There’s no better reason than the wintry winds of January to curl up on the couch and enjoy these 14 films airing on Turner Classic Movies in January 2022.
With the chill winds of January blowing and the call to spend time at home for safety’s sake, curling up on the couch for a classic film is an appealing option. Here are 14 movies we think you’ll enjoy on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) this month.
1 of 14 Penny Serenade (1941)
Saturday, January 1, at 8 9.m. ET
Irene Dunne and Cary Grant star as a star-crossed young married couple who experience trials, tribulations and heartbreak as they strive to start a family and build a life together. Have a box of tissues handy (maybe two). Grant was nominated for Best Actor for his work in this film.
2 of 14 The More the Merrier (1955)
Sunday, January 2, at 2:45 p.m. ET
In this delightful comedy, Jean Arthur, with a spare room to offer during the wartime housing crunch in Washington, D.C., ends up with two very unlikely roommates: Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn. Hilarity, as you might well expect, ensures. Romantic comedies don’t come much better than this.
January’s Star of the Month on TCM is Kay Francis, one of the top stars of the 1930s. They’re airing 12 of her pictures in a row beginning at 8 p.m. tonight, but we’ve chosen a classic Ernst Lubitsch comedy for your consideration in which Francis plays a perfume magnate who is being conned—or is she?—by a gentleman thief (Herbert Marshall) and a pickpocket (Miriam Hopkins). Charles Ruggles, Edward Everett Horton and C. Aubrey Smith costar.
4 of 14 A Kiss in the Dark (1949)
Tuesday, January 4, at 6:30 p.m. ET
In this romantic comedy, David Niven plays an exhausted concert pianist who has recently learned he is the owner of an apartment building. Advised to move there to get some rest, he gets involved in the life of his oddball tenants. Jane Wyman, Victor Moore, Wayne Morris and Broderick Crawford costar.
5 of 14 Till the End of Time (1946)
Sunday, January 9, at 8 a.m. ET
Many see this film as a companion piece to the William Wyler’s classic The Best Years of Our Lives, as it concerns a trio of former Marines who are struggling to readjust to civilian life. Perry (Bill Williams) must learn to live without the use of this legs. Debt is creating money troubles for William (Robert Mitchum). And Cliff (Guy Madison) is struggling to find a direction in life, though lovely war widow Pat (Dorothy McGuire) is there to help him sort things out. William Gargan and Tom Tully costar.
6 of 14 One Way Passage (1932)
Monday, January 10, at 9:15 p.m. ET
Beginning tonight at 8 p.m., TCM is airing another 11 Kay Francis films back to back. We’re recommending this keep-those-tissues-handy weeper that finds a dying heiress (Kay Francis) falling for a condemned criminal (William Powell) during an ocean cruise.
7 of 14 Topper (1937)
Tuesday, January 11, at 2:45 p.m. ET
In this delightful screwball comedy, a fun-loving couple (Constance Bennett and Cary Grant), newly minted as ghosts following a car accident, do their best to help a henpecked husband (Roland Young) get out from his wife’s thumb. The film was popular enough to inspire a pair of sequels, the first of which, Topper Takes a Trip (1938), airs following this film at 4:30 p.m.
We’ll admit to a fondness for World War II home-front movies, no matter where that home front may be. In this classic film from director David Lean, the home front is England. Based on a play by Noël Coward, the film follows a middle-class family, beginning just after World War I and continuing through the outbreak of World War II. Beautifully written, wonderfully acted, highly recommended.
9 of 14 Sounder (1972)
Monday, January 17, at 4:15 p.m. ET
This classic drama, set in 1933, follows a family of poor African-American sharecroppers in Depression-era Louisiana. Nathan Lee (Paul Winfield), struggling to feed his family, is arrested for the theft of a ham and one of the deputies handling the arrest shoots the family’s beloved dog, Sounder, who, now wounded, disappears. Nathan’s wife, Rebecca (Cicely Tyson), is left to care for the family while awaiting Nathan’s (and hopefully Sounder’s) safe return. This film was nominated for four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor (Winfield), Best Actress (Tyson) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
10 of 14 Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
Tuesday, January 18, at 12:15 p.m. ET
In this comedy classic, Mr. and Mrs. Blandings (Cary Grant and Myrna Loy) leave their cramped Manhattan apartment for a fixer-upper (to put it mildly) in rural Connecticut. As you might guess, the road to a newly renovated dream home proves to be a hilariously rocky one. Reginald Denny and Melvyn Douglas costar.
11 of 14 The Circus Clown (1934)
Wednesday, January 19, at 4 a.m. ET
Joe E. Brown was known for his broad comedies, but in this picture, he tones things down a bit, playing the son of an ex-acrobat who, hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps, runs off to join a circus, only to find that things don’t turn out as he hoped they might. Think of this as a comedy with a touch of pathos or perhaps a drama with its share of comic moments. Patricia Ellis costars.
12 of 14 The Catered Affair (1956)
Monday, January 24, at 10:45 a.m. ET
A young woman (Debbie Reynolds) announcing she’s getting married, and immediately her parents (Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine), who are of modest means, feel pressured to throw her a big wedding, which is the last thing she wants. And the only way to pay for it is to spend their life savings, which were meant to go for a new taxi for her father. Barry Fitzgerald costars.
A pair of newlyweds (Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert) from the city decide out of the blue to move to the country and become chicken farmers. This is the motion picture introduced Ma and Pa Kettle (Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride), thereby spawning a slew of sequels. Richard Long and Louise Allbritton costar.
14 of 14 His Girl Friday (1940)
Sunday, January 30, at 6:15 p.m. ET
The witty repartee flies fast and furious in this hilarious comedy, directed by the legendary Howard Hawks. Cary Grant is a conniving newspaper editor who wants to lure back his best reporter (who happens to also be his ex-wife), played by Rosalind Russell. The trouble is, she’s engaged to another fellow (Ralph Bellamy). This one’s tons of screwball fun.
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