TCM Schedule for Saturday, December 15, 2018 -- What's On Tonight: Christmas Classics

[Staph]

Tonight, TCM's non-essential Essentials continues the month of classic Christmas films, on Saturday and Sunday nights. Tonight we get a batch of Christmas westerns. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- ROOM FOR ONE MORE (1952)
A family with three children takes in troubled orphans.
Dir: Norman Taurog
Cast: Cary Grant, Betsy Drake, Lurene Tuttle
BW-95 mins, CC,

During the Pledge of Allegiance the words under God were missing. This is because the words were not added to the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954 and the movie was made in 1952.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: ALIAS ST. NICK (1935)
A devious cat poses as Santa to fool Mrs. Mouse and her family on Christmas Eve.
Dir: Hugh Harman
Cast: Billy Bletcher, Bernice Hansen
C-10 mins, CC,

First appearance of Little Cheeser.


8:11 AM -- DO SOMEONE A FAVOR! (1954)
In this comedic short, a friendly "do-gooder" takes his good deeds too far.
Dir: Dave O'Brien
Cast: Greta Granstedt, Dave O'Brien,
BW-9 mins,


8:20 AM -- BARGAIN MADNESS (1951)
This short film is a humorous look at women battling for bargains in a department store.
Dir: Dave O'Brien
Cast: Sally Payne, Dorothy Short, Jack Rice
BW-9 mins,


8:30 AM -- TREACHERY RIDES THE RANGE (1936)
A cowboy takes on buffalo hunters out to stir up the Indians.
Dir: Frank McDonald
Cast: Dick Foran, Paula Stone, Craig Reynolds
BW-56 mins,

Crazy Credits -- In the opening credits, Dick Foran is called "The Singing Cowboy," but that designation is omitted in his subsequent on-screen credit. There his character surname is "Tyler," but he is called "Taylor" throughout the movie. Similarly, Carlyle Moore Jr. is listed as "Little Big Wolf" in the credits, but is called simply "Little Wolf" in the movie.


9:30 AM -- MANDRAKE, THE MAGICIAN: THE UNSEEN MONSTER (1939)
The tenth installment of the Mandrake, the Magician series.
BW-16 mins,


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: I WANNA BE A LIFEGUARD (1936)
Popeye and Bluto compete for a lifeguard job.
Dir: Dave Fleischer
Cast: Lou Fleischer, Jack Mercer, Mae Questel
BW-6 mins, CC,

This cartoon makes use of Fleischer's Tabletop process, which animates the cels vertically between multi-plane set pieces in order to create the feeling of depth. Used here for the swimming pool. The whole effect is lost in the color version, as the backgrounds is a flat redraw.


10:08 AM -- MURDER ON A HONEYMOON (1935)
A schoolteacher jumps into detective mode when a fellow airplane passenger gets sick and dies.
Dir: Lloyd Corrigan
Cast: Edna May Oliver, James Gleason, Lola Lane
BW-74 mins, CC,

The Joe Slavok aka Red Smith WANTED for MAIL ROBBERY poster that Hildegarde Withers spots on the Post Office wall bears the image of RKO actor Richard Dix, only slightly disguised, but still easily recognizable. Obviously, this was an inside joke.


11:30 AM -- SEASONED GREETINGS (1933)
In this short film, an innovative greeting card shop owner attempts to beat out neighboring competition by inventing talking greeting cards. Vitaphone Release 1564-1565.
Dir: Roy Mack
Cast: Harlan Briggs, Robert Cummings, Sammy Davis Jr.
BW-20 mins,

Film debut of Robert Cummings and eight-year-old Sammy Davis Jr.


12:00 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".


1:45 PM -- BROKEN ARROW (1950)
A former soldier sets out to create peace between white settlers and the Apache.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: James Stewart, Jeff Chandler, Debra Paget
C-93 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jeff Chandler, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Maltz (Originally Michael Blankfort had been listed for this nomination. Blankfort fronted for Maltz, who was a blacklisted writer at the time. Following research by the Writers Guild of America West in July 1991, the Academy officially attributed the nomination to Maltz and removed Blankford.), and Best Cinematography, Color -- Ernest Palmer

The film was considered groundbreaking at the time because it was one of the first sound films to portray Native American Indians in a humane light. Years later, the film was criticized because white actors played Indians, but the role of Geronimo in fact was played by Native Canadian Mohawk actor Jay Silverheels.


3:30 PM -- THE NAKED AND THE DEAD (1958)
A green lieutenant comes up against incompetent officers and a sadistic sergeant during World War II.
Dir: Raoul Walsh
Cast: Aldo Ray, Cliff Robertson, Raymond Massey
C-131 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

This film was originally to be released by RKO Radio Pictures, but by the time it was ready for release, that studio had closed down and the film was distributed by Warner Bros. It may be the only instance where the logos of both companies appear on the same film. The TCM print bears an RKO Radio Pictures logo, stretched out to wide screen proportions, and an RKO Teleradio Pictures copyright statement.


5:45 PM -- THE LOVED ONE (1965)
An Englishman in Hollywood moves into the funeral business.
Dir: Tony Richardson
Cast: Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer
BW-121 mins, CC,

After World War II, Evelyn Waugh came to Hollywood to work on a movie adaptation of his novel "Brideshead Revisited". While in Hollywood, he went to a funeral at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. He was so offended by the pretense of the American film industry and the American funeral industry that he wove the two together into the novel on which this movie was based.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CHRISTMAS CLASSICS



8:00 PM -- TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD (1950)
A big tree corporation tries to drive a retired, B-western star selling Christmas trees to families of poor kids out of business.
Dir: William Witney
Cast: Roy Rogers, Trigger, Penny Edwards
C-67 mins, CC,

Roy Rogers' and Dale Evans' oldest daughter, Cheryl Rogers, makes a cameo appearance (this is also her only feature film appearance as she only appeared in one TV show after this). Eleven minutes into the movie, she is the little girl in a blue dress who asks Jack Holt for his autograph.


9:30 PM -- 3 GODFATHERS (1949)
Three outlaws on the run risk their freedom and their lives to return a newborn to civilization.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, Harry Carey Jr.
C-106 mins, CC,

This is a remake of the silent film The Three Godfathers (1916), which starred Ford's long-time friend Harry Carey. When Carey died in 1947, Ford decided to remake the story in Technicolor and dedicate the film to his memory. Carey's son, Harry Carey Jr., plays one of the three, "The Abilene Kid". The film Three Godfathers (1936) is based on the same source, so this film is, in some sense, a remake of that film as well.


11:30 PM -- STAR IN THE NIGHT (1945)
In this short film, three cowboys see a bright light in the distance and decide to investigate on Christmas Eve. Vitaphone Release 1401A.
Dir: Don Siegel
Cast: J. Carrol Naish, Lynne Baggett, Anthony Caruso
BW-21 mins,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel -- Gordon Hollingshead

Although not credited by choice, Star in the Night was co-written by Betty Smith who was romantically involved at the time with credited screen writer Robert Finch. The screen adaptation of Smith's best-selling novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), was also released in 1945.


12:00 AM -- TALK ABOUT A STRANGER (1952)
Small-town gossips rage over the arrival of a mysterious stranger.
Dir: David Bradley
Cast: George Murphy, Nancy Reagan, Billy Gray
BW-65 mins, CC,

Also known as The Enemy and The Stranger In The House.


1:30 AM -- THE THRILL OF IT ALL (1963)
A doctor tries to cope with his wife's newfound stardom as an advertising pitch woman.
Dir: Norman Jewison
Cast: Doris Day, James Garner, Arlene Francis
C-108 mins, CC,

The ad agency's viewing room has both color and black-and-white TVs side by side. This was common at ad agencies in the 1960s to confirm that color commercials would also be acceptable on black-and-white sets.


3:30 AM -- MIDNIGHT LACE (1960)
A young woman can't get anyone to believe she's being stalked.
Dir: David Miller
Cast: Doris Day, Rex Harrison, John Gavin
C-108 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Color -- Irene

In her autobiography, Doris Day wrote that to prepare herself for one of the terror scenes, she recalled a time when her first husband, trombonist Al Jorden, dragged her out of bed when she was ill and pregnant and hurled her against a wall. Day related that in the scene she wasn't acting hysterical, she WAS hysterical, and at the end of the take she collapsed in a real faint. She was carried to her dressing room, and producer Ross Hunter shut down production for a few days while she recovered.


5:30 AM -- MGM PARADE SHOW #18 (1955)
Greta Garbo and John Barrymore perform in a clip from "Grand Hotel"; Roger Moore introduces a clip from "Diane." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-29 mins,

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

1. Holiday Affair is one of the 4 or 5 Christmas Movies we watch

every year in our house.