TCM Star of the Month May 2020: Edward G. Robinson

Edward G. Robinson's in Little Caesar (airing May 7 at 8:00 PM)

Now that we're in the first full week of a new month, it's time for a new Star of the Month on TCM. This time out, that star is Edward G. Robinson, who became known for playing gangster roles thanks to his breakout role in Little Caesar, but whose career spanned a wide range of roles and over 40 years until his final film released after his death. Robinson's movies air on TCM ever Thursday night in prime time, extending into Friday morning. This time, rather than a relatively chronological look at Robinson's career, we get one based on type of roles.

It's not surprising that the first up are the tough guy roles, which start at 8:00 PM with Little Caesar. I don't currently have a screencap saved of a 50-somthing Robinson looking rather frightening in a bathtub with a cigar in Key Largo (airing at 12:30 AM Friday, or late this evening in more westerly time zones).



On May 14, we turn to Robinson as a comic actor, and he actually did some good comedies, such as A Slight Case of Murder, which is on at 9:45 PM on May 14. There's also the very good The Whole Town's Talking, with Robinson in a double role, at 8:00 PM; and Larceny, Inc. at 11:30 PM.



The third Thursday has Robinson in "good guy roles", concluding with Robinson's final movie, Soylent Green, at 8:30 AM on Friday, May 22. There's another iconic good guy role in Double Indemnity (11:30 PM May 21). Some of the movies, however, I'm not quite certain I'd call Robinson a "good guy" as the roles are more ambiguous, such as Illegal at 5:15 AM May 22.



Finally, on May 28, there's Robinson in "dramatic" roles, which I suppose is as much a catch-all for the remaining movies TCM is showing as anything else. One of Robinson's best roles is in Scarlet Street, at 11:45 PM on May 28. One of Robinson's more interesting roles is as a Norwegian immigrant farmer in contemporary (ie. WWII) Wisconsin raising daughter Margaret O'Brien in Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, which kicks off the final night at 8:00 PM. It's one of several movies having Robinson in a variety of ethnic roles, along with the aforementioned Little Caesar and Robinson as a German doctor in the biopic Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, in which he plays the doctor who found an effective treatment for syphilis.