Memorial Day Marathon Continues
TCM, beginning at 6:15 a.m.
Turner Classic Movies’ several-day marathon of war- and military-themed films continues all day today with the following lineup of titles: James Cagney in
The Fighting 69th (1940), which follows the 69th Infantry Regiment during World War I; Mister Roberts (1955), the comedy/drama set aboard a cargo ship in World War II’s Pacific Theater, led by Henry Fonda and Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Jack Lemmon; an encore of last night’s Noir Alley feature, Bad for Each Other (1954); The Naked and the Dead (1958), director Raoul Walsh’s World War II drama based on Norman Mailer’s novel; The Dirty Dozen (1967), director Robert Aldrich’s wartime action classic featuring an ensemble led by
Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown and Best Supporting Actor nominee John Cassavetes; the Best Picture-nominated The Great Escape (1963), based on a real-life escape by Allied prisoners from a World War II German POW camp; The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944), director William Wyler’s documentary about the last World War II mission of the titular plane, followed by the TCM premiere of The Cold Blue (2018), a documentary made from many hours of lost footage from Wyler’s Memphis Belle film; The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), the drama about World War II veterans adjusting to life back home that earned Wyler a Best Director Oscar along with wins for Best Picture, Best Actor (Fredric March) and Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell, an actual war veteran who had lost both hands during his service); The Flying Fleet (1929), airing as part of TCM’s Silent Sunday Night franchise; and two foreign dramas set during World War II: The Burmese Harp (1956), from Japan, and The Cranes Are Flying (1957), from the Soviet Union, both airing as part of the TCM Imports franchise.