The IMDb says that the OAR of The Devil's Bride is 1.66:1. If TCM lists it as letterboxed, then it should have thin black bars on the top and bottom in SD. In HD, it should be a bit wider than a 1.33:1 film, with black bars on the sides.

Sadly, it isn't unusual for 4x3 TV shows to be cropped top and bottom, and shown in 16x9. More often, they are stretched in such a way that the center has little stretching, but the edges have more. I call that the fun house mirror effect. Another way of fitting 4x3 to a 16x9 screen is to zoom a bit, but leave thin black bars on both sides.

Welcome to the boards. Sorry I'm late to the party, I haven't check this forum lately.

I think part of the problem is unfortunately just about all networks bow to the wishes of the vast majority of TV viewers who hate letterboxing because they can't stand "those damn black bars". That means that many times there are no copies in the film's OAR and when TCM orders one it has to be made especially for them.

Sometimes the original film elements no longer exist or are in such poor condition it would require a costly restoration to make a new copy. There have been a few cases where TCM has paid for a restoration, but obviously can't afford to do that for every film.

From experience, I've also learned that most of the people who work in the shipping departments of studios and distributors are not film buffs and may not even know the differences between pan & scan and letterbox. So if there's 200 copies of a film on the shelf, but only one is letterboxed, it's pretty easy to see how the wrong one is pulled and shipped to TCM.

It sure is tough for TCM being the only kid on the block who wants show films the way they were meant to be shown.

I'm surprised that someone more knowledgeable than I hasn't answered by now, but I'll take a shot -

It is my understanding that TCM's policy is to show films in their Original Aspect Ratio, whenever possible. But, as we both know, they aren't always in OAR. Some are not available in transfers that are in OAR. Sometimes TCM believes they are getting a film in OAR, but they were really sent a pan-and-scan version, and have to show it that way. Once in a while, TCM has both prints, and grabs the wrong one to show. TCMpgmmr has posted that for a film or two. BTW, The Green Slime is really in 2.35:1, and I started a thread, complaining about the 4x3 showing. In 4x3, we only see 57% of the film.

Then, there are some other factors:

When the film world was first moving to wide screen, often films were shot in 35mm Spherical, which means the image on the film was 1.37:1, but they were meant to be matted to 1.85:1. Because TV was 4x3, and VHS is 4x3, these films were sometimes shown in a full, unmatted, 1.37:1 version, and that is the only version ready to be shown on TV today.

1.66:1 films are rarely shown in their OAR. It is close enough to 1.33:1 that some (not me!) think it's okay to show in 1.33:1. Sometimes that is from a 35mm Spherical print, so there is nothing missing, it just hasn't been matted to 1.66:1, so we see some extra at the top and bottom, like with unmatted 1.85:1 Spherical films. But, sometimes a matted 1.66:1 film is rematted down to 1.33:1, so we lose some of the sides.

1.85:1 films, both Spherical films, and anamorphic films - which are first squeezed horizontally onto the 1.37:1 film frame, then stretched back to 1.85:1 during projection, and don't require matting - are almost always shown in 1.78:1 (16x9) when shown in HD, losing just a bit off each side. In the very few cases where a 1.85:1 film is shown in OAR, you will see a very thin black bar on the top and bottom of your screen, unless your TV has too much 'overscan.'

Also, there is now "Super 35," which is shot "open matte," because it is meant to be used to produce various aspect ratios from the same film. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is an example of an open matte Super 35 film from which both 1.33:1 and 1.85:1 prints were made. Being more recent, these are usually in their intended theatrical aspect ratio on DVD, which is usually 1.85:1. But, they are usually shown in 1.78:1 on HDTV.

If I screwed up, or omitted anything, hopefully I will be corrected by some of the more knowledgeable people here.