Television

Rare Musicals on TCM — December 2013

TCM rounds out the end of the year with a spectacular lineup, thanks in part to its choice of Fred Astaire as December’s Star of the Month, which was, of course, a fantastic decision.

Monday, 12/9
4:30 pm / George White’s Scandals (1945)

Thursday, 12/12
7:00 am / Yolanda and the Thief (1945)
Fred Astaire stars as the con man who convinces a religious, young Latin American heiress that he’s her guardian angel.

Monday, 12/16
12:15pm / Everything I Have is Yours (1952)
Real-life dancing couple Marge and Gower Champion star as a Broadway-bound dance team who discover they’re expecting.
2:00pm / Screen Directors Playhouse: What Day Is It
2:30pm / Sunny Side of the Street (1951)

Tuesday, 12/17
3:15am  / Bundle of Joy (1951)
Debbie and Eddie in a remake of Bachelor Mother, in which an unmarried shop girl takes custody of a baby to many scandalized harrumphs.

Wednesday, 12/18
2:00am  / A Damsel in Distress
Another Fred Astaire, this time alongside George Burns and Gracie Allen, with music by Gershwin.

Friday, 12/20
10:00am  / Sweet Adeline
Irene Dunne in a Kern-Hammerstein operetta, set in the 1890s.

Saturday, 12/21
6:00am  / Seven Little Foys [review] Bob Hope in a dramatic musical, with a cameo by Cagney in his Yankee Doodle Dandy role.

Sunday, 12/22
6:00am  Sweethearts
The TCM MacDonald and Eddys are BACK with this 1938 operetta.

Tuesday, 12/24
10:00pm / Sun Valley Serenade
A war orphan adopted as a publicity stunt conveniently grows up to be Sonja Henie, backed by the Glenn Miller band.

Monday, 12/30
9:45pm  / Bikini Beach (1964)
Frankie and Annette in classic form, as part of TCM’s “In Memoriam 2013” program.

Tuesday, 12/31
9:30am / Go Johnny Go (1959)
Rock ‘n’ roll day on TCM, this movie features a bevy of performers, like Chuck Berry and Ritchie Valens, as themselves.
10:45am / Let’s Rock (1958)
12:15pm / It’s Trad, Dad! (1961)
It’s “traditional jazz,” dad, as two British teens try to introduce the swinging new sounds to their small village.

On a non-rarity note, December 18 marks a full day of fantastic musical programming. Most of them are available on DVD/Netflix, so they’re not mentioned above, but the day’s lineup includes: Good News, The Barkleys of Broadway, On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain, The Band Wagon, It’s Always Fair Weather, Bells Are Ringing, The Broadway Melody of 1940, Easter Parade, Royal Wedding, A Damsel in Distress, and Finian’s Rainbow. It’s a Wednesday, but if you have access to a TV during your workday, I think it’s well worth it.

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