STAR OF THE MONTH: SIDNEY POITIER
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Every Tuesday night this month, TCM presents movies starring Sidney Poitier, who was such a force and presence, especially during the 1950s and 1960s, that any sampling of his movies from that era is worth watching as an all-evening event. Today’s schedule, for example, features five films from a five-year span, at the start of the Sixties, and all deserve your time and attention. At 8 p.m. ET, the Poitier salute begins with 1961’s A Raisin in the Sun. Following that film: 1965’s The Slender Thread (at 10:15 p.m. ET) and the same year’s A Patch of Blue (midnight ET), then a change-of-pace comedy, 1963’s delightful Lilies of the Field (pictured, 2 a.m. ET), and culminating at 3:45 a.m. ET with a war movie, 1960’s All the Young Men. I just rewatched Lilies of the Field recently, in which Poitier played a handyman of sorts helping some German nuns realize their dream of building a local parish chapel, and wow, what a playful (and musical!) performance from Poitier.