The movie short, The Star in the Night (1945), with J. Carroll Naish, Anthony Caruso, Donald Wood and Richard Erdman, is being broadcast on TCM for the only time between now and Christmas on Saturday, Dec. 13th at 7:37 PM ET.
It is being aired just after Remember the Night (1941) at 6 PM and before 3:10 to Yuma (1956) at 8 PM. Btw, if you are recording it, I would set my recorder for a few minutes before the 7:37 broadcast time to be on the safe side, especially since it might enable you to see the wonderful Remember the Night (1941) with a script by Preston Sturges & direction from Mitchell Leisen.
The simplicity of the story of The Star of the Night, its superficially cynical characters, believable actors, and the beguiling, if inevitable way that events unfold on a cold December night in the desert may win you over. Directed by then neophyte Don Siegel, who, according to his memoirs, did not want to make it since he didn't feel much affinity for the subject, won an Oscar for best Short Subject. The slight but affecting story was written by Saul Elkins from a story by Robert Finch.
In a nutshell, the little story centers around Nick, (J. Carrol Naish) a motel owner who thinks he has lost faith in everything, especially people, is visited by a wanderer (Donald Cook) on a cold Christmas Eve in the desert. The fussy guests at the motel gradually lose their selfishness when a poor young couple are stranded at the tourist stop. Nick's tender-hearted wife prepares a place for them in a shed under a neon star Nick had just finished hanging and you can fill in the rest. It may sound sentimental, and I suppose it is, but it has a lingering charm that makes it memorable enough for some of us to enjoy at least once a year. The dvd of the feature length movie, Christmas in Connecticut (1945), has this short on the disc of that Warner Brothers film as well.