We’re down to the last month of 2011 already! TCM will be closing out the year in top form. December’s star of the month is William Powell, which I am very excited about since I’m a big fan of his. It also means we get two nights of movies featuring him with Myrna Loy, one night being the entire Thin Man series and another night featuring their other collaborations. His movies will be showcased every Thursday night this month. TCM will also be celebrating the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens a little early (his birthday isn’t actually until February) by devoting Monday nights to showing various film adaptations of his work. And of course there are Christmas classics galore to look forward to!
December 1: December gets off to a great start with a night of William Powell movies starting at 8:00 PM with Jewel Robbery, The Kennel Murder Case at 9:30 PM, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford at 11:00 PM, The Hoodlum Saint at 12:30 AM, The Emperor’s Candlesticks at 2:15 AM, Lawyer Man at 4:00 AM, and Rendezvous at 5:15 AM.
December 2: William Powell continues into today with Star of Midnight at 7:00 AM, Crossroads at 8:30 AM, and Sherlock Holmes at 10:00 AM. Then it becomes a birthday tribute to Warren William with Expensive Women at 11:30 AM, Beauty and the Boss at 12:45 PM, The Dark Horse at 2:00 PM, Under Eighteen at 3:15 PM, The Woman from Monte Carlo at 4:45 PM, and Skyscraper Souls at 6:00 PM.
December 4: I love this day! You can start getting into the Christmas spirit with The Bishop’s Wife at 10:00 AM. After that comes Top Hat at 12:00 PM, Libeled Lady at 2:00 PM, The Last Time I Saw Paris at 6:00 PM, and Yankee Doodle Dandy at 9:45 PM. In case you missed the Fragments special that aired a few months back, you have another chance to see that tonight at midnight. It’s very much worth checking out if you have a serious interest in silent film.
December 5: Tonight is the first night of TCM’s celebration of Charles Dickens’ bicentennial with Mystery of Edwin Drood at 8:00 PM, A Christmas Carol at 9:45 PM, David Copperfield at 11:15 PM, A Tale of Two Cities at 1:30 AM, and Oliver Twist at 3:45 AM.
December 6: It’s a night of Christmas movies tonight! At 8:00 PM is the premiere of A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas, which re-runs at 11:00 PM and 5:30 AM. Then there’s A Christmas Story at 9:00 PM, Miracle on 34th Street at 12:00 AM, Meet me in St. Louis at 2:00 AM, and Tenth Avenue Angel at 4:00 AM.
December 7: There’s some good stuff on during the day like You Can’t Take it With You at 8:45 AM and The Misfits at 1:00 PM. Then to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks, you can watch From Here to Eternity at 8:00 PM, Task Force at 10:15 PM, To the Shores of Tripoli at 12:30 AM, Air Force at 2:00 AM and They Were Expendable at 4:15 AM.
December 8: You can’t go wrong with The Sweet Smell of Success at 11:00 AM, North by Northwest at 12:45 PM, or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at 5:45 PM. Then it’s time for more William Powell with The Last of Mrs. Cheyney at 8:00 PM, High Pressure at 10:00 PM, My Man Godfrey at 11:30 PM, Double Harness at 1:15 AM, Ziegfeld Follies at 2:30 AM, and The Youngest Profession at 4:30 AM.
December 9: There’s a little bit more William Powell with The Heavenly Body at 6:00 AM, Fashions of 1934 at 7:45 AM, and Reckless at 9:15 AM.
December 11: One of my annual Christmas must sees, Christmas in Connecticut is on at 10:00 AM.
December 12: Happy birthday to Edward G. Robinson! The Widow from Chicago is on at 6:00 AM, Silver Dollar at 7:45 AM, I Loved a Woman at 8:45 AM, The Little Giant at 10:30 AM, Dark Hazard at 12:00 PM, I Am the Law at 3:00 PM, Destroyer at 4:30 PM, and A Bullet for Joey at 6:15 PM. Tonight’s Charles Dickens movies are A Christmas Carol at 8:00 PM, Oliver Twist at 9:45 PM, Nicholas Nickleby at 12:00 AM, and Great Expectations at 2:00 AM.
December 13: It’s a night of Christmas comedies starting with The Lemon Drop Kid at 8:00 PM, Fitzwilly at 9:45 PM, The Great Rupert at 11:45 PM, Susan Slept Here at 1:30 AM, and Period of Adjustment at 3:15 AM.
December 14: Today is a 24 hour tribute to The George Eastman House Film Archive and virtually every movie on today is a TCM premiere. There’s so much on today that I haven’t seen so I don’t know what to recommend, but it’s a day worth checking out.
December 15: Lots of great stuff to choose from today! There’s Days of Wine and Roses at 9:30 AM, Anatomy of a Murder at 11:30 AM, Witness for the Prosecution at 2:15 PM, and In a Lonely Place at 6:00 PM. Then it’s time for more William Powell with Life With Father at 8:00 PM, The Girl Who Had Everything at 10:15 PM, Mister Roberts at 11:30 PM, It’s a Big Country at 1:45 AM, One Way Passage at 3:30 AM, and The Key at 4:45 AM.
December 16: Three essential Christmas classics are on tonight, starting with The Bishop’s Wife at 8:00 PM, Christmas in Connecticut at 10:00 PM, and The Shop Around the Corner at 12:00 AM.
December 17: I LOVE tonight’s line-up! It’s all Katharine Hepburn/Cary Grant movies, starting with Bringing Up Baby at 8:00 PM, The Philadelphia Story at 10:00 PM, Holiday at 12:00 AM, and Sylvia Scarlett at 2:00 AM.
December 18: In case you missed it, you have another chance to catch The Shop Around the Corner at 10:00 AM. Then there’s Since You Went Away at 1:00 PM and An American in Paris at 4:00PM. Two more Christmas classics are on in prime time with It Happened on 5th Avenue at 8:00 PM and The Man Who Came to Dinner at 10:00 PM. Tonight’s Silent Sunday Night feature is the 1925 version of Ben-Hur.
December 19: I’m not sure why there’s a day of Cary Grant movies on today, but I’m not going to argue! Penny Serenade at 6:00 AM, Dream Wife at 8:00 AM, Mr. Lucky at 10:00 AM, Walk, Don’t Run at 12:00 PM, Mr. Blandings Builds his Dream House at 2:00 PM, Topper at 4:00 PM, and Suspicion at 6:00 PM.
December 20: Happy birthday to Irene Dunne! See her in Cimarron at 6:45 AM, Thirteen Women at 9:00 AM, Ann Vickers at 10:15 AM, No Other Woman at 11:30 AM, The Age of Innocence at 12:30 PM, Stingaree at 2:00 PM, My Favorite Wife at 3:30 PM, and I Remember Mama at 5:00 PM. Then it’s time for more Christmas movies starting with Good Sam at 8:00 PM, Holiday Affair at 11:00 PM, Bachelor Mother at 12:30 AM, Bundle of Joy at 2:00 AM, and In the Good Old Summertime at 3:45 AM.
December 21: Winona Ryder is this month’s guest programmer and she has chosen The Front at 8:00 PM, Ball of Fire at 10:00 PM, Born Yesterday at 12:00 AM, and A Face in the Crowd at 2:00 AM.
December 22: Tonight is an opportunity to see the entire series of Thin Man movies! The Thin Man at 8:00 PM, After the Thin Man at 9:45 PM, Another Thin Man at 11:45 PM, Shadow of the Thin Man at 1:45 AM, The Thin Man Goes Home at 3:30 AM, and Song of the Thin Man at 5:15 AM.
December 23: First you have a couple of Christmas comedies like Susan Slept Here at 2:15 PM and The Man Who Came to Dinner at 4:00 PM. Then there’s some Christmas related film noir with Backfire at 8:00 PM, Lady in the Lake at 10:00 PM, and Murder My Sweet at 12:00 AM.
December 24: Since it’s Christmas Eve, naturally today is nothing but Christmas-related classics. Love Finds Andy Hardy at 6:00 AM, Little Women at 8:00 AM, Meet John Doe at 10:15 AM, It Happened on 5th Avenue at 12:30 PM, Holiday Affair at 2:30 PM, In the Good Old Summertime at 4:00 PM, Meet Me in St. Louis at 6:00 PM, Miracle on 34th Street at 8:00 PM, Margie at 10:00 PM, Auntie Mame at 12:00 AM, The Bishop’s Wife at 2:30 AM, and Tenth Avenue Angel at 4:30 AM.
December 25: Merry Christmas! Tonight features a line-up of movies directed by Leo McCarey, starting with Going My Way at 8:00 PM, Make Way for Tomorrow at 10:15 PM, Duck Soup at 12:00 AM, The Milky Way at 1:15 AM, Love Affair at 3:00 AM, and Once Upon a Honeymoon at 4:30 AM.
December 27: It looks like today is a slightly late birthday tribute to the one and only Humphrey Bogart, starting with Passage to Marseille at 6:00 AM, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre at 8:15 AM, The Maltese Falcon at 10:30 AM, and Casablanca at 12:15 PM. Then it turns into a Marlene Dietrich birthday tribute with Stage Fright at 2:00 PM, Witness for the Prosecution at 4:00 PM, and Touch of Evil at 6:00 PM.
December 28: Tonight, TCM takes a look back at some of the legends who passed away in 2011 starting with Jane Russell in The Paleface at 8:00 PM, Peter Falk in The In-Laws at 10:00 PM, Sidney Lumet’s Private Screenings interview at 12:00 AM, Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at 1:00 AM, Bad Day at Black Rock at 3:00 AM, and Jackie Cooper in The Champ at 4:30 AM.
December 29: This is such a fun day! It starts out with Bathing Beauty at 6:30 AM, For Me and My Gal at 8:30 AM, Anchors Aweigh at 10:30 AM, That’s Entertainment! at 1:00 PM, That’s Entertainment! II at 3:30 PM, and That’s Entertainment! III at 5:45 PM. Then it’s a night of William Powell together with his greatest co-star, Myrna Loy. First up is The Great Ziegfeld at 8:00 PM, Love Crazy at 11:15 PM, I Love You Again at 1:00 AM, Manhattan Melodrama at 2:45 AM, and Libeled Lady at 4:30 AM.
December 30: A couple more Loy/Powell pairings, Evelyn Prentice at 6:15 AM and Double Wedding at 7:45 AM. Then begins a day of selections from the National Film Archive including The Great Train Robbery at 9:30 AM, The Bank Dick at 12:00 PM, The Heiress at 1:30 PM, Trouble in Paradise at 3:30 PM, and One Week at 7:00 PM.
December 31: Bid 2011 adieu with The Marx Brothers! Go West will be on at 6:00 AM, followed by At the Circus at 7:30 AM, Room Service at 9:00 AM, A Day at the Races at 10:30 AM, A Night at the Opera at 12:30 PM, Animal Crackers at 2:15 PM, Monkey Business at 4:00 PM, Horse Feathers at 5:30 PM, and Duck Soup at 6:45 PM. The rest of the night features movies that involve countdowns, including Fail Safe at 8:00 PM, Panic in the Streets at 10:15 PM, D.O.A. at 12:00 AM, Ice Station Zero at 1:30 AM, and Juggernaut at 4:15 AM.
The Hollywood Revue 
William Powell is a favorite so I’m really looking forward to December, but it’s probably no surprise that Friday afternoon, December 2 is my highlight this month! Set your DVR’s, Expensive Women is one of Warren William’s rarest, as was The Woman from Monte Carlo until Warner Archive put it out on disc this year. But The Dark Horse and Skyscraper Souls are the can’t miss gems on 12/2, enjoy!
Thanks for the full December menu, Angela! Between Powell, Warren, Edward G., Eastman House, the Dickens bicentennial and all the Christmas movies it looks like one of the best months of the year on TCM!