Starting December 19, 8 p.m., through Christmas Day | 76 Movies
Christmas movies come in all varieties, from warm-hearted family stories about the holiday itself to comedies and dramas that feature incidental Christmas settings to crime thrillers and even Westerns! And TCM has all these and more Saturdays and Sundays this month and during a special week-long marathon that starts at prime time on December 19 with the Oscar-winning Bing Crosby favorite Going My Way (1944) and runs 24/7 through the 6 p.m. Christmas Day showing of the Judy Garland musical In the Good Old Summertime (1949).
If you enjoy Garland in that movie as a music store employee pining for a secret admirer, stick around for the even better non-musical original The Shop Around the Corner (1940). Margaret Sullavan plays the Garland role in this Ernst Lubitsch romantic comedy, paired beautifully with James Stewart as her fellow employee and secret pen pal, a part taken by Van Johnson in the musical remake. And Garland introduces one of the most beloved holiday tunes, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” in Vincente Minnelli’s Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Although it’s set over the course of an entire year in 1903, the picture has za truly memorable Christmas sequence.
You can usually spot the Christmas-specific movies by their titles: the English drama The Holly and the Ivy (1952), Bush Christmas (1947) from Australia, the Robert Mitchum-Janet Leigh romance Holiday Affair (1949), the short film Compliments of the Season (1930), the episodic Christmas Eve (1947), and a modern retelling of the Nativity story in the short Star in the Night (1945). There’s also the all-time classic and, some say, best version of the Dickens tale about the redemption of a mean-spirited miser, A Christmas Carol (1938), and a modern take on the story written by The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, Carol for Another Christmas (1964), a TV movie with an all-star cast that includes Sterling Hayden, Ben Gazzara, Eva Marie Saint and Peter Sellers.
Silent film buffs will want to catch Christmas Past, a collection of holiday shorts made between 1901 and 1925. And Laurel and Hardy display their patented mayhem as door-to-door Christmas tree salesmen in Big Business (1929).
Barbara Stanwyck brings hilarity to her role as a newspaper columnist and would-be Martha Stewart type who almost derails Christmas in Connecticut (1945). Stanwyck fans can watch the star in several Christmas permutations: as a widow scandalizing her small town in My Reputation (1946), as a convicted thief finding love and acceptance with Fred MacMurray’s bucolic family in Remember the Night (1940), and as a cynical journalist who ignites a highly questionable political movement in Frank Capra’s Meet John Doe (1941).
Other stars shine in stories set in and around the holidays: Bette Davis and Ann Sheridan in the witty comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942); Davis again as a down-and-out woman posing as a wealthy matron in Pocketful of Miracles (1961); Humphrey Bogart as one of three escaped convicts in the comedy We’re No Angels (1955); Jane Fonda in the Tennessee Williams comedy Period of Adjustment (1962); Doris Day in one of a handful of period musicals she made with Gordon MacRae, On Moonlight Bay (1951); Greer Garson as a children’s rights advocate in the period biopic Blossoms in the Dust (1941); Sheridan again, with Gary Cooper in the Leo McCarey comedy-drama Good Sam (1948); Rosalind Russell as the irrepressible Auntie Mame (1958), bringing Christmas on a little early because “we need it now”; Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment (1960) and Irene Dunne and Cary Grant in the tearjerker Penny Serenade (1941).
Grant turns up again in the adoptive family comedy-drama Room for One More (1952), which inspired a 1960s sitcom, and as a debonair angel sent to earth to help David Niven and Loretta Young in The Bishop’s Wife (1947), remade as The Preacher’s Wife (1996) with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston. A good holiday tale often bears repeating, and the Marathon line-up includes several notable remakes. John Wayne is one of 3 Godfathers (1948) rescuing a newborn from the desert in this John Ford Western, a remake of Three Godfathers (1936), itself a remake of William Wyler’s Hell’s Heroes (1929). The Ginger Rogers comedy Bachelor Mother (1939) plays back-to-back with the 1956 remake Bundle of Joy, with Debbie Reynolds in the Rogers role. Finally, the classic Louisa May Alcott story Little Women gets two screenings, George Cukor’s critical and commercial 1933 hit with Katharine Hepburn and the 1949 remake starring June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor.
Douglas Sirk’s highly stylized melodrama All That Heaven Allows (1955), starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, was not exactly remade, but it inspired the work of two later filmmakers: Rainer Werner Fassbinder in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and Todd Haynes in Far from Heaven (2002). It also contains one of the most crushing Christmas gift exchange scenes in 1950s cinema.
Katharine Hepburn stars in two other titles in the week’s line-up. Desk Set (1957) is considered one of her lesser, but still enjoyable romantic comedy teamings with Spencer Tracy. She won her third (of four) Best Actress Oscars as Eleanor of Aquitaine opposite Peter O’Toole as Henry II in the Christmas-set The Lion in Winter (1968).
For those who like their Christmas a little more on the noir side, the week’s programming offers some dark thrillers and crime stories that are set all or in part during the holidays: Kind Lady (1935), in which a wealthy woman is held captive in her home by the dastardly Basil Rathbone; an insurance investigator probing a case of alleged suicide in Cover Up (1949); Backfire (1950), featuring two of the writers and two actors who also worked on the James Cagney film noir White Heat (1949); Glenn Ford in Mr. Soft Touch (1949); songbird Deanna Durbin witnessing a murder in Lady on a Train (1945); Robert Montgomery’s directorial debut Lady in the Lake (1947), an experiment in subjective camera shot almost entirely from the point of view of the main character, played by Montgomery; the comedy-gangster hybrid Larceny, Inc. (1942), based on S.J. Perelman’s play The Night Before Christmas; The Silent Partner (1978), a Canadian heist movie starring Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer; and Alias Boston Blackie (1942), third in a popular B movie detective series that ran for a decade.
A couple of highly acclaimed TCM imports depict aspects of the holiday in other lands. Mon Oncle Antoine (1971) is set in Quebec at Christmastime, a drama centered on a boy’s coming of age in a conservative rural mining town. Ingmar Bergman’s semi-autobiographical Fanny and Alexander (1982), set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, Art Direction, Cinematography and Costume Design.
If that’s not enough of a holiday feast, the Marathon is also a chance to catch a range of compelling films: Crooks Anonymous (1962), Fitzwilly (1967), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), All Mine to Give (1957), Never Say Goodbye (1946), The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950), The World of Henry Orient (1964), Susan Slept Here (1954), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947), The Cheaters (1945), The Great Rupert (1950), Beyond Tomorrow (1940), Tenth Avenue Angel (1948), Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) and O. Henry's Full House (1952).
Saturday, December 4
12:00 PM A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas!
1:15 PM Little Women (1949)
3:30 PM Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
5:45 PM It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)
Sunday, December 5
12:00 PM Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
2:00 PM Bundle of Joy (1956)
4:00 PM Bell, Book and Candle (1959)
6:00 PM The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
Saturday, December 11
12:00 PM A Christmas Carol (1938)
2:00 PM 3 Godfathers (1949)
4:00 PM Fitzwilly (1967)
6:00 PM The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942)
Sunday, December 12
12:00 PM All Mine to Give (1957)
2:00 PM O. Henry’s Full House (1952)
4:15 PM Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
6:15 PM Remember the Night (1940)
Saturday, December 18
12:00 PM Meet John Doe (1941)
2:15 PM Susan Slept Here (1954)
4:15 PM In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
6:15 PM Holiday Affair (1949)
Sunday, December 19
1:00 PM King of Kings (1961)
4:00 PM Ben-Hur (1959)
Sunday, December 19
8:00 PM Going My Way (1944)
10:15 PM The Holly and the Ivy (1952)
12:00 AM Christmas Past (1925)
2:15 AM Mon Oncle Antoine (1971)
4:15 AM Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Monday, December 20
7:30 AM Kind Lady (1935)
9:00 AM The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941)
11:00 AM Cover-Up (1949)
12:30 PM Crooks Anonymous (1952)
2:15 PM Backfire (1950)
4:00 PM Mr. Soft Touch (1948)
6:00 PM Lady on a Train (1945)
8:00 PM We're No Angels (1955)
10:00 PM Fitzwilly (1967)
12:00 AM Lady in the Lake (1947)
2:00 AM Larceny, Inc (1942)
4:00 AM The Silent Partner (1978)
Tuesday, December 21
6:00 AM Hell's Heroes (1930)
7:30 AM Three Godfathers (1936)
9:00 AM Bush Christmas (1947)
10:30 AM A Christmas Carol (1938)
12:00 PM Alias Boston Blackie (1942)
1:30 PM Room For One More (1952)
3:30 PM Period of Adjustment (1962)
5:30 PM The Lion in Winter (1968)
8:00 PM Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
10:00 PM In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
12:00 AM Shop Around the Corner (1940)
2:00 AM Little Women (1949)
4:15 AM Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
Wednesday, December 22
6:00 AM My Reputation (1946)
8:00 AM Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)
10:00 AM On Moonlight Bay (1951)
11:45 AM Penny Serenade (1941)
2:00 PM All Mine to Give (1957)
4:00 PM Never Say Goodbye (1946)
6:00 PM Good Sam (1948)
8:00 PM Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
10:00 PM Holiday Affair (1949)
11:45 PM Desk Set (1957)
1:45 AM The Apartment (1960)
4:00 AM Bachelor Mother (1939)
5:30 AM Bundle of Joy (1956)
Thursday, December 23
7:30 AM Big Business (1929)
8:00 AM The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950)
10:00 AM The World of Henry Orient (1964)
12:00 PM Carol For Another Christmas (1964)
1:45 PM Desk Set (1957)
4:00 PM Susan Slept Here (1954)
6:00 PM Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
8:00 PM It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
10:15 PM The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
12:15 AM The Cheaters (1945)
2:00 AM All That Heaven Allows (1955)
3:45 AM Auntie Mame (1958)
Friday, December 24
6:15 AM The Great Rupert (1950)
7:45 AM 3 Godfathers (1949)
9:45 AM Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
12:15 PM Holiday Affair (1949)
2:00 PM The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
4:00 PM Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
6:00 PM Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
8:00 PM The Bishop's Wife (1947)
10:00 PM A Christmas Carol (1938)
11:30 PM Remember the Night (1940)
1:30 AM Meet John Doe (1941)
3:45 AM Christmas Eve (1947)
5:30 AM Compliments of the Season (1930)
Saturday, December 25
6:00 AM Beyond Tomorrow (1940)
7:30 AM Star in the Night (1945)
8:00 AM Tenth Avenue Angel (1948)
9:30 AM Little Women (1933)
11:30 AM Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
1:30 PM O Henry's Full House (1952)
3:45 PM It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1967)
6:00 PM In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
