TCM Schedule for Tuesday, January 6: Presidential Medal of Freedom Honorees/Special Theme: The Working Class

[CBHagman]

Wow! What a varied and challenging set of movies.

Here is the list of Presidential Medal of Freedom honorees: Baby Doll (Tennessee Williams), A Face in the Crowd (Frank Sinatra), A Lion Is in the Streets (James Cagney), Sergeant Rutledge (John Ford), The Mortal Storm (James Stewart), Storm Warning (Ronald Reagan, Doris Day), To Be or Not to Be (Carole Lombard).

Tuesday, January 6, 2026

Songwriter Sammy Cahn - Part 1 (continued)

12:15 AM The Tender Trap (1955)
A swinging bachelor finds love when he meets a girl immune to his line.
Dir: Charles Walters Cast: Frank Sinatra, Debbie Reynolds, David Wayne
Runtime: 111 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-PG CC: Y


2:15 AM Anchors Aweigh (1945)
A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star.
Dir: George Sidney Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Gene Kelly
Runtime: 143 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-G CC: Y


4:45 AM It Happened in Brooklyn (1947)
A returning GI and his friends try to make it in the music business.
Dir: Richard Whorf Cast: Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, Peter Lawford
Runtime: 105 mins Genre: Musical Rating: TV-G CC: Y

TCM Daytime: Presidential Medal of Freedom Honorees

7:00 AM Baby Doll (1956)
In Tiger Tail County, Mississippi, failing middle-aged cotton gin owner Archie Lee Meighan has been married to the pretty 19-year-old virgin Baby Doll Meighan for two years. Baby Doll still sleeps in a crib in their decrepit mansion as Archie waits impatiently for Baby Doll's 20th birthday, which is just a few days away, when - by prior agreement with Baby Doll's dying father - the marriage can finally be consummated. Meanwhile, Archie's competitor, Silva Vacarro, has taken away all of Archie's business, and Archie retaliates by burning down Vacarro's gin. Suspecting Archie as the arsonist, Vacarro plans to have his revenge by pursuing, seducing, and terrorizing Baby Doll into signing a confession that will admit her husband's guilt.
Dir: Elia Kazan Cast: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach
Runtime: 114 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-14 CC: Y

9:00 AM A Face in the Crowd (1957)
A female television executive turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Dir: Elia Kazan Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa
Runtime: 126 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

11:15 AM A Lion Is in the Streets (1953)
Peddler Hank Martin becomes a local hero after he exposes how a cotton mill has been cheating sharecroppers, then stands up to the local powers to stop the scandal. When the story makes the newspaper headlines--with Martin's help--he is drafted to run for governor. But Martin sews the seeds of his own destruction by accepting the support of politically connected Guy Polli and Flamingo, who controls the town's vice, in exchange for helping them protect a murderer.
Dir: Raoul Walsh Cast: James Cagney, Barbara Hale, Anne Francis
Runtime: 88 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

12:45 PM Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
A 19th-century lawyer tries to clear a black man of rape and murder charges.
Dir: John Ford Cast: Jeffrey Hunter, Woody Strode, Constance Towers
Runtime: 111 mins Genre: Western Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

2:45 PM The Mortal Storm (1940)
The Third Reich's rise tears apart a German family.
Dir: Frank Borzage Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young
Runtime: 100 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

4:30 PM Storm Warning (1951)
While visiting relatives in a small town, Marsha Mitchell witnesses the beating death of a man at the hands of the Klan and soon discovers that the whole town is controlled by the group--and that her loutish brother-in-law is a member. District Attorney Burt Rainey finally breaks the stranglehold of the hooded terrorists, but not before further tragedy occurs.
Dir: Stuart Heisler Cast: Ginger Rogers, Ronald Reagan, Doris Day
Runtime: 93 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-14 CC: Y

6:15 PM To Be or Not to Be (1942)
A troupe of squabbling actors joins the Polish underground to dupe the Nazis.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch Cast: Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack
Runtime: 99 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

TCM Primetime: Special Theme: The Working Class

8:00 PM Norma Rae (1979)
A young single mother and her co-worker try to unionize the mill where they work.
Dir: Martin Ritt Cast: Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman
Runtime: 115 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-14 CC: Y

10:15 PM Silkwood (1983)
A laborer at a nuclear power plant risks her life to report unsafe practices.
Dir: Mike Nichols Cast: Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher
Runtime: 131 mins Genre: Biography Rating: TV-MA CC: Y

12:45 AM Matewan (1987)
Historical drama about the 1920 coal miners' strike in Matewan, West Virginia.
Dir: John Sayles Cast: Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell
Runtime: 135 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-14 CC: Y

3:00 AM North Country (2005)
A dramatized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States, Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.
Dir: Niki Caro Cast: Charlize Theron, Thomas Curtis, Elle Peterson
Runtime: 126 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-MA CC: N

5:30 AM Salt of the Earth (1954)
Mexican workers at a zinc mine call a general strike. It is only through the solidarity of the workers, and importantly the indomitable resolve of their wives, mothers, and daughters, that they continue to fight for better working conditions.
Dir: Herbert J. Biberman Cast: Will Geer, David Wolfe, David Sarvis
Runtime: 94 mins Genre: Drama Rating: TV-PG CC: Y

[murielm99]

1. An impressive set of movies!