Briefs for December 23, 2014

I probably should have apologized earlier for implying that Sunday night's presentation of the first Disneyland episode was going to be in color. I was going off the titles the TCM schedule was using, and forgot that the show had gone under several titles over the course of its run on TV. I think there had been some experimental color broadcasts by 1954, but there wasn't a standard for broadcasting in color.

I wish I had seen Look in Any Windo before last night's airing, which I stumbled into part of the way through. Paul Anka (yes, the singer) plays a teen with a screwed-up home life who responds by becoming a peeping tom. It was supposed to be a serious drama, but I found myself laughing the whole time. On the other hand, it looked like a wonderful example of early 1960s design.

Director Joseph Sargent died yesterday at the age of 89. Sargent did much of his work in television, and among his more memorable movies are the original version of The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three as well as the biopic MacArthur starring Gregory Peck as the World War II general.

Tomorrow being Christmas Eve, TCM is going to be starting a 38-hour marathon of Christmas movies. Well, not quite, in that there's a TCM Night at the Movies documentary in there, at 11:00 AM tomorrow. I think I've mentioned my opinion on the Night at the Movies episodes before.