TCM Starring Joan Bennett All Night May 11 – Plus Gallery

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Complete 'Starring Joan Bennett' May 11 TCM Schedule

*All times EST

8:00 pm Scarlet Street (1945) starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea
10:00 pm Trade Winds (1938) starring Fredric March, Joan Bennett, Ralph Bellamy
12:00 am The Housekeeper's Daughter (1939) starring Joan Bennett, Adolphe Menjou, John Hubbard
1:30 am The Woman on the Beach (1947) starring Joan Bennett, Robert Ryan, Charles Bickford
3:00 am House of Dark Shadows (1970) starring Jonathan Frid, Joan Bennett, Grayson Hall
4:45 am Eleven Men and a Girl (1930) starring Joan Bennett, Joe E. Brown, James Hall

I'd welcome Star of the Month treatment for Joan Bennett, so it's pretty exciting that Turner Classic Movies has at least allotted her an entire night of programming, six films in all, including the TCM premier of her key movie, Scarlet Street. I was a bit stunned to see the big "P" for Premiere next to this one in my Now Playing Guide, as I've seen it so many times I just assumed a few of those viewings had been on TCM. I guess that explains why I was surprised it wasn't being paired with The Woman in the Window (1944)--that must just be my personal DVD programming (and I'm sure of few of you do the same with those twin noir classics!)

If you're trying to introduce Joan Bennett to new viewers there's nowhere better to start than Scarlet Street, which TCM gives the prime 8 pm EST slot in the schedule. Bennett's performance as Kitty is one of my favorites by any actress, ever. Her Lazy Legs is so subtle, full of causal remarks and little glances, countless little mockeries that slip by right over Edward G. Robinson's head.

But it's another TCM premiere, Trade Winds, that I'm most excited they've chosen to air as I've never seen it and it's the movie that rescued what was then a sagging career. Brian Kellow explains in The Bennetts: An Acting Family that this is the film where her hair is turned dark and her voice is dropped an octave lower, which, I'd imagine, introduces us to the Joan Bennett who'd star in those Fritz Lang classics that followed. Kellow writes that "The color change triggered the emergence of a new and intriguing screen persona ... In Trade Winds, she was transformed--tougher, sexier, more worldly" (222) Trade Winds also stars another favorite, Fredric March. I'm pretty excited to finally catch it!

I suppose the less said about Eleven Men and a Girl the better, but that doesn't stop me from looking at in in detail in a post written just before this one! When I spotted Joan Bennett night on TCM it woke me up to the fact that there's not much of her across Immortal Ephemera and since I certainly give preference to that stars I really like here, that needed to be corrected. In addition to the look at Eleven Men and a Girl and the brand new gallery of vintage Joan Bennett movie cards and collectibles that follows immediately below, I've also created a Joan Bennett Hub Page, which I only hope grows in time as I cover her interesting career even more.