TCM December 2012 Guest Programmer: Lee Child (and a few other schedule notes)

I don't read too much current fiction, so I know nothing about the work of "[i]nternational best-selling and award-winning crime thriller writer Lee Child", as he's called in the TCM blurb for him. (I wsa hoping maybe he was the son of Julia Child or something.) It seems reasonable to guess that part of the reason he's been selected as Guest Programmer now is that one of his books has finally been turned into a movie, which is being released later this month. If it brings perople who are fans of Child, but not so much fans of classic cinema to TCM, so much the better. Child's selections are the sort of thing that will probably drive a certain section of TCM's fans nuts: how dare he select the "same" well-known stuff! Doesn't he know he's supposed to cater to "us" with more obscure stuff; the more obscure the better? At any rate, his four selections are:

Casablanca at 8:00 PM;
The Third Man at 10:00 PM;
Days of Heaven at midnight; and
The Dam Busters at 1:45 AM.

Just before Casablanca, and having nothing to do with Lee Child, are two other things worth mentioning. TCM is concluding its first day of Barbara Stanwyck's turn as Star of the Month with a documentary, Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire, at 7:00 PM. That runs 46 minutes, leaving time for a short, that being 42nd Street Special, which is a bunch of stars getting on the "42nd Street Special" in part to promote the movie, and in part to go to Washington DC for the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt. (Remember, this is the last inauguration that took place in March as scheduled, before the 20th Amendment changed the inauguration date to January 20.)