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September 17 - 23, 2023 • Terre Haute Tribune-Star • 9 Turner Classic Movies certainly knows noir, and as extra proof, it's offering a whole night of the genre. Eddie Muller has proven himself a king of noir by presenting moody-melodrama classics on his "Noir Alley" series twice each weekend, and the channel is expanding on that approach with a special evening of film noir from the 1950s starting the evening Tuesday, Sept. 19 (with Alicia Malone hosting) and running until early the following morning. Typically, noir pictures rely on stories of tough men (and, in many instances, tough women as well) informed by gritty storytelling and distinctively shadowy cinematography, and the five titles chosen for the festival are quite rep- resentative. First up is director Otto Preminger's "Angel Face" (1953), with the made-for-noir Robert Mitchum as an ambulance driver who has big doubts about an overly attentive heiress (Jean Simmons) who ropes him into marriage after possibly having been responsible for the car accident that killed her father and stepmother – a tragedy in which both of the new spouses are implicat- ed. Known largely for comedy in later years, Jim Back- us ("Gilligan's Island") plays the prosecuting attorney. Mitchum returns in the next attraction, the well-re- puted "The Night of the Hunter" (1955), casting him as a murderer who impersonates a clergyman to find out from a widow (Shelley Winters) and her children (Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce) where her husband – the killer's former prison cellmate – hid the take from a bank robbery. The only movie directed by actor Charles Laughton, the picture has a James Agee screenplay adapted from Davis Grubb's novel. Next comes "Elevator to the Gallows" (1958), French filmmaker Louis Malle's drama that literally takes place largely in an elevator, where two lovers (played by Jeanne Moreau and Maurice Ronet) be- come trapped after conspiring in the murder of the woman's husband … who also was the man's boss. The very notable music score is by Miles Davis. Following is "In a Lonely Place" (1950), with a Nicholas Ray-directed Humphrey Bogart as a strug- gling screenwriter suspected of murder. He becomes involved with a would-be actress (Gloria Grahame) who could prove to be his undoing as her suspicion that he might be guilty increases. Last and absolutely not least in TCM's noir lineup is "Sweet Smell of Success" (1957), the edgy, long-ac- claimed drama about a hustling publicity man's (Tony Curtis) tenuous connection to a powerful and often cruel newspaper columnist (Burt Lancaster, also a producer of the picture). James Wong Howe often is singled out for his impressive camera work that cap- tures the underbelly of New York nightlife, with the tension upped by the Lancaster character's disapproval of his younger sister's (Susan Harrison) involvement with a musician (later "Route 66" and "Adam-12" star Martin Milner). If you like your movies dark in both theme and look, then, TCM has quite a feast coming up. spotlight BY JAY BOBBIN Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart in "In a Lonely Place" A night of noir: TCM salutes the genre Norman Reedus in "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon" Sunday on AMC Q: Why did ABC run the "Ms. Marvel" series recently, when it was made for Disney+? – Kim Banner, via e-mail A: In a sense, it was all in the family to do so, since ABC and Disney+ are under the same corporate banner. How- ever, there were some other reasons that giving the show (which is up for three Primetime Emmy Awards) a broad- cast-network run was deemed desirable. For one thing, it helped ABC fill two Saturday nights of programming while the SAG-AFTRA actors' strike had many new productions on hold. (ABC often books non- sports Saturday nights with repeats, so it can be argued that more benefit might have been gotten from putting "Ms. Marvel" on a different night during the "regular" television season.) Also, the show is a prelude to the forth- coming theatrical feature "The Marvels," in which Iman Vellani will reprise the role of Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel …so running the series for a broadcast-TV audience also served as a massive trailer for the movie. celebritypipeline BY JAY BOBBIN Send questions of general interest via email to tvpipeline@gmail.com. Writers must include their names, cities and states. Personal replies cannot be sent.