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Why doesn't Turner Classic Movies show its excellent two-part biography "Brando: A TCM Original Documentary" (2007) anymore? Yet another reason why The Great Marlon deserves to be Star of the Month.

TCM On Demand for April 3, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. One Foot in Heaven (1941) -- Fredric March, Martha Scott, Beulah Bondi, Gene Lockhart, Elisabeth Fraser, Harry Davenport, Laura Hope Crews, Grant Mitchell, Moroni Olsen, Frankie Thomas, Jerome Cowan, Ernest Cossart, Nana Bryant, Carlotta Jelm, Peter Caldwell. This real-life drama, starring March as a Methodist minister, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. It was based on the 1940 memoir by author Hartzell Spence (1908-2001), who was the editor of the World War II military magazine "Yank." March and Scott headline the movie as Spence's parents, the Rev. William Spence and Hope Morris Spence. Caldwell portrays Hartzell Spence as a child, and then gives way to Thomas, who plays the future writer as a young adult. The film was directed by Irving Rapper ("Now, Voyager," "The Corn Is Green"). Expires April 9, 2015. 2. One Man's Way (1964) -- Don Murray, Diana Hyland, William Windom, Virginia Christine, Carol Ohmart, Veronica Cartwright, Liam Sullivan, June Dayton, Ian Wolfe, Charles Lampkin, Arthur Peterson, Hope Summers, Virginia Sale, Rory O'Brien, David Alan Bailey. Murray stars as the Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993), the world-renowned minister and author who wrote the 1952 bestseller "The Power of Positive Thinking." Hyland, who co-stars as his wife Ruth Stafford Peale, made her feature film debut in this production. The film biography was directed by Denis Sanders, whose 1962 drama "War Hunt" was the first theatrical film for actors Robert Redford, Sydney Pollack (later an Academy Award-winning producer and director), Tom Skerritt and George Hamilton. Expires April 9, 2015. 3. The Sandpiper (1965) -- Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Eva Marie Saint, Charles Bronson, Robert Webber, James Edwards, Torin Thatcher, Tom Drake, Douglas Henderson, Morgan Mason. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, this drama stars Taylor as an artist and single mother who resides near the Big Sur coastal community in central California. She soon becomes involved with the headmaster of an Episcopal school attended by her son. The film won the Academy Award as Best Original Song for "The Shadow of Your Smile" (Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster). This was the third of 10 feature films -- and a made-for-television movie -- that co-starred Taylor and Burton. They were married twice (from 1964 to 1974 and 1975 to 1976). Taylor's son in the film was played by Mason, whose father was the distinguished actor James Mason. The youth grew up to work in the Reagan Administration and in the film industry as a producer. He is now 61 and married to singer Belinda Carlisle, formerly of the Go-Go's. Expires April 9, 2015.

She married four times. After her divorce from Lennon, she was married to an Italian hotel owner named Roberto Bassanini from 1970 to 1973. Then she was married to a British engineer named John Twist from 1976 to 1983 (her first autobiography in 1978 was titled "A Twist of Lennon"). She wed her last husband, night club owner Noel Charles, in 2002. He died in 2013.

TCM On Demand for April 2, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Lust for Life (1956) -- Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, James Donald, Pamela Brown, Everett Sloane, Henry Daniell, Madge Kennedy, Noel Purcell, Niall MacGinnis, Jill Bennett, Lionel Jeffries, Laurence Naismith, Eric Pohlmann, Jeanette Sterke. Directed by the versatile Vincente Minnelli, this biography of the tortured but talented Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh earned four Academy Award nominations and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar win for Quinn's portrayal of fellow artist Paul Gaugin. Douglas, who actually looks like Van Gogh in the movie, was nominated for Best Actor, but lost that year to Yul Brynner from "The King and I." The movie's adapted screenplay earned an Oscar nomination for Norman Corwin, who based it on Irving Stone's 1934 novel. The film also received a nomination for Best Color Art Direction-Set Decoration (Cedric Gibbons, Hans Peters, E. Preston Ames, Edwin B. Willis and F. Keogh Gleason). The drama was produced by John Houseman, who won a Best Supporting Actor award 17 years later for "The Paper Chase." Now 101, Douglas is the oldest-living person on the American Film Institute's 1999 list of the top 50 greatest screen legends of all time. He was ranked No. 17 in the category of Top 25 Male Legends. The other living members on the list are Sidney Poiter (the No. 22 male) and Sophia Loren (the No. 21 female). Besides this movie, Douglas earned Best Actor nominations for "Champion" (1949) and "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952). He never won a competitive Oscar, but on March 25, 1996, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented him with a special statuette for "50 years as a creative and moral force in the motion picture community." Expires April 8, 2015. 2. Zorba the Greek (1964) -- Anthony Quinn, Sir Alan Bates, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova, Sotiris Moustakas, Anna Kyriakou, Eleni Anousaki, Yorgo Voyagis, Takis Emmanuel, Giorgos Foundas. Set on the island of Crete, this film provided Quinn, Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month for April 2015, with his favorite screen role. He also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Directed by Michael Cacoyannis ("The Day the Fish Came Out," "The Trojan Women"), the storyline was based on the 1952 novel by Nikos Kazantzakes. The film won three Oscars: Best Supporting Actress (Kedrova), Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Walter Lassally) and Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Set Decoration (Vassilis Photopoulosz). Cacoyannis (real name: Mihalis Kakogiannis) was nominated for three awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film's theme music by Mikis Theodorakis led to a 1965 hit version by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. It rose as high as No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Parts of the song are frequently played at some Major League Baseball games. Expires April 8, 2015.

TCM On Demand for April 1, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: The acclaimed French director Louis Malle (1932-1995) spent the final decade-and-a-half of his life in the United States. He married Hollywood royalty in the form of actress Candice Bergen on September 27, 1980, and became a father when daughter Chloé was born five years later. After three decades of making films in Europe, Malle continued to be prolific during his American period. His pictures included "Pretty Baby" (1978), "Atlantic City" (a 1980 Academy Award nominee for Best Picture"), "My Dinner with Andre" (1981), "Crackers" (1984), "Alamo Bay" (1985), "Damage" (1992) and "Vanya on 42nd Street" (1994). But Malle never forgot his roots in France and took the time to film two final movies there. First, there was "Au Revoir Les Enfants" (1987), a World War II drama derived from the director's childhood experiences. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay. After that, he directed "Milou en Mai" (or "May Fools"), set in a French village during tumultuous student protests and general strikes in the country in 1968. Beginning in prime time on Tuesday, March 31, 2015, Turner Classic Movies paid tribute to Malle by airing some of his best-known French films. Three of them are now available on TCM On Demand through April 7th. They are: 1. Elevator to the Gallows (1958) -- Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Yori Bertin, Jean Wall, Elga Andersen, Sylviane Aisenstein, Micheline Bona, Gisèle Grandpré, Jacqueline Staup, Marcel Cuvelier, Gérard Darrieu, Charles Denner, Hubert Deschamps, Jacques Hilling. Titled "Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud" in France (and "Lift to the Scaffold" in the United Kingdom), this was Malle's first feature film as a director. It also was the first of two early collaborations with Moreau that helped establish her as an international star. The other film was "The Lovers" (1959), or "Les Amants." Malle's debut effort is a suspenseful crime-drama featuring Moreau and Ronet as lovers who concoct a plan to murder her husband. Their target also happens to be Ronet's boss. The film's score was composed and performed by jazz great Miles Davis. The song "Générique" should be instantly recognizable to anyone who's seen those Lincoln MKX automobile commercials featuring Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey. 2. Lacombe, Lucien (1974) -- Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clément, Holger Löwenadler, Therese Giehse, Stéphane Bouy, Loumi Iacobesco, René Bouloc, Pierre Decazes, Jean Rougerie, Cécile Ricard, Jacqueline Staup, Ave Ninchi, Pierre Saintons, Gilberte Rivet, Jacques Rispal. Set during World War II, this drama received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Blaise stars as Lucien Lacombe, a French youth who decides to collaborate with the Nazis during Germany's wartime occupation of France. The German actress Giehse, who plays Bella Horn, appeared in Malle's follow-up movie "Black Moon" (1975). It was Malle's first English-speaking film, and he dedicated it to Giehse when she died at the age of 76, shortly after the movie's completion. 3. Murmur of the Heart (1971) -- Lea Massari, Benoît Ferreux, Daniel Gélin, Michael Lonsdale, Ave Ninchi, Gila von Weitershausen, Fabien Ferreux, Marc Winocourt, Micheline Bona, Henri Poirier, Liliane Sorval, Corinne Kersten, Eric Walter, François Werner, René Bouloc. Malle received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for this coming-of-age tale set in Dijon, France in 1954. Titled "Le Souffle au Cœur" in France, the film stars Benoît Ferreux as 14-year-old Laurent Chevalier. The youth finds himself coping with many changes in his life, including the development of a heart murmur. His loving Italian mother Clara is played by Lea Massari, who was the girl who winds up missing in Michelangelo Antonioni's classic 1960 drama "L'avventura."

I have a feeling it's a reference to the perception that the President gets blamed by the opposition party for everything bad.

She seemed to be very unlucky at times. During the early stages of Beatlemania, John's marital status was kept a secret from the public. I wonder if she understood that or if it made her feel like a nonperson. Also, did John ever write a song for or about her? I can think of several that he wrote about Yoko Ono. Then there's the classic story about how she couldn't keep up with John while the Beatles and their significant others were rushing to catch a train en route to a 1967 retreat with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Wales: http://www.beatlesbible.com/1967/08/25/the-beatles-travel-to-bangor/

Cynthia Lennon, the first wife of the late rock great John Lennon, has died of cancer at the age of 75. She was the mother of Julian Lennon, who had some success himself as a recording artist in the 1980s. She has become the third of the original four Beatles spouses to pass away. Maureen Starkey, who was married to Ringo Starr from 1965 to 1975, died of complications from leukemia in December 1994. Paul McCartney's first wife Linda died of cancer in April 1998. George Harrison's first wife, Pattie Boyd, celebrated her 71st birthday in March. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-32153908 Here's an interview she did on British television 20 years ago:

Gilbert "Broncho Billy" Anderson was in "The Bounty Killer" (1965) with Boyd "Red" Morgan. Boyd "Red" Morgan was in "The Left Handed Gun" (1958) with Paul Newman. Next: Saxon Sharbino.

TCM On Demand for March 31, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The China Syndrome (1979) --Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Wilford Brimley, Richard Herd, Daniel Valdez, Stan Bohrman, James Karen, Michael Alaimo, Donald Hotton, Khalilah Ali, Paul Larson. Here's an instance in which real life mirrored a movie. This thriller about a potential nuclear meltdown was released on March 16, 1979. Twelve days later, on March 28, 1979, an accident at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear power plant shocked the world. Directed by James Bridges ("The Paper Chase," "Urban Cowboy"), the drama received four Academy Award nominations: Best Actor (Lemmon), Best Actress (Fonda), Best Original Screenplay (Bridges, Mike Gray and T.S. Cook) and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (George Jenkins, Arthur Jeph Parker). Fonda stars as Kimberly Wells, a Southern California television reporter who longs to cover hard news instead of her soft features beat. She gets her chance when she. cameraman Richard Adams (Douglas) and soundman Hector Salas (Valdez) are assigned to do a story about the Ventana nuclear power plant. While there, they become witnesses to an accident that, according to an expert, could result in radioactive material melting "right down through the bottom of the plant, theoretically to China." While Wells tries to hurdle obstacles in order to break the story, Jack Godell (Lemmon), a conscientious plant supervisor, threatens to go public about the near-disaster. This was the first of two 1979 films in which Fonda played an intrepid television reporter. She later co-starred with Robert Redford in "The Electric Horseman," in which her character lands an exclusive story about a controversial onetime rodeo star. Brimley, who also appeared in "The Electric Horseman," has a heroic moment in the final stages of the movie. He co-stars as Ted Spindler, who works at the power plant with Godell. The actor would have an even more noteworthy performance near the end of "Absence of Malice," which starred Paul Newman and Sally Field. Expires April 6, 2015. 2. A Man to Remember (1938) -- Anne Shirley, Edward Ellis, Lee Bowman, William Henry, John Wray, Granville Bates, Harlan Briggs, Frank M. Thomas, Dickie Jones, Carole Leete, Gilbert Emery, Joe De Stefani. Uncredited: Byron Foulger, Grady Sutton. This remake of the 1933 Lionel Barrymore film "One Man's Journey" stars Ellis as a doctor who has a major impact on his small Midwestern town after World War I. Shirley and Ellis The drama was directed by Garson Kanin ("My Favorite Wife," "Bachelor Mother"), the screenwriter-filmmaker best known for his comedies. Dalton Trumbo adapted the movie's screenplay, which -- like the previous film -- was derived from "The Failure," a 1932 magazine short story by Katharine Haviland-Taylor. The film aired by Turner Classic Movies on Monday, March 30, 2015 was restored from the only known surviving copy, which has Dutch opening titles and subtitles. Expires April 6, 2015.

TCM On Demand for March 31, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 3. Network (1976) --Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty, Beatrice Straight, Jordan Charney, William Prince, Lane Smith, Marlene Warfield, Conchata Ferrell, Carolyn Krigbaum, Arthur Burghardt, Cindy Grover, Darryl Hickman, Lee Richardson (narrator). Directed by Sidney Lumet and written by the great screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, this biting satire of the 1970s network television news industry received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It won four Oscars: Best Actor (Finch, posthumously), Best Actress (Dunaway), Best Supporting Actress (Straight) and Best Original Screenplay (Chayefsky). The film's other nominations were for Best Director (Lumet), Best Actor (Holden), Best Supporting Actor (Beatty), Best Cinematography (Owen Roizman) and Best Film Editing (Alan Heim). Some noteworthy items about the film's Oscar awards and nominations: Finch, who died of a heart attack at the of 60 on January 14, 1977, was nominated for Best Actor after his death. On March 28, 1977, he became the first posthumous winner in an acting category. The award was accepted by Chayefsky, who then invited Finch's widow Eletha to appear onstage and make remarks. Since that time, there has been only one other posthumous Oscar win for acting. On February 22, 2009, the Best Supporting Actor award for 2008 went to Heath Ledger for his performance as the Joker in "The Dark Knight." Ledger had died 13 months earlier of an accidental overdose of prescription medications. Nominated for five performances by actors, this film became only the second motion picture to win in three acting categories. The 1951 drama "A Streetcar Named Desire" won Oscars for Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden) and Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter). The only omission was Marlon Brando's bid for the Best Actor award, which was won by Humphrey Bogart for his performance in "The African Queen." No film in history has ever won Academy Awards in all four acting categories. Straight, who plays Holden's disrespected wife, holds the record for the shortest Oscar-winning performance. She was onscreen for only five minutes and 40 seconds. Chayefsky's Oscar win was his third for screenwriting. He won the 1955 Best Adapted Screenplay for "Marty," which was based on his 1953 teleplay. He also received a 1971 Best Original Screenplay award for "The Hospital." Memorable Scene No. 1: Finch's character, the troubled television anchorman Howard Beale, departs from the normal delivery of the evening news to make a personal appeal to his viewers. The scene features a line -- repeated several times -- that the American Film Institute ranked at No. 19 on its 2005 list of the 100 greatest quotes in movie history. Memorable Scene No. 2: The veteran character actor Beatty received the only Academy Award nomination of his career for one scene. He appears as Arthur Jensen, the outraged network chairman of the board, who -- with an evangelical fervor -- calls Beale on the carpet for his reporting. He also explains the true way of the world to the anchorman. During his six decades as a filmmaker, Lumet never received a competitive Academy Award despite nominations for such pictures as "12 Angry Men" (1957, his feature debut as a director), "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975), "Prince of the City" (1981, for screenwriting) and "The Verdict" (1982). On February 27, 2005, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented him an honorary Oscar "in recognition of his brilliant services to screenwriters, performers and the art of the motion picture." Expires April 6, 2015.

It's possible that Julia Roberts lost all traces of a Southern accent after she moved to New York and began taking acting classes there. Or maybe she's not as skillful at switching between accents as, say, Joanne Woodward was.

That must be the "posh" accent that everyone talks about. I believe even the great Sir Michael Caine had to use one in "Zulu" (1964), which was one of his first big movies.

Ha! That was a good example! How did Jean Hagen not win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress that year? I would never knock Gloria Grahame, but she was more deserving of an Oscar for "In a Lonely Place" (1950) or "The Big Heat" (1953). Still, I've always admired the fact that filmmakers have pretty much let Holly Hunter be Holly Hunter. It's interesting, though, that she's been nominated for Oscars four times, and her one win was for playing a character who cannot speak! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO1Vyb8ANvA

It's just rare to see a Southern actress stick with an authentic accent and thrive in the industry. Sissy Spacek, who was born in Texas, comes to mind, too! Just check out the late Mary Ann Mobley -- from Brandon, Mississippi -- minutes before she was crowned Miss America 1959: And then consider what she sounded like after years of being a Hollywood actress:

One of the beautiful things about "Broadcast News" is that Holly Hunter was allowed to be Southern -- she's from Conyers, Georgia, not far from Atlanta. Her accent in the movie is authentic, and she's been very lucky that she's been able to use it throughout her distinguished career.

Here we go again with eerie timing! This is the fourth time this year that someone has died just before or after TCM airs their films. The others: Mary Healy, Louis Jourdan and Albert Maysles. Forrest's 1956 film "While the City Sleeps" will be shown early Tuesday morning at 3 (Eastern Daylight Time), as part of TCM's special focus on stories about TV news. There also have been three recent instances of people who died just before TCM presented special tributes to them: Lauren Bacall, Luise Rainer and Maysles.

TCM On Demand for March 30, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Grand Hotel (1932) -- Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt, Robert McWade, Purnell Pratt, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Rafaela Ottiano, Morgan Wallace, Tully Marshall, Frank Conroy, Murray Kinnell, Edwin Maxwell. Uncredited: Mary Carlisle, Allen Jenkins, Sam McDaniel. Directed by Edmund Goulding ("Dark Victory," "The Razor's Edge"), this all-star drama has the distinction of being the only film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture for its only nomination. Set at a posh hotel in Berlin, the tale is headlined by three past and future Oscar winners (Lionel Barrymore, Beery and Crawford), an honorary recipient (Garbo) and the man for whom a special statuette is named (Hersholt). Four of the cast members -- the Barrymores, Beery and Hersholt -- appeared in the 1933 comedy "Dinner at Eight." The drama features a line that was long associated with the reclusive Garbo on and off the screen. It was ranked No. 30 in the American Film Institute's 2005 survey of the top 100 movie quotes of all time. This film was remade in 1945 as the comedy/drama "Week-End at the Waldorf," set at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. It starred Ginger Rogers, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson and Lana Turner. Expires April 5, 2015. 2. Tristana (1970) -- Catherine Deneuve, Fernando Rey, Franco Nero, Lola Gaos, Antonio Casas, Jesús Fernández, Vicente Soler, José Calvo, Fernando Cebrián, Antonio Ferrandis, José Maria Caffarel, Cándida Losada, Joaquín Pamplona, María Paz Pondal, Juan José Menéndez. This French-Italian-Spanish production was one of the final films in the prolific career of Spanish director Luis Buñuel. Based on the 1892 novel by Spanish author Benito Pérez Galdós, the picture received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film of 1970. The drama reunited Buñuel with French actress Deneuve, who starred in his highly successful 1967 screen effort "Belle de Jour." This time, she plays the title character -- a young woman who joins the household of a wealthy guardian (Rey, well remembered as the elusive villain in "The French Connection") after the death of her mother. The guardian, Don Lope, quickly falls in love with Tristana, which has a negative impact on her life. Buñuel made only three more films after this one: "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (1972), "The Phantom of Liberty" (1974) and "That Obscure Object of Desire" (1977). He died at the age of 83 on July 29, 1983. Expires April 5, 2015.

Anna Maria Alberghetti was in "Ten Thousand Bedrooms" (1957) with Dean Jones. Dean Jones was in "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956) with Paul Newman. Next: Susan Hampshire.

Johnny Whitaker was in "Napoleon and Samantha" (1972) with Henry Jones. Henry Jones was in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) with Paul Newman. Next: Sally Forrest.

Ryan Stiles was in "Hot Shots" (1991) with Bruce A. Young. Bruce A. Young was in "The Color of Money" (1986) with Paul Newman. Next: Sid Melton.

TCM On Demand for March 29, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Baby Doll (1956) --Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Mildred Dunnock, Lonny Chapman, Eades Hogue, Noah Williamson. Uncredited: Rip Torn, Madeleine Sherwood, R.G. Armstrong (voice). Controversial for its time, director Elia Kazan's adaptation of a one-act stage play by Tennessee Williams received three Academy Award nominations: Best Actress (Baker), Best Supporting Actress (Dunnock), Best Adapted Screenplay (Williams) and Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Boris Kaufman). The comedy/drama, co-produced by Kazan and Williams, was based on the playwright's 1946 stage production titled "27 Wagons Full of Cotton." Set in the Mississippi Delta, the film version is the tale of teen-ager "Baby Doll" Meighan (Baker), who is married to Archie Lee Meighan (Malden), a much-older cotton gin owner. Meighan married Baby Doll with the understanding that he would never touch her until her 20th birthday. As that day approaches, Baby Doll finds herself attracted to Silva Vacarro (Wallach), a business rival of her husband. This was the debut film for Wallach, who began his acting career on the stage in the 1940s. Despite his performances in such films as "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "The Misfits" (1961), "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966) and "The Godfather Part III," he never received an Academy Award nomination. But on November 13, 2010, he was presented an honorary Oscar "for a lifetime's worth of indelible screen characters." He died on June 24, 2014 at the age of 98. Torn, who would later co-star with Paul Newman and Geraldine Page in the 1962 cinematic version of Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth," also made his screen debut in this film. Torn and Page were married from 1963 until her death in 1987 at the age of 62. Expires April 4, 2015. 2. Bone (1972) -- Yaphet Kotto, Andrew Duggan, Joyce Van Patten, Jeannie Berlin, Casey King, Brett Somers, Dick Yarmy, James Lee, Rosanna Huffman, Ida Berlin. This comedy film, also titled "Beverly Hills Nightmare," "Dial Rat for Terror" and "Housewife," marked the directorial debut of filmmaker Larry Cohen ("It's Alive," "Q"), who also wrote and produced it. It stars Kotto as the title character, a thief who invades the Beverly Hills home of a married couple (Duggan, Van Patten) and upends their lives. Jeannie Berlin, the daughter of actress-filmmaker-comedy great Elaine May, received a 1972 Academy Award nomination for her supporting performance in Neil Simon's "The Heartbreak Kid." Van Patten was George Clooney's mother-in-law for four years. Her daughter, actress Talia Balsam ("Mad Men"), was married to the now-superstar actor from 1989 to 1993. Yarmy was the brother of "Get Smart" star Don Adams, whose real name was Donald James Yarmy. Expires April 4, 2015. 3. The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) -- Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, Sir C. Aubrey Smith, Raymond Massey, Mary Astor, David Niven, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Montagu Love, Philip Sleeman, Eleanor Wesselhoeft, Torben Meyer. Colman plays a dual role in this swashbuckling black-and-white film about a nefarious plot to oust the rightful heir to a European throne. Interestingly, the British actor won his only Academy Award for Best Actor a decade later for a film titled "A Double Life." Based on the 1984 novel by Anthony Hope, this film stars Colman as King Rudolf V, who is about to be formally crowned as the ruler of a small European country. The actor also plays Rudolf's lookalike British kinsman, Rassendyll, who arrives in the country on vacation. Just before the coronation, the king's half-brother Duke Michael (Massey) spearheads a coup attempt by drugging the monarch and keeping him hidden. But the king's allies (Smith, Niven) persuade Rassendyll to secretly impersonate his royal relative until Rudolf can be safely restored to the throne. A highlight of the film is a swordfight between Rassendyll and Duke Michael's henchman, Rupert of Hentzau (Fairbanks). The swordfight was parodied in Blake Edwards' 1965 comedy "The Great Race," as hero Leslie Gallant III battles the treacherous Baron Von Stuppe (Ross Martin) in the tiny principality of Pottsdorf. When he realizes he can't beat Leslie, the baron runs away and prepares to leap out of a nearby window into the water below. "As a very wise English gentleman once said, 'He who fights and runs away may live to fight another day'," Von Stuppe declares. "So, until another day, Mr. Leslie, please excuse me, I have a boat waiting." The baron then executes a seemingly perfect dive toward the water -- and then triggers one of the movie's biggest belly laughs. Expires April 4, 2015.

Another actor whose name recently outlasted the automatic censor: Charles Dingle, whose film credits include "The Little Foxes" (1941), "Johnny Eager" (1941) and "The Song of Bernadette" (1943). And it's also nice to see that Chuck Berry's 1972 novelty hit "My Ding-a-Ling" also makes the cut.

TCM On Demand for March 28, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: Camelot (1967) -- Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, Franco Nero, David Hemmings, Lionel Jeffries, Laurence Naismith, Pierre Olaf, Estelle Winwood, Gary Marshal, Anthony Rogers, Peter Bromilow, Sue Casey, Gary Marsh, Nicolas Beauvy. Joshua Logan's film version of the sensational Broadway musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe about the legend of Britain's King Arthur. The picture earned three Academy Awards: Best Costume Design (John Truscott), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Truscott , Edward Carrere and John Brown) and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment (Alfred Newman and Ken Darby). The production also received Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography (Richard Kline) and Best Sound (Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Studio Sound Department). The film --derived like the stage musical from T.H. White's novel "The Once and Future King" -- focuses on the romantic triangle involving Arthur (Harris), Queen Guenevere (Redgrave) and Sir Lancelot (Nero). Among the songs used in the cinematic version are the title song, "Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight," "C'est Moi," "The Lusty Month of May," "How to Handle a Woman," "Take Me to the Fair," "If Ever I Would Leave You" and "What Do the Simple Folk Do?" When cast for the movie, neither Harris nor Redgrave were known for musical performances. Two months after the film's October 25, 1967 release, Harris recorded the Jimmy Webb song "MacArthur Park," which reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June 1968. The recording, which clocked in at seven minutes and 21 seconds, won the 1968-1969 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist. Before his death on October 25, 2002 at the age of 72, Harris reprised the role of King Arthur in stage tours of "Camelot." Redgrave fell in love with the Italian actor Nero during the making of the film. She had been married to Academy Award-winning director Tony Richardson ("Tom Jones"), the father of her daughters -- future actresses Natasha and Joely Richardson. In September 1969, Redgrave gave birth to a son, christened Carlo Gabriel Redgrave Nero, who is now a director and screenwriter. After many ups and downs in their relationship through the years, Redgrave and Franco Nero married on New Year's Eve in 2006 -- 40 years after their first meeting. "Don't let it be forgot...": Lerner and Loewe's stage musical opened on Broadway on December 3, 1960 with Richard Burton as Arthur, Julie Andrews as Guenevere and Robert Goulet as Lancelot. The production earned four Tony Awards, including Best Actor in a Musical (Burton); Best Costume Design, Musical (Adrian and Tony Duquette); Best Scenic Design, Musical (Oliver Smith); and Best Conductor and Musical Director (Franz Allers). "...that once there was a spot...": There have been numerous other screen adaptations about the Arthurian legend. Among them: Walt Disney's 1963 animated feature "The Sword and Stone"; the 1975 comedy spoof "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"; John Boorman's visually stunning "Excalibur" (1981); "First Knight" (1995), headlined by Sir Sean Connery, Julia Ormond and Richard Gere; and the 2004 drama "King Arthur," which starred Clive Owen. Keira Knightley and Ioan Gruffudd. "...for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot": After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, his widow, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, told author and Life magazine writer Theodore H. White that her husband loved the title song of the stage musical. She said the 35th president played the cast album often on an old Victrola in their White House bedroom. As a result of the Life piece, Camelot became a term forever associated with the Kennedy Administration. Together again: Hemmings, who plays Arthur's resentful illegitimate son Mordred, previously worked with Redgrave in Michelangelo Antonioni's influential 1966 mystery film "Blow-Up." Hemmings played the fashion photographer who apparently shot pictures of a murder. Redgrave appeared as the woman in the photos determined to retrieve all traces of the film. From Old England to the Old West: Nero starred in two Italian spaghetti Westerns about a heroic drifter. The first movie, "Django," was released in 1966. Twenty-one years later, the actor appeared in a sequel titled "Django Strikes Again." The films were an inspiration to director-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino, who won a 2012 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his American Western "Django Unchained." Nero made a brief appearance in Tarantino's film. Expires April 3, 2015.

TCM On Demand for March 27, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Dead on Course (1952) -- Zachary Scott, Robert Beatty, Naomi Chance, Kay Kendall, Colin Tapley, Arthur Lane, Harold Lang, Diane Cilento. Titled "Wings of Danger" in the United Kingdom, this British-made film was directed by Terence Fisher ("So Long at the Fair," "The Curse of Frankensten"). American actor Scott stars as a pilot who discovers that his airline is involved in illegal activities on the black market. This was a rare heroic role for Scott, who specialized in playing villains and suave cads in such movies as "Mildred Pierce" (1945) and "Flamingo Road" (1949). Cilento, the Australian actress who appears as Jeanette, was married to Sir Sean Connery from 1962 to 1973. Their son Jason Connery also became an actor. This was one of four film noir projects -- produced in the 1950s by Britain's Hammer Film Productions -- that Turner Classic Movies aired beginning in prime time on Thursday, March 26, 2015. Expires April 2, 2015. 2. Gumshoe (1971) -- Albert Finney, Billie Whitelaw, Frank Finlay, Janice Rule, Carolyn Seymour, Fulton Mackay, Billy Dean, George Silver, George Innes, Neville Smith, Bert King, Ken Jones, Maureen Lipman, Wendy Richard, Oscar James, Tom Kempinski. This off-beat private-eye tale was the first feature film effort by British director Stephen Frears ("The Queen," "Philomena"). It stars Finney as Eddie Ginley, a glib emcee/comic/bingo-caller at a Liverpool nightclub who decides to make a career change on his 31st birthday. He places an advertisement in a local newspaper offering his services as a Sam Spade-like detective. Whitelaw, well-remembered for her performance as Damien's protective nanny in "The Omen" (1976), co-stars as Ellen -- Ginley's dependable old flame-turned-sister-in-law. The actress died on December 21, 2014 at the age of 82. She previously co-starred with Finney in the 1967 drama "Charlie Bubbles." The film's original score was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who rose to prominence during this time because of the popularity of the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar." The screenplay was written by Smith, who appears in the movie as a character named Arthur. Expires April 2, 2015. 3. Heat Wave (1954) -- Alex Nicol, Hillary Brooke, Sidney James, Susan Stephen, Paul Carpenter, Alan Wheatley, Peter Illing, Gordon McLeod, Joan Hickson, John Sharp, Hugh Dempster, Monti DeLyle. Titled "The House Across the Lake" in the United Kingdom, this film noir effort was written and directed by Ken Hughes ("Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," "Cromwell"). The drama stars Nicol as Mark Kendrick, an American writer in Britain who becomes an accessory to a beautiful woman's murder of her wealthy husband. American actress Brooke plays the British femme fatale. James, who appears as the murdered husband, went on to star in 19 installments of the British "Carry On" series. Hickson, who played Agatha Christie's Miss Marple on British television from 1984 to 1992, has the role of Mrs. Hardcastle. Expires April 2, 2015. 4. Paid to Kill (1954) -- Dane Clark, Cecile Chevreau, Paul Carpenter, Thea Gregory, Anthony Forwood, Arthur Young, Howard Marion-Crawford. Uncredited: Charles Hawtrey. American actor Clark headlines this British-made drama about a failing businessman who comes up with a desperate solution to his problems. He makes arrangements to have a hitman take his life so that he can leave insurance money for his wife (Gregory). But when his business situation improves, he frantically tries to cancel the hit. The film, titled "Five Days" in the United Kingdom, was directed by Montgomery Tully. The bespectacled Hawtrey, who makes an appearance as a character named Bill, went on to become a regular in Britain's "Carry On" series of comedy films between 1958 and 1972. During the Beatles' unforgettable London rooftop performance in "Let It Be" (1970), John Lennon immortalized the actor with the off-handed comments: " 'I Dig a Pygmy' by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf Aids. Phase One in which Carol gets her oats." Expires April 2, 2015.