CATCH A CLASSIC

TCM Spotlight: Noteworthy African American Performances TCM, beginning at 7 p.m.

Tonight’s film lineup featuring memorable performances from Black actors begins with two films featuring the powerful voice and presence of actor Rex Ingram: the film noir Moonrise (1948) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939), in which Ingram costars as Jim alongside Mickey Rooney’s title character. Next, Percy Rodrigues gives a fascinating and complex performance as an embittered, Black segregationist doctor dying of lung cancer in the Oscar-nominated drama The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (pictured) (1968), based on Carson McCullers’ novel. Finally, Sammy Davis Jr. plays a selfdestructive jazz musician in the drama/ musical A Man Called Adam (1966), which also features Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Brown, Ja’net DuBois (billed here as Jeanette Du Bois), Lola Falana and Morgan Freeman, in an uncredited, very early role as a party guest.