TCM Schedule for Thurs, Jan 1, 2026: The Thin Man Marathon / Star of the Month: Jean Arthur

[Auggie]

Last edited Mon Dec 29, 2025, 12:30 PM - Edit history (1)

Great line-up to start 2026!

Following two early morning William Powell/Myrna Loy films, TCM airs The Thin Man series in order of production release. In prime time, star of the month Jean Arthur headlines in three films directed by Frank Capra.

Happy New Year, DU!




Airing tonight! Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Jean Arthur, and Edward Arnold star in You Can't Take It With You (1938), directed by Frank Capra



Jean Arthur (born Gladys Greene; October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American film and theater actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s.

Arthur had feature roles in three Frank Capra films: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) with Gary Cooper, You Can't Take It with You (1938) co-starring James Stewart, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), also starring Stewart. These three films all championed the "everyday heroine" personified by Arthur.

She also co-starred with Cary Grant in the adventure-drama Only Angels Have Wings (1939) and in the comedy-drama The Talk of the Town (1942). She starred as the lead in the acclaimed and highly successful comedy films The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and A Foreign Affair (1948), the latter of which she starred alongside Marlene Dietrich. Arthur was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1944 for her performance in The More the Merrier (1943), a comedy which also starred Joel McCrea.

Like Greta Garbo, Arthur was well known in Hollywood for her aversion to publicity; she was very guarded about her privacy and rarely signed autographs or granted interviews. Life observed in a 1940 article: "Next to Garbo, Jean Arthur is Hollywood's reigning mystery woman." As well as recoiling from interviews, after a certain age, she avoided photographers and refused to become a part of any kind of publicity

Discovered by Fox Film Studios while she was doing commercial modeling in New York City in the early 1920s, the newly named Jean Arthur landed a one-year contract and debuted in the silent film Cameo Kirby (1923), directed by John Ford. She reputedly took her stage name from two of her greatest heroes, Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) and King Arthur.

FULL BIO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Arthur



DAYTIME (EST)

6:00 AM Double Wedding (1937)
A dress designer tries to break her sister's engagement to an artist, only to discover the man is falling for her.
Dir: Richard Thorpe Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Florence Rice

7:30 AM I Love You Again (1940)
A solid married man discovers he's forgotten a past existence as a con artist.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Frank McHugh

9:15 AM The Thin Man (1934)
In New York, a detective, his wife and his dog solve the murder case of an eccentric inventor.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan

11:00 AM After the Thin Man (1936)
Married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles try to clear Nora's cousin of a murder charge.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart

1:00 PM Another Thin Man (1939)
Married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder on a Long Island estate.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Grey

2:45 PM Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a race-track murder.
Dir: Major W. S. Van Dyke II Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Barry Nelson

4:30 PM The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
On a trip to visit his parents, detective Nick Charles gets mixed up in a murder investigation.
Dir: Richard Thorpe Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Lucile Watson

6:15 PM Song of the Thin Man (1947)
Society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder in a jazz club.
Dir: Edward Buzzell Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Keenan Wynn



PRIME TIME, LATE NIGHT

8:00 PM Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
When he inherits a fortune, a small-town poet has to deal with the corruption of city life.
Dir: Frank Capra Cast: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft

10:15 PM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
An idealistic Senate replacement takes on political corruption.
Dir: Frank Capra Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains

12:30 AM 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

2:45 AM The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936)
A detective teams with his ex-wife to solve a murder.
Dir: Stephen Roberts Cast: William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Gleason


EARLY MORNING

4:15 AM Footsteps in the Dark (1941)
An aspiring mystery writer stumbles on to a real murder.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon Cast: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Ralph Bellamy

[Walleye]

1. The dog Asta was a movie star