Coming distractions: December 2012 on TCM

Apologies for cutting this close—I’ve been sitting on this (and it is extremely painful) for the better part of a few weeks now, and a combined schedule of outside activities and bone-idle laziness has kept it away from the blog for longer than usual.  The “coming distractions” feature is probably one of the most popular here at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear…but I also have to confess, it’s also one of the most time-consuming.  I got in the habit of painstakingly sticking the IMDb links to the movies on the upcoming tentative schedule for The Greatest Cable Channel Known to Mankind™…and with this edition, I decided to eliminate all that in the fervent belief that I’ll be able to post these much more quickly.  As always, many thanks go out to the redoubtable Laura of Miscellaneous Musings fame for being nice enough to give me a heads-up when they get the tentative sched up.

In December, Tee Cee Em pays tribute to one of the silver screen’s hardest working actresses: Ruby Catherine Stevens, or Miss Barbara Stanwyck if you’ve been watching as many Big Valley reruns as I have recently.  In the classic movie community, you have a tendency to run into folks who have their likes and dislikes…but when it comes to Babs, I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s not a fan, he said, practically inviting dissenting opinions in the comments.  Every Wednesday in December, the channel will present a cornucopia of features starring the actress who never—ever, despite being nominated four times including Ball of Fire and Double Indemnity—got a legitimate Oscar for any of a lifetime of fabulous performances (she had to settle for one of those “honorary” statuettes in 1982).  Here’s the roundup of the 55 films (plus the 1991 documentary Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire) to be featured during December—the best present a person could ask for:

December 5, Wednesday

08:00pm Ladies of Leisure (1930)

09:45pm This is My Affair (1937)

11:45pm The Other Love (1947)

01:30am A Message to Garcia (1936)

03:00am Stella Dallas (1937)

05:00am The Miracle Woman (1931)

December 6, Thursday

06:45am So Big (1932)

08:15am The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)

09:45am Baby Face (1933)

11:15am Golden Boy (1939)

01:00pm Meet John Doe (1941; also December 24 at 7am)

03:15pm Executive Suite (1954)

05:00pm Walk on the Wild Side (1962)

07:00pm Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire (1991)

December 12, Wednesday

08:00pm Banjo on My Knee (1936)

09:45pm Remember the Night (1940)

11:30pm The Lady Eve (1941)

01:15am Ball of Fire (1941)

03:15am You Belong to Me (1941)

05:00am Lady of Burlesque (1943)

December 13, Thursday

06:45am To Please a Lady (1950)

08:30am The Bride Walks Out (1936)

10:00am Breakfast for Two (1937)

11:15am The Mad Miss Manton (1938)

12:45pm The Woman in Red (1935)

02:00pm The Secret Bride (1935)

03:15pm Ever in My Heart (1933)

04:30pm Shopworn (1932)

05:45pm Illicit (1931)

December 19, Wednesday

08:00pm Double Indemnity (1944)

10:00pm The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)

12:00am Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

01:45am Clash by Night (1952)

03:45am Jeopardy (1953)

05:00am Witness to Murder (1954)

December 20, Thursday

06:30am Crime of Passion (1957)

08:00am Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire (1991)

09:00am The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947)

10:45am Cry Wolf (1947)

12:15pm The Gay Sisters (1942)

02:15pm Ladies They Talk About (1933)

03:30pm The Purchase Price (1932)

04:45pm Forbidden (1932)

06:15pm Ten Cents a Dance (1931)

December 26, Wednesday

08:00pm Forty Guns (1957)

09:30pm The Maverick Queen (1956)

11:15pm The Violent Men (1955)

01:00am Trader Hook (1957)

02:30am The Moonlighter (1953)

04:00am Annie Oakley (1935)

05:45am Night Nurse (1931)

December 27, Thursday

07:00am Gambling Lady (1934)

08:30am His Brother’s Wife (1936)

10:00am My Reputation (1946)

11:45am B.F.’s Daughter (1948)

01:45pm The Man with a Cloak (1951)

03:15pm These Wilder Years (1956)

Friday nights in December, TCM salutes the director whose sly method of getting around the restrictions of the Motion Picture Code with risqué innuendo inspired the appellation “The Lubitsch Touch.”  Ernst Lubitsch is feted with 14 films, including TDOY fave To Be or Not to Be (1942)…and there’s also a silent film, The Loves of Pharaoh (1922), which I’ll have to make time for (assuming I can get my father to relinquish the remote).

December 7, Friday

08:00pm The Loves of Pharaoh (1922)

10:00pm The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)

12:00am The Shop Around the Corner (1940; also December 16 at 10am)

December 14, Friday

08:00pm Trouble in Paradise (1932)

09:30pm Design for Living (1933)

11:15pm One Hour With You (1932)

12:45am The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)

December 21, Friday

08:00pm The Love Parade (1929)

10:00pm Monte Carlo (1930)

12:00am The Merry Widow (1934)

December 28, Friday

08:00pm Ninotchka (1939)

10:00pm To Be or Not to Be (1942)

11:45pm That Lady in Ermine (1948)

01:30am That Uncertain Feeling (1941)

And of course, December means oodles and oodles of Yuletide-themed films (supplemented with warm-hearted family favorites) that are always welcome this time of year…assuming that you aren’t sick of the Christmas music that they seem to break out in the department stores the moment the last “trick or treat” is uttered.  As always, all films are scheduled to change (and the times are EDT).

December 1, Saturday – Harold Lloyd’s best talkie, Movie Crazy (1932), gets an early a.m. showing this morning before fans of B-westerns get a real treat in the month of December.  The channel kicks off a series of Columbia’s Durango Kid westerns starring Charles Starrett—the first feature scheduled, The Durango Kid (1940; December 1), isn’t technically part of the long-running series but it did inspire the name.  The following week, it’s The Return of the Durango Kid (1945) and then Both Barrels Blazing (1945; December 15), Blazing the Western Trail (1945; December 22) and Streets of Ghost Town (1950; December 29).  (All films are shown at 10:45am.)

At noon, TCM continues working its way through R-K-O’s Saint franchise starring George Sanders.  It’s The Saint Takes Over (1940) on December 1, followed by The Saint in Palm Springs (1941; December 8), The Saint’s Vacation (1941; December 15) and The Saint Meets the Tiger (1943; December 22) (these last two films star Hugh Sinclair as Leslie Charteris’ literary sleuth).  Rounding out the noontime Saturday spot is the first of Warner Brothers’ Torchy Blane series, Smart Blonde (1936; December 29)…and those movies will take over at noon in January.

Come nightfall, the TCM Essentials showing of one of my favorite film comedies, Sullivan’s Travels (1941), at 8pm ushers in an “On the Road” theme for the evening.  Art Carney’s Academy Award-winning performance in Harry and Tonto (1974) follows at 10pm, then it’s BBFF Stacia honeymoon fave Lost in America (1985—“Twenty-two…twenty-two…”) at midnight.  The Long, Long Trailer (1954; 2am) and It Happened One Night (1934; 4am) round out the evening viewing.

December 2, Sunday – Whenever there’s a showing of The Glass Key (1942; 12noon)…I’ll be there.  TCM also kicks off an all-December Sunday showing of Christmas double features with Little Women (1949) at 8pm (featuring She Who Must Not Be Named) and All Mine to Give (1957) at 10:15pm.  If you’re having trouble sleeping during the wee a.m. hours, Charles Burnett’s 1977 cult classic Killer of Sheep starts at 4am.

December 3, Monday – TCM is devoting the evening hours to former child star Peggy-Jean Montgomery, best known to silent cinema fans as “Baby Peggy” and the only serious rival to Jackie Coogan in the 1920s.  Montgomery, who turned 94 on October 26, is the subject of a documentary Baby Peggy: The Elephant in the Room (2012)—which will be shown at 8pm and again at 11:30.  (There are also a few fans trying to get Peggy a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.)  Montgomery’s best-known feature film, Captain January (1924), will air at 9pm followed by the comedy shorts Carmen, Jr. (1923; 10:15pm), Such is Life (1924; 10:30pm) and Peg o’the Mounted (1924; 11pm).

December 4, Tuesday – It’s not William A. Seiter’s birthday…but the director of such comedy classics as Peach O’Reno, Diplomaniacs and Sons of the Desert gets a daytime tribute beginning with one of silent screen star Corinne Griffith’s few talkies, Back Pay (1930) at 6:30am.  Sunny (1930; 7:30am), Way Back Home (1931; 9am), Young Bride (1932; 10:30am), If You Could Only Cook (1935; 12noon), It’s a Date (1940; 1:15pm) and Belle of the Yukon (1944; 3pm) round out the rest of the films on tap.  Way Back Home might be of interest to OTR fans—it’s a film inspired by the popular radio sudser Seth Parker, which starred Philips H. Lord (who created and played the title role), the future father of Gang Busters.

When evening rolls around, it’s director George Roy Hill’s turn to take a few bows.  The film for which he nabbed a Best Director Oscar, The Sting (1973), is scheduled at 10pm and that’s book ended by Period of Adjustment (1962) at 8 and The World of Henry Orient (1964) at 12:15am.  Toys in the Attic (1963) rings down the curtain at 2:15.

December 5, Wednesday – Great double feature about young couples on the run today: They Live by Night (1949) at 10:30am, followed by Gun Crazy (1949) at 12:15pm.  Oh, and you don’t want to miss a real sleeper directed by one of my favorite B-directors, Roy William Neill, at 5pm: The Circus Queen Murder (1933).

December 6, Thursday – This will give you an idea of just how hip I am: I had to Google this evening’s Guest Programmer, Lee Child (the pen name of author Jim Grant) to find out who the heck he was when he wasn’t tending bar.  You already know that Child’s penned a number of mystery novels that center on ex-American military policeman Jack Reacher, who’ll be winging his way to theatre screens in December in a feature based on Child’s novel One Shot…but because the film, Jack Reacher, stars Scientology whacka-do Tom Cruise it goes a long way toward explaining why my knowledge on this is nil.  Anyway, Child is programming a quartet of films beginning with Casablanca (1942) at 8pm, followed by The Third Man (1949; 10pm), Days of Heaven (1978; 12mid) and The Dam Busters (1955) wrapping it up at 2am.  (Look—I bow to no one in my admiration for Casablanca…but couldn’t they declare a moratorium on that as everyone’s favorite choice of film to program?)

December 7, Friday – TCM commemorates the 71st anniversary of Pearl Harbor with the 1970 film that chronicles “the day that will live in infamy,” Tora! Tora! Tora! at 5:30pm.  Other war-themed films featuring during the day: Prelude to War (1943; 6am), Cry of Battle (1963; 7am), They Were Expendable (1945; 8:45am), Task Force (1949; 11am), Air Force (1943; 1pm) and From Here to Eternity (1953; 3:15pm).

Later on TCM Underground: a double feature about female wrestling—the 1980 oddity Below the Belt at 2am, followed by director Robert Aldrich’s cinematic swan song, …All the Marbles (1981) at 3:45.

December 8, Saturday – In their tireless efforts to be clever, TCM’s scheduling of the 1955 David Lean-Katherine Hepburn classic Summertime at 8pm kicks off a theme of “’Tis the Season”—Autumn Leaves (1956) follows at 10, and then it’s If Winter Comes (1947; 12mid) and A Walk in the Spring Rain (1970; 2am).  Naturally, you’re going to wrap this up with A Man for All Seasons (1966) at 3:45am.  (Hoo boy, as a famous cartoon Pottsylvanian villain would say.)

December 9, Sunday – A great Christmas double feature kicks off at 8pm with We’re No Angels (1955)—a holiday classic that doesn’t get shown nearly enough on the channel, in my never-so-humble opinion.  The 1947 noir classic Lady in the Lake (1947) is on the lower-half of the bill, and then on TCM’s Silent Sunday Nights one of the finest silent film classics in the history of cinema: The Crowd (1928; 12mid).

December 10, Monday – I got some devastating news recently: my blogging compadre Stacia announced publicly on Twitter that she is not a fan of ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Ritter or Una Merkel.  It hasn’t been easy accepting this, but the fact that today would have been Una’s 109th birthday—and the channel will fete her as such—might nudge me toward the last stage of Kübler-Ross beginning at 6am with Huddle (1932), then Beauty for Sale (1933; 8am), Clear All Wires! (1933; 9:30am), Day of Reckoning (1933; 11am), Whistling in the Dark (1933; 12:15pm), The Women in His Life (1933; 1:45pm), Paris Interlude (1934; 3:15pm), Baby Face Harrington (1935; 4:30pm), We Went to College (1936; 5:45pm) and Sweethearts of the U.S.A. (1944; 7pm).

Later in the evening, the channel features the theme “Academy Conversations” with Grand Hotel (1932; 8pm), My Fair Lady (1964; 10:15pm), The Grapes of Wrath (1940; 1:15am) and The Leopard (1963; 3:30am).  (Don’t ask me what this means ‘cause I haven’t a clue.)

December 11, Tuesday – The evening’s theme is “Epic Westerns,” which signals that The Magnificent Seven (1960; 8pm), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966; 10:15pm), The Searchers (1956; 1:30am) and How the West Was Won (1962; 3:45am) will all be on tap.  The daytime hours will also feature a couple of well-worth-your-time oaters: Wichita (1955) at 6:45am, which features the star-director combo of Joel McCrea and Jacques Tourneur, and Coroner Creek (1948; 8:15am), an underrated little sagebrush tale with Randolph Scott.  (A pair of Boston Blackie films, Alias Boston Blackie [1942] and Boston Blackie’s Rendezvous [1945], will also be shown at 10am and 11:15am respectively.)

December 13, Thursday – The channel takes a page out of the Jack Reacher playbook and gets in a plug for the new musical version of Les Misérables (due out Christmas Day) by featuring three earlier versions of the hardy Victor Hugo tale.  Now, speaking only for myself—the 1935 version with Fredric March and Charles Laughton is still the best of the bunch, and mercifully they’re kicking off with that one at 8pm.  The 1952 remake (with Michael Rennie and Robert Newton) follows at 10, and then the 1934 French version after that at midnight

December 15, Saturday – Happy anniversary to the blogosphere’s wackiest parents!  I am referring, of course, to Ma and Pa Shreve…who will celebrate fifty years of marital bliss on this date.  Why not celebrate with us and tune into TCM Essentials at 8pm with The Band Wagon (1952), which will kick off an evening of “Faded Stars.”  There’s no star more faded that Bette Davis’ Margaret Elliot in one of my favorite of La Bette’s films (1952’s The Star, at 10pm), and then that’s followed by Sweet Bird of Youth (1962; 11:45pm), My Favorite Year (1982; 2am) and Two Weeks in Another Town (1962; 4am).  Uh…I just remembered.  Mom hates musicals…and she probably won’t be up past 9 anyway…and Dad will no doubt find a Bait Car marathon with which to amuse himself.  Sorry I have to rescind my invitation.

December 16, Sunday – TCM is going to give The Iron Petticoat (1956) another showing today at 12noon; it’s a Ninotchka-like feature starring Bob Hope and Katharine Hepburn, and there’s an interesting story behind its resurfacing on TV recently, courtesy of Facebook chum and New York Post film critic Lou Lumenick.  (One of the few Hope films I haven’t seen, so it’s sticky note time.)

The evening hours bring on another Christmas double feature: the first one at 8pm is the 1964 television oddity A Carol for Another Christmas, which features performances from Sterling Hayden, Eva Marie Saint, Ben Gazzara, Steve Lawrence, Pat Hingle, Robert Shaw and Peter Sellers.  Then at 9:30 it’s my favorite version of all the variations on Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas tale—Scrooge (1951), with Alistair Sim as the titular miser.  (A Night at the Movies special, Merry Christmas!, follows at 11pm due to the brevity of the two features.)

December 17, Monday – Nun movie alert!  Black Narcissus (1947) is on at 6am.

At 8pm, Destination Tokyo (1943) kicks off a slate of films that fall under the header “Christmas in Uniform.”  Battleground (1949) follows at 10:30, then it’s The Fighting 69th (1940; 12:45am), Never So Few (1959; 2:30am) and Salute to the Marines (1943) wrapping things up at 4:45am.

December 18, Tuesday – In the past, Tee Cee Em has featured all six of the films in the Thin Man series as part of holiday scheduling like Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  Well, even though it’s a week before Christmas they’re slaves to tradition: they’ll kick off the day with The Thin Man (1934) at 6:30am, and then feature After the Thin Man (1936; 8am), Another Thin Man (1939; 10am), Shadow of the Thin Man (1941; 1:30pm), The Thin Man Goes Home (1944; 5pm) and…oh…this is embarrassing.  Apparently the final Thin Man vehicle, Song of the Thin Man (1947), failed to make the cut.  Well, how about we fill the gaps in today’s lineup with I Love You Again (1940; 11:45am), Love Crazy (1941; 3:15pm) and the 1991 documentary Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To (6:45pm)?  Huh?  (You people are so picky!)

Come nightfall, the channel does another Yuletide roundelay with “Christmas in Song.”  The musicals featured are In the Good Ole Summertime (1949; 8pm), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944; 10pm), On Moonlight Bay (1951; 12mid), The Seven Little Foys (1955; 2am) and The Daughter of Rosie O’Grady (1950; 4am).

December 19, Wednesday – We’ve gotten this far in our lengthy list of cinematic goodies scheduled on TCM in December—what we could use now is a daytime tribute to “Big Bad” Bob Mitchum.  Son of a…here’s one!  TDOY fave His Kind of Woman (1951) will be shown at 10am, and it’s completely surrounded by Undercurrent (1946; 6am), Where Danger Lives (1950; 8:30am), My Forbidden Past (1951; 12:15pm), Angel Face (1953; 1:30pm), Second Chance (1953; 3:15pm), River of No Return (1954; 4:45pm) and She Couldn’t Say No (1954; 6:15pm).

December 20, Thursday – After a night’s preemption for the Barbara Stanwyck festival, the Yuletide films continue with “Christmas in New York.”  One of my favorite holiday films, Bob Hope’s The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) is scheduled at 9:30pm…and the other candidates are Holiday Affair (1950; 8pm), Bachelor Mother (1939; 11:15pm), Never Say Goodbye (1946; 12:45am), Tenth Avenue Angel (1948; 2:45am) and Diner (1982; 4:15am).  (Sadly, one of the drawbacks to Christmas movies is that most of them seem to have you-know-who in them.)

December 21, Friday – It’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine.  If the Mayan calendar is correct, this should be our last day on the planet—so there’s no better way to celebrate than with a bunch of apocalyptic flicks beginning with The Lost Missile (1958) at 7am.  That’s followed by The Satan Bug (1965; 8:30am), The Last Man on Earth (1964; 10:30am), The Bed Sitting Room (1969; 12noon), Five (1951; 2pm), Panic in Year Zero (1962; 4pm) and The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959; 6pm).

Of course…if this is a lot of hooey (how did the Mayans factor in leap years?) you’ll want to stick around for a TCM Underground showing of the 1995 documentary Crumb at 2am…a fascinating look at the legendary underground comics creator.

December 22, Saturday – The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958) will be on at 1:15pm, so don’t expect to get my Mom on the phone.  Come evening, a salute to the films of the fifties with a TCM Essentials showing of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) at 8pm and a swell 2001 documentary, Hidden Values: The Movies of the ‘50s at 11:30.  Rounding out the schedule are The Wild One (1953; 10pm), Blackboard Jungle (1955; 12:30am), Anatomy of a Murder (1959; 2:15am) and The Thing From Another World (1951; 5am).

December 23-25, Sunday-Tuesday – “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time…”

December 23, Sunday

06:30am The Great Rupert (1950)

08:00am Little Women (1933)

10:00am All Mine to Give (1957)

12:00pm Bundle of Joy (1956)

02:00pm Period of Adjustment (1962)

04:00pm 3 Godfathers (1948)

06:00pm Fitzwilly (1967)

08:00pm The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

10:00pm It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947)

12:00am The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

02:00am Grand Illusion (1937)

04:00am Hell’s Heroes (1930)

05:30am Beyond Tomorrow (1940)

December 24, Monday (Christmas Eve with Bobby Osbo!)

07:00am Meet John Doe (1941)

09:15am Susan Slept Here (1954)

11:00am In the Good Ole Summertime (1949)

01:00pm The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

03:00pm Holiday Affair (1950)

04:30pm Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

06:30pm Babes in Toyland (March of the Wooden Soldiers) (1934)

08:00pm The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

10:00pm Come to the Stable (1949)

12:00am Auntie Mame (1958)

02:30am The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

04:30am And So They Were Married (1936)

05:45am Boys Town (1938)

December 25, Tuesday (Christmas with the Hardy Family!)

07:30am Going My Way (1944)

09:45am The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952)

11:30am The Nun’s Story (1959)

02:15pm The Song of Bernadette (1943)

05:00pm King of Kings (1961)

08:00pm Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)

09:45pm Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)

11:15pm Judge Hardy and Son (1939)

01:00am Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940)

02:45am Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary (1941)

04:30am Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941)

December 26, Wednesday – Seven films released in 1960 are on the schedule today: Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (6:15am), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (8:15am), Where the Boys Are (10:15am), Bells Are Ringing (12noon), The Angel Wore Red (2:15pm), The Time Machine (4pm) and BUtterfield 8 (6pm).

December 27, Thursday – I know I’ve referenced this joke before (cut me some slack…I’m almost done with the month) but one of my favorite gags in the Martin & Lewis romp Sailor Beware (1952) has Melvin (Jerry) telling Al (Dean) “Why, I was fighting Gene Tierney once…”

Al is incredulous.  “Wait a minute!  Don’t you mean Gene Tunney?”

Melvin: “You fight who you want, I’ll fight who I want!”

Anyway, the channel sets aside the evening for movies featuring the lovely Gene Tierney: Black Widow (1954; 8pm), The Left Hand of God (1955; 9:45pm), The Return of Frank James (1940; 11:30pm), Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950; 1:15am), Belle Starr (1941; 3am) and Night and the City (1950; 4:30am).

December 28, Friday – It’s like I’m always saying: if you’re planning on celebrating Lew Ayres’ birthday…all the work is done for you if you fill up the daytime hours with Dr. Kildare films.  And TCM does just that: Young Dr. Kildare (1938; 6:15am), Calling Dr. Kildare (1939; 7:45am), The Secret of Dr. Kildare (1939; 9:15am), Dr. Kildare's Strange Case (1940; 10:45am), Dr. Kildare Goes Home (1940; 12:15pm), Dr. Kildare's Crisis (1940; 1:45pm), The People vs. Dr. Kildare (1941; 3:15pm), Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day (1941; 4:45pm) and Dr. Kildare's Victory (1942; 6:15pm)  (Don’t tell anybody, but I swiped that photo at the right from Page.)

And on TCM Underground: it’s been years since I’ve seen it but I’ve never forgotten the cult classic Night of the Creeps (1986; 3am), only because of one of the funniest dialogue exchanges in B-movie history between detective Tom Atkins and an unidentified sorority sister: “I got good news and bad news, girls…the good news is that your dates are here…”

“What’s the bad news?”  “The bad news is…they’re dead…”

December 29, Saturday – TCM Essentials’ 8pm showing of The Way We Were (1973) ushers in an evening of “tear-jerkers.”  I guess their definition of the term must be different than mine, because personally I’m glad Barbra Streisand doesn’t get with Robert Redford in that movie—he’s an ass.  Following W cubed is Love Affair (1939) at 10:15pm, then Now, Voyager (1942; 12mid), West Side Story (1961; 2am) and Brief Encounter (1945) calling it a wrap at 4:45am.

December 31, Monday – Here’s a great way to usher in the moments before 2013: an Abbott & Costello festival, which will feature TDOY Halloween perennial Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) at 3:30pm.  The other Bud & Lou vehicles are Dance with Me, Henry (1956; 6:30am), Jack and the Beanstalk (1952; 8am), Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952; 9:30pm), Rio Rita (1942; 10:45am), Lost in a Harem (1944; 12:30pm), Abbott & Costello in Hollywood (1945; 2pm), Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951; 5pm) and Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy (1955; 6:30pm).  (The photo of the boys with an actor I can’t quite identify on the left was taken on the Captain Kidd set…and was left lying around on Facebook by ClassicBecky.)

And for the evening, the channel really rings in the New Year with After the Thin Man (1936; 8pm), The Apartment (1960; 10pm), Ocean’s Eleven (1960; 12:15am), Made for Each Other (1939; 2:30am) and ‘Til We Meet Again (1940; 4:15am).  Hap…py New Year!