TCM Schedule for Fri, May 16, 2025: Margaret Sullavan / Film Noir (Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, This Gun for Hire & More)

[Auggie]

Margaret Sullavan (May 16, 1909 – January 1, 1960) was an American stage and film actress.

She began her career onstage in 1929 with the University Players on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1933, she caught the attention of film director John M. Stahl and made her screen debut that same year in Only Yesterday (1933). She continued to be successful on stage and film, best known for The Shop Around the Corner (1940), airing today.

Sullavan preferred working on the stage and made only 16 films, four of which were opposite close friend James Stewart in a popular partnership that included The Mortal Storm (1940) and The Shop Around the Corner. Stewart and Sullavan were also close friends of Henry Fonda, to whom Sullavan was married from 1931 to 1933. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Three Comrades (1938), also airing today.

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



DAYTIME: (EST)

6:00 AM | MGM Parade Show #26 (1955)
Clips from "Broadway Melody" and "Captains Courageous."
Cast: George Murphy, Eleanor Powell, Spencer Tracy

6:30 AM | Three Comrades (1938)
The friendship of three German soldiers is strengthened by their shared love for a dying woman.
Dir: Frank Borzage | Cast: Robert Taylor, Margaret Sullavan, Franchot Tone

8:30 AM | Cry 'Havoc' (1944)
A group of war nurses fight to survive the siege of Bataan.
Dir: Richard Thorpe | Cast: Margaret Sullavan, Ann Sothern, Joan Blondell

10:30 AM | The Shining Hour (1938)
A nightclub dancer marries into society and has to contend with her jealous sister-in-law.
Dir: Frank Borzage | Cast: Joan Crawford, Margaret Sullavan, Melvyn Douglas

12:00 PM | So Ends Our Night (1941)
An anti-Nazi and a young Jewish couple race across Europe to escape Hitler's influence.
Dir: John Cromwell | Cast: Fredric March, Margaret Sullavan, Frances Dee

2:15 PM | The Shopworn Angel (1938)
A showgirl gives up life in the fast lane for a young soldier on his way to fight World War I.
Dir: H. C. Potter | Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Walter Pidgeon

4:00 PM | The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Feuding co-workers do not realize they are secret romantic pen pals.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch | Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan

6:00 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


PRIME TIME, LATE NIGHT, EARLY MORNING

8:00 PM | Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
A private eye hunts a Nazi and meets rough characters clipped from classic film noir.
Dir: Carl Reiner | Cast: Steve Martin, Rachel Ward, Carl Reiner

9:45 PM | This Gun for Hire (1942)
A hired killer dodges police while tracking down the enemy agents who tried to frame him.
Dir: Frank Tuttle | Cast: Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar

11:15 PM | In a Lonely Place (1950)
An aspiring actress begins to suspect that her temperamental boyfriend is a murderer.
Dir: Nicholas Ray | Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy

1:00 AM | Deception (1946)
A woman tries to protect her refugee husband from her rich and powerful ex-lover.
Dir: Irving Rapper | Cast: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains

3:00 AM | Johnny Eager (1942)
A handsome racketeer seduces the DA's daughter for revenge, then falls in love.
Dir: Mervyn LeRoy | Cast: Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold

5:00 AM | White Heat (1949)
A government agent infiltrates a gang run by a mother-fixated psychotic.
Dir: Raoul Walsh | Cast: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien