TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 22, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - Christmas Classics

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is celebrating Ruth Roman, born Norma Roman on December 22, 1922, in Lynn, Massachusetts. Then in prime time, it's the last of the Christmas Classics (though Bob Osborne is showing his picks for Christmas on Saturday, December 24 -- Christmas Eve). Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #25 (1955)
Jeanette MacDonald and Allan Jones perform in a clip from "The Firefly"; Dan Dailey introduces a clip from "Meet Me in Las Vegas." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-29 mins, CC,


6:30 AM -- ALWAYS LEAVE THEM LAUGHING (1949)
A vaudeville clown neglects his family while fighting for stardom.
Dir: Roy Del Ruth
Cast: Milton Berle, Virginia Mayo, Ruth Roman
BW-116 mins, CC,

In the audition scene with Virginia Mayo, Berle imitates an upper-crust type, wearing a monocle and a robe or smoking jacket with an Art Deco-esque print. This unusual-looking garment was used in a movie at least once previously. It was worn by Monty Woolley in The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) -- watch it late on Christmas Eve.


8:30 AM -- BARRICADE (1950)
Two fugitives try to prove the head of a mining camp is a murderer.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Dane Clark, Raymond Massey, Ruth Roman
C-75 mins, CC,

A reimagining of Jack London's Sea Wolf, moved from the sea to the old west.


10:00 AM -- LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE (1951)
An actress champions the cause of a man whom she believes has been falsely accused of murdering his wife.
Dir: King Vidor
Cast: Ruth Roman, Richard Todd, Mercedes McCambridge
BW-90 mins, CC,

Based on the novel A Man Without Friends by Margaret Echard.


11:45 AM -- MARA MARU (1952)
A salvage diver is accused of murder while hunting a mysterious treasure.
Dir: Gordon Douglas
Cast: Errol Flynn, Ruth Roman, Raymond Burr
BW-98 mins, CC,

Every day during filming, Errol Flynn would drive on the Warner Bros. lot wearing a windbreaker with no shirt, slacks with no underwear and shoes with no socks. The wardrobe people would provide him with a shirt, underwear and socks, and at the end of the day's filming he would wear them home. The next day he would arrive on the lot, again with no shirt, underwear or socks, and again he would be supplied those items by wardrobe. Co-star Paul Picerni noticed it after several days, and asked Flynn what he did with all the shirts, socks and underwear he'd accumulated after several weeks of filming. Flynn replied that he threw them in a closet when he got home. Picerni asked, "But what do you do with them?" Flynn replied, "Nothing. It just gives me pleasure to steal from Jack L. Warner.


1:30 PM -- YOUNG MAN WITH IDEAS (1952)
A country lawyer moves his family to Los Angeles.
Dir: Mitchell Leisen
Cast: Glenn Ford, Ruth Roman, Denise Darcel
BW-85 mins, CC,

Also known as Young Man in a Hurry.


3:00 PM -- DALLAS (1950)
A renegade Confederate officer tries to hide his identity while bringing law and order to the West.
Dir: Stuart Heisler
Cast: Gary Cooper, Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran
C-94 mins, CC,

Raymond Massey, a Canadian, was most famous for his repeated movie portrayals of President Lincoln.


4:45 PM -- THE WINDOW (1949)
A boy who always lies witnesses a murder but can't get anyone but the killer to believe him.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff
Cast: Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart
BW-73 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing -- Frederic Knudtson

In the 1950 Academy Awards, Bobby Driscoll won the Oscar for the most outstanding juvenile actor of 1949, in response to his work in this film as well as Disney's tearjerker, So Dear to My Heart (1948). The award was not given every year, but only when exceptional acting was performed by a child.


6:15 PM -- STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)
A man's joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker
BW-101 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White -- Robert Burks

According to Farley Granger, Alfred Hitchcock hated Ruth Roman and treated her very harshly, often criticizing her in front of everyone. "He had to have one person in each film he could harass," Granger noted.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CHRISTMAS CLASSICS



8:00 PM -- HOLIDAY AFFAIR (1949)
A young widow is torn between a boring businessman and a romantic ne'er-do-well.
Dir: Don Hartman
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh, Wendell Corey
BW-87 mins, CC,

In the kitchen scene, Mitcham gives Leigh a "Merry Christmas Kiss". Janet Leigh was to say later, "The expression that is on my face of being overwhelmed was for real". Mitcham was later to say, "I wanted to make the kiss memorable, as though the characters were never going to see each other again. The Perks of being an actor are at times not bad".


9:45 PM -- REMEMBER THE NIGHT (1940)
An assistant D.A. takes a shoplifter home with him for Christmas.
Dir: Mitchell Leisen
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi
BW-94 mins, CC,

This film includes a lovely scene where Sterling Holloway, known for being the voice of Winnie the Pooh in Disney films, sings "A Perfect Day". It's quite touching.


11:30 PM -- A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951)
Ghosts visit a miser during the holidays to teach him the errors of his ways.
Dir: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Cast: Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns
BW-86 mins, CC,

Although this film is widely regarded as the best film version of Charles Dickens' story, it is the only one which omits Scrooge's famous line: "If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled in his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart". Alastair Sim would eventually get a chance to say it however, when he reprised his role in the animated A Christmas Carol (1971) which also featured Michael Hordern returning as Marley.


1:15 AM -- BABES IN TOYLAND (1934)
Two employees of a toy maker try to borrow money from their employer to pay off the mortgage on Mother Peep's shoe.
Dir: Gus Meins
Cast: Virginia Karns, Charlotte Henry, Felix Knight
BW-78 mins, CC,

Look carefully at the back wall in the Three Little Pigs' house, and you'll be able to spot framed photographs of "Mother" and "Father" - a plate of sausages and a football, respectively.


2:45 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

June Allyson was nearly 31 when she played 15-year-old Jo March. She was also pregnant with her son Dick Powell Jr. while filming.


5:00 AM -- NIGHT AT THE MOVIES: MERRY CHRISTMAS! (2011)
Star interviews and film clips trace the history of Christmas movies.
Dir: Laurent Bouzereau
C-58 mins, CC,

Features clips from Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Holiday Affair (1949), A Christmas Carol (1951), Black Christmas (1974), A Christmas Story (1983), Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) and Bad Santa (2003).

[longship]

1. Ruth Roman was a passenger on the Andrea Doria when it sank in the Atlantic.

After the SS Stockholm collided with it in fog. The Andea Doria sank, featured in the media including Life magazine, as was Roman's survival.


She was not a very good actress, IMHO.

But there ya go.

The Andrea Doria just before its final plunge:


The SS Stockholm (bow destroyed after collision):