I've seen it.  It was shown on our Old Movies for Old People channel about a year ago.

I love that film, it's a masterpiece and Burt was never so good. At the time he must have been in his fifties but to see some of the physical stunts he performed in the film you wouldn't think so. Mind you, once being a circus trapeze artist does help. Remember him in the film trapeze? His great mate was Kirk Douglas and it was always said that Kirk Douglas always wanted to be Burt Lancaster. I saw him a couple of weeks ago in a film called the Scalp Hunters with Tele Savages, brilliant film. He is one of Hollywood's true greats, you see his name on the introduction, you have to watch it.

30 January 1912 - Barbara Tuchman born.

American historian born Barbara Wertheim in New York, she married Lester Tuchman in 1940.

Won the Pulitzer Prize twice with The Guns of August (1962) and Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1971). She also wrote the renowned A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (1978).

31 January 1797 - Franz Schubert born.

Along with Mozart Schubert is another child prodigy born in 18th century Austria composing his first piece aged 13.

Relatively unknown during his short lifetime, he died aged 31, his works became popular and widely played after his death.

1 February 1851 - Mary Shelley died.

Mistress then wife of the poet Percy Shelley.

In 1816 she and her lover Shelley were among a party on holiday in Switzerland during a particularly bad summer. To pass the time they each wrote a ghost/horror story; the 18 year old Mary Godwin wrote the Gothic tale Frankenstein. 

Later that year Shelley's wife died and he and Mary were married in December. Her novel was published in 1818 as Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. She wrote a number of further novels and travel books but none ever gained the immortal fame of Frankenstein.  

Is it ever not Back History Month? It seems to be a regular occurrence.

2 February 1987 - Alistair MacLean died.

Scottish author of action thrillers many of which have been made into highly successful films. The Guns of Navarone (1957), Ice Station Zebra (1963), Where Eagles Dare (1967), Caravan to Vaccarès (1970) among them. 

3 February 1809 - (Jakob Ludwig) Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy born.

German composer, another child prodigy (composing symphonies aged 12) and another who died young (aged 38 in 1847).

He toured widely across Europe visiting GB ten times, one of his most memorable works is the overture The Hebrides better known as Fingal's Cave after the basalt sea cave he visited on the Hebridean island of Staffa in 1829 and which is said to be the inspiration for the piece. Another British connection is his immortal piece Wedding March from his incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was first played at a wedding in 1847 in England.  

3 February 1924 - (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson died, 100 years ago today.

President of the USA 1913-21. He led the USA into the First World War in 1917 and is one of the principal architects of the peace treaty agreed in 1919 based on his 14 Points. 

After suffering a stroke in October 1919 he remained partially incapacitated for the rest of his term (17 months) and indeed his life. He died aged 67. 

That's two US Presidents who were incapacitated at the end of their term, is Biden the third?

FDR yes, I'm not counting Garfield who lingered for ten weeks after being shot. Opinions differ on Reagan, I'll be generous and say he was just suffering from the normal effects of old age at the end of his term and that it only became serious later.  

4 February 1995 - Patricia Highsmith died.

American novelist born Mary Patricia Plangman, she took her stepfather's name of Highsmith as a child. Her best known works are her first novel Strangers on a Train (1950) and The Talented Mr Ripley (1955) both of which have been made into films. 

Until yesterday I thought Strangers on a Train was an Agatha Christie story. 

5 February 1881 - Thomas Carlyle died.

Scottish historian, biographer, critic and academic.

His major historical works are a The French Revolution: A History (1837) and the huge six volume History of Fredrich II of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great (1858-65). 

6 February 1783 - Lancelot "Capability" Brown died.

English garden designer and architect. The father of garden design.

He learnt his trade at a country house in Northumberland before moving south and gaining his first commission at Kiddington Hall in Buckinghamshire. He made his name redesigning the gardens at Stowe and thereafter was in constant demand with his services requested in country houses across the country. 

Upon his death aged 67 the novelist Horace Walpole wrote to one of Brown's clients the Countess of Upper Ossory "Your dryads must go into black gloves, Madam, their father-in-law, Lady Nature's second husband is dead".  

Yes, a name that seems confined entirely to GB and Australia.

"Capability" Brown was commissioned to create the gardens at Trentham Hall, a few miles from where I live, in the 1770s which involved excavating the lake. However his naturalistic style had fallen out of favour by the 1840s and the gardens were remodelled on the more formal pattern which remain today, Brown's lake still survives of course.

7 February 1812 - Charles Dickens born.

The world's greatest novelist. I need say no more than offer some of his works - Oliver Twist (1838), A Christmas Carol (1843), The Personal History of David Copperfield (1850), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (1861) and more.