TCM Schedule for Friday, December 4, 2015 -- What's On Tonight: Christmas Classics

[Staph]

TCM is devoting the daylight hours to some of the westerns of Glenn Ford. And in prime time, we're beginning the Christmas season. At least TCM had the decency to hold off until the month of December. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Day Of The Evil Gun (1968)
A gunman tries to control a vengeful farmer whose wife has been kidnapped.
Dir: Jerry Thorpe
Cast: Glenn Ford, Arthur Kennedy, Dean Jagger
C-94 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Based on a story by Charles Marquis Warren.


7:45 AM -- The Last Challenge (1967)
A young gun wants to make his name by shooting it out with the town marshal.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: Glenn Ford, Angie Dickinson, Chad Everett
C-96 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The final film of veteran director Richard Thorpe.


9:30 AM -- A Time for Killing (1967)
Confederate soldiers keep the war's ending a secret so they can escape to Mexico.
Dir: Phil Karlson
Cast: Inger Stevens, Union Troops:, Glenn Ford
C-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

First credited film role of Harrison Ford.


11:00 AM -- The Rounders (1965)
Two ne'er-do-well cowpokes look for sex and easy money in the modern West.
Dir: Burt Kennedy
Cast: Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda, Sue Ane Langdon
C-84 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Turned into a television series in 1966, starring Ron Hayes Patrick Wayne, and Chill Wills.


12:30 PM -- Cimarron (1960)
A pioneer couple plays a major role in the settling of Oklahoma.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, Anne Baxter
C-147 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- George W. Davis, Addison Hehr, Henry Grace, Hugh Hunt and Otto Siegel, and Best Sound -- Franklin Milton (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer SSD)

The fictional town of Osage was built on three sound stages. It comprised eleven acres of land at the M-G-M lot, the biggest western town in studio's history.


3:00 PM -- The Sheepman (1958)
A tough sheep farmer battles the local cattle baron for land and a beautiful woman.
Dir: George Marshall
Cast: Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine, Leslie Nielsen
C-86 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen -- William Bowers (screenplay) and James Edward Grant (screenplay/story)

Final film of G. Pat Collins.


4:30 PM -- 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
A sheriff must run the gauntlet to get his prisoner out of town.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr
BW-92 mins, CC,

Although most Westerns by this time were being produced in colour, Delmer Daves and Charles Lawton Jr. opted to shoot this one in black and white. Lawton used red filters on his lenses, however, to give the landscape an even more starkly parched look, befitting the story's setting amidst a lengthy drought.


6:15 PM -- The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)
A reformed gunslinger's past keeps catching up with him.
Dir: Russell Rouse
Cast: Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, Broderick Crawford
BW-89 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This film is a remake of The Last Notch, an episode of the television series United States Steel Hour, from 1954.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CHRISTMAS CLASSICS



8:00 PM -- It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)
Two homeless men move into a mansion while its owners are wintering in the South.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Don DeFore, Ann Harding, Charlie Ruggles
BW-115 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Herbert Clyde Lewis and Frederick Stephani

The men are getting paid $1.00 an hour for shoveling snow. One dollar in 1947 was worth $10.46 in 2013. The current minimum wage in the state of New York is $8.75.


10:15 PM -- Meet John Doe (1941)
A reporter's fraudulent story turns a tramp into a national hero and makes him a pawn of big business.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold
BW-123 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Richard Connell and Robert Presnell Sr.

Frank Capra didn't want anyone to play John Doe except Gary Cooper, who agreed to the part (without reading a script) for two reasons: he had enjoyed working with Capra on Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and he wanted to work with Barbara Stanwyck.


12:30 AM -- Period of Adjustment (1962)
A newlywed couple's honeymoon is disrupted by their friends' marital problems.
Dir: George Roy Hill
Cast: Tony Franciosa, Jane Fonda, Jim Hutton
BW-111 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White -- George W. Davis, Edward C. Carfagno, Henry Grace and Richard Pefferle

The original Broadway production of "Period of Adjustment" by Tennessee Williams opened at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York on November 10, 1960 and ran for 132 performances. The Tennessee Williams play was adapted for this movie by Isobel Lennart.


2:30 AM -- All Mine to Give (1957)
Pioneer children fight to build a new family after their parents die.
Dir: Allen Reisner
Cast: Glynis Johns, Cameron Mitchell, Rex Thompson
C-102 mins, CC,

Glynnis Johns (Jo Eunson) and Reta Shaw (Mrs. Runyon) would play characters more friendly to each other in "Mary Poppins," (1964) as Mrs. Banks and one of Mrs. Banks' domestics, respectively.


4:30 AM -- Little Women (1949)
The four daughters of a New England family fight for happiness during and after the Civil War.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Margaret O'Brien
C-122 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Jack D. Moore

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck and Charles Edgar Schoenbaum

In the novel, Amy is the youngest sister, but in order to use Margaret O'Brien, as Beth, Beth was made the youngest.