Quick Preview of TCM in December

It's time for a peek at the December schedule on Turner Classic Movies!

A draft schedule is now available which provides key information regarding what's coming to TCM this December.

The December Star of the Month will be Ava Gardner. This is a centennial birthday celebration for the actress, who was born on Christmas Eve in 1922.

Around two dozen Gardner films will be shown on four out of the five Thursdays in December, with a week off for Christmas.

This will be Ava's third time as Star of the Month. She was previously honored in April 1997 and November 2010.

TCM will feature a Christmas movie marathon again this year, from December 18th through the 25th. Christmas films will also be featured on weekends earlier in the month. The Christmas schedule is still being put together and hasn't been finalized; as usual, I'll be sharing a detailed look at the December Christmas movie lineup in a few weeks.

The Noir Alley films for December will be DECOY (1946), WALK SOFTLY, STRANGER (1950), and the Christmas-themed MR. SOFT TOUCH (1949). Noir Alley will take Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off.

TCM will continue its New Year's Eve tradition of showing the THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! series of films, followed by a THIN MAN marathon.

The Wednesday TCM Spotlight is still a work in progress, and I'll be updating that info later. There's also a "Special Theme" in December featuring directors' final films.

Pearl Harbor Day will be commemorated with World War II films.

Also of particular note in December are a couple of documentaries, MAX STEINER: MAESTRO OF MOVIE MUSIC (2021) and THE AUTOMAT (2021). I'll be reviewing THE AUTOMAT here in the very near future.  (Update: Here is a link to my review of THE AUTOMAT.)

Filmmakers to be honored with multifilm tributes in December include Laurence Olivier, Mary Astor, Mickey Rooney, Tom Conway, Cary Grant, Sydney Greenstreet, William Wyler, and Anton Walbrook.

December themes include redheads, Texas, robberies, '70s Westerns, British films, and Philp Marlowe mysteries. December 30th will feature a Tarzan marathon, and there's also a day of films with "silver" and "gold" in their titles, such as FLAMING GOLD (1933) and SILVER RIVER (1948).

I'll be posting much more here on the December schedule around December 1st. In the meantime, "robots" continue as the October Star of the Month, with James Mason coming as Star of the Month for November.

As a postscript, for those who may have missed the news: TCM announced last week that it is shutting down the TCM Message Boards effective November 30th. Posts will still be accessible through February 15, 2023, and the boards will be completely deleted after that point. No reason was given for the change.

Over the last couple of decades the boards certainly saw their share of cranky complaints and discussions, but they were also at times a good source of information. It's a bit sad to see one more customer-oriented TCM service fall by the wayside, after the demise of the Now Playing guide and then the TCM Backlot club.

Update: For more on TCM in December 2022, please visit my posts TCM in December: Highlights, TCM Star of the Month: Ava Gardner, and TCM in December: Christmas Movies.

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