Monday, March 12, 2018

TCM Star of the Month March 2018: Elizabeth Taylor

Last week was the first full week of March after the end of 31 Days of Oscar. However, there wasn't a Star of the Month last week. Normally, TCM takes one day in the week and then every day that week for the month, they run the pictures of whoever is star of the month. This month, however, they're doing something different, in that they're running Elizabeth Taylor's movies every weeknight in prime time this week, starting tonight. Well, actually, they're starting a bit earlier, at 4:15 PM, with Cynthia. The Elizabeth Taylor movies are also going to start before prime time on Tuesday and Friday.

Prime time is relatively a progression through Taylor's career, with 40s stuff on Monday, the 50s on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the 60s and 70s stuff on Thursday and Friday. There's also a documentary on Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor: An Intimate Portrait, at 4:45 PM Friday.

What's interesting, however, is what's not getting shown. Taylor won two Best Actress Oscars. Butterfield 8 is on the TCM schedule at 8:00 PM Thursday. But Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf isn't. As far as I know, it's not that they couldn't get the rights. As things stand, it looks like TCM got a premiere (for them) with 1970's The Only Game in Town (12:30 AM Saturday).

Also not on the schedule is A Place in the Sun. TCM has run it enough in the past; why they're not showing it as part of this salute to Taylor, I don't know.

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