TCM Schedule for Friday, December 1, 2017 -- What's On Tonight - Christmas Double Feature

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, it's all Cary Grant! It's not his birthday (he and I share the same birthdate, though not the same year!), but a day full of Archie Leach is welcome year round. Then in prime time, TCM is calling it a Christmas Double Feature, with five films that take place during the Christmas season. Maybe Christmas Quintuple feature? Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)
A radio correspondent tries to rescue a burlesque queen from her marriage to a Nazi official.
Dir: Leo McCarey
Cast: Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Walter Slezak
BW-115 mins,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound, Recording -- Stephen Dunn (RKO Radio SSD)

When Grant comes back to the photographer's shop in Paris loaded with a new outfit for Rogers, he mentions that he bought the clothes at the "shop around the corner." This is likely a reference to the Lubitsch film of a few years earlier "The Shop Around The Corner" and, possibly by inference, "The Mortal Storm," a film starring the same principals and many of the same actors, released at the same time - a film that warned of the rise of the Nazis.


8:15 AM -- Mr. Lucky (1943)
A gambling-ship owner is out to fleece a beautiful society woman, but falls in love.
Dir: H. C. Potter
Cast: Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Charles Bickford
BW-100 mins, CC

Writer Milton Holmes said that his story was inspired by a real 1936 event, where a nightclub owner staged a one-night gambling benefit at the Beverly Hills Hotel to raise $40,000 for a church. In his original story, the character of Joe dies at the end.


10:15 AM -- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
A young man about to be married discovers the two aunts who raised him have been poisoning lonely old men.
Dir: Frank Capra
Cast: Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, Raymond Massey
BW-118 mins, CC

Frank Capra pushed his actors to the broadest comedy takes, a fact that did not sit well with Cary Grant. As a result, his (and Jack Carson's) performances were singled out by reviewers for going dangerously over the top, while Raymond Massey and the stage performers managed to look rather restrained by comparison. Grant hated working this way, although in his more generous moments he credited Capra with helping him to get the comic effect he was unable to do on his own (it may have been his subtle way of blaming the director).


12:30 PM -- None but the Lonely Heart (1944)
A young ne'er-do-well tries to get his life on track to help his ailing mother.
Dir: Clifford Odets
Cast: Cary Grant, Ethel Barrymore, Miss Ethel Barrymore
BW-113 mins, CC

Won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Ethel Barrymore

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Cary Grant, Best Film Editing -- Roland Gross, and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- C. Bakaleinikoff and Hanns Eisler

This film marked a return to the big screen after an 11 year absence by star Ethel Barrymore. Prior to making this film, Barrymore had considered movie appearances an inferior art to the stage. However, her time on set, her critical acclaim, and her hefty paycheck changed her mind. After making this film, she moved from New York to California so she could concentrate on making movies instead of Broadway plays.


2:30 PM -- Every Girl Should Be Married (1948)
A young woman uses scientific research to trap a man into marriage.
Dir: Don Hartman
Cast: Cary Grant, Franchot Tone, Diana Lynn
BW-85 mins, CC

Love interests in this film, Cary Grant and Betsy Drake tied the knot in real life less than a year after the film was released.


4:00 PM -- 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.


5:45 PM -- Dream Wife (1953)
For state reasons, a diplomat fakes an engagement to a Middle Eastern princess.
Dir: Sidney Sheldon
Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Walter Pidgeon
BW-99 mins, CC

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Helen Rose and Herschel McCoy

After making this film Cary Grant announced his retirement from acting in February 1953. However, 18 months later he agreed to return to acting in To Catch a Thief (1955).


7:30 PM -- MGM Parade Show #4 (1955)
George Murphy tours Lake Metro, where "Mutiny on the Bounty" and "Show Boat" were shot, and introduces a clip from "Good News." These clips feature June Allyson and Peter Lawford.
BW-26 mins, CC



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CHRISTMAS DOUBLE FEATURE



8:00 PM -- 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,

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.


10:00 PM -- 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

Glynis 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 her domestics, respectively.


12:00 AM -- Bush Christmas (1947)
A group of children track down rustlers they accidentally helped steal their father's horses.
Dir: Ralph Smart
Cast: Chips Rafferty, John Fernside, Stan Tolhurst
BW-77 mins, CC

Remade in 1983.


1:30 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

Flavia's (Margaret O'Brien) block party speech is taken from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's address to the Young Democratic Club in Baltimore, Maryland on April 13, 1936.


3:00 AM -- A 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


4:15 AM -- Never Say Goodbye (1946)
A husband tries to win back his wife before she can divorce him.
Dir: James V. Kern
Cast: Errol Flynn, Eleanor Parker, Lucile Watson
BW-94 mins, CC

When Errol Flynn dons a disguise as Humphrey Bogart, it's Bogart himself who's doing the voice-over.