Briefs for November 13-14, 2016

Lupita Tovar has died at the age of 106. Tovar was one of the first stars of Mexican sound cinema, going back to the early 1930s. Actually, her career started a bit earlier, when she was discovered in Mexico and brought to Hollywood to make Spanish-language versions of early US talkies for the Spanish-language market. (Garbo did a German-language version of Anna Christie, while I've also mentioned a couple of Laurel and Hardy shorts done in Spanish.)

Tonight's prime time lineup looks at the Fleischer family. Dad Max was an animator, which means that we're going to get a couple of animated movies in the 8:00 hour. TCM is listing two two-reel Popeye movies, one starting at 8:00 PM, and the second at 8:30. That leaves a pretty substantial amount of time for something in between the movies, however. As for son Richard Fleischer, I'm always pleased to see The Narrow Margin (9:00 PM) and Solyent Green (10:30 PM) on the schedule.

Apparently I haven't done a full-length post on The Battleship Potemkin, this week' Silent Sunday Nights movie, before. It's on at 12:15 AM and is well worth seeing. Perhaps I should watch it again, because I don't think I've seen it in years. It kicks off a night of Communist bloc movies, with two movies about the 1940s following. I've recommended The Cranes Are Flying (1:30 AM) before; I've never actually seen the Czech Courage for Every Day (3:15 AM) before.