Yes, before she was TV's Jessica Fletcher -- even before she was on Broadway in Mame or Sweeney Todd -- Angela Lansbury was an MGM contract player, sharing both studio lot and screen time with Spencer Tracy and Judy Garland.
Turner Classic Movies takes us back to that Hollywood "golden age" on Wednesday nights in January, unreeling 27 features Lansbury made from 1944 to 1978, as this versatile actress becomes 2012's first TCM Star of the Month.
Then for good measure, TCM adds a 1982 staging of Lansbury's Tony-winning triumph in Stephen Sondheim's devilish musical Sweeney Todd.
And there's also Lansbury's 2006 sitdown chat with TCM host Robert Osborne for Private Screenings.
Talk about starting with a bang -- both Lansbury's Hollywood career and TCM's monthlong salute begin with an iconic classic, 1944's Gaslight (Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 8 p.m. ET on TCM):
In fact, TCM lines up Lansbury's first five films on the first night of its tribute, following that Charles Boyer-Ingrid Bergman spellbinder with National Velvet (10 p.m. ET), The Picture of Dorian Gray (12:15 a.m. ET), The Harvey Girls (2:15 a.m. ET) and The Hoodlum Saint (4:15 a.m. ET, all on TCM).
The second week moves toward the '50s with films like State of the Union and Samson and Delilah on Jan. 11, then showcases Lansbury's mature dramatic muscle in 1962's The Manchurian Candidate Jan. 18. Wrapping things up on TCM Jan. 25 are that Osborne interview, Sweeney Todd and 1978's Death on the Nile.
TCM's other January salute goes to a cinematographer, Jack Cardiff, on Thursday nights. His acclaimed projects include British '30s epics like The Four Feathers and H.G> Wells' stunning Things to Come (overnight Jan. 5 at 12:30 and 2:30 a.m. ET); opulent early Techniolor titles like '40s legends The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus (both unreeling on TCM Jan. 12), and later directing stints for for scenic '60s globetrotters, including The Lion and Young Cassidy (on TCM Jan. 26).
Best of all, the documentary Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (Jan. 5, 12, 19 on TCM) puts his lengthy resume in perspective for those to whom his name is considerably less familiar than, say, Angela Lansbury.
(And if mentioning Jessica Fletcher gets you wanting to watch Lansbury's longrunning series Murder, She Wrote, its episodes are available daily on Hallmark Movie Channel, afternoons at 2 and 3 p.m. ET, nightly at midnight and 1 a.m. ET.)