Quick Preview of TCM in May

A few days ago Turner Classic Movies posted a preview of the channel's May schedule.

The May Star of the Month is Edward G. Robinson. 30 Robinson films will be shown spread across Thursday evenings that month. (Update: The final total of Robinson films shown will be 29.)

Robinson was previously the Star of the Month in August 1994 and May 2002.

The May Noir Alley films are FALLEN ANGEL (1945), MILDRED PIERCE (1945), THE CRIMSON KIMONO (1959), CORNERED (1945), and A KISS BEFORE DYING (1956).

The first three Wednesdays of the month will focus on films with Asian themes, with titles ranging from DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI (1937) starring Anna May Wong, PHANTOM OF CHINATOWN (1940) with Keye Luke, LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING (1955), FLOWER DRUM SONG (1961), and SAYONARA (1957).

I'm especially looking forward to SONG OF INDIA (1949) in this series, starring Sabu, Turhan Bey, and Gail Russell.

A notable title showing on TCM in May is THE SILVER CORD (1933) with Joel McCrea, Irene Dunne, and Frances Dee, which I'm not certain has aired on the network before. The oddball plot concerns a mother who's unhealthily obsessed with her adult sons. Dee steals the film in a moving performance. She and McCrea married a few months after the film was released.

Also of note: An eight-film birthday tribute to Robert Montgomery on May 21st includes FUGITIVE LOVERS (1934), costarring Madge Evans, which to my knowledge hasn't been shown on TCM in many years. It also hasn't been released on DVD by the Warner Archive.

Mother's Day will be celebrated on May 10th with a lineup including THREE DARING DAUGHTERS (1948), LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA (1962), seen at left, and BABY BOOM (1987).

As usual, Memorial Day Weekend will focus on war films, concluding with a series of "homecoming" films on Monday evening, the 25th, including THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), and the underrated HOMECOMING (1948).

May themes will include psychiatry, Mexico, royalty, beauty contests, pianists, tap dancing, ransom, college musicals, fairy tales, and female pioneers in medicine, aviation, science, and more.

Additional filmmakers receiving multifilm tributes will include Tennessee Williams, Vittorio De Sica, Natalie Wood, Basil Dearden, Katharine Hepburn, James Mason, Bette Davis, Jean Peters, and Don DeFore.

I'll have much more on the May schedule posted here at the end of April.

Meanwhile, 31 Days of Oscar continues in February. The March Star of the Month will be Joe E. Brown and Jane Russell will be featured in April.

Update: For more on TCM in May 2020, please visit TCM in May: Highlights and TCM Star of the Month: Edward G. Robinson.