Independence Day, not the movie

July 4 is of course the Independence Day holiday in the United States, and as you can probably expect, TCM is running a day of Americana-themed programming. Not all of them are Revolutionary War movies, as has been the case in past years; TCM is running Yankee Doodle Dandy at 8:00 PM for example.

But I notice in looking at the schedule that there's a movie that I think is a TCM premiere: Four Jills in a Jeep, overnight at 1:15 AM. (That's still on Wednesday evening for those of you on the west coast.) Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Mitzi Mayfair, and Martha Raye play themselves, four entertainers who talk their way into doing a USO tour for the soldiers on the front lines in Europe and Africa during World War II. The four women get more than they bargain for, and several of Fox's bigger contract players do cameo numbers. Like the recently blogged about Northern Pursuit, it's another morale-booster, but it's not bad at all.

There's also another chance to catch The Flag, which I don't think has been on TCM in five years. It'll be on early tomorrow morning at 5:15 AM. Francis X. Bushman plays George Washington in this story about how he got Betsy Ross (Enid Bennett) to make the first American flag. It was produced by the Technicolor company as a way to promote their color film process, which was still in the two-strip stage at the time.

Interestingly, FXM isn't doing anything special for the day. The closest they did was to run Pin Up Girl, a Betty Grable morale booster, yesterday afternoon and early this morning, but I forgot to DVR it.

It's not a movie, but I'll leave you with this bit of Americana for Independence Day: