Memorial Day weekend is here again

This coming Monday is the Memorial Day holiday in the US, which is the unofficial start of the summer but of course has its origins in remembering the dead of the US Civil War. Apparently "Memorial Day" as a term started being used all the way back in the 1880s but didn't become the official name until the 1960s. Anyhow, TCM is showing a bunch of war movies as usual, but focusing on World War II probably because Hollywood was around during that war and with the conflict being a total war, lots and lots of movies about it were made.

This time around, the marathon starts at 8:00 tonight, and runs for 3-1/2 days until the start of the Tuesday morning schedule (a Bob Hope birthday salute). We get another airing of Fox's Twelve O'Clock High tomorrow morning at 6:15 AM, two Noir Alley airings of the war noir The Clay Pigeon at the traditional times for Noir Alley.

I thought I mentioned William Wyler's Memphis Belle before, and it turns out I did back in September 2015 when TCM had the spotlight on the book about the directors who went off to World War II. That one's going to be on early tomorrow morning at 4:00 AM, and is probably the highlight of the first day of the marathon. Well, up until December 7 (ooh, another film I blogged about during the Five Came Back spotlight) at 6:30 PM tomorrow.