TCM’s December highlights features Barbara Stanwyck.
Here is some of the featured programming:
Star of the Month: Barbara Stanwyck – Wednesdays in December
Throughout December, TCM will pay tribute to one of the most popular stars of the 1930s and ’40s, Barbara Stanwyck. The salute begins Dec. 5 with a collection of romantic melodramas, including such favorites as Ladies of Leisure (1930) and Stella Dallas (1937), along with the TCM premieres of This Is My Affair (1937), The Other Love (1947) and A Message to Garcia (1936). On Dec. 12, a night of romantic comedies kicks off with the TCM premiere of Banjo on My Knee (1936). Film noir fills the lineup on Dec. 19, including Double Indemnity (1944) and The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946). Stanwyck’s western roles take center stage Dec. 26, beginning with the TCM premieres of Forty Guns (1957) and The Maverick Queen (1956). Additional films air during the daytime on Dec. 20 and 27.
TCM Spotlight: Director Ernst Lubitsch – Fridays in December
TCM salutes the timeless wit of filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch through the month of December. The tribute begins Dec. 7 with the TCM premiere of the silent epic The Loves of Pharoah (1920). The night also includes Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert and Miriam Hopkins inThe Smiling Lieutenant (1931) and James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan in the holiday charmerThe Shop Around the Corner(1940). Dec. 14 brings the sparkling gems Trouble in Paradise (1932),Design for Living (1933) and One Hour with You (1932), while Dec. 21 features The Love Parade (1929) and the TCM premiere of Monte Carlo (1930). The tribute wraps up Dec. 28 with the TCM premiere of That Lady in Ermine (1948), along with two films widely regarded as Lubitch’s finest: Ninotchka (1939) and To Be Or Not to Be (1942).
Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room – World Television Premiere: Monday, Dec. 3, at 8 p.m. (ET)
TCM presents the world television premiere of Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room (2010), an intimate portrait of one of the last survivors of Hollywood’s silent era. The documentary features the 92-year-old star speaking openly for the first time about her life and experience as a child star. Diana Serra Cary’s sudden rise to fame and fortune as Baby Peggy had a severe impact on her family life. The frustrations of her father, the naivety of her mother and the jealousy of her senior sister created a love/hate relationship between the young star and those around her. But she reserved her greatest anger and resentment for the Baby Peggy persona itself. Now with the discovery of her lost films, Cary has seen her childhood talent through fresh eyes and slowly reconciled with her younger self. TCM’s presentation of the documentary will be followed by the TCM premieres of four Baby Peggy shorts:Captain January (1924), Carmen Jr. (1923), Such Is Life (1924) and Peg o’ the Mounted(1924).
TCM Guest Programmer: Lee Child – Thursday, Dec. 6, beginning at 8 p.m. (ET)
British thriller novelist Lee Child, whose novels feature ex-Army MP Jack Reacher and works including award-winning Killing Floor and, most recently, A Wanted Man, sits down with Robert Osborne to present an evening of his favorite films. The night includes Michael Curtiz’s quintessential wartime romantic drama Casablanca (1942), starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman; Carol Reed’s exciting thriller The Third Man (1949), with Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles; Terrence Malick’s turn-of-the-century dramaDays of Heaven (1978), starring Richard Gere and Brooke Adams; and Michael Anderson’s World War II thriller The Dam Busters (1955), with Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave.
TCM Celebrates the Holidays – Throughout December
This holiday season, TCM will be presenting numerous favorites, along with a big surprise discovery. Each Sunday in December, TCM will present a special Christmas double-feature, with titles like Little Women (1949), A Christmas Carol (1951),The Bishop’s Wife (1947), It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947) andWe’re No Angels (1955). On Sunday, Dec. 16, TCM will present the very rarely seen made-for-television movie Carol for Another Christmas (1964), a unique take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol written by Rod Serling, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Sterling Hayden, Eva Marie Saint, Ben Gazzara, Steve Lawrence, Pat Hingle, Robert Shaw, Peter Sellers, Britt Ekland and James Shigeta. The movie was originally televised in 1964 as a Xerox-sponsored special promoting the United Nations. TCM’s holiday programming also includes a collection of movies featuring the armed forces at Yuletide on Dec. 17, five holiday-themed musicals on Dec. 18, a night of holiday films set in New York on Dec. 20 and an evening of holiday classics of all types on Dec. 24. On Christmas Day, TCM will present a lineup of religious favorites, including Going My Way(1944) and King of Kings (1961). That night, TCM invites movie fans to spend Christmas with the Hardys, with an entire evening of Andy Hardy films, starring Mickey Rooney.
TCM Remembers Pearl Harbor – Friday, Dec. 7, beginning at 6 a.m. (ET)
TCM remembers the attack on Pearl Harbor that prompted America’s entrance into World War II with a daytime lineup of some of the greatest films depicting the conflict within the Pacific theater. The seven-film collection includes the Best Picture Oscar® winner From Here to Eternity (1953) and the epic American-Japanese co-production Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Also featured are Howard Hawks’Air Force (1943), John Ford’s They Were Expendable (1945), Delmer Davies’ Task Force (1949)
Academy Conversations: The Magic of Moviemaking – Co-hosted by Oscar®-Nominated Production Designers Guy Hendrix Dyas and Lilly Kilvert– Monday, Dec. 10, beginning at 8 p.m. (ET)
In partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, TCM is proud to present an evening of production design. Oscar-nominated production designers Guy Hendrix Dyas (Inception, 2011) and Lilly Kilvert (Legends of the Fall, 1993 and The Last Samurai, 2003) will join Robert Osborne in the evening’s program. Hendrix Dyas and Osborne will discuss Best Picture winner Grand Hotel (1932), which features the art direction of 11-time Oscar winner Cedric Gibbons, and My Fair Lady (1964), with Oscar-winning designs by Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton and George James Hopkins. Kilvert will then join Osborne to introduce Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1971), which spotlights the production design of Academy Award® winner Ferdinando Scarfiotti followed by John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath (1940), which highlights the art direction of Richard Day and Mark-Lee Kirk and set decoration by Thomas Little.
Les Misérables – Thursday, Dec. 13, beginning at 8 p.m. (ET)
As moviegoers prepare to take in the Christmas Day release of the new big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical, TCM presents three previous cinematic versions of Victor Hugo’s oft-told Les Misérables. The Dec. 13 lineup begins with Fredric March as Jean Valjean and Charles Laughton as Inspector Javert in the meticulously crafted 1935 production. Then Michael Rennie and Robert Newton head an all-star cast in the 1952 edition from director Lewis Milestone. And finally, TCM presents Raymond Bernard’s epic French-language version of the story from 1934, regarded by many critics as the greatest adaptation ever of the Hugo novel.
TCM Salutes Gene Tierney – Thursday, Dec. 27, beginning at 8 p.m. (ET)
TCM presents an evening of films starring striking beauty Gene Tierney, beginning with the TCM premiere of the mystery thrillerBlack Widow (1954), with Ginger Rogers and Van Heflin. The lineup also includes the wartime drama The Left Hand of God (1955), with Humphrey Bogart; Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), co-starring Dana Andrews; Belle Starr (1941), with Randolph Scott; Night and the City (1950), starring Richard Widmark; and the TCM premiere of Fritz Lang’s The Return of Frank James (1940), with Henry Fonda.
Happy New Year, TCM – Monday, Dec. 31, beginning at 8 p.m. (ET)
TCM pops the champagne for a night of New Year’s movies. The lineup includes Woody Allen’s nostalgic gem Radio Days (1987), with Mia Farrow heading up a pitch-perfect ensemble cast. Crime solvers William Powell and Myrna Loy booze it up inAfter the Thin Man (1936), while Jack Lemmon loans out his flat with disastrous results in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment (1960). The night also includes the Rat Pack in Ocean’s Eleven (1960) and James Stewart and Carole Lombard in Made for Each Other (1939).
The Essentials – Hosted by Drew Barrymore and Robert Osborne – Saturdays at 8 p.m.
• Dec. 1 – Sullivan’s Travels (1941) – part of a night of road pictures.
• Dec. 8 – Summertime (1955) – kicking off a night of seasonal offerings.
• Dec. 15 – The Band Wagon (1953) – one of five films with fading stars.
• Dec. 22 – Rebel Without a Cause (1955) – part of a night of movies from the 1950s.
• Dec. 29 – The Way We Were (1973) – starting a night of romantic tearjerkers.
All times Eastern. Please note programming is subject to change. Schedule for TCM in Canada may differ slightly.
