Classic Movie Picks: March 2017

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

3/2, 11 PM - What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
I'm sure that many classic movie fans are intrigued by the new TV mini series Feud: Bette and Joan, centered on the tumultuous relationship between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford during the filming of Baby Jane. Feud, starring Susan Sarandon as Davis and Jessica Lange as Crawford, premieres March 5, so this is the perfect chance to see the film at the center of the series. 
Davis and Crawford play sisters, Jane and Blanche, who both went into acting and now live together in a decaying Hollywood mansion. While Jane achieved early success as a child star ("Baby Jane"), Blanche eventually surpassed her sister and achieved stardom and respect as an adult. After Blanche is paralyzed in a car accident, she is left in the care of the increasingly unhinged Jane. The two women engage in a psychological battle as Jane torments Blanche while also entertaining hopes of reviving her stardom. 
The success of Baby Jane created a brief sub-genre of "grande dame" horror films, in which a glamorous actress-of-a-certain-age is psychologically and physically terrorized or does the tormenting herself. Notable titles included Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte with Olivia de Havilland and Davis, Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice? with Geraldine Page, What's the Matter with Helen? starring Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds, and Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? also starring Winters. The genre ran out of steam in the early 70s, or maybe just ran out of questions to use as titles. 
However, my favorite coda to the making of this film came at the Academy Awards in 1963, when Davis was nominated for Best Actress, but Crawford was not. Crawford had contacted all the other nominated women and offered to accept the award on their behalf, should they be unable to attend the ceremony. So, when the Best Actress award was announced for Anne Bancroft, who was in New York at the time, it was a glowing Crawford who ascended the stage to accept the Oscar.

The film will also air on 3/22 as part of the "March Malice" programming series spotlighting villains on film. There are a lot of great films in the line up, from noir to westerns to sci-fi.

3/16, 12 AM - The Incredible Journey (1963)
TCM is opening the Disney Vault this month and has programmed four shorts and six movies themed around the great outdoors. The gem of the group is The Incredible Journey, a live-action film starring animals based on a book by Irish author Sheila Burnford. The main characters are Bodger (an old bull terrier), Tao (a Siamese cat), and Luath (a yellow Labrador Retriever), treasured pets of a family living in the Canadian countryside. When the family must travel to England for the summer, the pets are left on a friend's farm in Ontario. Feeling confused and homesick in their new surroundings, the three animals set off to cross over 200 miles of Canadian wilderness to return to the home they know. Of course along the way they have many adventures including encounters with wild animals - including a lynx, a bear, and a porcupine - as well as humans. The two dogs and cat are not provided with voices (as they are in the 1993 remake Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey), but their journey is narrated by the frequent voice of Disney nature documentaries Rex Allen. Author Burnford found inspiration for the story from her own pets and adopted home in Canada. Pet lovers are sure to see their own furry friends in the three main characters and may find themselves tearing up by the end of this one.

3/17: Irish Heroines
1:45 AM - Ryan's Daughter (1970)
5:15 AM - Little Nellie Kelly (1940)
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, TCM has scheduled a day's worth of films which take place in Ireland or feature Irish characters. I'm interested in these two films which both feature an Irish heroine; however, that's about where the similarities between them end. 
Ryan's Daughter is an epic following in the footsteps of director David Lean's previous three films Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and A Bridge on the River Kwai. The film is set in a small coastal Irish village during WWI and centers on three characters caught in a love triangle -- a schoolteacher and his wife, played by Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles, and a young British officer, played by Christopher Jones -- and pulled apart by conflicting loyalties of Irish nationalism and British rule. The screenplay was written by 3-time Oscar winner Robert Bolt with his wife, Miles, in mind for the title role. Lean's knack for showcasing beautiful imagery while also creating intimate character portraits is on full display. Though a hit in the U.K., the Ryan's Daughter was not as popular in the U.S. as Lean's previous films (and Lean would not complete another film for 14 years!). However, it did receive Academy Awards for its cinematography and supporting actor John Mills, as well as nominations for Best Sound and Best Actress for Sarah Miles.

In Little Nellie Kelly Judy Garland plays dual roles as Irish immigrant Nellie Kelly and her daughter, Little Nellie. It's a light musical in which Garland must patch up differences between her father and grandfather, while also finding romance and becoming the toast of Broadway. Along the way she performs "It's a Great Day for the Irish" and a swinging version of "Singin' in the Rain." Though it was adapted from a George M. Cohan stage musical, the film contains only one Cohan song - "Nellie Kelly, I Love You" - sung by Garland's love interest Douglas McPhail. This was one of Garland's first adult roles and in addition to her impressive singing and dancing, she got a chance to show some dramatic chops with a death scene, a birth scene, and her first on-screen romantic kiss. 

3/19: Lesser-Known Lubitsch
8 PM - Cluny Brown (1946)
10 PM -  Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
Ernst Lubitsch directed over 70 feature films in both his native Germany and, beginning in the 1920s, in Hollywood. In his heyday of the 30s and 40s, Lubitsch was considered one of the top comedy directors in Hollywood and he helmed such classics as Trouble in Paradise, Ninotchka, and The Shop Around the Corner. His ability to find moments of sophisticated grace and visual wit was nicknamed "the Lubitsch Touch."
Cluny Brown was the last completed film directed by Lubitsch. Jennifer Jones stars as the title character, a young woman of humble means with a knack for plumbing. Charles Boyer is her love interest, a poor Czech intellectual living off the hospitality of the British upper crust. The two characters create a commotion as they upend social norms at a country estate. The film satirizes the British aristocracy in the pre-WWII years and though it was a hit with American audiences, the Brits were not amused. (So much so, that English actor Sir C. Aubrey Smith felt the need to apologize to his homeland for appearing in the film.)

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife is not often listed among its director's greatest works, but with talents like Lubitsch, Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, David Niven, and Edward Everett Horton (and the list goes on) working together, I'd say even an imperfect film is worth watching. Colbert is one of my favorite actresses and here she is doing what Colbert did better than anyone - wearing fabulous clothes and wittily rejecting the advances of a millionaire. Said millionaire, played by Cooper, has been branded a modern-day "Bluebeard" after being married and divorced seven times, each with a hefty settlement for the ex-wife which is certainly better than what Bluebeard's wives got. Colbert sets out to get the best of this inveterate ladies man by agreeing to marry him, but intending to get a divorce and live comfortably on her own settlement. For those keeping score, I'd say the bit with the pajamas is an example of the Lubitsch touch.

Best Pictures #24: 1929-30 (3rd) Academy Awards Outstanding Production Nominee, The Love Parade (1929)

by A.J.

Best Pictures #24: 1929-30 (3^rd) Academy Awards Outstanding Production Nominee

The Love Parade(1929)

Director Ernst Lubitsch’s final silent film, The Patriot (a Best Picture nominee the previous year), is a lost film unfortunately, but, thankfully, his first talkie and musical has been preserved and is available on home video as part of the Eclipse series released by the Criterion Collection. It also airs occasionally on TCM. The Love Parade received the most nominations of any film at the 3^rd Academy Awards with a total of six, including nominations for Maurice Chevalier and Ernst Lubitsch, but it did not win in any category. This film is allegedly the first movie musical to incorporate songs and performances into the narrative, as opposed to a backstage musical, such as The Broadway Melody, in which the characters are singers and dancers.

Lubitsch, who had directed many silent films, takes to talking pictures quite well right out of the gate. There is nothing clunky or awkward with the composition and staging of shots or overall style that suggests someone working through a learning curve. Of course The Love Parade has several strong elements working together in addition to Lubitsch’s skill behind the camera. Based on the play The Prince Consort, the script is loaded with lively dialogue, a sharp sense of humor that does not shy away from innuendo, and likeable characters. Maurice Chevalier plays Count Alfred, who is recalled from Paris to his homeland of Slyvania after (several) scandals involving married women.

Lubitsh transitions from silent filmmaking to working with sound and dialogue smoothly. He does not over indulge in dialogue and music and still uses silent visuals to great effect. When a servant in the Queen’s palace asks why Alfred has a French accent, Alfred says that he went to see a doctor about a cold but was greeted by the doctor’s wife. The movie cuts to an exterior shot of the palace and through a window we see Alfred whisper the rest of the story to the servant. When the movie cuts back inside Alfred says that the cold was gone, but he had that terrible accent. I had never seen a movie starring Maurice Chevalier before and he is as charming and lively and French as I’d imagined.

Jeanette MacDonald, in her screen debut, plays Queen Louise who in addition to having the responsibilities of a governing queen is also under pressure from her ministers and advisors to marry. The trouble with finding her a suitor is that he would be only Price Consort and have no power or responsibility in governing. She meets Count Alfred to reprimand him for his scandals, but they both quickly charm each other and flirt through song.

Aside from a dolly shot or two, I must confess that I was so caught up with the characters and story that I hardly noticed the camerawork, or lack thereof. Lubitsch fills the screen with entertainment, so even static shots are hardly dull. The songs are pleasing and catchy. The palace sets and costumes are opulent and impressive. There are memorable scenes both with and without music. From his balcony at the beginning of the film, Chevalier sings his goodbye to Paris and the women on nearby balconies. His valet, Jacques, played by Lupino Lane, joins in and sings goodbye to Parisian maids. Then Chevalier’s dog sings, by barking, to the female dogs of Paris. We see none of Alfred and Louise’s first date. Instead we see the Queen’s advisors, her ladies in waiting, and Jacques and the Queen’s maid spying on the date and reporting to each other like a game of telephone. The Queen’s maid, Lulu, played by Lillian Roth, and Jacques have some good songs together too.

The Love Parade is almost overwhelmingly enjoyable, up to a point. There are two distinct halves to this movie. The first half is very funny, jaunty, and romantic. The second half, after Alfred and Louise are married, deals with their marital problems. There is still humor and entertainment value in this half of the film but at a diminished level. Queen Louise and Alfred seem to misunderstand and mistreat each other immediately after they are married and solely for the sake of dramatic conflict. Their main conflict is that Alfred does not have the traditional role of a man in their marriage or in the monarchy. Queen Louise runs the country and palace. Traditional gender roles in marriage and government being the central conflict of a musical from 1929 is interesting, however, as you might imagine, these issues are addressed but not challenged. The two tonally different halves of The Love Parade make for an uneven but overall enjoyable musical. There is still a lot to enjoyed in The Love Parade and it is a good step forward for the nascent musical genre.

Nominee: Paramount Famous Lasky

Producer: Ernst Lubitsch

Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Screenplay: Ernest Vadja and Guy Bolton, from the play The Prince Consort by Leon Xanrof and Jules Chancel

Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Lillian Roth

Release Date: November 19^th, 1929

Total Nominations: 6, including Outstanding Production

Win(s): N/A

Other Nominations: Actor-Maurice Chevalier, Director-Ernst Lubitsch, Cinematography-Victor Milner, Art Direction-Hans Dreier, Sound Recording-Franklin Hansen

Best Pictures #21: 1928-29 (2nd) Academy Awards Outstanding Picture Nominee, The Patriot (1928)

by A.J.

Best Pictures #21: 1928-29 (2nd) Academy Awards Outstanding Picture Nominee

The Patriot (1928)

Ernst Lubitsch’s 1928 film, The Patriot, was the only silent nominee for Best Picture at the 2^nd Academy Awards and it was the last silent Best Picture nominee until The Artist in 2011. The Patriot also has the most unfortunate distinction of being the only Best Picture nominee that is a lost film: no full length print of the film exists. So, it is technically impossible to watch every Best Picture nominee, though this point can be argued since The Patriot is not an official nominee as no nominations were publicly announced for this year. The films and people listed as nominees for the 2^nd Academy Awards were determined later from in-house records by Academy researchers. I have read in numerous sources that the vast majority of silent films are lost to history. The Library of Congress estimates that 75% of all silent films are lost. This is a very dismal statistic for movie lovers.

I certainly cannot review a film I haven’t seen, so instead I will share some of the information I was able to find on The Patriot. Set in 18^th century Russia, the film is about the mad Czar Paul and the plot kill him and save the nation. Czar Paul is played by the first Best Actor Oscar winner, Emil Jannings. The planned assassination is led by the Czar’s closest and most trusted friend, Count Pahlen, played by Lewis Stone, who attempts to enlist the Czar Paul’s mistress, Countess Ostermann, played by Florence Vidor, in the plot. Count Pahlen is naturally conflicted because he wants be a good and loyal friend but knows that the Czar must be removed from power.

The most valuable resource for information on The Patriot I could find is the glowing review from the New York Times, written by Mordaunt Hall, published on August 18^th, 1928. Hall lauds the film with praise like: “This motion picture is indeed a credit to the screen… There is, as a matter of fact, hardly a flaw to be found in the whole picture… It is a gripping piece of work with subtle touches….” The only minor criticisms all concern the film’s synchronized soundtrack. Hall writes that the synchronized music score is too loud for certain scenes. A scene in which Paul cries out for Count Pahlen, with synchronized dialogue (appartently the only scene of synch speech in the film), would have been more effective in silence, and the sound of the Czar’s laughter “might better have been left to the imagination.”  Hall has heaps of praise for Jannings' performance as the mad Czar: “Jannings gives the addle-brained despot all the moods one could hope for, and in the last moments of fear Mr. Jannings brings to the screen something that is unrivaled.” The rest of the cast also receives high praise, especially Stone who is “capital” as Pahlen and also credits Lubitsch for his “skillful guidance” with Stone’s performance. Stone was under consideration for the Best Actor award that year, as was Lubitsch for Best Director.

Some segments of The Patriot have survived the degradation of time. Certain crowd scenes were reused for the 1934 film The Scarlet Empress and one reel of the film is preserved at the Portuguese Film Archive. A few clips and the complete trailer are preserved by the UCLA Film Archive. In the trailer, which is available to watch online, Emil Jannings looks like he does a good job performing Czar Paul’s mad, manic fits and his cowardly paranoia. The ornate sets and costumes look impressive and give the impression that The Patriot was an epic period piece; The Patriot’s art direction also received an unofficial nomination. There is a melancholic irony in watching an advertisement for a film that you can never see, especially since, from the trailer, The Patriot looks like it might be a good movie. There is no way to know for sure or make your own judgement. I can only wonder how The Patriot would hold up today. Good or bad, a part of film history is forever lost, which is an incredible shame because every film, good or bad, deserves to be able to be seen.

Nominee: Paramount Famous Lasky

Producer: Ernst Lubitsch

Director: Ernst Lubitsch

Screenplay: Hans Kraly, from the play by Ashely Dukes, and the play “Der Patriot” by Alfred Neumann, Paul Iby, and Dmitri Merezhkovsky

Cast: Emil Jannings, Florence Vidor, Lewis Stone

Release Date: August 17^th, 1928

Total Nominations: 5, including Outstanding Picture

Win: Writing-Hanns Kraly

Other Nominations: Actor-Lewis Stone, Director-Ernst Lubitsch, Art Direction-Hans Dreier

Classic Movie Picks: February 2016

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

It is awards season in Hollywood, which means that it is also time for TCM's 31 Days of Oscar festival featuring Academy Award-nominated films from February 1 through March 2. This year, as a play on the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game, each film in the 31 Days schedule is linked to the next by a common actor; no actor is repeated and the last film is linked to the first. For my monthly movie picks, I've linked an actor from each classic film to a 2016 Oscar nominee. Each is linked in less than six degrees and no actor is repeated.  As an added bit of fun, or difficulty, the last link must include the current nominee's co-star in the movie from which he or she was nominated. Make sense? Let's get to the picks...

2/5, 8 PM - The Love Parade (1929)
The Love Parade is a light, airy musical comedy directed by Ernst Lubitsch starring Maurice Chevalier as a raffish count who marries the queen of a small European country, played by Jeanette MacDonald, only to find that being the man behind the great lady isn't a role he's willing to play. The film has an interesting take on gender politics, but ends on an unfortunately conventional note. However, it's pretty fun along the way. The film is at its most crackling when Chevalier and MacDonald trade flirty dialogue and Lubitsch employs his talent for telling risqué jokes in a tasteful fashion. 
The film received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Lubitsch, and Best Actor for Chevalier. MacDonald is most associated with the string of wholesome operettas she starred in opposite Nelson Eddy. The Love Parade was MacDonald's first film and I was surprised to learn that it was Lubitsch who discovered her. As Queen Louise she shows off a talent for comedy and singing, as well as her legs. The rest of the cast includes colorful character actors like silent film comedian Lupino Lane, gravel-voiced Eugene Pallette, and plucky Lillian Roth (whose thick New York accent is a bit of an anachronism, but who cares?).
To connect The Love Parade to this year's Oscar nominees, we'll go from Chevalier to Leslie Caron (Gigi) to Juliette Binoche (Chocolat) to Steve Carell (Dan in Real Life) to Christian Bale in The Big Short. I've been a fan of Bale for a long time (hello, Newsies!) and I'd love to see him try a romantic role again after his latest streak of intense dramatic and action roles. Has it really been 21 years since he stole hearts as Laurie in Little Women? I know Bale has it in him to channel his inner Chevalier in a light romance again.

2/10, 3:45 AM - This Land is Mine (1943)
Charles Laughton stars as a timid school teacher living in a World War II occupied town and suspected of being a Nazi collaborator. Though we're told the setting is "somewhere in Europe," it is likely meant to be France, the home country of director Jean Renoir. Renoir, who had made the great anti-war film Grand Illusion in 1937, aimed to show American audiences what the day-to-day life of an occupied country was like for its citizens. In addition to Laughton, the cast includes the very capable Maureen O'Hara, George Sanders, and Walter Slezak.
The film won an Academy Award for Best Sound. It was the only competitive Academy Award ever received by a Renoir film, though the director did receive an honorary award in 1974. 
I'm going to connect This Land is Mine to a 2016 Oscar nominated film which also looks at paranoia and suspicion during wartime, Bridge of Spies: from star Maureen O'Hara to John Candy (Only the Lonely) to Tom Hanks (Volunteers) to Best Supporting Actor nominee Mark Rylance. Rylance's understated and unexpectedly wry performance as a convicted Russian spy during the Cold War is one of my favorites of the year.

2/26, 3:30 PM - Day for Night (1973)
Francois Truffaut directed, co-wrote, and stars in Day for Night as a film director struggling to complete his movie on-location in the French Riviera. Frequent collaborator Jean-Pierre Leaud plays the lead actor in the film-within-a-film and the glamorous Jacqueline Bissett is the leading lady. It's a movie about making movies - a favorite topic for the Academy Awards - and the title refers to the technique of filming a scene set at night during the daytime with the help of a camera filter. 
Day for Night received Oscar nominations for Truffaut in the categories of Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, as well as a Best Supporting Actress nomination for veteran Italian actress Valentina Cortese as an older actress who can't remember her lines. However, the only Academy Award it won was Best Foreign Language Film, as the entry for France, which isn't too shabby.
Day for Night is about creating an illusion, a fiction which we accept as reality; so, I'll connect it to current nominee which is also about constructing reality from illusion, but with a much more dramatic tone: Room. Jacqueline Bissett connects to Sean Connery (Murder on the Orient Express) to Kevin Costner (The Untouchables) to Joan Allen (The Upside of Anger) to the star of Room, Brie Larson. Larson's affecting performance as a young woman held captive in a single room, striving to create a loving and healthy reality for her son, has made her a front-runner for this year's Best Actress award.

2/27, 12 AM - Apollo 13 (1995)
Apollo 13 tells the true story of the 1970 mission to the moon in which three astronauts were left stranded en route after an explosion crippled their spacecraft. Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon play the astronauts who, with the help of Mission Control in Houston, must draw upon all their training to devise solutions which will bring them home. Director Ron Howard has made many good films and I think this is one of his very best; surprisingly though, Howard was not even nominated by the Academy for Best Director (the award that year ultimately went to Mel Gibson for Braveheart). Howard would win an Oscar six years later for A Beautiful Mind, but I think Apollo 13 is a better film and a better testament to his skill. (And it isn't even my favorite film of 1995; that would be fellow Best Picture nominee Sense and Sensibility whose director, Ang Lee, was also not nominated...it was a strange year.)
The film received eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor and Actress nominations for Ed Harris as the Mission Control flight director and Kathleen Quinlan as Marilyn, the wife of astronaut Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks). However, it won only two awards, for sound and editing.
I have a hard time thinking of any film about space exploration that doesn't involve some sort of accident which jeopardizes the entire mission. Maybe A Trip to the Moon from 1899? Of course, in that adventure from film's early days, the voyage was all a dream; but since mankind actually started taking trips to the moon, filmmakers have devised all manner of calamities to befall such missions - some based on fact, but mostly fiction. One such story is current Best Picture nominee The Martian. Like Apollo 13, the veteran director of The Martian, Ridley Scott, was not nominated by the Academy. I really liked The Martian and I'm disappointed that it isn't more of a front-runner this awards season; though star Matt Damon has a long-shot chance for Best Actor. For this last connection from Oscar nominees past to present, I have to start with Mr. Six Degrees himself, Kevin Bacon: from Bacon to John Lithgow (Footloose) to Jessica Chastain (Interstellar) to the titular "martian" Matt Damon. 

The 2016 Oscars, honoring films from 2015, will be given out on February 28. I'll be watching to see if any of my favorite films win, hope you'll join me!

Classic Movie Picks: December 2012

by Lani

Each month, I scour the Turner Classic Movies Now Playing guide for upcoming films that I can't miss. The highlights are posted here for your reading and viewing pleasure! (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

My monthly post is late this time due to technical difficulties. I’ve just moved into a new house and am currently making do without internet (how will I live?!) and cable (seriously, how will I live?!). Everything was supposed to be hooked up earlier this week, but I was subsequently told by Time Warner Cable that it couldn’t be done since the neighbor’s dogs happened to be outside when the technician arrived. So, I’m now forced to make another appointment based on the schedule of these dogs – capricious, free-living animals, who come and go as they please with no sense of obligation to their neighbors’ need for cable TV. So, I don’t know when I’ll be able to get TCM again, but here’s what I would watch if I could.

Lubitsch Fridays

12/7, 12 AM – The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
12/14, 9:30 PM - Design for Living (1933)
12/28, 1:30 AM – That Uncertain Feeling (1941)
TGIF becomes doubly true this month with films by master director Ernst Lubitsch in primetime. There seems to be a Lubitsch revival of late and I think some of the credit goes to Nora Ephron’s film You’ve Got Mail. Whether you like that film or not, before Ephron’s remake, how many people had really even seen Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner? Now, it’s a Christmas mainstay on TCM (and deservedly so!). I’ve picked this film and two other Lubitsch comedies as my recommendations for the month, but if you tune in on any Friday night, you will surely be entertained. What makes his films great? People often point to the “Lubitsch Touch” – the director’s knack for using unexpected details to delight the audience. I think that Lubitsch films also feature some of the most interesting female characters of the era; independent women who often rebel against the expected.

12/21: Waiting for the End of the World

7 AM – The Lost Missile (1958)
8:30 AM – The Satan Bug (1965)
10:30 AM – The Last Man on Earth (1964)
12 PM – The Bed Sitting Room (1969)
2 PM – Five (1951)
4 PM – Panic in Year Zero (1962)
6 PM – The World, The Flesh and The Devil (1959)
Rogue missiles, deadly viruses, nuclear war – many films have made a guess at what could eventually bring an end to civilization as we know it. Lately zombies are a popular culprit, also calendars. December 21, 2012 marks the end of the Mayan calendar; therefore, the end of world as well. If you’re able to watch movies in your underground bunker or emergency ark, today’s TCM line-up may be instructive (if you survive).

Directed by Vincente Minelli

12/15, 4 AM – Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
12/18, 10 PM &12/24, 4:30 PM – Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
Since I read a biography of Vincente Minelli last year (A Hundred or More Hidden Things: The Life and Films of Vincente Minelli by Mark Griffin), I’ve been motivated to see all the films by this talented and diverse director. This month I’m looking forward to revisiting an old favorite – Meet Me in St. Louis – and discovering something new – Two Weeks in Another Town. Each film shows a different aspect of Minelli’s filmography. St. Louis is a buoyant Technicolor musical showcasing his frequent leading lady, and one-time wife, Judy Garland. On the other end of the spectrum, metaphorically speaking, Two Weeks features another key Minelli collaborator, Kirk Douglas, in a drama about the darker side of Hollywood.

12/16, 8 PM – Carol for Another Christmas (1964)

Usually the thought of another twist on A Christmas Carol wouldn’t excite me; however, this film sounds like a rarity worth checking out: a made-for-TV movie with an anti-war theme written by Rod Serling and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, starring Sterling Hayden, Eva Marie Saint, Ben Gazzara, and Peter Sellers. Since it aired only once, in 1964, chances are you haven’t seen this one either.

12/24, 12 AM – Auntie Mame (1958)

Who can sleep on Christmas Eve anyway? Live life to the fullest! Ring in Christmas morning with Mame!
(And if you’re able to watch this, it means you have survived the Mayan apocalypse - even more reason to celebrate!)

BONUS: TCM has two evenings of special programming which I also wanted to give a mention:
12/3, 8 PM - Baby Peggy
1 movie, 1 documentary, and 3 shorts starring one of cinema’s first child stars, “Baby Peggy.”
12/10, 8 PM - Academy Conversations: The Art of Production Design
This special presentation of 4 artfully-designed films is co-hosted by two Oscar-nominated production designers, Guy Hendrix Dyas and Lilly Kilvert.