornings, and going through Wednesday night with new themes starting on Thursday morning. And since Wednesday is November 1, that means that if I want to mention any of the early movies, I have to post the night before, still in October.

I've mentioned The Last Gangster (7:30 AM) and Speed (3:00 PM) before. But it's also the first time in a long time that Destry Rides Again (12:AM Thursday) is on the TCM schedule. I wish this one weren't in the overnight, although I suppose for people on the west coast it isn't. Stewart plays a man who reluctantly takes the sheriff's job in a truly wild "wild west" town and eventually brings justice. Marlene Dietrich plays the saloon singer.

Finally, there's also a documentary from 1987 that's going to be running multiple times during the month, with the first of them being Wednesday at 8:00 PM. Johnny Carson hosts, and since Stewart was still alive he's present as well.