FLICK PICKS: Funny Ladies on TCM

Another week, another amazing Turner Classic Movies festival, from the gold standard in film presentation. This Monday-Friday (April 20-24), it's Funny Ladies, a prime-time toast to comic women that ranges from the TV era (Lily Tomlin, Goldie Hawn, Lucille Ball) back to Hollywood's golden age (Betty Hutton, Judy Holliday, Mae West) and even further to silent silliness (Marion Davies).

That's almost 100 years of pratfalls, patsies, puns and other merriment, served up with the sort of style that makes TCM beloved where other movie channels remain random-access stumble-overs.

You can tell how smart the minds behind it are when you see how far afield their focus goes. While a few classic comediennes might be missing (Irene Dunne, anyone? Myrna Loy? Joan Blondell?), Funny Ladies reaches beyond movies/TV to include such radio names as Gracie Allen and stage stars like Fanny Brice (both on Tuesday night), plus supporting players like Alice Pearce (the first Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched).

TCM even offers an entertaining argument for one largely forgotten funny lady -- Marion Davies, whose talents are established Monday night/Tuesday morning in not only the silent treat The Patsy (4:30 a.m. ET) but also the career-spanning portrait Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies (6 a.m. ET). Way to debunk that William Randolph Hearst-Citizen Kane depiction once and for all.

Here's the lineup:

• Monday, April 20 -- Patsy Kelly, Zasu Pitts, Helen Broderick, Margaret Dumont, Marie Dressler, Marion Davies


• Tuesday, April 21 -- Rosalind Russell, Mae West, Billie Burke, Eve Arden, Gracie Allen, Fanny Brice


• Wednesday, April 22 -- Marjorie Main, Judy Canova, Betty Hutton, Joan Davis, Martha Raye


• Thursday, April 23 -- Judy Holliday, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball, Esther Williams, Alice Pearce


• Friday, April 24 -- Nancy Walker, Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin

My ultimate don't-miss pick? Sexy steamroller Betty Hutton in Preston Sturges' insanely hilarious, speedy-paced satire The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (Wednesday at 11 p.m. ET, TCM) -- whose release was held up for two World War II years as the studio wondered what to do with the tale of a small-town girl who ends up, as Ricky Ricardo would say, " 'spectin' " after a party night so rowdy she can't recall the offending soldier.

Find all TCM's Funny Ladies titles and times here.