Bessie Smith On HBO tonight #TV #Bessie @HBO

Tonight at 8PM HBO is premiering BESSIE, the bio pic of Bessie Smith famous singer of the 1920s and 1930s, starring Queen Latifah. For me Bessie Smith is inextricably linked to pre code film with her famous rendition of St. Louis Blues that can be heard in so many films of the era. I can't wait to see how her life is depicted.

Here she is a rare film short appearance from 1929, Bessie comes in at 4:20 and sings at 6:57. This film also features Jimmy Mordecai as the worst boyfriend in the world.



The network description:

 Queen Latifah stars as legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in this HBO Films presentation, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Dee Rees from a screenplay by Dee Rees and Christopher Cleveland & Bettina Gilois. With a story by Dee Rees and Horton Foote, the film focuses on Smith’s transformation from a struggling young singer into “The Empress of the Blues,” who became one of the most successful recording artists of the 1920s and is an enduring icon today. BESSIE also stars Michael Kenneth Williams, Khandi Alexander, Mike Epps, Tika Sumpter, Tory Kittles, Oliver Platt, Bryan Greenberg, with Charles S. Dutton and Mo’Nique. Executive produced by Queen Latifah, Shakim Compere, Lili Fini Zanuck, Richard D. Zanuck, Shelby Stone, and Randi Michel. Ron Schmidt produces.




Here's the trailer

Pre-Code Fridays All September on TCM #TCMPARTY @TCM

Stanwyck and Blondell in Night Nurse

September Fridays will be all pre-code all day on TCM. Pre-code films, for those who don't know,

are film between the "talkies" in the late 1920s and the strict enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code (AKA the Hays Code)  beginning in the mid-1930s. These films included sexuality, prostitution, illegal drug use, abortion and extreme violence. Without censors, criminals in these films went unpunished, and not only that, but were often successful. Loose women were even allowed to rule the day.

Every Hays code being broken in one still

The rollicking good time will run 24 hours on Fridays with TCM's Robert Osbourne and Alec Baldwin introducing the films in primetime as part of their series of Friday Night Spotlight. Just FYI you'll be hearing quite a bit of St. Louis Blues in these films so you might as well familiarize yourself with it now. (on a side bar I hear that one of the other cable networks is developing a Bessie Smith biopic with Queen Latifah)

See below for TCM pre-code schedule. All times are Eastern

Friday, Sept. 5
6 a.m. – The Big Shakedown (1934)
7:15 a.m. – Parachute Jumper (1933)
8:30 a.m. – Ex-Lady (1933)
9:45 a.m. – Virtue (1932)
11 a.m. – Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
12:15 p.m. – Safe in Hell (1931)
1:30 p.m. – Frisco Jenny (1932)
2:45 p.m. – Female (1933)
4 p.m. – Illicit (1931)
5:30 p.m. – Night Nurse (1931)
6:45 p.m. – Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008)
8 p.m. – Baby Face (1933)
9:30 p.m. – The Divorcee (1930)
11 p.m. – Footlight Parade (1933)
1 a.m. – Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
2:45 a.m. – Search for Beauty (1934) – TCM Premiere
4:15 a.m. – Taxi! (1932)

Friday, Sept. 12
6 a.m. – The Naughty Flirt (1931)
7 a.m. – Ten Cents a Dance (1931)
8:30 a.m. – When Ladies Meet (1933)
10 a.m. – Double Harness (1933)
11:15 a.m. – For the Defense (1930)
12:30 p.m. – Union Depot (1932)
1:45 p.m. – Mary Stevens, MD (1933)
3 p.m. – The Age of Consent (1932)
4:45 p.m. – Bombshell (1933)
6:30 p.m. – Red-Headed Woman (1932)
8 p.m. – Red Dust (1932)
9:30 p.m. – Design for Living (1933)
11:15 p.m. – Trouble in Paradise (1932)
12:45 a.m. – Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
2:30 a.m. – The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
3:45 a.m. – Freaks (1932)
5 a.m. – Jewel Robbery (1932)

Friday, Sept. 19

6 a.m. – Parole Girl (1933)
7:30 a.m. – Three Wise Girls (1932)
8:45 a.m. – Lady Killer (1933)
10:15 a.m. – Possessed (1931)
11:45 a.m. – Two Seconds (1932)
1 p.m. – The Little Giant (1933)
2:30 p.m. – The Mind Reader (1933)
3:45 p.m. – Beauty and the Boss (1932)
5 p.m. – Waterloo Bridge (1931)
6:30 p.m. – Hot Saturday (1932)
8 p.m. – Blonde Venus (1932)
9:45 p.m. – I'm No Angel (1933)
11:30 p.m. – She Done Him Wrong (1933)
12:45 a.m. – Blonde Crazy (1931)
2:15 a.m. – Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008)
3:30 a.m. – Skyscraper Souls (1932)
5:15 a.m. – She Had to Say Yes (1933)

Friday, Sept. 26

6 a.m. – A Free Soul (1931)
8 a.m. – Downstairs (1932)
9:30 a.m. – Ladies They Talk About (1933)
10:45 a.m. – Loose Ankles (1930)
12 p.m. – They Call it Sin (1932)
1:15 p.m. – Heroes for Sale (1933)
2:30 p.m. – Employee's Entrance (1933)
4 p.m. – Midnight Mary (1933)
5:15 p.m. – Other Men's Women (1931)
6:30 p.m. – The Public Enemy (1931)
8 p.m. – Scarface (1932)
9:45 p.m. – Little Caesar (1930)
11:15 p.m. – Penthouse (1933)
1 a.m. – Three on a Match (1932)
2:15 a.m. – Call Her Savage (1932) – TCM Premiere
3:45 a.m. – The Hatchet Man (1932)
5 a.m. – State's Attorney (1932)