TCM Star of the Month March 2020: Joe E. Brown

Joe E. Brown and Jack Lemmon in the finale of Some Like It Hot (March 24 at 8:00 PM)

I mentioned earlier that with 31 Days of Oscar being over, it's time to get back to the regular programming features on TCM. One is the spotlights; another is the Star of the Month. This time out, the Star of the Month is Joe E. Brown, whose rubbery face adorned a bunch of comedies in the 1930s before his career went south after leaving Warner Bros. Brown's movies will be on TCM every Wednesday in prime time, although I'm posting this one a day early because I've already got two posts planned for tomorrow.



Brown might be best known for Some Like It Hot, as I think the general public wouldn't recognize any of the 1930s movies. And, of course, it's a bit difficult to find good pictures of him considering that the image searches tend to focus on the TV judge. Another of his roles in a more prestigious movie was in A Midsummer Night's Dream, where he plays one of the members of Bottom's (James Cagney) comic acting troupe, a role which suited him about as well as you could expect when a studio had to cast so many Shakespearean roles with non-Shakespearean actors.

I was able to find a good picture from one of the movies that's airing this week, The Tenderfoot, which will be on at 9:15 PM Wednesday, March 4. Also on the schedule tomorrow night is the early musical On With the Show (1:30 AM), which I mentioned last April, and the Fox musical Pin-Up Girl at midnight. I'm mildly surprised TCM were able to get the rights to that one.