TCM Star of the Month: Donna Reed

It's been an unusually busy few days, especially as I've been "holding down the fort" solo while my husband travels on business. Here it is the 6th of the month already, and I'm just now posting about Turner Classic Movies' May schedule!

The first night honoring Donna Reed as Star of the Month was last evening, but there are still three more weeks of Reed movies to go!

Here's a rundown on some of the interesting Donna Reed movies showing later this month:

Next Wednesday evening, May 12th, a variety of Reed's dramas will be shown. GREEN DOLPHIN STREET (1947) is MGM historical soap opera at its finest. Along with Reed as Marguerite, the sweet sister thwarted in love by a trick of fate -- or a bad memory -- the film features compelling performances by Lana Turner and Van Heflin. The movie's got it all: Lana Turner giving birth during an earthquake! native uprising! and much more. The film won the Oscar for its Special Effects.

Other excellent films showing that night are THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945), a costume drama/horror film, and GUN FURY (1953), a very good Western with Rock Hudson.

However, readers may wish to skip the adventure film RAIDERS OF THE SEVEN SEAS (1953), which my 15-year-old Donna Reed-John Payne fan lamented "had no redeeming qualities whatsoever."

On Wednesday the 19th seven more films will be shown, including an early performance in the B film THE GET-AWAY (1941), which was a remake of PUBLIC HERO NO. 1 (1935) costarring Robert Sterling. EYES IN THE NIGHT (1942) is another early Reed film which stars Edward Arnold as a blind detective aided by an amazing dog.

THE WHOLE TRUTH (1958) is a nifty murder thriller costarring Stewart Granger and George Sanders.

Titles playing that night also include TROUBLE ALONG THE WAY (1953) with John Wayne and RANSOM! (1956) with Glenn Ford.

Two of Reed's finest films were saved for Wednesday, May 26th: FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953), for which Reed received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and John Ford's unforgettable World War II film THEY WERE EXPENDABLE (1945), also starring John Wayne and Robert Montgomery. It's very appropriate that these movies will be shown just a couple days in advance of Memorial Day weekend.

This month is a great opportunity to catch up on seeing some very interesting films starring a lovely actress.

I plan to take a look at some other films airing on TCM in May in the near future!

Update: Here's thoughts on TCM in May.