Beef Of The Month

So there I was Wednesday night hunkering down for a night of Claude Rains movies on Turner Classic Movies.

Don't get me wrong, I like this station and modestly feel thoseToronto Star columns I wrote over the years pleading it be included on the Canadian cable dial were finally acted on by the CRTC.

But what bugs me are the changes TCM must make in its schedule because seven per cent of its schedule has not passed Canadian rights clearances.

Here's what I mean: at 2:45 a.m, I was still at it after a marathon screening of Mr. Skeffington. Then the unctuous host Robert Osborne popped up and said to stay tuned as Rains encounters some Hitchcockian intrigue.

And up popped the stark Depression saga Saturday's Children instead of the anticipated Notorious..

Silly me. I should have checked the Canadian schedule also available on TCM. I keep doing that, anticipating movies that get blacked out on the Canadian feed.

And by the way Saturday's Children (1940) was a superior version of the Maxwell Anderson play with rains co-starring with John Garfield and Ann Shirley.

There. I'm glad I got that beef off my chest.