Best Classic Movies on TV This Week: December 15-21
With the dozens of movie channels included in a standard cable package, your favorite classic movies are surely airing somewhere this week. But how the heck are you supposed to find them?! Nothing is more disappointing than flipping through the channels and finding out your favorite film is airing … and started 45 minutes ago.
Our weekly guide gives you a day-by-day breakdown of some of the best classic movies showing on broadcast networks and cable channels in primetime this week plus other notable programming highlights. Check out the week ahead, and see if you can catch your favorite classic movie!
Classic Movies on Sunday, December 15
20th Century-Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection
Editor’s Pick: The Sound of Music
ABC, 7pm
Based on the great 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical of the same name, this 1965 big-screen adaptation of The Sound of Music is a stand-alone classic in its own right. One of the finest movie musical dramas ever produced, the hugely entertaining and practically flawless film won five of the 10 Oscars for which it was nominated, including Best Picture and Best Director (Robert Wise). It’s filled with a nonstop string of iconic and hummable tunes like “Edelweiss,” “My Favorite Things,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” “The Lonely Goatherd” and “The Sound of Music,” and these songs are all big parts of why audiences made the movie a blockbuster that was, for a few years, the highest-grossing film of all time. The other big reasons The Sound of Music succeeds so effectively are the engaging performances from its terrific cast members, led by Best Actress Oscar nominee Julie Andrews, who plays Maria von Trapp in a story based on von Trapp’s memoir. In the late 1930s, Maria, a young novitiate, is sent by her convent to Austria to become a governess to the seven children of widowed naval officer Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer in the role that made him a film star). Maria brings love and music into the lives of the von Trapp family, even as the rise of Nazism in neighboring Germany begins to cast an ominous shadow.
Courtesy of Everett
6pm Christmas in Connecticut (1945, Comedy) Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan TCM
7pm Home Alone (1990, Family) Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci FX
7pm The Sound of Music (1965, Family) Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer ABC
7:30pm Armageddon (1998, Science fiction) Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton SYFY
7:30pm The Wizard of Oz (1939, Family) Judy Garland, Frank Morgan TNT
8pm 50 First Dates (2004, Romance-comedy) Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore COMEDY
8pm The Heiress (1949, Drama) Olivia de Havilland, Montgomery Clift TCM
9:30pm Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992, Children) Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci FX
10pm The Bodyguard (1992, Drama) Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston BET
10:30pm A Stolen Life (1946, Drama) Bette Davis, Glenn Ford TCM
10:30pm Trading Places (1983, Comedy) Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy AMC
Classic Movies on Monday, December 16
Everett Collection
TCM ’70s Sci-Fi Marathon
TCM, beginning at 8am
If the fact that it’s Monday isn’t bringing you down enough, then tune in to several (mostly) bleak and cynical, and often dystopian (but outstandingly produced), sci-fi classics from the decade that specialized in such titles, the 1970s. In order, you’ll see George Segal star as The Terminal Man (1974), based on Michael Crichton’s novel; Charlton Heston as The Omega Man (1971) in one of the adaptations of Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend; Westworld (1973), written and directed by Crichton and led by Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin and James Brolin; Soylent Green (1973), starring Heston and Edward G. Robinson in his final film role; and Michael York, Jenny Agutter and Farrah Fawcett in Logan’s Run (1976). So as to not leave you completely depressed after all this, TCM ends today’s lineup with Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), which, while featuring elements of scares and conspiracy, does end on an ultimately more hopeful note.
8pm Auntie Mame (1958, Comedy) Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker TCM
8pm It’s a Wonderful Life (1946, Comedy-drama) James Stewart, Donna Reed E!
8pm The Bodyguard (1992, Drama) Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston BET
10pm Vegas Vacation (1997, Comedy) Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo AMC
10:30pm Deep Impact (1998, Action) Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni SYFY
10:30pm Metropolitan (1990, Comedy-drama) Carolyn Farina, Edward Clements TCM
11:30pm A Christmas Carol (1984, Children) George C. Scott, Angela Pleasence FXM
Classic Movies on Tuesday, December 17
Everett Collection
Editor’s Pick: Meet Me in St. Louis
MOVIES!, 9:55pm
Early-1900s St. Louis and its World’s Fair is the setting for director Vincente Minnelli’s beloved 1944 musical adaptation of Sally Benson’s short stories. Judy Garland stars as Esther Smith, a young woman whose romance with the boy next door (Tom Drake) is endangered when her father announces the family is moving to New York. Margaret O’Brien and Mary Astor also star in this film that was nominated for four Oscars, including one for “The Trolley Song” — one of the enduring Hugh Martin/Ralph Blane musical standards introduced by Garland in the film, along with “The Boy Next Door” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” She also memorably performs the film’s title tune.
Universal/courtesy Everett Collection
6pm Man in the Wilderness (1971, Adventure) Richard Harris, John Huston TCM
6:30pm Meet the Fockers (2004, Comedy) Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller E!
7pm Home Alone (1990, Family) Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci FX
8pm Deep Impact (1998, Action) Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni SYFY
9:30pm Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992, Children) Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci FX
10pm Christmas With the Kranks (2004, Comedy) Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis AMC
10:30pm Planet of the Apes (1968, Science fiction) Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall SYFY
Classic Movies on Wednesday, December 18
Everett Collection
TCM Birthday Tribute Celebrates Filmmaker George Stevens
TCM, beginning at 6am
Legendary Giant director George Stevens was born 120 years ago (in Oakland, California, on Dec. 18, 1904; he died in Lancaster, California, on March 8, 1975, at age 70). TCM remembers the filmmaker today with several movies, including a couple of his most renowned works along with lesser-known earlier ones. Featured titles are Vigil in the Night (1940), a drama led by Carole Lombard; A Damsel in Distress (1937), a musical comedy starring Fred Astaire, George Burns and Gracie Allen; The Nitwits (1935) and Kentucky Kernels (1934), two films led by the comedy duo of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey; Woman of the Year (1942), the classic romantic comedy starring Best Actress Oscar nominee Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy; the comedy Bachelor Bait (1934); and Penny Serenade (1941), the melodrama starring Best Actor nominee Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. The lineup concludes with the 1984 biographical documentary George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey, written and directed by George Stevens Jr.
Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection
6pm Christmas With the Kranks (2004, Comedy) Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis AMC
6pm George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey (1984, Documentary) George Stevens Jr., TCM
6:30pm The Santa Clause 2 (2002, Family) Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell FREEFORM
8pm Big Daddy (1999, Comedy) Adam Sandler, Joey Lauren Adams VH1
8pm National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, Comedy) Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo AMC
10pm Ocean’s Eleven (2001, Comedy-drama) George Clooney, Matt Damon PARMT
10pm The Mask (1994, Comedy) Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz VH1
Classic Movies on Thursday, December 19
Everett Collection
Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month: Mickey Rooney
TCM, beginning at 6am
Turner Classic Movies’ monthlong Thursday celebration of beloved star Mickey Rooney continues with another daylong marathon today, featuring a wide range of titles from the 1950s to ’70s, and also some character types and film genres that may seem unexpected for the star but definitely show his acting range. One good example of that leads off today’s lineup: the film noir Quicksand (1950), which finds Rooney playing against type as a garage mechanic who descends into a life of crime. Other highlights today include another film noir, The Strip (1951); King of the Roaring 20s: The Story of Arnold Rothstein (1961, aka The Big Bankroll), a crime biopic led by David Janssen as the titular mobster; The Black Stallion (1979), the family drama that earned Rooney his fourth and last Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor; several musicals featuring the famous onscreen pairings of Rooney and Judy Garland: Babes in Arms (1939), which earned Rooney his first Oscar nod (for Best Actor), Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes on Broadway (1941), Girl Crazy (1943) and Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry (1937), the first Rooney/Garland collaboration; and more.
New Line/courtesy Everett Collection
6pm Big Daddy (1999, Comedy) Adam Sandler, Joey Lauren Adams VH1
6pm The Black Stallion (1979, Children) Kelly Reno, Mickey Rooney TCM
8pm Babes in Arms (1939, Musical) Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland TCM
8pm Elf (2003, Children) Will Ferrell, James Caan AMC
8pm The Mask (1994, Comedy) Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz VH1
8:20pm Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000, Children) Jim Carrey, Jeffrey Tambor FREEFORM
10pm Elf (2003, Children) Will Ferrell, James Caan AMC
10pm Strike Up the Band (1940, Musical comedy) Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland TCM
Classic Movies on Friday, December 20
Everett Collection
TCM Classic Christmas Movie Marathon Begins
TCM, beginning at 8pm
Turner Classic Movies’ annual daylong leadup to Christmas begins this evening. Starting tonight, and running through Dec. 25, enjoy several classic movies that are either all about Christmas, or at least feature it in some way. Tonight’s lineup offers Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), In the Good Old Summertime (1949), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Bachelor Mother (1939), Penny Serenade (1941) and Blossoms in the Dust (1941).
Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection
6pm The Great Outdoors (1988, Comedy) Dan Aykroyd, John Candy AMC
7:30pm Lethal Weapon (1987, Action) Mel Gibson, Danny Glover TNT
8pm Meet Me in St. Louis (1944, Musical) Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien TCM
8pm Selena (1997, Biography) Jennifer Lopez, Edward James Olmos VH1
8pm Uncle Buck (1989, Comedy) John Candy, Amy Madigan AMC
10pm In the Good Old Summertime (1949, Musical comedy) Judy Garland, Van Johnson TCM
11pm Lethal Weapon 3 (1992, Action) Mel Gibson, Danny Glover TNT
Classic Movies on Saturday, December 21
Everett Collection
Editor’s Pick: A Christmas Carol (1938)
TCM, 10:30am
Among the countless film and television adaptations of Charles Dickens’ classic 1843 novella A Christmas Carol that have been produced, this MGM release from 1938 has been among the most beloved and among the ones most frequently seen on television. Given how familiar the tale has become, and how most adaptations hit a good number of the basic story points known and loved by readers and viewers, when it comes to watching different interpretations of A Christmas Carol, what usually matters most is what the various actors bring to the legendary characters. The cast in this relatively brief (only 69 minutes long) version — which is one of the more family-friendly adaptations, generally excising most of the darker and bleaker aspects of Dickens’ story — is fun, led by Reginald Owen as the miser Ebenezer Scrooge; real-life spouses Gene and Kathleen Lockhart as Bob Cratchit and his wife (with their real-life 13-year-old daughter June Lockhart, making her screen debut, in an uncredited role as a Cratchit daughter); Terry Kilburn as Tiny Tim Cratchit; Leo G. Carroll as the ghost of Jacob Marley; Ann Rutherford as the Spirit of Christmas Past; Lionel Braham as the Spirit of Christmas Present; and D’Arcy Corrigan as the Spirit of Christmas Future.
Everett Collection
6pm Fitzwilly (1967, Comedy) Dick Van Dyke, Barbara Feldon TCM
6pm Happy Gilmore (1996, Comedy) Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald E!
7pm Home Alone (1990, Family) Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci FX
8pm Billy Madison (1995, Comedy) Adam Sandler, Darren McGavin E!
8pm Footloose (1984, Drama) Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer VH1
8pm Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000, Comedy) Eddie Murphy, Janet Jackson BET
9pm National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989, Comedy) Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo AMC
9:30pm Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992, Children) Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci FX
10pm Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995, Action) Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons TNT
10pm Happy Gilmore (1996, Comedy) Adam Sandler, Christopher McDonald E!
10:30pm Flashdance (1983, Drama) Jennifer Beals, Michael Nouri VH1
11pm Lethal Weapon (1987, Action) Mel Gibson, Danny Glover TBS
Cowboy Christmas
November/December 2024
Saddle up for some Holiday Cowboy fun with movies, music and your fav Christmas episodes of classic Westerns.
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