SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: NORMA SHEARER
TCM, 6:00 a.m. ET
Some of the most satisfying days in TCM’s annual “Summer Under the Stars” month come when they set aside 24 hours for a deep dive into some of the careers whose films have been less celebrated, or at least available, in recent decades. Today’s subject, Norma Shearer, certainly remains celebrated – the prime-time anchor of her salute today, 1939’s The Women, is an acknowledged and still widely repeated classic. But there are many of her movies that don’t often see the light of day, or the spotlight of a national TV schedule. So watch, today, for such relative rarities as her titular turn in 1938’s lavishly costumed Marie Antoinette (at 1:15 p.m. ET), and for 1937’s Romeo and Juliet, in which she stars opposite Leslie Howard (pictured). Considering she was 33 years old at the time the film was released, Shearer may have been a bit mature to play Shakespeare’s 13-year-old heroine – but Howard, her romantic lead, was 43. Perhaps such casting, at the time, was unavoidable: as Shakespeare himself observed, “Youth’s a stuff will not endure.” Sigh. Don’t I know it.