TCM Schedule for Sunday, December 30 -- TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: TOP DOGS

[Longhorn]

5:00am Champion (1949)
An unscrupulous boxer claws his way to the top.
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, Ruth Roman. Dir: Mark Robson. BW-99 mins, TV-PG

5:40am Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Incredible Stranger, The (1942)
BW-12 mins

7:00am Bigamist, The (1953)
A woman discovers her husband has another family in another city.
Cast: Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino, Edmond O'Brien. Dir: Ida Lupino. BW-79 mins, TV-PG

8:30am Green For Danger (1946)
A police inspector investigates an operating room death that may be murder.
Cast: Sally Gray, Trevor Howard, Alastair Sim. Dir: Sidney Gilliat. BW-91 mins

10:15am Holiday (1938)
An unhappy heiress falls in love with her stodgy sister's freethinking fiance.
Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Edward Everett Horton. Dir: George Cukor. BW-96 mins, TV-G

12:00pm Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)
True story of Annette Kellerman, the world's first great swimming star.
Cast: Esther Williams, Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon. Dir: Mervyn LeRoy. C-110 mins, TV-G

2:00pm Spanish Main, The (1945)
Dutch rebels in the Caribbean turn pirate and kidnap the corrupt Spanish governor's bride-to-be.
Cast: Paul Henreid, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak. Dir: Frank Borzage. C-101 mins, TV-PG

3:49pm Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Day On Treasure Island, A (1939)
C-10 mins

4:00pm Treasure Island (1950)
A young boy and a pirate clash over buried treasure.
Cast: Bobby Driscoll, Robert Newton, Basil Sydney. Dir: Byron Haskin. C-96 mins, TV-G

5:39pm Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Night Descends On Treasure Island (1940)
C-8 mins

6:00pm Tommy (1975)
A seemingly handicapped boy becomes a Pinball Wizard.
Cast: Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Roger Daltrey. Dir: Ken Russell. C-111 mins, TV-MA

What's On Tonight: TCM PRIME TIME FEATURE: TOP DOGS

8:00pm Shaggy Dog, The (1959)
An ancient spell turns a teenager into a large sheep dog.
Cast: Fred MacMurray, Jean Hagen, Tommy Kirk. Dir: Charles Barton. BW-102 mins, TV-G

10:00pm Shaggy D.A., The (1976)
A lawyer running for district attorney starts turning into a large sheep dog at awkward moments.
Cast: Dean Jones, Tim Conway, Suzanne Pleshette. Dir: Robert Stevenson. C-92 mins, TV-G

11:40pm Short Film: From The Vaults: Love-Tails Of Morocco (1931)
BW-16 mins

12:00am Dog's Life, A (1918)
In this silent film, the Little Tramp finds a stolen fortune with the help of his dog.
Cast: Charles Chaplin, Edna Purviance, Syd Chaplin. Dir: Charles Chaplin. BW-33 mins, TV-G

12:40am Scarecrow, The (1920)
In this silent short, a farmer masquerades as a scarecrow to eliminate a romantic rival.
Cast: Buster Keaton, Mary Astor, Joe Roberts. Dir: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton. BW-19 mins

1:05am Number, Please? (1920)
In this silent film, a young man chases his girlfriend's dog around a seaside resort.
Cast: Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Roy Brooks. Dir: Hal Roach BW-25 mins, TV-G

1:35am Dog Shy (1926)
In this silent short, a man tries to rescue a young beauty from marrying a rich man she doesn't love.
Cast: Charley Chase, Stuart Holmes, Mildred June. Dir: Leo McCarey. BW-22 mins, TV-G

2:00am Wild Child, The (1970)
A crusading doctor tries to civilize a child raised in the wilderness by wolves.
Cast: Francois Truffaut, Jean-Pierre Cargol, Jean Daste. Dir: Francois Truffaut. BW-85 mins, TV-14

3:45am Awakenings (1990)
A doctor's experiments bring a group of comatose patients back to consciousness.
Cast: Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner. Dir: Penny Marshall. C-121 mins, TV-MA

[Longhorn]

1. Holiday (1938)

A "woman's director" known for his collaborations with a bevy of talented actresses, George Cukor's best known match-up was perhaps with Katherine Hepburn, an actress rarely understood by Hollywood executives but advantageously employed by the director. The vibrant star of his 1938 screwball comedy Holiday, Hepburn began her mutually beneficial collaboration with Cukor in 1932's A Bill of Divorcement and starred in eight of the director's sly, sophisticated film productions.

In Holiday Hepburn stars as the unconventional, idealistic daughter of a wealthy businessman who dreams of escaping the suffocating boredom of her home, but lacks the confidence to break away. When a brash, exciting man from the wrong side of the tracks, Johnny Case (Cary Grant), enters the Seton household to marry her beautiful sister Julia (Doris Nolan), things seem to be changing for the better. But propriety, routine and the temptation of great wealth threaten to derail Johnny's dreams too in this tale of non-conformists versus the establishment.

An actor who spent his career playing debonair, moneyed gentleman in films like The Philadelphia Story (1940) and North by Northwest (1959), Grant plays humorously against type in Holiday as an eccentric trying to impress Julia's rich father and win his daughter's hand in marriage.

Hepburn was singled out with ample praise for her poignant, charismatic portrait of a repressed rich girl in Holiday though, ironically enough, she was rejected more than once for the part of Linda Seton. Hepburn had been an understudy for the role of Linda when Philip Barry's popular play appeared on Broadway, but the role in a 1930 Hollywood version went to Ann Harding. When Holiday was remade by Cukor in 1938, Columbia president Harry Cohn pressed for Irene Dunne, who had played opposite Grant in The Awful Truth the previous year. Hepburn had recently been named "box office poison" by the Independent Theater Owners Association and it seemed unlikely the idiosyncratic actress would beat out Irene Dunne for the part of Linda. But Cukor insisted on Hepburn, who bought herself out of her contract at RKO and went to Columbia to make Holiday.

Hepburn's persistence was rewarded with positive critical reviews, including the New York Herald Tribune which noted her "first-class screen acting." Grant, who worked on a number of productions with Hepburn including Sylvia Scarlett (1936), Bringing Up Baby (1938) and The Philadelphia Story, raved about his co-star in Holiday calling her "the most completely honest woman I've ever met."

Holiday was adapted to the screen by Algonquin humorist Donald Ogden Stewart, who also scripted The Philadelphia Story, Keeper of the Flame (1942) and Without Love (1945), all starring Hepburn. And Stewart's path had intersected with Hepburn's long before their Hollywood collaborations. Stewart had played Johnny Case's friend Nick Potter (a part Barry wrote with Stewart in mind) in the same Broadway stage version of Holiday in which Hepburn understudied Linda Seton.

Director: George Cukor
Producer: Everett Riskin
Screenplay: Donald Ogden Stewart, Sidney Buchman based on the play by Philip Barry
Cinematography: Franz Planer
Production Design: Stephen Goosson
Music: Sidney Cutner
Cast: Katharine Hepburn (Linda Seton), Cary Grant (Johnny Case), Doris Nolan (Julia Seton), Lew Ayres (Ned Seton), Edward Everett Horton (Nick Potter), Jean Dixon (Susan Potter).
BW-95m. Closed captioning.

by Felicia Feaster

[CBHagman]

2. "Holiday" is definitely unmissable.

That was another of those movies I just happened to see as a university student (Thank God I was a nerd). Holiday is not only funny but extremely moving.

[Longhorn]

3. Thanks!

Your post reminded me to set the DVR to record not only Holiday but the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers line-up on Monday. I'll enjoy watching those movies while I burn some calories on my recumbent exercise bike! :hi:

[Matilda]

4. I love "Holiday" too.

I really enjoy Cary Grant not being quite as ultra-smooth as he usually
is.

And some delightful support from Edward Everett Horton and Jean Dixon as
the Potters - their little cameos provide some wonderful wacky humour.

I have the film on DVD; it's one of the few decent classics released in
Australia.