Unappreciated, woefully underrated, consistently overlooked. Those words certainly apply to our Star of the Month for January, the long distance runner Fred MacMurray who, despite the versatility and talent he displayed in a wide variety of movie roles for 43 years, is best remembered now by most people for only one of the 85 films he made: Billy Wilder's tough-as-nails Double Indemnity (1944).

Moreover, the first things that pop into most minds when MacMurray's name is mentioned are: (a) the television series My Three Sons which he headlined from 1960-1972, (b) his long-running Disney connection which consisted of seven light-as-helium comedies he made from 1959-1973 such as The Shaggy Dog (1959), The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and Son of Flubber (1963). We're hoping our 32-film TCM salute to the magnificent Fred this month will help change that limited perception of his career.

He was, for instance, one of the most in-demand romantic leading men in the film business for over four decades, as admirable in dramas as he was comfortable in sophisticated comedies, rugged Westerns, war stories, even an occasional musical (he was an excellent saxophonist). He was also as adept at playing the real-life World War II hero Captain Eddie Rickenbacker in a 1944 Rickenbacker bio-pic as he was portraying a sleezy, womanizing business executive in Billy Wilder's 1960 film The Apartment.

The fact that he was tall (6 foot 3 inches) and handsome didn't hurt, either, and made him a favorite partner of many of the screen's great leading ladies. He missed sharing close-ups with Garbo and Bette Davis but did spend time on screen, horizontally and vertically, with an amazing number of other legendary females such as Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Irene Dunne, Jean Arthur, Kim Novak, Lauren Bacall and Arlene Dahl, all of whom you can see in the MacMurray films we're showing this month. That list also includes Claudette Colbert (they costarred in seven films), also the gorgeous Madeleine Carroll and delightful Carole Lombard. And an added treat this month: we'll be showing all four of the films he made with Barbara Stanwyck.

The astounding thing is that despite all the great work done by Fred Mac- Murray, never once did he receive an Academy Award® nomination, the prestigious Kennedy Center honor or an AFI tribute. Something he consistently did receive, however, was a healthy paycheck: MacMurray ended up one of the richest actors in Hollywood, with more money in his bank account than either of the two fellows who were often reported to have accumulated the most money among the motion picture elite, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. (Some say one reason Fred was so rich is because he was notoriously tight, widely known around the show business crowd for never picking up a check or spending a dime).

He was quite a guy, Mr. Mac- Murray, and we hope you'll join us on Wednesdays this month, and often, for a wide spectrum of his movies, including two treats we've never shown on TCM before: 1947's Sudddenly, It's Spring and 1954's Woman's World. When MacMurray's in the forefront, we guarantee you a MacNificent time.

by Robert Osborne