Most of these are either directed by Frank Capra or starring Humphrey Bogart, but that’s what TCM has given us this holiday season. I’m assuming everyone already knows the pleasures of The Shop Around the Corner and Remember the Night, both of which show up in the next few days on the channel. All readers and passersby have a safe and merry Christmas. This edition of the TCM Ten covers two weeks so I’ll be back just after the first of the year. As always, all times are EST and program days begin at 6:00 AM.

Wednesday December 23

1:00 PM Conflict (Bernhardt, 1945) - BW-86 mins. - Rarely shown Humphrey Bogart thriller where he plays a husband anxious to get rid of his wife. The question as to whether she’s dead or not soon haunts Bogart’s character. Sydney Greenstreet co-stars. Warner Bros. made the picture and it’s not yet on DVD.

4:15 PM The Two Mrs. Carrolls (Godfrey, 1947) - BW-94 mins. - Bogie teams with Barbara Stanwyck in another hard to find noirish film. Again with Bogart and the bad husband, multiple lady friends type of deal. This is Warner Bros. too, and also not available on DVD.

Thursday December 24

10:00 PM Chicken Every Day (Seaton, 1948) - BW-94 mins. - Financially irresponsible Dan Dailey is married to the long-suffering Celeste Holm in the early 1900s in this warm comedy. Look also for Alan Young of TV’s Mister Ed, William Frawley and a young Natalie Wood. A rare Fox film popping up on TCM. Doesn’t seem to be on DVD.

Sunday December 27

8:00 PM Bedtime Story (Hall, 1942) - BW-85 mins. - Two by director Alexander Hall dot the schedule tonight, with probably his most famous picture, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, following. This is a screwy comedy set in the world of the theatre. Fredric March stars as a playwright whose wife Loretta Young is his frequent lead actress. When she wants to retire, it leads to a divorce but one that turns out to be invalid. Robert Benchley and Eve Arden are among the strong supporting cast. It was made for Columbia, leaving Sony with the rights but apparently not the desire to release a DVD.

Monday December 28

8:00 PM Broadway Bill (Capra, 1934) - BW-102 mins. - An heiress and her brother-in-law go off to harvest his dream of taking care of a racehorse. Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy star. The story is by Mark Hellinger. Paramount’s R1 DVD is out of print for some reason. No idea why. It’s getting up there in price on the secondary market.

10:00 PM Riding High (Capra, 1950) - BW-112 mins. - This too has gone out of print in R1 courtesy of Paramount. It’s a remake of Broadway Bill, but now with Bing Crosby and Coleen Gray. A couple of actors (Raymond Walburn and Clarence Muse) reprise their roles from the earlier picture. Most accounts place this as the inferior version, but watching both might make for an interesting contrast.

Tuesday December 29

8:30 AM Manhatta (1921) - BW-12 mins. - Well-regarded short featuring images of Manhattan against the poems of Walt Whitman. I’ve heard a good deal of praise but not yet acquainted myself with this. Plan to do so this time around, especially given the short length. You’d think a DVD including this short would exist somewhere but I don’t know if that’s the case.

Wednesday December 30

8:00 PM Deadline U.S.A. (Brooks, 1952) - BW-87 mins. - The last night of the Bogart tribute reminds us that there are still several of his films not on DVD even beyond the early crime ones. This was written and directed by Richard Brooks, who doesn’t really get his due nowadays. It centers around Bogart as the editor of a newspaper that’s about to be sold to a competitor with less journalistic integrity. He has just a few days to nail down a story involving a local gangster (Martin Gabel). Meanwhile, Bogart is also dealing with his ex-wife (Kim Hunter) remarrying and hasn’t lost hope at getting the paper’s owner (Ethel Barrymore) to change her mind. Battle Circus, a Brooks-Bogart pairing from 1953, airs earlier in the day at 12:45 PM. There’s also the documentary Bacall on Bogart, done in 1988, that sounds interesting and is scheduled for 6:30 PM. Fox did Deadline U.S.A. but it’s not on DVD. Fox has totally lost interest with releasing classic titles in R1.

9:45 AM The Left Hand of God (Dmytryk, 1955) - C-87 mins. - Bogart is joined by Gene Tierney in this unusual outing.  He plays a Catholic priest (sort of) who comes to a mission in China. Tierney is the war widow nurse he takes up with and Lee J. Cobb is in support as bad guy “Mieh Yang,” a ludicrous piece of casting. This is Fox too. It’s great to see these on the schedule since they rarely show up even on the Fox Movie Channel. Not on DVD. A proper Jennifer Jones tribute is scheduled for January 7th, but you can also see her with Bogie at 11:30 PM in Beat the Devil.

4:00 AM Two Guys from Milwaukee (Butler, 1946) - BW-90 mins. - I saw The Hard Way, with Ida Lupino, Joan Leslie and co-starring Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson, the other night. This sounds like a much different teaming of Morgan and Carson, with Leslie along here also. Morgan plays a prince who runs off to America in the hopes of seeing Lauren Bacall (like Borat crossed with Coming to America). He meets cabbie Carson in the quest. The tipping point is that I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder’s future collaborator, co-wrote the script. The film was done for Warner Bros. It’s not on DVD.