TCM Schedule for Thurs, Feb 12, 2026: Margaret Rutherford / Lost Love
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, films and television.
Rutherford came to national attention following the Second World War in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, both airing today.
In 1948 she was awarded a Special Tony Award for Outstanding Foreign Company as a cast member of The Importance of Being Earnest, and she later won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her role as the Duchess of Brighton in The V.I.P.s (1963), also airing today. In the early 1960s she starred as Agatha Christie's character Miss Marple in a series of four George Pollock films, two of which are featured today.
FULL BIO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Rutherford
DAYTIME (EST)
6:00 AM Yellow Canary (1943)
A socialite poses as a Nazi spy to mask her activities as a British agent.
Dir: Herbert Wilcox Cast: Anna Neagle, Richard Greene, Nova Pilbeam
7:30 AM Blithe Spirit (1945)
A man and his second wife are haunted by the ghost of his first wife.
Dir: David Lean Cast: Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond
9:30 AM The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
A proper Englishman gets caught leading a double life.
Dir: Anthony Asquith Cast: Edith Evans, Michael Redgrave, Richard Wattis
11:15 AM The Runaway Bus (1954)
A London motor coach gets lost in the fog with a cache of stolen gold aboard.
Dir: Val Guest Cast: Frankie Howerd, Margaret Rutherford, Petula Clark
12:45 PM Just My Luck (1957)
A jeweler's assistant tries to pick a series of winning horses to improve his love life.
Dir: John Paddy Carstairs Cast: Norman Wisdom, Margaret Rutherford, Stringer Davis
2:15 PM The V.I.P.s (1963)
British citizens, stranded at London Airport, confront their interpersonal relationships.
Dir: Anthony Asquith Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan
4:30 PM Murder She Said (1961)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple takes a job as a maid to ferret out clues.
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow
6:00 PM Murder Most Foul (1964)
Elderly sleuth Miss Marple joins a small-town theatre to investigate a murder.
Dir: George Pollock Cast: Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Charles Tingwell
PRIME TIME, LATE NIGHT, EARLY MORNING
8:00 PM Doctor Zhivago (1965)
A Russian doctor pursues the woman he loves during Russia's political changes of World War I.
Dir: David Lean Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay
11:30 PM Wuthering Heights (1939)
A married noblewoman fights her lifelong attraction to a charismatic gypsy.
Dir: William Wyler Cast: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven
1:30 AM Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
A swordsman and poet helps another man woo the woman he loves.
Dir: Michael Gordon Cast: José Ferrer, Mala Powers, William Prince
3:30 AM Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Midwest teenagers are frightened by their physical desires and struggle to navigate their feelings.
Dir: Elia Kazan Cast: Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle
