Wednesday, January 3, 2024

The other two programming spotlights on TCM in January

I mentioned TCM's Star of the Month Robert Mitchum yesterday, and unsurprisingly that's not the only month-long spotlight on TCM this month. In fact, there are two others.

First up, on Wednesdays, there's a salute to Columbia Pictures, which took on the Columba name 100 years ago. Now, TCM doesn't have quite as easy access to Columbia's movies as they do with Warner Bros. for their centenary last April, so instead of an entire month with movies from just the one studio, we get five Wednesdays worth of Columbia's work, grouped more or less chronologically, two decades each week. The films aren't quite chronological each night, as tonight sees several 1930s movies before a new-to-me silent, The Belle of Broadway at 4:00 AM. In related news, the 100th anniversary of MGM is coming up later this year, so I wouldn't be surprised to see an entire month of MGM movies.

The other spotlight will be on Thursdays, as there's a six-part series called "The Power of Film", based around the work of a UCLA professor of film studies, and a couple of his students who have created a six-part documentary based on the professor's book. Note that this will take us into February, although TCM is doing things a bit different this year in that, as I understand it, 31 Days of Oscar is not one calendar month this time around, but starting several days into February and continuing for a week and a half or so into March. As I write this I don't think the rest of the March schedule has been released.

TCM's article on the Columbia spolight can be found here, while the page for The Power of Film is here.

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