TCM Schedule for Friday, Dec 27, 2024 - Sydney Greenstreet / In Memoriam

Sydney Greenstreet (December 27, 1879 – January 18, 1954) was a British and American actor.

While he did not begin his career in films until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a Hollywood career lasting through the 1940s. He is best remembered for the three Warner Bros. films -- The Maltese Falcon (1941), his film debut, Casablanca (1942), and Passage to Marseille (1944).

Greenstreet was born in Eastry, Kent. He had seven siblings. He left home at the age of 18 to make his fortune as a Ceylon tea planter, but drought forced him out of business. He began managing a brewery and, to escape boredom, took acting lessons.

His stage debut was as a murderer in a 1902 production of a Sherlock Holmes story at the Marina Theatre, Ramsgate, Kent. He toured Britain with a Shakespearean company, and in 1905 made his New York City debut in the play Everyman.

He appeared in numerous plays in Britain and America, working through most of the 1930s with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne at the Theatre Guild. His stage roles ranged from musical comedy to Shakespeare, and years of such versatile acting on two continents led to many offers to appear in films. He refused until he was 61 when Warner Bros came calling with the ground-breaking film noir classic, The Maltese Falcon, airing this morning.

Full bio at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Greenstreet



Director John Huston filled the screen with Greenstreet's girth in the The Maltese Falcon by photographing him from below. It's a brilliant effect.

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In Memoriam: TCM remembers Alain Delon, Shelley Duvall, M. Emmet Walsh, Anouk Aimee, Janis Page

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Alternate synopses, full cast, and trivia for all films available at https://www.imdb.com


--- DAYTIME (EST) ---

8:45 AM | That Way with Women (1947)
An elderly millionaire makes a hobby of playing cupid.
Dir: Frederick De Cordova | Cast: Dane Clark, Martha Vickers, Sydney Greenstreet

10:15 AM | The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston | Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George

12:00 PM | Background to Danger (1943)
An American gets caught up in wartime action in Turkey.
Dir: Raoul Walsh | Cast: George Raft, Brenda Marshall, Sydney Greenstreet

1:30 PM | Conflict (1945)
A man murders his wife so he can be free to marry her sister.
Dir: Curtis Bernhardt | Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet

3:00 PM | The Mask of Dimitrios (1944)
A meek novelist investigates the mysterious death of a notorious scoundrel.
Dir: Jean Negulesco | Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson

4:45 PM | Three Strangers (1946)
Three people who share a sweepstakes ticket travel a tangled road to collect their winnings.
Dir: Jean Negulesco | Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Lorre

6:30 PM | The Verdict (1946)
A retired Scotland Yard chief tries to prove his friend is innocent of murder.
Dir: Don Siegel | Cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring


--- PRIME TIME ---

8:00 | Le Samourai (1967)
A hitman's alibi, after being seen by witnesses leaving the scene of a killing, drives him into a corner.
Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville | Cast: Alain Delon, Francois Perier, Nathalie Delon

10:00 PM | 3 Women (1977)
Three women trade personalities until they settle into a new family unit, seemingly giving each what she was searching for.
Dir: Robert Altman | Cast: Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Janice Rule

12:15 AM | Blood Simple (1984)
An owner of a seedy small-town bar discovers one of his employees is having an affair with his wife.
Dir: Joel Coen | Cast: John Getz, Frances McDormand, M. Emmet Walsh

2:15 AM | Lola (1961)
A man reunites with his former girlfriend, now a cabaret dancer and single mother, and falls back in love with her.
Dir: Jacques Demy | Cast: Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, Jacques Harden

4:15 AM | Romance on the High Seas (1948)
A man hires a private eye to watch his wife on a cruise, but the wife sends an impostor.
Dir: Michael Curtiz | Cast: Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Doris Day, Don Defore