Classic Movie Picks: December 2013

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.)

12/10: Patton's Picks
11:45 PM - The Wind Journeys (2009)
2 AM - Aaltra (2004)
This month's TCM Guest Programmer, comedian Patton Oswalt, has chosen two foreign "road movies" which, although they were made within the last decade, I had never heard of until now; both sound intriguing. The Wind Journeys is a celebration of the "vallenato" music of northern Colombia. It follows the journey of a widowed musician and his teenage traveling companion, as they return a precious (and perhaps magical?) accordion to the master craftsman who made it. In Aaltra, a Belgian/French production, feuding neighbors join forces after they are both paralyzed in a farming accident. The two men set out across Europe to confront the Finnish manufacturer of the defective farm equipment, slowed down only by their own lack of legal savvy, money, and common sense.
BONUS: Patton's picks earlier in the evening are worth a watch,too - Kind Hearts and Coronets at 8 PM and 3:10 to Yuma at 10 PM.

12/14, 9:45 PM - Tomorrow is Forever (1946)
Another film that's new to me is this melodrama starring some of my favorite classic movie actors; it's scheduled as part of an evening tribute to Claudette Colbert between the excellent screwball comedies The Palm Beach Story at 8 PM and Midnight at 11:45 PM. A WWI veteran (Orson Welles), disfigured in the war, chooses to be reported dead rather than return to his wife (Colbert) and son. Years later, he re-enters her life, accompanied by a war orphan (Natalie Wood), and though she has remarried, old feelings arise. 

12/18, 2 AM - A Damsel in Distress (1937)

Fred Astaire is the TCM Star of the Month which means that each Wednesday in primetime, including Christmas Day, you're guaranteed a line-up of delightful musical comedies with amazing dancing by Astaire and an array of talented partners. I'm singling out Damsel because it's one of the few Astaire films that I haven't seen. At this point, Fred and Ginger Rogers had made seven musicals together and decided to take a break, which left him free to star opposite a 19-year-old Joan Fontaine in one of her earliest film roles. Fontaine was no dancer, but she certainly fits the part of a sheltered English "damsel" who is "rescued" by an American musical star played by Astaire (not much of a stretch for him either). While this film didn't mark the debut of the next great dance team, it does feature 8 hummable Gershwin tunes, including "A Foggy Day" and "Nice Work if You Can Get It." Gracie Allen and George Burns provide comic relief and some fancy footwork of their own. Astaire's later films often feature complicated numbers devised by Astaire and his collaborator, Hermes Pan, which pair the dancer with unlikely objects, such as a hat rack in Royal Wedding or a shop full of toys in Easter Parade. However, "Put Me to the Test" in Damsel, in which Astaire, Allen, and Burns all dance with whisk brooms, was designed by Burns.

12/21, 10:30 PM - Christmas Eve (1947)
I always enjoy discovering a new holiday movie, especially when it has more to its story than a Hallmark-style romance. To save her fortune from a scheming nephew, an eccentric philanthropist (Ann Harding) has until Christmas Eve to reunite her three adopted sons who have dispersed around the world. The sons are played by George Raft, George Brent, and Randolph Scott and each one is dealing with complications of his own - fiancee troubles, illegal baby adoption, and hidden Nazi loot, for example - that could prevent them from coming to mom's rescue. Will goodness prevail over greed?

12/30: In Memoriam
8 PM - It Started with Eve (1941)
Deanna Durbin
9:45 PM - Bikini Beach (1964)
Annette Funicello
11:30 PM - The Cheap Detective (1978)
Eileen Brennan
1:15 AM - The Loved One (1965)
Jonathan Winters
3:30 AM - Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Karen Black
5:15 AM - East of Eden (1955)
Julie Harris
12/31, 7:15 AM - Tea and Sympathy (1956)
John Kerr
Movie-lovers mourned the passing of many beloved performers this year and tonight TCM pays tribute to six actors and actresses who were not honored with special programming earlier in the year. I'm especially looking forward to the first three films in the line-up featuring three fabulous singing ladies.
- It Started with Eve stars Deanna Durbin at the peak of her career as a singing ingenue, alongside two of her favorite co-stars, Charles Laughton and Robert Cummings. 
- I love the "Frankie and Annette" beach movies, but the plots tend to run together in my memory. Bikini Beach is the one in which the teens must deal with the British Invasion, in the form of pop star Potato Bug (also played by Frankie Avalon), and outsmart a tycoon's pet chimp.
- A spoof of the detective genre, The Cheap Detective, combines the plots of several of Humphrey Bogart's best films with Peter Falk as a Bogey-esque gumshoe. Tonight's honoree, Eileen Brennan portrays a torch singer at "Nix Place" (sound familiar?).

Happy Holidays!