TCM Summer Under The Stars 2025

Updated for Week 5 after the jump. Time once again for Turner Classic Movies’ yearly tribute to one star per day for the month of August. Below I’m listing at least one pick for every day. These might include my favorites for each day if any, the new-to-me titles and/or any available rarities that I’m most likely to watch or DVR. I say “most likely” because there are just too many great titles — or at least ones I enjoy. Tell me what I missed in the comments.

But first, here is a handy table of the first-time honorees and this month’s TCM premières. All times are Eastern.

First-Time Stars		TCM Premières
Sat, Aug 2	Christopher Plummer	Sat. Aug 2	Aces High (1976)
Thurs, Aug 7	Ruby Dee		The Sound of Music (1965)
Tues, Aug 12	Pedro Armendariz		The Last Station (2009)
Sat, Aug 16	Charles Bronson	Thurs, Aug 7	Uptight (1968)
Mon, Aug 18	James Gleason		The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson (1990)
Sat, Aug 23	Gina Lollobrigida	Tues, Aug 12	Soledad’s Shawl (1952)
Tues, Aug 26	Tom Courtenay	Sat, Aug 16	Chato’s Land (1971)
Thurs, Aug 28	Donald O’Connor		Death Wish (1974)
		Sat, Aug 23	Strange Bedfellows (1965)
			The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956)
		Thurs, Aug 28	The Millkman (1950)
			Double Crossbones (1950)

And now the day-by-day rundown….

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Happy 120th Birthday, George Brent

George Brendan Nolan was born on this day in 1904 in Ballinsloe, County Galway, and he is today’s daytime star on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Handsome and debonair, he had a complicated childhood and adolescence involving being orphaned, moving to New York City, going back to Ireland, and becoming a courier for the Irish Republican Army. Allegedly he got into acting with Dublin’s Abbey Theatre Players only as cover for his IRA activities. Learning that his arrest was imminent, he left for Canada and made his way to the U.S. and Hollywood. (I couldn’t make this up, it’s in his biography.)

The tougher or goofier the dame, the better George Brent works. It's a gift and a skill ^PG #TCMParty
— #SaveTCM Party (@TCM_Party) March 15, 2024

More after the jump…

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Book Review: Charlie Chaplin vs. America is both shocking and familiar

Watching TCM recently, I saw a clip of Gloria DeHaven reminiscing about visiting Charlie Chaplin at his home when she was quite young. At first, she couldn’t connect the handsome guy who answered the door with the Little Tramp. She concluded, “I guess I was in love with two different people.” Certainly, this recognition of the dichotomy between Chaplin and his most famous creation resonated with me. It was my key takeaway from a 2014 biography of Chaplin, and it is a recurring theme in Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided by Scott Eyman. This new volume published by Simon & Shuster and available on October 31, is the story of how right-wing elements of the U.S. government and mainstream media conspired to essentially deport Chaplin from the U.S. in 1952. That may sound far-fetched, but Eyman brings the receipts. All the information in the book is meticulously sourced from a wide range of letters, articles, and government files. While Chaplin’s bifurcated personality certainly played a role in his troubles, the larger issue was a bunch of people who thought anyone who disagreed with them should be punished by shunning or exile and did everything in their power to make it happen. The tale is both shocking and shockingly familiar. More after the jump

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Turner Classic Movies Summer Under The Stars 2022 — Week 05 Picks

Well, we’re in the final week of TCM’s Summer Under The Stars (SUTS), the channel’s annual tribute to one star per day for the month of August. I’ve still got a little room on the DVR. Check out these last few days of picks! As always, all times are Eastern. Week 01 picks are here. Week 02 picks are here. Week 03 picks are here. Week 04 picks are here.

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Turner Classic Movies Summer Under The Stars 2022 — Week 04 Picks

We’re now coming into the stretch of TCM’s Summer Under The Stars (SUTS), the channel’s annual tribute to one star per day for the month of August. I’ve watched a lot of new-to-me films, some great, some not-so-great. Emphasis for these picks is on films I haven’t seen yet and those increasingly rare rarities. Fun fact: I got hooked on TCM for good on Jean Gabin Day during the 2011 SUTS, so in a roundabout way, SUTS led to TCM Party. Picks for each day after the jump. As always, all times are Eastern.

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Turner Classic Movies Summer Under The Stars 2022 — Week 03 Picks

Here is a list of what I’ll be watching and/or DVRing during Week 03 of TCM’s Summer Under The Stars (SUTS), the channel’s annual tribute to one star per day for the month of August. Emphasis is on films I haven’t seen yet and those increasingly rare rarities. Fun fact: I got hooked on TCM for good on Jean Gabin Day during the 2011 SUTS, so in a roundabout way, SUTS led to TCM Party. Picks for each day after the jump. As always, all times are Eastern.

This week is gonna kinda sorta be super random because I’m running late (it’s Tuesday as I write this) and I’m not crazy for anyone this week other than Joan Crawford and Toshiro Mifune, and many of these films play on TCM quite often. So I’ll really be looking for the odd and the rare.

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Turner Classic Movies Summer Under The Stars 2022 — Week 02 Picks

Here is a list of what I’ll be watching and/or DVRing during Week 02 of TCM’s Summer Under The Stars (SUTS), the channel’s annual tribute to one star per day for the month of August. Emphasis is on films I haven’t seen yet and those increasingly rare rarities. Fun fact: I got hooked on TCM for good on Jean Gabin Day during the 2011 SUTS, so in a roundabout way, SUTS led to TCM Party. Picks for each day after the jump. As always, all times are Eastern.

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Turner Classic Movies Summer Under The Stars 2022 — Week 01 Picks

Here is a list of what I’ll be watching and/or DVRing during TCM’s Summer Under The Stars (SUTS), the channel’s annual tribute to one star per day for the month of August. Emphasis is on films I haven’t seen yet and those increasingly rare rarities. Fun fact: I got hooked on TCM for good on Jean Gabin Day during the 2011 SUTS, so in a roundabout way, SUTS led to TCM Party. Picks for each day after the jump. As always, all times are Eastern.

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What A Character! The cast of LURED (1947)

I was a late bloomer with Lured. I didn’t see Douglas Sirk’s remake of the 1939 French film Pieges until the mid-teens of the present century. This comedy/drama/film noir is a bit complicated, and I don’t want to reveal too much for those who haven’t seen the film. It’s so much fun, you deserve to see it for yourself. But here goes: Never-lovelier Lucille Ball portrays Sandra Carpenter, an American showgirl stranded in London. She’s working as a taxi dancer when her friend and co-worker Lucy (Tanis Chandler) disappears, probably the latest victim of the “Poet Killer,” a shadowy murderer who advertises for his prey in the personals section of the newspaper and taunts the police by sending them love poems in the mail. When Sandra goes to Scotland Yard to try and find Lucy, she is recruited by Inspector Harley Temple (Charles Coburn) to go undercover for the Yard. She will be essentially acting as bait for the killer, answering any and all personal ads that look sketchy enough to be leads. The first seeks a dress model. She goes to the studio of Charles van Druten (Boris Karloff), a former fashion designer, who is certainly unhinged. Is he the Poet Killer?

Meanwhile, Sandra had been trying to audition for a better dancing gig, in a new show with real producers, Robert Fleming (George Sanders) and Julian Wilde (Cedric Hardwicke). Long story short, while answering another personal ad, Sandra encounters “unmitigated cad” Fleming, and sparks fly. She’s on duty at the time, but he keeps turning up in the most unlikely places as she pursues the investigation. Hmm…

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Lionel Atwill’s Double Life

Lionel Atwill, a fixture of action and horror films throughout the 1930s and 1940s, is a familiar face whose background was unknown to me, so I figured he’d be great to write about for the 7th Annual What A Character! Blogathon. To be honest, there’s a lot more story here than I expected.

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