Monday, May 6, 2024

TCM Star of the Month May 2024: Sessue Hayakawa

Sessue Hayakawa in Bridge on the River Kwai (May 27, 10:00 PM)

We're into the first full week of a new month, and because it's a demographic checkbox month, we're going to get a Star of the Month on TCM who doesn't necessarily have too many movies to show, but fits the correct demographics. May is Asian-American/Pacific Islander month, so TCM is giving us someone of Asian descent, or in this case actually born in Japan: Sessue Hayakawa. His films will be shown Mondays in prime time, and it's also an opportunity for TCM to rerun that documentary on Hollywood's portrayal of Asians.

TCM is showing just 11 of Hayakawa's films, which might be the lowest number ever for a Star of the month, although a couple of people who got Sunday showings might have been less: Dorothy Dandridge and Paul Robeson come to mind. Note that even though there's going to be a war movie marathon over Memorial Day weekend as TCM usually does, it's not going to interrupt the salute to Hayakawa as he appeared in a pair of movies set in World War II: Three Came Home and Bridge on the River Kwai, both of which air on May 27.

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