TCM Saturday 12-23-23: A day of Cary Grant and Christmas, plus The Thin Man, Little Women, The Shop Around the Corner

[ificandream]

Saturday, December 23
At a Glance
STAR OF THE MONTH: CARY GRANT
- CARY'S CHRISTMAS MOVIES
Affair to Remember, An (1957)
Room for One More (1952)
Penny Serenade (1941)
In Name Only (1939)
- TCM DAYTIME
STAR OF THE MONTH: CARY GRANT (cont.)
Destination Tokyo (1943)
CHRISTMAS MARATHON
Little Women (1933)
Alias Boston Blackie (1942)
Thin Man, The (1934)
Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
- TCM PRIMETIME
CHRISTMAS MARATHON
Shop Around the Corner, The (1940)
In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
Desk Set (1957)
Susan Slept Here (1954)
Bundle of Joy (1956)

10:00 PM An Affair to Remember (1957)



A shipboard romance inspires a couple to promise to meet six months later.
Dir: Leo McCarey Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning
Runtime: 115 mins Genre: Romance Rating: TV-G CC: N

Oscar nominations:
CINEMATOGRAPHY -- Milton Krasner
COSTUME DESIGN -- Charles LeMaire
MUSIC (Scoring) -- Hugo Friedhofer
MUSIC (Song) -- "An Affair To Remember," Music by Harry Warren; Lyrics by Harold Adamson and Leo McCarey

Trivia: The 53-year-old Cary Grant was only 15 years younger than Cathleen Nesbitt, who played his grandmother.

12:15 AM Room for One More (1952)

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New Jersey couple Anna and Poppy Rose adopt several kids born into less fortunate circumstances, including a desperately unhappy 13-year-old girl and a physically handicapped boy with a penchant for getting into serious trouble.
Dir: Norman Taurog Cast: Cary Grant, Betsy Drake, Lurene Tuttle
Runtime: 98 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Trivia: Cary Grant and Betsy Drake were married to each other when they made this film.

Trivia: The book Jimmy John learns to read from is a real book - "Bugs Bunny's Birthday", by Elizabeth Beecher. Published by Simon & Schuster in 1950 and licensed from Warner Brothers, it is part of the popular Little Golden Book series, #98, and originally sold for 25 cents.


2:00 AM Penny Serenade (1941)

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A woman on the verge of divorce recalls her heartbreaking attempts to adopt a child.
Dir: George Stevens Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi
Runtime: 125 mins Genre: Romance Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Oscar nominations:
ACTOR -- Cary Grant {"Roger Adams"}

Trivia: Cary Grant was only nominated twice for an Academy Award for Best Actor, in both instances for lesser-known dramatic roles. This was one of them, followed three years later by None But the Lonely Heart (1944).

4:15 AM In Name Only (1939)

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A wealthy man falls for a widow but can't get his wife to divorce him.
Dir: John Cromwell Cast: Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Kay Francis
Runtime: 102 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Trivia: This movie was intended to be a reunion for Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, but following the failure of Bringing Up Baby (1938) at the box office from the previous year, Hepburn left RKO being after deemed "Box Office Poison". Carole Lombard subsequently was brought in as her replacement.

6:00 AM Destination Tokyo (1943)

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A U.S. sub braves enemy waters during World War II.
Dir: Delmer Daves Cast: Cary Grant, John Garfield, Alan Hale
Runtime: 135 mins Genre: War Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Oscar nominations:
WRITING (Original Motion Picture Story) -- Steve Fisher

Trivia: The operation of the submarine as shown in this movie was so accurate that the Navy used it as a training film during World War II.

8:15 AM Little Women (1933)

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The four March sisters fight to keep their family together and find love while their father is off fighting the Civil War.
Dir: George Cukor Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul Lukas
Runtime: 115 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Oscar nominations: DIRECTING -- George Cukor [came in 3rd]
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION -- RKO Radio [came in 3rd]
WRITING (Adaptation) -- Victor Heerman, Sarah Y. Mason (WINNER)

Trivia: Katharine Hepburn asked costume designer Walter Plunkett to copy a dress her maternal grandmother wore in a tintype photograph.

10:15 AM Alias Boston Blackie (1942)

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A reformed thief tracks down an escaped convict so he can prove the man is innocent.
Dir: Lew Landers Cast: Chester Morris, Adele Mara, Richard Lane
Runtime: 67 mins Genre: Suspense/Mystery Rating: TV-PG CC: N

Trivia: Towards the end of the film, the action takes place at the "Jane Drake Theatre," where "Jane Drake" is appearing a play called "Bedtime Story," written by "Lucius Drake". These characters, the play and the theatre are all left over from Bedtime Story (1941), also produced by Columbia Pictures a few months earlier, starring Loretta Young and Fredric March in the Drake roles.

Trivia: The bus driver (to and from prison) is played by an uncredited Lloyd Bridges.

11:30 AM The Thin Man (1934)

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In New York, a detective, his wife and his dog solve the murder case of an eccentric inventor.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan
Runtime: 80 mins Genre: Suspense/Mystery Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Oscar nominations:
ACTOR -- William Powell {"Nick Charles"} [came in 3rd]
DIRECTING -- W. S. Van Dyke [came in 2nd]
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION -- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
WRITING (Adaptation) -- Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett [came in 2nd]

Trivia: William Powell spoke of how much he loved working with Myrna Loy because of her naturalness, her professionalism, and her lack of any kind of "diva" temperament. "When we did a scene together, we forgot about technique, camera angles, and microphones. We weren't acting. We were just two people in perfect harmony," he said. "Myrna, unlike some actresses who think only of themselves, has the happy faculty of being able to listen while the other fellow says his lines. She has the give and take of acting that brings out the best."

Trivia: According to Myrna Loy, the actors were not allowed to interact between takes with the highly trained Skippy (the real name of Asta), who performed his feats on the promise of a squeaky mouse and a biscuit.

3:30 PM Bell, Book and Candle (1958)

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A beautiful witch puts a love spell on an unknowing publisher.
Dir: Richard Quine Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon
Runtime: 103 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Oscar nominations: ART DIRECTION -- Art Direction: Cary Odell; Set Decoration: Louis Diage
COSTUME DESIGN -- Jean Louis

Trivia: 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. (Stewart celebrated his 50th birthday during filming.) 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.

Trivia: Cary Grant actively sought the lead role.

5:30 PM Pocketful of Miracles (1961)

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An aging fruit vendor, who has been deceiving her grown daughter that she's a wealthy millionaire, gets in a pickle when her daughter announces her arrival in the States with her new fiance. The mother then enlists the help of one of her daily customers, a big-time mobster, who spends the money to create the lavish setting ...
Dir: Frank Capra Cast: Glenn Ford, Bette Davis, Hope Lange
Runtime: 136 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-G CC: Y

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE -- Peter Falk {"Joy Boy"}
COSTUME DESIGN (Color) -- Edith Head, Walter Plunkett
MUSIC (Song) -- "Pocketful Of Miracles," Music by James Van Heusen; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn

Trivia: According to the Bette Davis biography "Fasten Your Seatbelts", the actress was furious when she read a Glenn Ford interview in which the actor claimed to have gotten her the part because of the boost she had given him years before in A Stolen Life (1946). Davis is quoted as saying, "Who is that son of a bitch that he should say he helped me have a comeback! That shitheel wouldn't have helped me out of a sewer!"

8:00 PM The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

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Feuding co-workers do not realize they are secret romantic pen pals.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan
Runtime: 97 mins Genre: Romance Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Trivia: Even though Margaret Sullavan was infamous for her quick temper and disdainful attitude towards Hollywood, James Stewart counted working with her as one of the great joys of his professional career. And because he knew her personally, he was more equipped than most of the cast and crew members to deal with her frequent and volatile emotional outbursts.

10:00 PM In the Good Old Summertime (1949)

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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
Runtime: 103 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Trivia: 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.


12:00 AM Desk Set (1957)

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An efficiency expert introduces his amazing new machine that can answer anything to a TV researcher and her staff, but it threatens to put them out of work.
Dir: Walter Lang Cast: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Gig Young
Runtime: 103 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-G CC: Y

Trivia: Improvised Scene: Sumner is leaving Bunny's apartment, shortly after Mike leaves and Peg arrives, when Bunny and Sumner are recapping the afternoon's events for Peg. Sumner puts on the ruined shoes and grimaces as he tries to walk in them, which causes Bunny to laugh. He hobbles off stage and returns with his hat pulled down over his ears, his shirt dangling out of his pants, staggering as though drunk and talking crazy. This moment, including the women's hysterical laughter and Katharine Hepburn's nearly falling out of her chair, is spontaneous and not in the script.


2:00 AM Susan Slept Here (1954)

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A Hollywood screenwriter takes in a runaway girl who's more woman than he can handle.
Dir: Frank Tashlin Cast: Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Anne Francis
Runtime: 98 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Oscar nominations:
MUSIC (Song) -- "Hold My Hand," Music and Lyrics by Jack Lawrence and Richard Myers
SOUND RECORDING -- RKO Radio Studio Sound Department, John O. Aalberg, Sound Director

Trivia: In addition to being Dick Powell's final film as an actor, this was also the only color film in which he appeared. Debbie Reynolds later admitted having "a mad crush" on Powell. "He taught me common courtesy and to treat my crew and colleagues with equal respect."

4:00 AM Bundle of Joy (1956)

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A recently fired shop girl is mistaken for a single mother when she finds an abandoned baby.
Dir: Norman Taurog Cast: Eddie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Adolphe Menjou
Runtime: 98 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

Trivia: In her autobiography, Carrie Fisher says that her mother, Debbie Reynolds, was pregnant with her whilst making this film. This accounts for several shots where Reynolds is hidden behind a shop display or wearing a cloak-style coat.