TCM Schedule for Thursday, December 31, 2020 -- What's On Tonight: New Year's Eve Entertainment

[Staph]

In the daylight hours, it's a Thin Man marathon. Then in prime time, TCM is repeating their usual New Year's Eve marathon of the That's Entertainment documentaries. Enjoy!


7:45 AM -- Double Wedding (1937)
1h 27m | Comedy | TV-G
A dress designer tries to break her sister's engagement to a free-living artist, only to discover the man is falling for her instead.
Director: Richard Thorpe
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Florence Rice

Production was halted because of the June 7, 1937 death of William Powell's fiancée Jean Harlow. Powell later described finishing the movie as "very difficult under the circumstances". Myrna Loy, a good friend of Harlow's, disliked the film because of her death, stating in her autobiography it was "the scapegoat for concurrent despair".


9:15 AM -- The Thin Man (1934)
1h 20m | Comedy | TV-G
In New York, a detective, his wife and his dog solve the murder case of an eccentric inventor.
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

For William Powell's first scene (at the bar), W.S. Van Dyke told him to take the cocktail shaker, go to the bar and just walk through the scene while the crew checked lights and sound. Powell did it, throwing in some lines and business of his own. Suddenly he heard Van Dyke say, "That's it! Print it!" The director had decided to shoot the scene without Powell knowing it so that he'd be as relaxed and natural as possible.


11:00 AM -- After the Thin Man (1936)
1h 50m | Comedy | 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

Though William Powell and Myrna Loy were very close friends off-screen, their only romantic moments together occurred on-screen. The public, however, was determined to have them married in private life as well. When the two stars showed up in San Francisco (where most of this film was shot) at the St. Francis, the hotel management proudly showed "Mr. and Mrs. Powell" to their deluxe suite. This was an especially uncomfortable moment as Jean Harlow, who was engaged to Powell, was with them, and the couple had not made a public statement about their relationship. Harlow saved the day by insisting on sharing the suite with Loy: "That mix-up brought me one of my most cherished friendships," Loy said in "Being and Becoming", her autobiography. "You would have thought Jean and I were in boarding school we had so much fun. We'd stay up half the night talking and sipping gin, sometimes laughing, sometimes discussing more serious things." Meanwhile, Powell got the hotel's one remaining room--a far humbler accommodation downstairs.


1:00 PM -- Another Thin Man (1939)
1h 45m | Comedy | 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

The elegant car that carries Nick and Nora to Col. MacFay's estate is a 1935 Lincoln. An expensive, low-production car, only about 1400 were made that year. The major movie studios kept a number of such expensive cars around for executive purposes, and the cars often did double duty as props as required in production.


2:45 PM -- Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
1h 37m | Comedy | 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".


4:30 PM -- The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
1h 40m | Comedy | 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

Replaced for this movie was the "dog actor" who had played Asta since the original Thin Man film. The original dog actor Skippy outgrew the part.


6:15 PM -- 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

At one point Nick Charles finds a razor blade and exclaims, "Somerset Maugham must have been here". That is a reference to Maugham's best-selling novel "The Razor's Edge".



WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PRIMETIME THEME -- NEW YEAR'S EVE ENTERTAINMENT



8:00 PM -- 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

This was among the last MGM films shot on the studio's renowned back lot, of which there were actually six distinct satellite parcels of land west and south of the main lot, or Lot 1. Lot 2, the last of them to serve as a working back lot, was in use until late 1978. Development for residential housing on Lots 3-6 began the year "That's Entertainment!" filmed its new material with the studio's stars strolling the various standing sets, which had been allowed to deteriorate for well over a decade before their demolition. This is particularly noticeable in the train station set where Fred Astaire gives his introduction, and Bing Crosby refers to the English Lake area as looking rather "scruffy". On the other hand, the entire purpose of the film is nostalgia, and the use of the 'scruffy' facade, clearly aged and unused, helps to set the tone as one of a brief return to the glamor of the past, even though it was all make-believe.


10:30 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 as they introduce classic musical numbers and comedy bits.
Director: Gene Kelly
Cast: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Saul Bass

This was Fred Astaire's final dance performance on film.


12:45 AM -- That's Entertainment! III (1994)
1h 53m | Documentary | TV-G
Classic musical numbers and rare behind-the-scenes footage show how MGM created the screen's greatest musicals.
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.


3:00 AM -- 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 numbers in movie history.
Director: Jack Haley Jr.
Cast: Liza Minnelli, Gene Kelly, Ray Bolger

Based on the expense and, in some cases, lack of studio cooperation in opening their vaults for the project, Jack Haley, Jr. openly admitted that his final selection of film footage was drastically different from what he and executive producer Gene Kelly had envisioned. An approximation of the original material can be found in Tony Thomas' complementary book, "That's Dancing!," which features photos and captions of the footage Haley and Kelly had earmarked for inclusion. Similarly, more than thirty publicity stills were issued in the film's press kits, some of which depict scenes that ultimately do not appear in the finished film (i.e. June Haver and Gene Nelson performing the title song from I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now [1947]).


5:00 AM -- Hollywood My Hometown (1965)
52m | Documentary | TV-G
In this special, Ken Murray hosts his own behind-the-scenes home movies of some of Hollywood's greatest stars.
Director: null
Cast: Ken Murray

Features footage of Jayne Mansfield with her husband, Mickey Hargitay, and the youngest of their three children, Mariska Hargitay, Dick Powell before he had made a movie, Rudolph Valentino fencing, Maurice Chevalier in a screen test singing "Louise", Jean Harlow footage, and Boris Karloff crossing a baseball field in full Frankenstein (1931) makeup and costume, while the Three Stooges look on.