TCM Schedule for Friday, December 31, 2021 -- What's on: New Year's Eve Thin Man Marathon

During the day, it's a salute to New Year's Eve, with musicals galore, including the entire That's Entertainment series of films. Then in prime time, TCM continues their New Year's Eve tradition of showing the Thin Man movies. Have a wildly safe New Year and enjoy!


6:30 AM -- Hollywood: The Dream Factory (1972)
1h | Documentary | TV-G
Dick Cavett narrates this documentary about the MGM auction and the studio's glorious history.
Director: Mark Woods
Cast: Cyd Charisse, Angela Lansbury, Joan Leslie

Edited from The Great Train Robbery (1903) (Short), Luffar-Petter (1922), Pretty Ladies (1925), The Big Parade (1925), Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), 1925 Studio Tour (1925) (Short), Flesh and the Devil (1926), The Trail of '98 (1928), Our Dancing Daughters (1928), Show People (1928), The Broadway Melody (1929), Our Modern Maidens (1929), Madam Satan (1930), Min and Bill (1930), Trader Horn (1931), Dance, Fools, Dance (1931), The Easiest Way (1931), Mata Hari (1931), Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Grand Hotel (1932), Red-Headed Woman (1932), Red Dust (1932), Tugboat Annie (1933), Dinner at Eight (1933), Bombshell (1933), Going Hollywood (1933), Hollywood Party (1934), Chained (1934), Los Angeles: 'Wonder City of the West' (1935) (Short), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Rose-Marie (1936), Wife vs. Secretary (1936), San Francisco (1936), Camille (1936), A Day at the Races (1937), Sunday Night at the Trocadero (1937) (Short), Rosalie (1937), The Candid Camera Story (Very Candid) of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures 1937 Convention (1937) (Short), Marie Antoinette (1938), Boys Town (1938), Too Hot to Handle (1938), The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Babes in Arms (1939), Ninotchka (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), Strike Up the Band (1940), The Philadelphia Story (1940), Go West (1940), Ziegfeld Girl (1941), Two-Faced Woman (1941), Johnny Eager (1941), Babes on Broadway (1941), White Cargo (1942), Random Harvest (1942), Lassie Come Home (1943), Gaslight (1944), Bathing Beauty (1944), Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), National Velvet (1944), Ziegfeld Follies (1945), The Yearling (1946), Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), Neptune's Daughter (1949), The Great Sinner (1949), That Midnight Kiss (1949), Adam's Rib (1949), Father of the Bride (1950), To Please a Lady (1950), Show Boat (1951), The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Quo Vadis (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Ivanhoe (1952), Battle Circus (1953), The Band Wagon (1953), Forbidden Planet (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Doctor Zhivago (1965).


7:30 AM -- Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
1h 47m | Musical | TV-G
Fanciful musical biography of Wild West sharpshooter Annie Oakley.
Director: George Sidney
Cast: Betty Hutton, Howard Keel, Louis Calhern

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture -- Adolph Deutsch and Roger Edens

Nominee for Oscars for Best Cinematography, Color -- Charles Rosher, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Richard Pefferle, and Best Film Editing -- James E. Newcom

Bernadette Peters was the last person to originate the role of Annie Oakley in a Broadway revival, for which she won a Tony award. This production turned out to be the longest running production of the show ever. Peters said in an NY interview she had wanted to play this role for years, given the bad press that surrounded the Betty Hutton movie version from the very beginning. This included the loss of Frank Morgan, the releasing of Judy Garland and Busby Berkeley, and the record-breaking royalty payments resulting from not hiring any of the New York production performers, including the refusal to work with Ethel Merman. Merman's own failed attempt to revive the show on Broadway, where she then played Annie more than 20 years older than in her first production, led certain NY producers to avoid revivals of the show for some time.


9:30 AM -- Lili (1953)
1h 21m | Musical | TV-G
A French orphan gets a job with a carnival puppet show.
Director: Charles Walters
Cast: Leslie Caron, Mel Ferrer, Jean Pierre Aumont

Winner of an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture -- Bronislau Kaper

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Leslie Caron, Best Director -- Charles Walters, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Helen Deutsch, Best Cinematography, Color -- Robert H. Planck, and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color -- Cedric Gibbons, Paul Groesse, Edwin B. Willis and Arthur Krams

This film was based on The Saturday Evening Post's Paul Gallico's short story "The Man Who Hated People," published in the 28 October 1950 edition, which was inspired by the children's puppet show "Kukla, Fran and Ollie." Due to the success of the film, Gallico expanded the story into a novella.


11:00 AM -- That's Entertainment! (1974)
2h 12m | Documentary | TV-G
An all-star cast, including Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra, introduces clips from MGM's greatest musicals.
Director: Jack Haley Jr.
Cast: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor

Much of the film's success is due to the intricate sleight-of-hand editing of Bud Friedgen and David E. Blewitt, who cleverly streamlined each number to a running time between one and three minutes. In some cases, this was a daunting task, as in the mammoth "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" sequence, which lasts nearly eight minutes in The Harvey Girls (1946) and was truncated to a seamless two minutes and thirteen seconds for the compilation. One can surmise that the only reason the team was not Oscar-nominated is because voters were not familiar enough with the original footage to fully appreciate the meticulous editing that took place. (Indeed, only four numbers are shown in their entirety: Judy Garland's and Van Johnson's introduction of Liza Minnelli to "In the Good Old Summertime"; Gene Kelly's, Debbie Reynolds's, and Donald O'Connor's prologue of "Singin' in the Rain" [note the removal of the credits on their umbrellas]; Kelly's iconic song and dance to the same song; and Fred Astaire's and Eleanor Powell's tour de force tap routine to "Begin the Beguine&quot . Friedgen and Blewitt were so integral to the anthology that they were retained for That's Entertainment, Part II (1976) and elevated to co-director status on That's Entertainment! III (1994).


1:30 PM -- That's Entertainment! II (1976)
2h 13m | Documentary | TV-G
Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly dance together again for the first time in more than 30 years in this sequel to That's Entertainment! (1974).
Director: Gene Kelly
Cast: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Saul Bass

It was Fred Astaire's idea that he and Gene Kelly perform together in a new dance number in the film. Astaire was afraid that if he and Kelly just stood around and talked to each other, the audience would think they were too old to dance any more. As of the date of the film's release in May 1976, Astaire had just attained his 77th year a week earlier, and Kelly was to turn 64 that August.


3:45 PM -- That's Entertainment! III (1994)
1h 53m | Documentary | TV-G
Sequel to "That's Entertainment!" (1974) and "That's Entertainment! Part 2" (1976).
Director: Bud Friedgen
Cast: Carmen Miranda, Ray Bolger, Cyd Charisse

The idea for a third edition was pitched by MGM/UA Home Video head George Feltenstein to then MGM/UA president Alan Ladd Jr. Feltenstein had typed up a list of musical numbers for a potential third movie back in 1976 after returning home from That's Entertainment, Part II (1976). Ladd approved the pitch, but because Feltenstein was a studio exec, he didn't get a screen credit for his contribution.


6:00 PM -- That's Dancing! (1985)
1h 45m | Documentary | TV-G
Gene Kelly, Liza Minnelli and Mikhail Baryshnikov host this compilation of some of the greatest dance routines.
Director: Jack Haley Jr.
Cast: Liza Minnelli, Gene Kelly, Ray Bolger

The film came under fire for its curious lack of pacing, which can be attributed largely to Jack Haley Jr.'s decision to utilize only five celebrity hosts to cover nearly one hundred years of dance history. Whereas he had delegated one narrator per theme in That's Entertainment! (1974), Haley inexplicably doubled up three of his five hosts in this sequel. Mikhail Baryshnikov is called upon to toast the world of ballet, and Liza Minnelli celebrates the best of Broadway, while Gene Kelly narrates two segments, one exploring the early history of dance, and the other looking toward the future. Similarly, Sammy Davis Jr. presents the ballroom duets of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in addition to the work of pioneering individualists such as Bill Robinson, Eleanor Powell, and The Nicholas Brothers, while Ray Bolger unfolds the starry roster at MGM, followed by a section celebrating the later work of Astaire and Kelly. It is generally believed that the film would have flowed more fluidly had Haley spread the wealth of material among eight hosts.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- NEW YEAR'S EVE THIN MAN MARATHON



8:00 PM -- The Thin Man (1934)
1h 20m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
In New York, a detective, his wife and his dog solve the murder case of an eccentric inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'sullivan

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Powell, Best Director -- W.S. Van Dyke, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Best Picture

William Powell spoke of how much he loved working with Myrna Loy because of her naturalness, her professionalism, and her lack of any kind of "diva" temperament. "When we did a scene together, we forgot about technique, camera angles, and microphones. We weren't acting. We were just two people in perfect harmony," he said. "Myrna, unlike some actresses who think only of themselves, has the happy faculty of being able to listen while the other fellow says his lines. She has the give and take of acting that brings out the best."


9:45 PM -- After the Thin Man (1936)
1h 50m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
Married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles try to clear Nora's cousin of a murder charge.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

The Thin Man (1934) ends at night with Nick and Nora on a train, traveling west, while the soundtrack plays California, Here I Come. After The Thin Man -- the first sequel in the Thin Man series -- was released two years later. Its story begins a few days after the final scene in the original movie, with Nick and Nora presumably on the same train traveling west while the soundtrack again plays California, Here I Come.


11:45 PM -- Another Thin Man (1939)
1h 45m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.
Director: W. S. Van Dyke Ii
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Grey

Two tragedies befell William Powell prior to the making of this movie: the unexpected death of his fiancée, Jean Harlow, and a difficult battle with colon cancer that required colon bypass surgery and new radiation treatments. Production of this film was delayed as a result. Powell was given a standing ovation when he finally returned to the set for filming.


1:45 AM -- Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
1h 37m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles run into a variety of shady characters while investigating a race-track murder.
Director: Major W. S. Van Dyke Ii
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Barry Nelson

Shot in just two weeks by director W.S. Van Dyke, living up to his nickname of One-Take Woody.


3:30 AM -- The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
1h 40m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
On a trip to visit his parents, detective Nick Charles gets mixed up in a murder investigation.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Lucile Watson

This movie was to begin production in 1942, but Myrna Loy refused the part. Instead, she went to New York where she married car rental heir John Hertz Jr. and worked for the Red Cross war-relief effort. The movie almost began shooting with actress Irene Dunne as Nora Charles.


5:15 AM -- Song of the Thin Man (1947)
1h 26m | Suspense/Mystery | TV-G
Society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder in a jazz club.
Director: Edward Buzzell
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Keenan Wynn

This was not only the last of the 'Thin Man' series in which William Powell and Myrna Loy co-star as Nick and Nora Charles; it is also the last time the two actors appear together in any feature-length movie.