Briefs for January 9-10, 2018

So I was looking at the online TCM schedule this morning to see if there was anything interesting worth blogging about. What I noticed first was the popover in the bottom right corner, with a picture of Ben Mankiewicz and an ad for the TCM Backlot. I don't know how long it's been there, but I don't think it can have been too long. The one thing that's not completely obnoxious about it is that with my browser, there's enough blank space on the side of the schedule that the ad doesn't cover up the schedule, the way pop-out things do on other sites. That and it's there right away; some sites have things that only show up after you scroll down the page and then you have to get rid of them.

As for tonight's schedule, it's a night of June Havoc movies. The night starts off at 8:00 PM with the 1945 version of Brewster's Millions, which I last mentioned back in 2013. I don't know if they'll ever run the Richard Pryor version, but I might be interested in seeing some of the other versions that were made. I don't know how many of them are easily available for TCM to get. As for the other movies, there are a couple of musicals with titles that look familiar, while there are a couple of other movies (Once a Thief at 9:30 PM and Powder Town at 2:15 AM) that I think are new to me.

Tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM is Triple Cross, one of those movies that I can't remember the last time I watched, otherwise I would have thought about doing a full-length post on it. It's based on a true story. Christopher Plummer plays Eddie Chapman, a British criminal who wound up in prison in Jersey in the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands were the only British territory invaded by the Nazis, and Chapman took the opportunity to make nice with the Germans when they invaded. Well, only nice enough to become an agent for them; when he was sent to England he decided to become a double agent.