
Prior commitments denied me the opportunity to watch "Twentieth Century" on Turner Classic Movies' "The Essentials" when it first aired Oct. 4, but tonight I'm getting a second chance (8 p.m. Eastern). It will also be your last chance to see Robert Osborne co-host "The Essentials" with Drew Barrymore (John Barrymore's granddaughter), and I eagerly await her comments on this 1934 early screwball classic:

John Barrymore's work in the early '30s is the Saturday night theme. At 9:45, he appears in the drama "Counsellor At Law," while another 1933 film airs at 11:15, the elegant comedy "Topaze" with Myrna Loy (she'd worked with him in the 1926 "Don Juan"):

Things conclude at 12:45 a.m. with the 1931 psychological horror film "Svengali" (the story referred to in "Twentieth Century" when Lombard makes the in-joke that she isn't Barrymore's Trilby).
Next week, two-time Academy Award winner Sally Field becomes Osborne's partner, appropriately as the "31 Days Of Oscar" promotion kicks in, and I look forward to her cinematic perspectives. (We'll have more on "31 Days Of Oscar" tomorrow.)