Thursday, June 14, 2012

Burl Ives birthday programming

TCM decided to spend today giving a birthday salute to Dorothy McGuire, which is no bad thing. However, today is also the birthday of Oscar-winning actor Burl Ives (1909-1995), so I was wondering which of his movies TCM could show if they had wanted to honor him with a birthday salute.

It turns out that if they wanted to TCM, could program such a day without much difficulty. In fact, TCM showed Ives' Ensign Pulver the other night as part of its salute to Larry Hagman. I know that TCM has shown Ives' Oscar performance in The Big Country before, although that's a United Artists picture that's presumably in the hands of what's left of MGM. (Or, at least, MGM/UA and its future versions released the DVDs.) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a TCM staple, even though I don't particularly care for Tennessee Williams. East of Eden is another good choice, even if you don't like James Dean. One movie that I'd like to see show up again is Just You and Me, Kid, since I don't think it's on DVD. There are also a few that I don't think I've seen before, such as Let No Man Write My Epitaph.

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