Polly of the Precodes

I like your thinking. But TCM would have to find 1) broadcast-quality prints and 2) scores for these movies. I'd especially like to see restored version of the Louise Brooks and W.C. Fields titles. And I watched the YouTube copy of The Sorrows of Satan--that desperately needs a restoration, if any good material survives.

Eddie Muller showed this as part of 2021's Noir City programming (he almost certainly has a thing for Ida Lupino). I'm sure he'd love to show it on NA, but it's a Fox film and The House of Mouse probably wouldn't license it to TCM.

No spring chicken. Probably a fair amount of marbling. (Mind you, I like my beefcake with a nice degree of succulence.) And definitely premarinated. But properly dressed, that could produce a pretty tasty dish.

Do you consider The Reckless Moment (1949) to be noir?

Yeah, I just saw it (and was alone in the theater). If it's in any theaters the week after next I'll be surprised. So as I sussed from the trailer, the art direction is to die for. But the performances.... Whatever the faults of the Golden Age film studios, their films generally had a briskness and momentum that make it easier for viewers to suspend their disbelief. Slower works may be more "meditative," but that runs the risk of the audience having time and attention to second-guess what they're watching. This is probably why I look with suspicion on directors' cuts--they tend to in

TCM has done director spotlights (most recently Ernst Lubitsch). A Capra spotlight could be very good, but how many of his movies are controlled by studios that might might not cooperate with TCM?

Just how many times DID Bugs put on a dress and turn Elmer Fudd's head?

Gravediggers of 1333?

I use the term "Christmas-adjacent" with this in mind. The plots might work at some time other than the Christmas season, but the ones I like I like even more for including Christmas-related content.

This assumes that 1) these studios are willing to lease the films to TCM, and 2) TCM has the budget these studios would expect to be paid. (And 3) the films you're thinking of are available in broadcast-quality prints.) At any rate, Eddie Muller right now is interested in non-English language film noir--at Noir City DC earlier this year he talked about trying to get the rights to films from Mexico, Brazil,...and Iran. (Broadcast-quality prints and subtitles would be even more important here.)

My favorite Christmas(-adjacent) movie: The Thin Man. Runners-up: Scrooged and Trading Places. If you didn't see Cronos (1993), recently on TCM Imports, it's set around Christmas time. (Aurora, that's not Papá Noel creeping around the tree.)

I loved the 1925 film A Woman of the World. So I sought out Carl Van Vechten's 1924 novel The Tattooed Countess. Turns out nothing I adored about the film came from the book.

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/view/id/632 It's a compilation of Christmas-themed short silent films. I have this DVD; if you like silent films they're charming.