Holiday Films

[Professional Tourist]

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Noëlco -- even our name says "Merry Christmas."

[Mr. Arkadin]

How about this one? Incidentally, that's Edward Arnold in all the pictures on the wall as Mrs. Deagle's late husband.

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[knitwit45]

Holiday Inn
Star in the Night
Scrooge (1951)
A Christmas Carol (1938)
Christmas in Connecticut
Heidi
A Night to Remember
Love Actually
Polar Express
Holiday
The Last Holiday
Seeing A Christmas Carol and Christmas in Connecticut with Ro and the kidling was the best. What fun to see favorites with a "new" "old" friend.

[moira finnie]

Holiday Inn
Star in the Night
Scrooge (1951)
A Christmas Carol (1938)
Christmas in Connecticut
Heidi
A Night to Remember
Love Actually
Polar Express
Holiday
The Last Holiday
Seeing A Christmas Carol and Christmas in Connecticut with Ro and the kidling was the best. What fun to see favorites with a "new" "old" friend.

Oh, Nancy, how could I forget searching for Grandfather in the snow on Christmas Eve? Or the snow globe hurtling to the floor?! Jeepers, all your picks are memorable.

Joel, thanks for pointing out Edward Arnold's presence. I've seen Gremlins a couple of times and overlooked that grace note. I think my eyes were covered during those scenes, wimpette that I am.

[knitwit45]

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[Mr. Arkadin]

Joel, thanks for pointing out Edward Arnold's presence. I've seen Gremlins a couple of times and overlooked that grace note. I think my eyes were covered during those scenes, wimpette that I am.

I did not fully appreciate Gremlins until I realized how it's actually a homage to classic film. Mrs. Deagle is a bizarre combination of Scrooge meets Wicked Witch of the West & even says to the dog "I'll get you--when you least expect it!"

What still gives me chills is this one:

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[RedRiver]

I never know whether or not to include Billy Wilder's sensitive THE APARTMENT. Much of the story takes place at Christmas time. But it's not ABOUT the holiday. It doesn't come up in the usual discussion.

[mrsl]

,
A Charlie Brown Christmas is probably the best Christmas movie to make sure LITTLE children see in order for them to learn the true meaning of Christmas, but the one movie everybody always forgets about is Come to the Stable with Loretta Young and Celeste Holm as nuns convincing the playwrite to donate his property for a children's hospital much like the nun in The Bells of St. Mary's gets the new building from the rich man for her new school. And of course, there is always my No. 1 favorite, with my No. 1 favorite guy - Holiday Affair with Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh. It's funny how almost all of the movies listed here have been re-made by Lifetime, but none of them comes anywhere close to the originals. I've seen copies of Holiday Affair, Christmas in Connecticut, Miracle on 34th Street, several variations of A Christmas Carol, and two versions of Remember the Night. Sad but true, they will never learn not to try to fix what ain't broke.

[kingrat]

Anne, I'm also a big fan of Come to the Stable. It's understandable why our favorites get remade--the originals had good stories and great roles for actors--but the remakes are usually not so great.

[Lomm]

I'm going to get my kids to watch It's a Wonderful Life this year. They're teens now, so the restless childhood "this is boring because it's not a cartoon" years are behind them. Now I just have to get them through the black and white hurdle. I watch it every Christmas, even if I have to watch it all by myself, which I have a time or two! I can't imagine people getting tired of this great tradition, but apparently not everyone wants to see the same movie every year on Christmas Day.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Two men square off in the street and reach--not for six guns, but each others' hands with the words "Merry Christmas!" on their lips. A Pistol for Ringo (1965) might be the best holiday western, where an unarmed gunslinger plays a game of chicken with bandits, who hold a rancher and his daughter hostage in the days before Christmas.

There's a lot to like about Duccio Tessari's western debut. This movie made a star out of Giuliano Gemma and although it came on the heels of Leone's more famous Fist Full of Dollars (1964) (which Tessari scripted) and features the music of Ennio Morricone, it is a very different film, paying homage to the American western, while turning the stereotypical formula on its head. Christmas themes abound with outlaws and prisoners caroling, Ringo waking up in a stable on the morning of the 25th, and searching the hacienda (like most children do) for the one present he needs to defeat the gang.

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[mrsl]

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Lomm:


I agree, the black and white is a big hurdle to cross, but if done, it's usually worth it.

I think a lot of the re-viewing we do is because the acting, directing and writing were so good, they all come together to pull us into the story and hate to see it end, so we keep watching where foolishly, in the back of our minds is the thought that this time something else might happen for the first few times, then we just sit down and enjoy after a while.

See my post on Movies and events on TCM higher up on the Board Index about Disney's A Christmas Carol.

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