Less than two weeks until Christmas now and plenty of those movies popping up on the TCM schedule. I really like that the channel tries to go a bit beyond the usual things. Also lots of Frank Capra and Humphrey Bogart choices this week and throughout the month. I saw the March schedule a couple of days ago and was excited at the idea that a Jules Dassin picture starring Marcello Mastroianni which is very tough to find is planned. Also, Akira Kurosawa gets a night each week and all day on the anniversary of his birth to celebrate his centennial. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Sunday December 13

6:00 PM Travels with My Aunt (Cukor, 1972) - C-109 mins. - Maggie Smith was Oscar-nominated for her role as the eccentric aunt to a young man (Alec McCowen) whose mother has just died. The two hit it off and take trips across Europe. Louis Gossett, Jr. is among the supporting cast. The film is an adaptation of a Graham Greene book. Since MGM released the film theatrically, Warner Bros. should now control the rights. There isn’t a DVD release so far.

4:45 AM Private Potter (Wrede, 1962) - BW-89 mins. - TCM has the silent Ben-Hur at midnight, followed by Dreyer’s Ordet at 2:30 AM and this little seen, little known Tom Courtenay picture. If you’re familiar with what the first two share then you might be able to guess some of the subject matter of Private Potter. It turns out to involve, yes, God in that Courtenay’s character stops fighting a military mission in Cyprus because he claims divine intervention. This was Courtenay’s film debut and he also made The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner the same year. Knowing that, I’m in for a watch. Another person of note involved was screenwriter Ronald Harwood. It was his first movie too. With MGM and now probably Warner Bros., the film doesn’t seem to have been put on DVD.

Monday December 14

8:00 PM The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Capra, 1932) - BW-87 mins. - On the strength of It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, there was a time when Frank Capra was probably my favorite director. I’ve, for better or worse, grown up since then and despite still loving both of those films as well as a few others Capra made I can see why his status critically isn’t on par with Ford and Hitchcock and their ilk. That said, the great, rarely discussed section of Capra’s work might be his Columbia films with Barbara Stanwyck in the early ’30s. TCM is showing an avalanche of Capra this month (though, due to rights reasons, not It’s a Wonderful Life) and I believe all are on the schedule. The two best are The Miracle Woman, which airs next week, and this one, with Stanwyck as an American who travels to China and slowly forms a bond with the man of the title (played by Nils Asther, a native Scandinavian who I incidentally just watched in the absolutely charming James Whale picture By Candlelight). Both Capra movies are on DVD in the UK in a Stanwyck set but still waiting to be released here in R1. I’ve read rumblings that Sony has something in the works, maybe for 2010.

3:45 AM The Younger Generation (Capra, 1929) - BW-84 mins. - Early, partial talkie from Capra here, which follows Dirigible (1931) and Flight (1929). It sounds pretty interesting. Ricardo Cortez is a Jewish businessman (last name: Goldfish) whose methods and ambitions contrast with those of his more traditional parents, played by Jean Hersholt and Lina Basquette. Apparently there are both silent and talking sequences. It was done for Columbia and isn’t on DVD.

Wednesday December 16

11:15 AM It All Came True (Seiler, 1940) - BW-97 mins. - With so many Humphrey Bogart pictures being shown on TCM this month, finding a couple each week not on DVD that sound worthwhile isn’t too tough. Most are crime movies and this is no exception. Bogie plays a nervous gangster who transforms a boarding house into a criminal enterprise. Add Ann Sheridan and that’s a recommendation in itself. Mark Hellinger was a producer, which usually promises a slightly more polished film. Warner Bros. for this one.

1:00 PM The Wagons Roll at Night (Enright, 1941) - BW-84 mins. - In the Bogart timeline, 1936’s The Petrified Forest is what really lead to all of those gangster pictures where he was usually playing the same tough character who’d often find his death before the film was over. That went on for about five years, until High Sierra came along in 1941 and The Maltese Falcon followed later in the same year. Between those two, this quite different film opened. I don’t know if it made much of an impact on making Bogart a star, but the subject matter was certainly a departure. Here he’s a carnival manager with an escaped lion. The lion is found by Eddie Albert, who somehow transitions into being lion tamer for the show. Things are fine until Albert gets eyes for Bogie’s younger sister played by Joan Leslie. This same basic story was done just a few years earlier as Kid Galahad (and years later too, with Elvis Presley) but without the circus hook. Bogart had been in that picture too. Here he’s also reunited with Dead End co-star Sylvia Sidney. Warner Bros. was the studio and it’s not available on DVD.

Thursday December 17

6:30 AM Have a Heart (Butler, 1934) - BW-80 mins. - Even with its significant flaws, IMDb tends to be the best place to figure out what’s worth mentioning on the TCM schedule from week to week and finding information about the things I do pick. I try to place as little worth in the User Comments as possible but they are always there on the screen, lurking and waiting to be read. In a pinch, they sometimes can’t be avoided. So what we end up with is finding a film like Have a Heart, directed by David Butler (who has several movies on today’s schedule), and starring James Dunn and Jean Parker as, respectively, the scrappy Irish guy and a dancer who can no longer use one of her legs after a fall. Going by these User Comments, I learned that the picture could be a nice little rainy weekend watch, that it gives Una Merkel a scene-stealing turn in support, that it’s dated, will break your heart, and, in a one-star review, that it’s a “strange little movie.” I don’t yet know whether I’ll enjoy Have a Heart, but I do know that I tend to like strange little movies. So there. The wasteland successfully navigated once again. MGM produced and Warner Bros. should now control. No DVD.

11:30 PM Never Say Goodbye (Kern, 1946) - BW-94 mins. - Errol Flynn gets a rare romantic comedy opportunity in this Warner Bros. film with a Christmas touch. He’s a magazine editor whose marriage to Eleanor Parker (an excellent and quite nice-looking actress I tend to mention frequently) has taken a rough turn. Their young daughter plots to reunite the couple. Of interest particularly in this Bogart-centric month is an impression Flynn does of the actor which Bogart himself apparently voiced. Promises to be fun. IMDb User Comment calls it a “predictable puffball.” Maybe I like predict- Oh nevermind. The picture is absent from DVD.

Friday December 18

6:00 AM Bachelor Bait (Stevens, 1934) - BW-75 mins. - Several 1930s George Stevens pictures are being shown today. This, the Fred Astaire starrer A Damsel in Distress and the excellent Vivacious Lady are all in need of R1 DVD releases (particularly the latter which I fear will be Warner Archive-d any week now). Bachelor Bait is about a marriage agency for lonely bachelors to find wives. Stuart Erwin and Rochelle Hudson headline. Skeets Gallagher is also in the cast. I’ve seen probably half a dozen thirties pictures with Gallagher and he seems to always play the same guy - a leaching drunk - but I enjoy it every time for some reason. This one was done for RKO, meaning Warner Bros. probably has R1 rights. It’s not on DVD to my knowledge.

12:00 AM Amazing Grace and Chuck (Newell, 1987) - C-115 mins. - Not one of TCM’s more inspired programming decisions, and it deviates heavily from what’s listed in my Now Playing guide, tonight’s line-up is dedicated to films directed by Mike Newell. Three of them actually, starting with Enchanted April and Four Weddings and a Funeral - not the usual TCM fare and for good reason. Some people might be interested in the chance to see this drama concerning nuclear proliferation. The plot is about a promising little league baseball player who vows to stop playing until nuclear weapons are disarmed. His idea catches on, first with a Boston Celtics player (played by real life NBA star Alex English, who never did play for the Celtics) and later with other athletes. The cast is certainly varied, with Jamie Lee Curtis, Red Auerbach as himself, William L. Petersen and even the great Gregory Peck as the President. I’m not overly familiar with this film so I don’t know what the hold-up regarding a DVD release is. You would think it would be available but it’s never been released here in R1. IMDb lists TriStar as theatrical distributor and Warner Bros. as the studio behind the VHS. HBO, now part of the same umbrella as WB, actually put the VHS out, which seems weird since TriStar is connected to Columbia/Sony.