TCM Schedule for Saturday, January 1, 2022 -- What's On Tonight: Fireside Favorites with the Hosts

Welcome to 2022! In the daylight hours, TCM has the usual Saturday matinee lineup of films and shorts. Then in primetime, TCM again gives a selection of films chosen by the hosts. Enjoy!


7:00 AM -- The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Story (1950)
56m | Short | TV-G
A collection of MGM previews with an introduction by Lionel Barrymore.
Director: Herman Hoffman
Cast: Lionel Barrymore, Dore Schary, Ira Heymann


8:00 AM -- Poultry Pirates (1938)
9m | Animation | TV-G
The Captain dreams about chasing the local animals out of his vegetable garden.
Director: I. Freleng
Cast: Mel Blanc, Billy Bletcher

On Friday 1 October 1937 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed Robert Allen as the director of their new series of cartoons based on Rudolph Dirk's "The Captain and the Kids" newspaper comic-strip feature. The company also signed George Gordon as lay-out man and animator for the series. Prior to that Gordon had been with Terry Toons for the previous seven years.


8:10 AM -- Goofy Movies Number One (1933)
8m | Short | TV-G
This provides parodies of newsreel footage and silent movies.
Director: Jules White
Cast: Pete Smith


8:19 AM -- Victoria and Vancouver Gateways to Canada (1936)
8m | Short | TV-G
This focuses on the history, customs, and landscapes of Victoria and Vancouver.
Director: Benjamin D. Sharpe
Cast: James A. Fitzpatrick


8:28 AM -- Rustlers (1949)
1h 1m | Western | TV-G
Two cowboys get mixed up in rustling and counterfeit schemes.
Director: Lesley Selander
Cast: Tim Holt, Richard Martin, Martha Hyer

Although Tim Holt's double gun rig is shown with leather leg ties of dangling rawhide stripes, he rarely used them. This isn't surprising in view of the fact that leather leg ties on gun belt holsters is a Hollywood invention for movie cowboys who wore their gun belts low on their hips, which Holt never did. The leather leg ties were introduced in Western movies to keep the low-slung holsters worn by movie cowboys from riding up when they drew their guns--a problem caused by the drooping holsters on their low-slug gun belts.


9:30 AM -- Batman and Robin: Robin's Ruse (1949)
16m | Short | TV-G
Batman and Robin search for a machine stolen by a mysterious, cloaked-and-hooded figure known only as The Wizard.
Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet
Cast: Robert Lowery, Johnny Duncan, Jane Adams

Lyle Talbot (Commissioner James Gordon) and Johnny Duncan (Dick "Robin" Grayson) went on to appear in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957), the alleged "worst movie ever made." Talbot played the pivotal character General Roberts, while Duncan was uncredited as a nameless stretcher bearer.


10:00 AM -- The Fly's Last Flight (1949)
6m | Animation | TV-PG
Our sailor man fights a losing battle against a mere mite of a mosquito who decides to steal his spinach.
Director: Seymour Kneitel
Cast: Jack Mercer

A color remake of the Fleischer short Flies Ain't Human.


10:08 AM -- Bowery Buckaroos (1947)
1h 6m | Comedy | TV-G
The Bowery Boys head west and land themselves in hot water.
Director: William Beaudine
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan

Final appearance of Bobby Jordan in a Bowery Boys movie.


11:30 AM -- Seeing Red (1939)
18m | Short | TV-G
A man fired from his job places a curse on his former boss.
Director: Roy Mack
Cast: Mary Wickes, Louis Dapron, Red Skelton


12:00 PM -- Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
3h | Musical | TV-G
Before the Russian revolution, a Jewish milkman tries to marry off his daughters.
Director: Norman Jewison
Cast: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey

Winner of Oscars for Best Cinematography -- Oswald Morris, Best Sound -- Gordon K. McCallum and David Hildyard, and Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score -- John Williams

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Topol, Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Leonard Frey, Best Director -- Norman Jewison, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration -- Robert F. Boyle, Michael Stringer and Peter Lamont, and Best Picture

During the song "Sabbath Prayer" there is a scene where Hovel and Chavala are seen on each end of the screen separated by the back of the head of Perchik. This occurs just after Tevye sings "make you be like Ruth and like Esther". This is an analogy to Hovel being like Ruth and follows her husband, and Chavala being like Esther and is split between two faiths. This is an inspired moment of directing the scene.


3:15 PM -- A Face in the Crowd (1957)
2h 6m | Drama | TV-PG
A female television executive turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media figure.
Director: Elia Kazan
Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa

Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann refered to FOX News commentator Glenn Beck as "Lonesome Rhodes" Beck, after Andy Griffith's character in this film.


5:30 PM -- Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
2h 12m | War | TV-PG
The head of a World War II bomber squadron cracks under the pressure.
Director: Henry King
Cast: Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill

Winner of Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Dean Jagger, and Best Sound, Recording -- Thomas T. Moulton

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Gregory Peck, and Best Picture

This film is used by the US Navy as an example of leadership styles in its Leadership and Management Training School. The Air Force's College for Enlisted Professional Military Education also uses it as an education aid in its NCO academies. It is also used as a teaching tool for leadership at the Army Command and General Staff College and for leadership training in civilian seminars. It is used at the Harvard Business School as a case study in how to effect change in organizations.



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- FIRESIDE FAVORITES WITH THE HOSTS



8:00 PM -- Penny Serenade (1941)
2h 5m | Romance | TV-G
A woman on the verge of divorce recalls her heartbreaking attempts to adopt a child.
Director: George Stevens
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Cary Grant

In a flagrant disregard of the then Production Code, it would appear that Irene Dunne and Cary Grant share a marital bed instead of separate ones. Also, there's an implication that the two have sex on a train, something unheard of in the morally hidebound 1940s.


10:15 PM -- Children Of A Lesser God (1986)
1h 50m | Drama | TV-MA
A teacher at a school for the deaf marries a rebellious pupil.
Director: Patrick Palmer
Cast: William Hurt, Marlee Matlin, Piper Laurie

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Marlee Matlin

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Hurt, Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Piper Laurie, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff, and Best Picture

The first film directed by a woman (Randa Haines) to be Oscar nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The only Best Picture Oscar nominee that year to not be nominated for Best Director. Not a great surprise for misogynist Hollywood!


12:30 AM -- Repeat Performance (1947)
1h 33m | Drama | TV-PG
On New Year's Eve 1946, Sheila Page kills her husband Barney. She wishes that she could relive 1946 and avoid her mistakes.
Director: Alfred Werker
Cast: Louis Hayward, Joan Leslie, Virginia Field

In the original novel, "Repeat Performance", written by William O'Farrell in 1942, the character "William Williams" was named "William and Mary Williams" because the character was a transvestite. As a man, he went by "William", and as a woman, she went by "Mary". This characterization would not have been allowed by the Production Code in 1947. Richard Basehart played William Williams in his film debut.


2:30 AM -- It Should Happen to You (1953)
1h 26m | Comedy | TV-G
A poor model from a small town comes to New York with big ambitions.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Holliday, Peter Lawford, Jack Lemmon

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis

In a 1972 interview, George Cukor told Gavin Lambert about the little natural moments that come out in performances; as an example, he described the shooting of the seduction scene in Adam's apartment. "It so happened we had a property man on the picture who'd worked with The Three Stooges. He said, 'I have an idea, may I help on this?' I said, 'Please do,' and he suggested, 'Let her take the earring off herself, so he can nuzzle her ear.' So we did, and it made a terribly funny moment. Later in the scene she had to pour champagne down Peter Lawford's neck. We only have four shirts for Peter Lawford, so we could only shoot four takes, and it was tricky for the camera. On the last take I said, 'Judy if you laugh, I'll just kill you, I'll kill you dead.' Well, she didn't laugh, but she giggled, and it was absolutely great. I asked if she'd done it deliberately, in spite of what I'd said, and she didn't really know. Sometimes you get these very human things on the set."


4:15 AM -- Born Yesterday (1950)
1h 43m | Comedy | TV-PG
A newspaper reporter takes on the task of educating a crooked businessman's girlfriend.
Director: George Cukor
Cast: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Judy Holliday (Judy Holliday was not present at the awards ceremony but watched it with several nominees in New York including fellow-best actress candidate Gloria Swanson. In Hollywood, Ethel Barrymore accepted on her behalf.)

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- George Cukor, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Albert Mannheimer, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White -- Jean Louis, and Best Picture

To help facilitate shooting, George Cukor decided to rehearse Born Yesterday (1950) as if it were still a stage play. For two weeks, the cast worked on their lines while a construction crew built a 300-seat mini-theater within one of the studio's sound-stages. It was there that Judy Holliday, William Holden and Broderick Crawford gave six performances in front of a live audience so that Cukor could precision-time the pacing of the film's jokes.