TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 19 -- What's on Tonight: Christmas Carols

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, TCM is taking us out west with films about cowboys. And in primetime, TCM is featuring Christmas Carols -- not the musical kind, but five films based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Enjoy!


6:15 AM -- Major Dundee (1965)
Cavalry misfits cross the Mexican border to destroy an Indian outpost.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah
Cast: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton
C-136 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

Shooting on the movie was wrapped up early by studio executives, in the interest of controlling costs, before some important scenes were filmed. Charlton Heston offered to return his entire salary for the movie if the studio would agree to film the opening scene - the massacre of soldiers and civilians by the Apaches - and some re-shoots. The studio kept his paycheck and never allowed any more footage to be shot anyway.


8:45 AM -- 3:10 To Yuma (1957)
A sheriff must run the gauntlet to get his prisoner out of town.
Dir: Delmer Daves
Cast: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr
BW-92 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

This film, along with the equally allegorical High Noon (1952), was a deciding factor in making Howard Hawks create Rio Bravo (1959), a return to more optimistic, less revisionist Westerns.


10:30 AM -- Wichita (1955)
Wyatt Earp fights to straighten out a crooked cow town.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Joel McCrea, Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges
C-81 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Sam Peckinpah plays a bit part as a bank teller in this picture.


11:52 AM -- Game Warden (1955)
In this short film, a "game protector" for New York state is shown performing his various duties.
Dir: Harry W. Smith
Narrator: Peter Roberts
BW-8 mins,


12:05 PM -- Tanbark And Turf (1955)
This short film takes the viewer on a tour through the world of harness racing and show horses.
BW-8 mins,


12:15 PM -- The Far Country (1955)
Two cowboys on the road to Alaska help a wagon train in trouble.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Corinne Calvet
C-97 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

One of James Stewart's favorite stories of his film career concerned his horse, Pie, a sorrel stallion whom Stewart called, "One of the best co-stars I ever had." Pie appeared as Stewart's horse in 17 Westerns, and the actor developed a strong personal bond with the horse. Pie was very intelligent, Stewart recalled, and would often "act for the cameras when they were rolling. He was a ham of a horse." When shooting the climax of "The Far Country," the script called for Stewart's horse to walk down a dark street alone, with no rider in the saddle, to fool the bad guys who were waiting to ambush Stewart. Assistant Director John Sherwood asked Stewart if Pie would be able to do the scene. Stewart replied, "I'll talk to him." Just before the cameras rolled, Stewart took Pie aside and whispered to the horse for several minutes, giving him instructions for the scene. When Stewart let the horse go, Pie walked perfectly down the middle of the street, doing the scene in one take. When Pie died in 1970, Stewart arranged to have the horse buried at his California ranch.


2:00 PM -- The Naked Spur (1953)
A captive outlaw uses psychological tactics to prey on a bounty hunter.
Dir: Anthony Mann
Cast: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan
C-92 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay -- Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom

When this film was released in Spain, its title was changed to "Colorado Jim" and the name of James Stewart's character was also changed from "Howard Kemp" to "Colorado Jim", for unknown reasons.


3:45 PM -- Wagon Master (1950)
Two wandering cowhands sign on to help a wagon train headed for Utah.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru, Harry Carey Jr.
BW-86 mins, TV-PG, CC,

When Elder Wiggs (Ben Johnson) breaks up the fight between Sandy (Harry Carey Jr.) and Jackson (Chuck Hayward), a dog joins in and tears one of the legs of his pants. This was not in the script. It just happened on the set, and John Ford had liked it so much he kept it in the film.


5:12 PM -- Calgary Stampede (1949)
This short film shows how the city of Calgary celebrates the annual festival of Stampede Week.
Dir: Saul Elkins
C-18 mins,


5:30 PM -- Red River (1948)
A young cowhand rebels against his rancher stepfather during a perilous cattle drive.
Dir: Howard Hawks
Cast: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru
BW-133 mins, TV-PG, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story -- Borden Chase, and Best Film Editing -- Christian Nyby

This is Montgomery Clift's debut film, but because it was shelved for 2 years, the first film the public saw of Clift was The Search (1948), which he was Oscar-nominated for.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: CHRISTMAS CAROLS



8:00 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, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format

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

Scrooge (played by then 34-year old Albert Finney) is actually younger than his nephew Fred (played by then 46-year old Michael Medwin).


10:00 PM -- A Christmas Carol (1951)
Ghosts visit a miser during the holidays to teach him the errors of his ways.
Dir: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Cast: Alastair Sim, Kathleen Harrison, Mervyn Johns
BW-86 mins, TV-G, CC,

The word "humbug" is misunderstood by many people, which is a pity since the word provides a key insight into Scrooge's hatred of Christmas. The word "humbug" describes deceitful efforts to fool people by pretending to a fake loftiness or false sincerity. So when Scrooge calls Christmas a humbug, he is claiming that people only pretend to charity and kindness in an scoundrel effort to delude him, each other, and themselves. In Scrooge's eyes, he is the one man honest enough to admit that no one really cares about anyone else, so for him, every wish for a Merry Christmas is one more deceitful effort to fool him and take advantage of him. This is a man who has turned to profit because he honestly believes everyone else will someday betray him or abandon him the moment he trusts them.


11:30 PM -- Scrooge (1935)
The legendary miser searches his past, present and future to discover the true meaning of Christmas.
Dir: Henry Edwards
Cast: Maurice Evans, Donald Calthop, Robert Cochran
BW-78 mins, TV-G,

The voice of the Ghost of Christmas Past is not that of Marie Ney, whose physical outline can be seen onscreen as the Ghost. Ney was a woman, and the voice of the Ghost of Christmas Past is that of an uncredited male actor.


1:00 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, TV-G, CC,

Lionel Barrymore was originally set to play Scrooge, but had to back out due to illness. Barrymore instead suggested his friend Reginald Owen take over the role. Barrymore did not perform the radio version of "A Christmas Carol" in 1938 so that it would not interfere with the success of the picture, and he appeared in a special trailer for it called A Fireside Chat with Lionel Barrymore (1938), which was produced by Frank Whitbeck and directed by Edwin L. Marin.


2:15 AM -- A Carol for Another Christmas (1964)
Three ghosts teach an industrialist the importance of international peacekeeping.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Pat Hingle, Steve Lawrence, Robert Shaw
BW-86 mins, TV-G, CC,

In Rod Serling's original script, the lead character's name was Barnaby Grudge--i.e., B. Grudge, a play on the word "begrudge". ABC censors thought that viewers would miss that allusion and instead believe the name was chosen as a slap at U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, a man associated with nuclear war, and ordered the author to change the character's name. Serling settled on Daniel Grudge. (Serling's original name would also have made more sense, because it is a play on another Dickens novel, "Barnaby Rudge.&quot


3:45 AM -- David Copperfield (1935)
Charles Dickens' classic tale of an orphaned boy's fight for happiness and the colorful characters who help and hinder him.
Dir: George Cukor
Cast: W. C. Fields, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan
BW-130 mins, TV-G, CC

Nominated for Oscars for Best Film Editing -- Robert Kern, Best Assistant Director -- Joseph M. Newman, and Best Picture

According to film historians, W.C. Fields performed in only one film exactly according to script and as directed. That one was MGM's David Copperfield (1935) in which he co-starred with Freddie Bartholomew, who was only ten years old. Fields admired the Charles Dickens book and wanted desperately to play Mr. Micawber in the movie, so he agreed to forgo his usual ad-libs and put aside his distaste at working with child actors.