TCM and B-days

TCM is kicking off its Monday morning schedule with Earthworm Tractors, an entertaining enough little comedy starring Joe E. Brown that I've mentioned a number of tiems in the past. The reason that TCM has scheduled it is because of the presence further down the cast of one Dick Foran.

Tomorrow happens to be the birth anniversary of Dick Foran (1910-1979). Foran was one of those actors who never really hit the big time. He appeared down the cast list in films such as The Petrified Forest, where he plays Bette Davis' boyfriend working at the desert service station. When he got the chance to star, it was generally as a cowboy in western movies, in the era before John Wayne's Stagecoach where westerns were not so prestigious. In fact, TCM is showing several of these westerns as part of their day of Foran's films.

This is one of the really good things about TCM, or more specifically, the folks who program it. Who else would recognize Dick Foran? And, of course, it's not just Foran; I mentioned the salute to Japanese director Inoshiro Honda the other day. TCM spends quite a few evenings recognizing lesser-remembered people, and sometimes they even spend an entire monthly spotlight honoring an aspect of filmmaking that normally doesn't get much mention: just look at last January's salute to cinematographer Jack Cardiff.