TCM Schedule for Wednesday, February 8: Piano Players, Part One
Do you like music? Do you like musicians, preferably with a few issues to sort out?
Well, you are in luck: TCM devotes daytime to Celebrating Opera and evening to Piano Players. Expect vocal, keyboard, and personal fireworks!
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
1:45 AM Holiday (1938)
An unhappy heiress falls in love with her stodgy sister's freethinking fiance.
Dir: George Cukor Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Doris Nolan
Runtime: 93 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-G CC: Y
3:30 AM My Favorite Wife (1940)
A shipwrecked woman is rescued just in time for her husband's remarriage.
Dir: Garson Kanin Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Randolph Scott
Runtime: 88 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-G CC: Y
5:15 AM Easy Life (1944)
A high school dropout finds that leading a life of crime is not all he thought it would be.
Dir: Walter Hart Cast: William "Bill" Phillips, William Tannen, James Warren
Runtime: 20 mins Genre: Short Rating: TV-PG CC: N
6:00 AM Hitting a New High (1937)
A crackpot press agent tries to pass off an aspiring opera singer as a jungle girl.
Dir: Raoul Walsh Cast: Lily Pons, Jack Oakie, John Howard
Runtime: 60 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-G CC: Y
7:30 AM Romance (1930)
An opera singer leaves her wealthy lover for a young priest.
Dir: Clarence Brown Cast: Greta Garbo, Lewis Stone, Gavin Gordon
Runtime: 76 mins Genre: Romance Rating: TV-G CC: Y
9:00 AM A Girl, a Guy and a Gob (1941)
A stuffy boss tries to steal his secretary from her sailor boyfriend.
Dir: Richard Wallace Cast: George Murphy, Lucille Ball, Edmond O'Brien
Runtime: 91 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-G CC: Y
10:45 AM Serenade (1956)
A rising opera star is torn between his wealthy benefactor and a poor innocent.
Dir: Anthony Mann Cast: Mario Lanza, Joan Fontaine, Sarita Montiel
Runtime: 121 mins Genre: Romance Rating: TV-G CC: Y
1:00 PM That Girl from Paris (1936)
A French opera star in hiding hooks up with a swing band.
Dir: Leigh Jason Cast: Lily Pons, Jack Oakie, Gene Raymond
Runtime: 110 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-G CC: Y
3:00 PM The Toast of New Orleans (1950)
A New Orleans fisherman fights snobbery to become an opera star.
Dir: Norman Taurog Cast: Kathryn Grayson, Mario Lanza, David Niven
Runtime: 97 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-G CC: Y
4:45 PM For the First Time (1959)
While vacationing in disguise, an opera star falls in love with a deaf girl.
Dir: Rudolph Maté Cast: Mario Lanza, Johanna Von Koczian, Kurt Krasznar
Runtime: 97 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-G CC: Y
6:30 PM Song of Freedom (1936)
A black dock-worker becomes an opera star, then discovers his African roots.
Dir: J Edgar Willis Cast: Paul Robeson, Elizabeth Welch, Ingram D'Abbes
Runtime: 75 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-G CC: Y
WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: PIANO PLAYERS, PART ONE
8:00 PM A Song to Remember (1945)
The famed composer Chopin sacrifices everything, even love, for his native Poland.
Dir: Charles Vidor Cast: Paul Muni, Merle Oberon, Cornel Wilde
Runtime: 113 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-G CC: Y
10:00 PM Song of Love (1947)
True story of Clara Schumann's battle to save husband Robert's health and resist the romantic overtures of Johannes Brahms.
Dir: Clarence Brown Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Robert Walker
Runtime: 119 mins Genre: Western Rating: TV-G CC: Y
12:15 AM The Seventh Veil (1945)
A concert pianist with amnesia fights to regain her memory.
Dir: Compton Bennett Cast: James Mason, Ann Todd, Herbert Lom
Runtime: 94 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC: Y
2:00 AM Lisztomania (1976)
Roger Daltry, lead singer of The Who, stars as 19th century genius pianist Franz Liszt in this brash, loud and freewheeling rock 'n' roll fantasy about an imagined rivalry between Liszt and composer Richard Wagner.
Dir: Ken Russell Cast: Nell Campbell (little Nell), Ringo Starr, David English
Runtime: 104 mins Genre: Biography Rating: TV-MA CC: Y
4:00 AM Mahler (1974)
After time away spent conducting at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Gustav Mahler is returning to Austria by train with his wife, Alma. Over the course of the journey, he has occasion to reflect upon the significant moments of his life. Among others, Mahler dwells on memories of his overbearing father, of his once buoyant but now failing relationship with Alma, and of the anti-Semitism that dogged him so much that he converted to Catholicism.
Dir: Ken Russell Cast: Robert Powell, Georgina Hale, Lee Montague
Runtime: 115 mins Genre: Biography Rating: TV-14 CC: N