TCM Star of the Month September 2024: Lauren Bacall

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep (Sept. 16, 10:00 PM)

We're into a new month, and that means it's time for a new Star of the Month on TCM. This month, that honor goes to Lauren Bacall, which would be because this month sees the 100th anniversary of her birth, specifically on September 16. So every Monday in prime time in September, TCM is going to be showing her movies. TCM is only showing 20 movies, which you might think would be appropriate for four nights. But I'd bet Mondays (five nights) were selected in large part because the actual centenary falls on a Monday. And, in fact, there are only four nights of Bacall because Sept. 30 sees a salute to Truman Capote.

Lauren Bacall and Hoagy Carmichael in To Have and Have Not (Sept. 16, 8:00 PM)

I included a photo from The Big Sleep at the top of the post, since it's the one I've got that includes Bacall with her husband Humphrey Bogart. They made four movies together, and in fact TCM will be running all four of those movies in chronological order on Bacall's centenary on September 16. Ending the night, at 4:00 AM on Sept. 17, is a documentary, Bacall on Bogart.

The salute kicks off tonight with one of Bacall's movies at Fox that was in the FXM rotation ages ago, but I don't think has shown up for a while, Woman's World, tonight at 8:00 PM. Executive Clifton Webb wants to elevate one of his employees to vice-president, but he also believes that seeing the men's wives and how they handle the stresses of having an executive husband is important in finding the right man. So he brings three of the candidates and their wives to New York to make the decision. Bacall plays Mrs. Fred MacMurray.

September 9 kicks off at 8:00 PM with Written on the Wind, for which I only have a picture of the poster on my hard drive. But I had only posted that to Photobucket ages ago, so I wanted to put it up on Blogger. There's one other poster I've got, for Bright Leaf, which is on at 4:15 AM on September 24, so at the end of the final night of Bacall's salute.