Turner Classic does offer a wide variety of classic films, but I know there are plenty of ‘older’ movies out there that they NEVER show. Sometimes I get tired of watching the same films being shuffled, like a deck of cards, to be dealt each month. When will they ever show the 1951 movie, The Mating Season with Gene Tierney and Thelma Ritter? How about airing the 1953 film, Inferno, with Robert Ryan and Rhonda Fleming? They’ve also never shown 1966’s film, The Trap, with Oliver Reed and Rita Tushingham. Also overlooked is Me, Natalie, made in 1969 and starring Patty Duke. And I’d enjoy the chance to see Liberace in Sincerely Yours, which was made in 1955. But Turner Classic doesn’t seem to have any of these movies plus many others in mind, as part of their broadcast lineup.
Just a guess, but I’d say it has to do with the cost of licensing and rights.
What bugs me (and my grandparents) are all the silent movies.
I find their rating system to be more accurate than most. So why show all the one-star (or even less) movies? Are they thinking that everyone’s already seen the 3-4-star ones?
I don’t think “everybody’s seen it” has any bearing on their programming decisions. Not with the way they repeat stuff.
Since cutting the cable, I have to say, access to this programming is really the only thing I miss. (Maybe a little of the late night tv too!)
Wish I could watch their stuff on line somewhere, but so far, I haven’t found any place.
They made a bulk purchase, about 25 years ago, 0f the rights to a large number of movies, and those are the ones they show over and over again. They can present them at on a non-pay, no-commercials basis because they have no royalties that they need to pay. In fact, I think they created TCM Channel just to air all of those pictures that they had the sole prsentation rights to
There’s a not-so-great print of Me, Natalie on YouTube.
Two (at least) of my all time classic favorites were on TCM, but they usually throw them away at about 2-am on weekends. They were “Miss Mend” and “Loves of a Blonde”. So they do have some interesting titles, but rarely let the audience get exposed to them.
The bulk of TCM’s collection is from MGM, United Artists, and pre-television era Warner Bros. Films from studios like 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Paramount, Universal and Disney are owned by parent companies who also happen to have interests in television and may not be willing to share.
As to TCM’s showing 2-star, and even 1-star, movies … They play (and re-play, and re-play) well-known/famous films during daytime hours/prime time, and the sometimes obscure stuff usually ends up at 4 a.m.
The latter movies are often 2-star but frequently are worthwhile, as 1) many of them haven’t been seen, either theatrically or on television or via VHS, since their original theatrical release decades ago, until TCM came along; 2) it allows “completists” to see lesser-known movies directed by well-known directors and non-“star” performances by actors well before they became household names; 3) often, obscure “B” pictures that played the second half of theatrical bills and movies from less prestigious studios are fascinating from a 21st-century sociological perspective.
I love the old educational films they show in the middle of the night on weekends. We haven’t changed as much as we think we have.