Before I head off to the Toronto International Film Festival next week, I wanted to note some of the notable premieres on Turner Classic Movies this month — including three films that, to my knowledge, have never
been shown on TV before.

Stephen Roberts’ notorious “The Story of Temple Drake” (1933), airing Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. EST is a pre-code Paramount version of William Faulkner’s “Sanctuary” that fell out of circulation because Fox bought it for a remake that came out in 1961.

This earlier version, starring Miriam Hopkins and Jack LaRue, has a remarkably frank rape scene involving a corncob that helped bring on enforcement of the Production Code. This restoration was overseen by MoMA — Universal, which never owned the rights, long ago donated to the museum the “Temple Drake” negative they acquired along with hundreds of other pre-1948 Paramount talkies they bought from Paramount. Given its current apparent ownership by Fox, don’t expect this on DVD in the foreseeable future.

TCM’s 24-hour tribute to the Library of Congress Film Archive kicks off at 8 Eastern on Sept. 28 with the much anticipated, first-ever TV showing of Edmund Goulding’s “The Constant Nymph” (1943), a rediscovered gem that’s been tied up in legal knots since the early ’50s.

Starring Joan Fontaine — in the best performance of hers that I’ve seen, as a consumptive Swiss  teenager smitten with composer Charles Boyer — this is one of the finest Warner Bros. “women’s” pictures from the classic era, complete with a superlative Erich Wolfgang Korngold score.

Here’s my full write-up from the re-premiere at this spring’s TCM Classic Film Festival. The Warner Archive Collection has indicated “Nymph” will be released on DVD sometime around the end of the year.

The LOC tribute also includes the first TV showing of the alternate silent (with one brief, non-subtitled French language sequence) version of Lewis Milestone’s Oscar-winning “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1930) starring Lew Ayres.

As I wrote when this played at Film Forum in 2009, this version, which uses alternate takes, is a more satisfying experience than the well-known talkie version, which has less fluid camera work due to the contraints of the then-knew sound technology.

There are lots of other films that are new to TCM this month.

Among them are Irving Pichel’s delightful (not-on-DVD) “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid” (1948) starring William Powell and Ann Blyth (and a surprise cameo at the end) kicking off an evening of mermaid movies at 8 pm Eastern tonight.

Also bowing are Edward H. Griffith’s “Young and Willing” (1943), a fondly-recalled, long-out-of-circulation Paramount show-biz comedy released by United Artists (also not on DVD) with William Holden, Eddie Bracken and Susan Hayward at midnight Saturday night; Bryan Haskin’s “I Walk Alone” (1948), a noir that represented the first teaming of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, with Lizabeth Scott (also not on DVD); and Jack Clayton’s “The Innocents” (1961) a superb adaptation of Henry James’ “Turn of the Screw” with Deborah Kerr at 10 p.m. on Sept. 10.

Also: Michael Curtiz’ Technicolor remake of “The Jazz Singer” (1953), showing as part of a Danny Thomas retrospective on Sept. 9 at 10 p.m.; Roy (Ward) Baker’s underrated noir “Don’t Bother to Knock” (1952) with Richard Widmark, and, as a psychotic baby sitter, Marilyn Monroe (Sept, 12 at 8 p.m.). Plus five of Gerald Thomas’ British “Carry On” comedies (prime time on Sept. 16).

The LOC tribute includes “Two Heads on a Pillow” (1934), an uber-obscure divorce comedy I’ve never starring Neil (“Batman”) Hamilton and Miriam Jordan (Sept. 28 at 11:30 p.m.); and Dudley Murphy’s very rarely seen (and never on video) “One Third of a Nation” (1939).  This fascinating social drama derived from a WPA production — shot at Paramount’s Astoria studios — stars Sylvia Sidney, and, as her teenage brother, future directing legend Sidney Lumet. (Sept. 29 at 7:15 a.m).

A month-long tribute to the 50th anniversary of Merchant-Ivory Productions on Thursday nights consists entirely of TCM premieres. MI’s rather bloodless approach to the classics is not really my cup of tea, but for there’s one happy exception. I can wholeheartedly recommend their greatest hit, Ivory’s “A Room With a View” (1985), which made Helena Bonham Carter a star. It’s airing at 1 a.m. Eastern on the 15th.