TCM Celebrates Jimmy Stewarts Birthday
6:00 AM 126 min
TV-G You Can't Take It With You (1938)
A girl from a family of freethinkers falls for the son of a conservative banker.
Dir: Frank Capra Cast: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart.
126 min, TV-G CLOSE LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Frank Capra. Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, Spring Byington, Eddie "Rochester'' Anderson, Donald Meek, Halliwell Hobbes, Dub Taylor, Samuel S. Hinds, Harry Davenport, Charles Lane. George S. Kaufman Moss Hart play about eccentric but blissfully happy household becomes prime Capracorn, not quite as compelling today as MR. DEEDS or MR. SMITH (due to Robert Riskin's extensive rewriting), but still highly entertaining. Oscar winner for Best Picture and Director. Followed a half- century later by a TV series.
8:15 AM 1305893700 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) 130 min
TV-G Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption.
Dir: Frank Capra Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains.
130 min, TV-G , CC CLOSE LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Frank Capra. James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Thomas Mitchell, Eugene Pallette, Beulah Bondi, Harry Carey, H. B. Warner, Charles Lane, Porter Hall, Jack Carson. Stewart is young idealist who finds nothing but corruption in U.S. Senate. Fine Capra Americana, with Stewart's top performance bolstered by Arthur as hard-boiled dame won over by earnest Mr. Smith, and a stellar supporting cast; Carey is magnificent as the Vice President. Brilliant script by Sidney Buchman; however, Lewis R. Foster's Original Story received the Oscar. Later a brief TV series. Remade as BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON.
10:30 AM 1305901800 Philadelphia Story, The (1940) 112 min
TV-G Philadelphia Story, The (1940)
Tabloid reporters crash a society marriage.
Dir: George Cukor Cast: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart.
112 min, TV-G , CC CLOSE LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: George Cukor. Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey, John Howard, Roland Young, John Halliday, Virginia Weidler, Mary Nash, Henry Daniell, Hillary Brooke. Talky but brilliant adaptation of Philip Barry's hit Broadway comedy about society girl who yearns for down-to-earth romance; Grant is her ex-husband, Stewart a fast-talking (!) reporter who falls in love with her. Entire cast is excellent, but Stewart really shines in his offbeat, Academy Award winning role. Donald Ogden Stewart's script also earned an Oscar. Later musicalized as HIGH SOCIETY.
12:30 PM 1305909000 Spirit of St. Louis, The (1957) C-135 min
TV-G Spirit of St. Louis, The (1957)
Charles Lindbergh risks his life to complete his historic flight from New York to Paris.
Dir: Billy Wilder Cast: James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith.
C-135 min, TV-G , CC CLOSE LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Billy Wilder. James Stewart, Patricia Smith, Murray Hamilton, Marc Connelly. Long but inventive presentation of Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic is mainly a tour de force by Stewart, backed by good Franz Waxman music score. CinemaScope.
3:00 PM 1305918000 Anatomy Of A Murder (1959) 161 min
TV-PG Anatomy Of A Murder (1959)
A small-town lawyer gets the case of a lifetime when a military man avenges an attack on his wife.
Dir: Otto Preminger Cast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara.
161 min, TV-PG , CC CLOSE LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Otto Preminger. James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O'Connell, Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant (Crosby), George C Scott, Orson Bean, Murray Hamilton. Long, exciting courtroom drama; daring when released, tamer now. Sterling cast: O'Connell as drunken lawyer inspired by Stewart, Scott as prosecuting attorney, Joseph Welch as judge (Welch was the famous Army-McCarthy hearings lawyer who later became a judge in real life). Stewart towers over all as witty, easygoing, but cagy defense lawyer. Script by Wendell Mayes, from novel by Robert Traver (Judge John D. Voelker). Duke Ellington composed the score and also appears on-screen.
5:45 PM 1305927900 Bell, Book and Candle (1959)
C-102 min
TV-PG Bell, Book and Candle (1959)
A beautiful witch puts a love spell on an unknowing publisher.
Dir: Richard Quine Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon.
C-102 min, TV-PG , CC CLOSE LEONARD MALTIN REVIEW: D: Richard Quine. James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Janice Rule, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold, Elsa Lanchester. John Van Druten play becomes so-so vehicle to showcase Novak as fetching witch who charms about-to-be-married Manhattan publisher Stewart. Kovacs and Gingold supply their brands of humor.
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