TCM Schedule for Fri, Apr 11, 2025: Skippy, AKA Asta / Pulp Fiction (Film Noir)

[Auggie]

Skippy was a Wire Fox Terrier dog actor who appeared in dozens of movies during the 1930s.

Skippy is best known for the role of the pet dog "Asta" in the 1934 detective comedy The Thin Man, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, and for his role in the 1938 comedy Bringing Up Baby, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Due to the popularity of The Thin Man role, Skippy is sometimes credited as Asta in public and in other films.

In 1936 Skippy and several other movie dogs were profiled in the book Dog Stars of Hollywood by Gertrude Orr. At the time Skippy was said to be four and a half years old, giving him a birth year of 1931–32. He was said to be one of the most intelligent of animal stars then working in pictures. In addition to verbal commands, he also worked to hand cues, essential for a dog performing in sound films. His training began when he was three months old, and he made his first professional film appearances at the age of one year, in 1932–33, as a bit player providing "atmosphere."

As a character in the movie The Thin Man, Asta, as played by Skippy, was the playful pet dog of Nick and Nora Charles, tugging them around town on his walks, hiding from danger, and sniffing out corpses. ("Asta, you're not a terrier, you're a police dog," Nick tells him.) The Asta character was played by other terriers in later Thin Man sequels as well as the 1950s television show.

Loy once shared that the actors were not allowed to interact with Skippy between takes; the owners felt it would break his concentration. Skippy once bit Loy during filming.

Full bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skippy_(dog)



William Powell, Skippy, and Myrna Loy in "The Thin Man." Skippy is in the middle.
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DAYTIME: (EST)

6:00 AM | The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a murder tied to a Long Island dog show.
Dir: Michael Curtiz | Cast: William Powell, Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette

7:30 AM | The Half Naked Truth (1933)
A carnival pitch man turns a sideshow dancer into an overnight sensation.
Dir: Gregory La Cava | Cast: Lupe Velez, Lee Tracy, Eugene Pallette

9:00 AM | Fog Over Frisco (1934)
A San Francisco heiress discovers her sister is hanging out with gangsters.
Dir: William Dieterle | Cast: Bette Davis, Donald Woods, Margaret Lindsay

10:15 AM | The Firebird (1934)
A young girl's secret romance is exposed when her lover is murdered.
Dir: William Dieterle | Cast: Verree Teasdale, Ricardo Cortez, Lionel Atwill

11:30 AM | I'm Still Alive (1940)
The dangers of his job threaten to break up a stuntman and his movie star wife.
Dir: Irving Reis | Cast: Kent Taylor, Linda Hayes, Howard Da Silva

12:45 PM | Call It a Day (1937)
An average day brings a variety of comic problems to members of a British family.
Dir: Archie Mayo | Cast: Olivia De Havilland, Ian Hunter, Anita Louise

2:30 PM | Bringing Up Baby (1938)
A paleontologist, a free-spirited heiress, and a leopard mix it up in the search for a dinosaur bone.
Dir: Howard Hawks | Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Charles Ruggles

4:15 PM | The Thin Man (1934)
In New York, a detective, his wife and his dog solve the murder case of an eccentric inventor.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke | Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan

6:00 PM | After the Thin Man (1936)
Married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles try to clear Nora's cousin of a murder charge.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke | Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart

7:45 PM | Famous Movie Dogs (1940)
Well known canine performers of the 1930s vie for a part in an upcoming movie.
Dir: Del Frazier | Cast: John Deering, Skippy, Corky The Dog, Rex The Dog



PRIME TIME, LATE NIGHT, EARLY MORNING

8:00 PM | The Maltese Falcon (1941)
A private detective gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston | Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George

9:45 PM | Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Detective Philip Marlowe's search for a two-timing woman leads him to blackmail and murder.
Dir: Edward Dmytryk | Cast: Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley

11:45 PM | My Gun Is Quick (1957)
A detective's investigation of a murder puts him in the middle between warring jewel thieves.
Dir: George A. White | Cast: Robert Bray, Whitney Blake

1:30 AM | The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
A frustrated wife seduces a drifter into murdering her husband.
Dir: Tay Garnett | Cast: Lana Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway

3:30 AM | Harper (1966)
A broken-down private eye sets out to find a rich woman's missing husband.
Dir: Jack Smight | Cast: Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris

5:45 AM | The Getaway (1972)
A recently-released ex-con and his loyal wife go on the run after a heist goes awry.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah | Cast: Steve McQueen, Ali Macgraw, Ben Johnson