TCM Schedule for Saturday, December 8, 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 pair of Christmas comedies, Holiday Inn (1942) with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, and The Man Who Came To Dinner (1941) written by playwrights George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- SATURDAY'S CHILDREN (1940)
A young inventor's new marriage is jeopardized by financial problems.
Dir: Vincent Sherman
Cast: John Garfield, Anne Shirley, Claude Rains
BW-102 mins, CC,

James Stewart was to play "Rims Rosson" but was replaced by John Garfield. Jane Bryan was to play "Bobby Halevy", but she retired to get married and was replaced by Olivia de Havilland, who was suspended when she refused the part. Una Merkel had the role of "Florrie Sands" but was replaced by Lee Patrick when she became ill.


8:00 AM -- MGM CARTOONS: THE CAPTAIN'S CHRISTMAS (1938)
Pirate John and his crew threaten Christmas after taking over the Captain's role as Santa.
Dir: Hugh Harman
Cast: Charles Bennett, Mel Blanc, Billy Bletcher
C-8 mins,

Also known as The Short Cut.


8:09 AM -- STRAUSS FANTASY (1954)
In this short film, Johnny Green leads the MGM Symphony Orchestra in a medley of waltzes and other familiar pieces by three members of the Strauss family.
C-10 mins, Letterbox Format

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Short Subject, One-reel -- Johnny Green


8:19 AM -- HANDLEBARS (1933)
This short film provides a humorous history of the bicycle since 1819.
Dir: Jules White
Cast: Bess Flowers, Bill Elliott,
BW-10 mins,


8:29 AM -- TRAILIN' WEST (1936)
A singing secret agent tracks down renegades at President Lincoln's request.
Dir: Noel Smith
Cast: Dick Foran, Paula Stone, Gordon Elliott
BW-56 mins, CC,

In an outtake which appears in the Warner Club's Breakdowns of 1937 (1937) blooper reel, Dick Foran attempts to mount the saddle of his horse "Smoke", only to fail and angrily shout, "I can't raise my ass off the ground!" Subsequently, the blooper became an annual tradition of the "Breakdowns" series, appearing as the climatic clip up until "Blow-Ups of 1946" (1946). In these repeats, Foran's audio was slightly altered to say, "I still can't raise my ass off the ground!"


9:30 AM -- MANDRAKE, THE MAGICIAN: TERROR RIDES THE RAILS (1939)
The ninth installment of the Mandrake, the Magician series.
BW-13 mins,


10:00 AM -- POPEYE: WHAT--NO SPINICH (1936)
Wimpy's desire for a hamburger ignites a fight between Popeye and Bluto.
Dir: Dave Fleischer
Cast: Lou Fleischer, Jack Mercer, Gus Wickie
BW-6 mins, CC,

The title is a spoof of a Buster Keaton / Jimmy Durante film, What-No Beer? (1933).


10:08 AM -- MURDER ON THE BLACKBOARD (1934)
A schoolteacher matches wits with a police detective when they both try to solve a pretty music teacher's murder.
Dir: George Archainbaud
Cast: James Gleason, Edna May Oliver, Bruce Cabot
BW-72 mins,

Edgar Kennedy returns as the slow-thinking Donovan although he seems to have been promoted to Detective Sergeant. In two films he is knocked unconscious -- in "The Penguin Pool Murders" in a bathroom and here in a cellar. Kennedy's iconic bald pate is visible although in the first film his head was shaved.


11:30 AM -- POLAR OUTPOST (1957)
This short film focuses on a string of radar stations built across the north of Alaska and Canada.
Dir: Jerome Brondfield
Cast: Don Morrow, Robert Alexander, Richard Crane
BW-15 mins,

This is one of several short subjects, already in the can, and slated for release by RKO Radio Pictures as part of their RKO-Pathe Specials 1956-1957 season, but which received no theatrical distribution at the time, as a result of the demise of RKO. In 1994, they became part of the TCM library and, for the past 20+ years, finally saw the light of day through occasional airings on cable television.


12:00 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,

Nominee 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.


2:15 PM -- THREE GODFATHERS (1936)
Three fugitives risk their lives to bring a newborn baby out of the desert to safety.
Dir: Richard Boleslawski
Cast: Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Walter Brennan
BW-81 mins, CC,

This is a remake of the silent film The Three Godfathers (1916), which starred Harry Carey. In 1948, the film was remade again by John Ford, starring John Wayne. When Harry 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 godfathers, "The Abilene Kid".


3:45 PM -- THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN (1944)
Twain moves from Mississippi riverboats to the Gold Rush to literary immortality.
Dir: Irving Rapper
Cast: Fredric March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp
BW-130 mins, CC,

Nominee for Oscars for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White -- John Hughes and Fred M. MacLean, Best Effects, Special Effects -- Paul Detlefsen (photographic), John Crouse (photographic) and Nathan Levinson (sound), and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Max Steiner

The scene where Clemens receives an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1907 was the recreation of an event that C. Aubrey Smith, who plays the Oxford Chancellor, actually witnessed.


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

In a TCM introduction of Gilda (1944), Alec Baldwin confessed his admiration for Glenn Ford's performance in this movie.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CHRISTMAS CLASSICS



8:00 PM -- HOLIDAY INN (1942)
When he loses in love, a song-and-dance man retires from show business to run a country inn.
Dir: Mark Sandrich
Cast: Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds
BW-101 mins, CC,

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song -- Irving Berlin for the song "White Christmas"

Nominee for Oscars for Best Writing, Original Story -- Irving Berlin, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Robert Emmett Dolan

The firecracker dance sequence was added to the movie as a patriotic number, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, which took place during filming. The dance number required three days of rehearsal and took two days to film. Fred Astaire did 38 takes of the number before he was satisfied with it. The crew members had to wear goggles during filming, because the sand from the firecrackers flew into their faces. Later, Astaire's shoes for the dance were auctioned off for $116,000 worth of war bonds.


10:00 PM -- THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1942)
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.


12:00 AM -- TOO LATE FOR TEARS (1949)
A married woman's discovery of stolen money changes her character for the worse.
Dir: Byron Haskin
Cast: Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, Dan Duryea
BW-101 mins,

Restored via UCLA Film and Television Archive. The restoration process took five years, after a print was discovered in France, and involved piecing segments of another copy into the restored version to have a complete film. The restoration was funded by the Film Noir Foundation.


2:00 AM -- MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937)
A devoted couple faces the harsh economic realities of growing older.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter
BW-92 mins, CC,

When he moved to Columbia, Leo McCarey found himself often at loggerheads with its notoriously difficult head, Harry Cohn. Whenever he went over budget or fell behind schedule on The Awful Truth (1937), Cohn would remind him of the commercial failure of Make Way for Tomorrow (1937). When The Awful Truth (1937) was released to great acclaim and excellent box office, McCarey led Cohn to believe that he would renew his contract with Columbia. But the day before they had agreed to sign, McCarey took out an ad in Variety announcing that he had just signed with RKO, the studio where he made two of his biggest hits, Going My Way (1944) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945).


3:45 AM -- RUGGLES OF RED GAP (1935)
A Western rancher wins a British valet in a poker game.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charles Ruggles
BW-91 mins, CC,

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Picture

Edward Dmytryk, the film's editor, said that Charles Laughton became so emotional during the scene in the saloon where he recites the Gettysburg Address that it took director Leo McCarey 1-1/2 days to complete shooting it. According to Dmytryk, the preview audiences found Laughton's close-ups in the scene embarrassing and tittered through the speech. When substitute shots of Laughton from behind were inserted, the audience found the reaction shots of the other people reacting to him very moving, and the second preview was extremely successful.


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,