In 1973 and 1975, PBS aired a terrific documentary about Stalin that was written and produced for the BBC by Hungarian emigre documentarian Robert Vas (1931-1978). Running 3 hours, it was a very powerful mix of period film (including fascinating and chilling examples of Soviet Stalinist propoganda) and contemporary dramatic readings from British actors Peter Copley, Sebastian Shaw, Lee Montague, Jill Balcon, and Michael Gough, who was the narrator.

If TCM could obtain it from the BBC's archives (a very tall order, I know) it would be a tremendous service to both history and the art of documentary filmmaking to air it. It is one of the best documentaries about Stalin ever made.

Now that TCM has struck a deal with Fox to show their films, I think "Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days" would be a great documentary to show. The focus is on her relationship to the studio and the filming of "Something's Got To Give", without the controversial murder/suicide/overdose questions, so it would be very appropriate for a channel which focuses on movies and moviemakers. And it ends with a forty minute reconstruction of what "Something's Got To Give" would have looked like, using the available footage. This is significant since for many years the public accepted the story floated by the studio (and Hedda Hopper) that the footage was unusable because Marilyn was so out of it, acting as if "underwater". This was probably a ploy to establish an insurance claim, even though it blackened the name of their biggest star. Anyone who gets a look at this reconstruction will see that Marilyn was stunning in her maturity and very much in the moment. The camera still loved her. This documentary includes an astonishing revelation from studio documents (and not something known to previous biographers, apparently) that the studio itself regretted its action and quietly rehired her just before she died to complete the film, but it was the humiliation of her public firing that has become the history. This fascinating documentary goes a long way in reestablishing Marilyn's tarnished professional reputation.

How about Ross McElwee's landmark first-person documentary, SHERMAN'S MARCH?

Fragments Jerusalem a 5 hour documentary

Girl 27 (2007)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912586/

Its heartbreaking. In a nutshell it's about the chorus girls for MGM in 1937 that were tricked, bussed out to the middle of nowhere, and basically prostituted as "entertainment" for a sales party they threw. One in particular, Patricia Douglas, #27 on a roster of over 100.

Its currently on netflix but things never stay there for long, and it's a cold hard look at the power and influence these studios wielded in that era as at the time they made Douglas look like the criminal in the papers and the case just vanished. It makes my blood boil just thinking about it.

Yeah, I think I saw that one on PBS. But, it is good, and not well-known, so sure, it would be a good one to show.

Others are fine that talk about the studio system and the people in the business such as the photographers who took the stills of the stars and the men that ran the studios. Its just would be nice to see stories on these women who helped make Hollywood.

I would like to documentaries on actresses Ann Sheridan , Kay Francis and Norma Shearer,