TCM Schedule for Friday, December 11, 2015 -- What's On Tonight: Christmas Classics

TCM is spending most of the day showing the early films of birthday girl Rita Moreno, born on December 11, 1931, in Humacao, Puerto Rico, followed by a couple of films starring the late, great James Garner (not his birthday, but never turn down a chance to see Big Jim!). And in prime time, we have more films in celebration of the Christmas season. Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- MGM Parade Show #17 (1955)
Cyd Charisse and Ann Miller perform in a clip from "The Kissing Bandit"; George Murphy introduces a clip from "Diane." Hosted by George Murphy.
BW-26 mins,


6:30 AM -- Pagan Love Song (1950)
An American tourist romances a Tahitian beauty.
Dir: Robert Alton
Cast: Esther Williams, Howard Keel, Minna Gombell
C-77 mins, CC,

The original title for this film was "Tahiti." The writers of the music for the film, 'Harry Warren' and Arthur Freed, wrote a song by that title, but when the title of the movie was changed, the song was dropped and Nacio Herb Brown and Freed's "Pagan Love Song" was added.


8:00 AM -- So Young, So Bad (1950)
A crusading psychiatrist tries to help troubled reform school girls.
Dir: Bernard Vorhaus
Cast: Paul Henreid, Catherine McLeod, Cecil Clovelly
BW-91 mins, CC,

Film debut of Rita Moreno and Anne Jackson. Not shabby!


9:45 AM -- Cattle Town (1952)
The mediator in a dispute between farmers and cattle men falls for the head rancher's daughter.
Dir: Noel Smith
Cast: Dennis Morgan, Philip Carey, Amanda Blake
BW-71 mins, CC,

Final film of director Noel M. Smith.


11:00 AM -- Fort Vengeance (1953)
Outlaw brothers turned Mounties clash over their different attitudes toward law and order.
Dir: Lesley Selander
Cast: James Craig, Rita Moreno, Keith Larsen
C-75 mins, CC,

Filmed at Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California.


12:30 PM -- Latin Lovers (1953)
An heiress searches for true love while vacationing in Brazil.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Lana Turner, Ricardo Montalban, John Lund
C-104 mins, CC,

Fernando Lamas was originally cast in the role that Ricardo Montalban played. Lamas and Lana Turner were lovers and when they broke up, she insisted he be replaced.


2:15 PM -- The Yellow Tomahawk (1954)
A western guide tries to stop an Indian attack on settlers.
Dir: Lesley Selander
Cast: Rory Calhoun, Peggie Castle, Noah Beery Jr.
C-82 mins, CC,

Based on a story by Harold Jack Bloom.


3:45 PM -- Skin Game (1971)
Two western con artists team with a lady card shark to take on slavers.
Dir: Paul Bogart
Cast: James Garner, Lou Gossett, Susan Clark
C-102 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

The film is based on Richard Alan Simmons' original story "Skin Game".The screenplay was written by Peter Stone who did not receive screen credit and requested that his name be taken off the credits because his screenplay was rewritten by a second writer, thereby altering the theme, the plot and, most important, the characters.


5:30 PM -- Victor Victoria (1982)
An unemployed female singer poses as a female impersonator and becomes a star.
Dir: Blake Edwards
Cast: Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston
C-134 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

Won an Oscar for Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score -- Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Julie Andrews, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Robert Preston, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Lesley Ann Warren, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Blake Edwards, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Rodger Maus, Tim Hutchinson, William Craig Smith and Harry Cordwell, and Best Costume Design -- Patricia Norris

The costume worn by Julie Andrews, in the number "The Shady Dame From Seville", is in fact the same costume worn by Robert Preston at the end of the film. The costume was made to fit Preston, and then, using a series of hooks and eyes at the back, it was drawn in tightly to fit Andrews' shapely figure. Additional black silk ruffles were also added to the bottom of the costume, to hide the differences in height. It's a pleasure to watch the costume being purposefully damaged by Preston. Now in a private collection, the rips and tears are still present. The fabric is a black and brown crepe, with fine gold threads woven into it, which when lit, appears to have an almost wet look about it.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CHRISTMAS CLASSICS



8:00 PM -- 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 Moss Hart told George S. Kaufman of the visit, he asked, "Imagine what would have happened if he broken his leg and had to stay?" They looked at each other and knew they had a play.


10:00 PM -- 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

Alec Guinness did not enjoy doing this movie. It required much more time than he expected, with the need of wires and a harness for his floating character. He suffered a double-hernia that required surgery to repair.


12:00 AM -- A Christmas Carol (1938)
In this adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale, an elderly miser learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve.
Dir: Edwin L. Marin
Cast: Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart
BW-69 mins, CC,

This was the only film in which Gene Lockhart appeared with his wife Kathleen Lockhart and their daughter June Lockhart.


1:15 AM -- 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"

The book on which the film is based originally ran as a weekly feature in the New Yorker Magazine in 1942. For the film many of the actions attributed to Tootie were actually done in real life by Sally Benson's sister Agnes. Also in reality, Benson's father moved the family to NYC and they never did come back for the World's Fair.


3:15 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.


5:00 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,