
Jeanette MacDonald 1940 Magazine Cover
Jeanette MacDonald – June 18 birthday TV tribute on TCM!
Set your DVR/VCRs, whatever! Here’s the schedule:
In celebration of Jeanette MacDonald’s birthday June 18, Turner Classic Movies will be running her movies all day, including four of them co-starring Nelson Eddy. (His birthday tribute will be on TCM on June 29.) Here is the schedule:
The Merry Widow – 7:15 am Eastern
Naughty Marietta – 9:15 am Eastern
Rose Marie – 11 am Eastern
Bitter Sweet – 1 pm Eastern
Smilin’ Through – 2:45 pm Eastern
I Married an Angel – 4:30 pm Eastern
Three Daring Daughters – 6 pm Eastern
Enjoy!

I Married an Angel - Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy
Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy fans: Tivo/DVR/VCR alert! Or – just watch it!
Their last film together, I Married an Angel, will screen on TCM on March 18, 2010 at 1:45 PM Eastern Time.
While general audiences didn’t know what to make of this “out there” comedy when it was first released in 1942, the sophistication goes over better today. Plus there’s awesome singing in it!
Watch for the scene early on when Jeanette MacDonald, in a homemade angel costume, hesitantly attempts to give Nelson’s character a birthday kiss. She leans forward, then Nelson Eddy the prankster crosses his eyes at her, which you can’t see. But you see her eyes following his for the moment and then she breaks character and laughs. It’s a gem…and thankfully director Woody Van Dyke left it in the film!
Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy movies on Turner Classic Movies this week! Note: Rose Marie follows The Firefly, so it’s actually on just after midnight on July 26 – Eastern time.
The Firefly (1937)
PLAYING ON TCM: 07/25/2009 10:00:00 PM Eastern Time
A Spanish spy masquerades as a singer to sabotage Napoleon’s forces. CAST: Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones, Warren William. DIR: Robert Z. Leonard. Musical. BW 130 mins.
Rose Marie (1936)
PLAYING ON TCM: 07/25/2009 12:15:00 AM Eastern Time
An opera singer goes undercover in the Canadian wilderness to hunt for her criminal brother.
CAST: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, James Stewart. DIR: W. S. Van Dyke II. Musical. BW 111 mins.
Happy Birthday, Jeanette MacDonald! Born today in 1903…106 years young!
For those of you wanting to see some of her films on TCM – nothing today – but starting next week there will be several of her films alone and with Nelson Eddy airing, as part of a month-long tribute to great movie directors – including Woody Van Dyke, who directed most of her MGM hits!
Below is the list of films on the TCM schedule – all times are Eastern. Nelson Eddy, also celebrating a birthday this month – June 29, will be featured in one of his solo films, as noted below. Set your DVRs or VCRs!
The Merry Widow (1934)
PLAYING ON TCM: 06/23/2009 12:00:00 AM
A prince from a small kingdom courts a wealthy widow to keep her money in the country. C AST: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Una Merkel. DIR: Ernst Lubitsch. Musical. BW 99 mins.
Naughty Marietta (1935)
PLAYING ON TCM: 06/24/2009 12:00:00 PM
A French princess in Colonial America gets involved with an Indian scout. CAST: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan. DIR: W.S. Van Dyke II. Musical. BW 104 mins.
San Francisco (1936)
PLAYING ON TCM: 06/24/2009 02:00:00 PM
A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the big earthquake. CAST: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy. DIR: W.S. Van Dyke II. Epic. BW 115 mins.
Maytime (1937)
PLAYING ON TCM: 06/30/2009 01:30:00 PM
An opera star’s manager tries to stop her romance with a penniless singer. CAST: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, John Barrymore. DIR: Robert Z. Leonard. Musical. BW 132 mins.
Let Freedom Ring (1939)
PLAYING ON TCM: 07/04/2009 08:30:00 AM
A crusader returns to his Western hometown to root out corruption. CAST: Nelson Eddy, Victor McLaglen, Lionel Barrymore. DIR: Jack Conway. Musical. BW 87 mins.
Rose Marie (1936)
PLAYING ON TCM: 07/25/2009 12:15:00 AM
An opera singer goes undercover in the Canadian wilderness to hunt for her criminal brother.
CAST: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, James Stewart. DIR: W. S. Van Dyke II. Musical. BW 111 mins.
The Firefly (1937)
PLAYING ON TCM: 07/25/2009 10:00:00 PM
A Spanish spy masquerades as a singer to sabotage Napoleon’s forces. CAST: Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones, Warren William. DIR: Robert Z. Leonard. Musical. BW 130 mins.
Above: a gorgeous color shot of Jeanette MacDonald from the film Sweethearts. Her sister Blossom, by the way, kept an almost identical photo framed on her dresser during the last years of her life.
TCM is screening two of Jeanette’s films on her 105th birthday!
Smilin’ Through shows at 6 am Eastern Time, while Rose Marie with Nelson Eddy screens at 8 am.
Set your VCR, DVR or Tivo!