TCM Schedule for Saturday, December 24, 2016 -- Robert Osborne's Christmas Eve Picks

[Staph]

Robert Osborne is back for Saturday night! Tonight's not-really-the-Essentials films are a selection of films about the Christmas season, including a couple of my favorites, Christmas in Connecticut (1945 - ignore the Dyan Cannon version from 1992) and The Man Who Came To Dinner (1941). Enjoy!


6:45 AM -- TENTH AVENUE ANGEL (1948)
A child of the tenements helps an ex-con find a new life.
Dir: Roy Rowland
Cast: Margaret O'Brien, Angela Lansbury, George Murphy
BW-74 mins, CC,

Based on a radio sketch, Miracle at Midnight, by Craig Rice (aka Georgianna Craig), who among other works was the ghostwriter for Gypsy Rose Lee's novel The G-String Murders.


8:15 AM -- 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.


10:20 AM -- HOLIDAY GREETINGS 1941 LEWIS STONE (1941)
This short film provides a Christmas greeting from Lewis Stone, sent specially to servicemen overseas and their families.
BW-2 mins,


10:30 AM -- SCROOGE (1970)
A miser faces the ghosts of his past on Christmas Eve.
Dir: Ronald Neame
Cast: Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, Edith Evans
C-114 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Terence Marsh, Robert Cartwright and Pamela Cornell, Best Costume Design -- Margaret Furse, Best Music, Original Song -- Leslie Bricusse for the song "Thank You Very Much", and Best Music, Original Song Score -- Leslie Bricusse, Ian Fraser and Herbert W. Spencer

Scrooge (played by then 34-year old Albert Finney) is actually younger than his nephew Fred (played by then 46-year old Michael Medwin).


12:30 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

In 1910, Victor Moore starred in George M. Cohan's "Forty Five Minutes From Broadway" in which the song "Mary Is A Grand Old Name" made it's debut. This song is used several times in the movie.


2:30 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,

The baby picture on the wall of Timmy (Gordon Gebert) really is a picture of the actor as a baby.


4:11 PM -- LOEWS CHRISTMAS GREETING (THE HARDY FAMILY) (1939)
In this short film, Andy Hardy and the rest of the Hardy family give a holiday greeting to the audience.
Dir: George Sidney
Cast: Fay Holden, Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney
BW-3 mins,


4:15 PM -- THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940)
Feuding co-workers don't realize they're secret romantic pen pals.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan
BW-99 mins, CC,

To make sure his film was stripped of the glamour usually associated with him, Ernst Lubitsch went to such lengths as ordering that a dress Margaret Sullavan had purchased off the rack for $1.98 be left in the sun to bleach and altered to fit poorly.


6:00 PM -- MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944)
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family.
Dir: Vincente Minnelli
Cast: Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor
C-113 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar Juvenile Award for Margaret O'Brien for outstanding child actress of 1944

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, Best Cinematography, Color -- George J. Folsey, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- George Stoll, and Best Music, Original Song -- Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin for the song "The Trolley Song"

Also going on at the time of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition were the Third Summer Olympic Games. They were the first Olympic Games to be held in the United States. Originally awarded to Chicago, President Theodore Roosevelt had the Games switched to St. Louis so that they would run at the same time as the World's Fair. This turned out to be a huge mistake. The Games merely became a side attraction to the fair's other events and turned out to be a first class disaster. They took nearly six months to complete and were very poorly run. Many competitors went to their graves without knowing that they had competed in the Olympics. As a result of these Games, the Olympic movement almost came to an end.


7:56 PM -- JUDY GARLAND SINGS "SILENT NIGHT" (1937)
In this short film, Judy Garland sings "Silent Night, Holy Night", accompanied by the St. Luke's Episcopal Church Choristers of Long Beach, California.
BW-2 mins,



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: ROBERT OSBORNE'S CHRISTMAS EVE PICKS



8:00 PM -- CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945)
A homemaking specialist who can't boil water is forced to provide a family holiday for a war hero.
Dir: Peter Godfrey
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet
BW-101 mins, CC,

When Felix (S.Z. Sakall) first meets Yardly (Sydney Greenstreet), he takes an immediate dislike to him and mumbles under his breath, "Fat man" and walks away. In The Maltese Falcon (1941) Greenstreet played the role of Kasper Gutman whose code name was "Fat Man".


9:50 PM -- MARIO LANZA AND THE BOY CHOIR SINGING "AVE MARIA" FROM THE GREAT CARUSO (1951)
Mario Lanza and a choir of boys sing "Ave Marie" in this short clip taken from "The Great Caruso" (1951).
C-3 mins,


10:00 PM -- THE DOLLY SISTERS (1945)
Two sisters from Hungary become famous entertainers in the early 20th century.
Dir: Irving Cummings
Cast: Betty Grable, John Payne, June Haver
C-114 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- James V. Monaco (music) and Mack Gordon (lyrics) for the song "I Can't Begin to Tell You"

Jenny Dolly, Rosie Dolly, and Harry Fox were real people. For those of you who watched the fourth and final season of Mr. Selfridge on PBS, the Dolly sisters were the ones who helped Harry Selfridge gamble away so much of his fortune after the death of his wife.


12:00 AM -- IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (1949)
In this musical remake of The Shop Around the Corner, feuding co-workers in a small music shop do not realize they are secret romantic pen pals.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: Judy Garland, Van Johnson, S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall
C-103 mins, CC,

Buster Keaton was working as a gag writer at MGM when this movie was made. The filmmakers approached him to devise a way for a violin to get broken that would be both comic and plausible. Keaton came up with an appropriate fall, and the filmmakers then realized he was the only one who would be able to execute it properly, so they cast him in the film. Keaton also devised the sequence in which Van Johnson inadvertently wrecks Judy Garland's hat, and coached Johnson intensively in how to perform the scene. This was the first MGM film Keaton appeared in since being fired from the studio in 1933.


1:47 AM -- THE CHRISTMAS PARTY (1931)
In this holiday short, Jackie Cooper throws a Christmas party with the help of some friends at MGM.
Dir: Charles F. Reisner
Cast: Jimmy Durante,
BW-9 mins,


2:00 AM -- THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1941)
An acerbic critic wreaks havoc when a hip injury forces him to move in with a midwestern family.
Dir: William Keighley
Cast: Bette Davis, Ann Sheridan, Monty Woolley
BW-113 mins, CC,

Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, authors of the play from which this film was adapted, were good friends with Alexander Woollcott, a famous critic, radio personality, and lecturer at the time. Woollcott requested that they write a play FOR him, but they never came up with a plot. One day Woollcott came to visit Hart unexpectedly and turned his house upside down, taking over the master bedroom, ordering Hart's staff around and making a general nuisance of himself. When Hart told Kaufman of the visit, he asked, "Imagine what would have happened if he broke his leg and had to stay?" They looked at each other and knew they had a play.

The authors asked Alexander Woollcott if he would like to play the part of Whiteside when the play opened on Broadway. He declined. The authors then approached Monty Woolley, who at that time was a professor at Yale. They wrote him "would it amuse you to play the part of Whiteside?" to which Woolley replied "it would amuse everyone."


4:00 AM -- BELL BOOK AND CANDLE (1958)
A beautiful witch puts a love spell on an unknowing publisher.
Dir: Richard Quine
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon
C-102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Nominated for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White or Color -- Cary Odell and Louis Diage, and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White or Color -- Jean Louis

This was James Stewart's final appearance as a romantic lead. This was because many of the leading ladies that were playing his romantic interest were becoming younger and a few were half his age. The critics in 1958 felt that Stewart was miscast as a suave New York businessman, and he apparently agreed. After this film he would concentrate more on roles that portrayed him as an everyman or as a father figure.

[longship]

1. Bell, Book, and Candle!

Great cast! Fun flick.

Jack Lemmon stands out. And of course, Kim Novak, who is absolutely incredible in Vertigo.

Well worth a viewing, if only for the fun of it.