Another TCM programming change I should have mentioned

Last week, I pointed out that TCM was scheduling Saturday mornings to be like the old Saturday matinees with shorts, a western, and other stuff. What I didn't think to mention was that TCM added a second showing of Noir Alley. Not to the Saturday morning block, although it would be fun to blow the kiddies' minds with movies like Double Indemnity or The Big Heat.

The new airing of Noir Alley is on at midnight, that being the midnight between Saturday and Sunday, so late Saturday evening in the more westerly time zones. I suppose you could say that the movie begins around 12:03 AM Sunday after Eddie Muller's intro. This showing is actually the same movie as will be run ten hours later in the old (and still there) Noir Alley time slot of 10:00 AM Sunday.

Today being St. Patrick's Day, it's interesting to think of the contrast between the traditionally light, doe-eyed look at Irish-Americans we got in old Hollywood movies with the whole idea of noir. And yet, TCM is running what might be the one noir I can think of as possibly being appropriate for St. Patrick's Day -- Crossfire. I think I've posted it before, but the book that the movie was based on had a guy get murdered because he was gay and the killer didn't like a gay guy propositioning one of his friends. In the movie, it's changed to the dead guy being Jewish. The key person asked to help ferret out the murderer is an Irish-American soldier, and his commanding officer plays on the themes of anti-Irish bigotry to get him to understand why he has to rat out somebody who'd kill a guy for being Jewish.

Surprisingly, TCM isn't airing The Quiet Man on St. Patrick's Day.