Holiday Movie Watching

Holiday 🎄movies — have you been watching them more this year? It's OK to 'fess up

The past few years, we never managed to watch all the holiday movies in our collection, which currently numbers just over 50, a bit more with a couple of compilation DVDs. 

But, this year, beginning in early November, we started going through the collection in alphabetical order and we each selected a film a night. We started with, Beyond Christmas, and recently ended with We're No Angels. Some of the films in our collection may be unfamiliar to many of you and a few will be described in this post; several are unusual, but worth a look.

Years ago, we would take turns and randomly choose a movie for the night's viewing. This meant we never watched every film, some would be skipped to pick favorites. of course, not traveling during either of the major holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas also helped increase this year's viewing

Our collection includes films with similar, but not identical titles or storylines: The Man Who Saved Christmas (the story of toymaker A.C. GIlbert) and The Man Who Invented Christmas (the story of how Charles Dickens penned A Christmas Carol). Several movies in our collection have the word, holiday, in the title: Holiday Inn (1942), Holiday Affair (1949) and The Holiday (2006).

We have many versions of A Christmas Carol: a 1938 film with Reginald Owen, 1984 version with George C. Scott, 1992 Muppets Christmas Carol, and the 2009 animated version with Jim Carrey. One day we'll add the 1951 version with Alastair Sim, which many consider the best one of the bunch. We also have Scrooged, a 1988 fantasy-comedy version starring Bill Murray and including all three of his brothers — John, Joel, and Brian Doyle-Murray. We've skipped most of these this year, opting to watch the Scott and Murray versions.

Dickens is said to have named the story, A Christmas Carol, as he expected it to be repeated and shared and to bring families together like the singing of carols that spread happiness each season in London.

We also watched movies newly-added to our collection and bought on eBay this year: Home Alone 2, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Trading Places, While You Were Sleeping, and 3 Godfathers. That last 1948 film is considered the only Christmas western, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. For the plot line, think of the story of the Three Wise Men only with cowboys. The film was based on a 1930 story of the same title. It wasn't one of our favorites and might not be to your liking, unless you're a big John Wayne fan.

One with a similar theme is the1940 movie, Beyond Tomorrow, one of our holiday favorites. It's also known as Beyond Christmas and So Goodbye. The movie is considered a fantasy film and includes early special effects. It was produced by noted cinematographer Lee Garmes. There are no famous stars in the film, but it featured a quartet of veteran character actors, all seven received a "Featuring" billing after the movie title. The plot takes place during the Christmas season, but the film is little-remembered. As the story begins, three rich, but lonely engineers invite a pair of strangers, a young couple, to share Christmas Eve in their mansion. The trio bonds with them, but there's an untimely plane crash and then. Sorry, but you will have to see the film to learn what happened. Hint: you can find it online.

An offbeat 1950 comedy film, Rupert the Great, also titled The Great Rupert stars Jimmy Durante as a down-and-out former vaudeville performer whose family falls on hard times at Christmas time. A furry friend becomes their guardian angel in the form of a squirrel named Rupert as money starts raining down from a hole in the ceiling. Admittedly, it's a totally absurd plot line. This low-budget film was reviewed in The New York Times which described it as wholly ingratiating adding that it had a happy cast of characters. While not a great film by any means, it's a fun one with a good message as Durante's character is shown helping his neighbors after his new-found wealth. Sorry no further plot details here, but you can also find this one online.

The cast includes actor Tom Drake, who plays a love interest in the film and six years earlier as John Truitt was the love interest of Judy Garland in the 1944 film, Meet Me in St Louis. That film  featured the now classic holiday tune, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Mixed Nuts is an American Christmas dark comedy, directed by Nora Ephron, which features a stellar comedic cast including Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, Robert Klein, Adam Sandler, Rob Reiner, and Garry Shandling. The events focus around a crisis hotline in coastal CA on Christmas Eve. It was released in theaters on December 21, 1994 and while critically and commercially unsuccessful then, it's now a cult classic.

While also enjoy vintage B&W films including It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, Holiday Inn, The Bishop's Wife, It Happened in Connecticut. We have several contemporary favorites: Love Actually, a 2003 release, which features an ensemble cast of mostly British actors, many of whom had worked with director Richard Curtis on film and TV projects. Filmed in London, the screenplay delves into various aspects of love, shown in 10 separate stories involving people who are shown to be connected as the story progresses. It begins 5 weeks before Christmas and plays out until the holiday with an epilogue one month later. Released in the U.S. in November 2003, it got mixed reviews. One week later it opened in the UK to positive reviews. It was a box office hit, more popular with audiences than critics then, it's now a modern Christmas movie staple.

Three years later in 2006, The Holiday, premiered in NYC in November, a month before its December theatrical release in the US and UK. This romantic comedy featured Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz as two women from opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean who arrange a Christmas home exchange  to escape heartbreak in their respective countries. Written, produced and directed by Nancy Meyers the film was a financial success  and grossed over $200 million against a $85 million budget. It garnered mixed reviews with critics praising cast performances and the film's aesthetic appeal but with a predictable plot. Nevertheless, it remains a modern classic now.

We did a snowy day movie marathon of all three Tim Allen holiday films: 1994 The Santa Clause, 2002 Santa Clause 2 (The Mrs Clause) and 2006 Santa Clause 3 (the escape clause). 

We also watched The Polar Express, The Grinch That Stole Christmas, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. And, the 1989 film, Christmas Vacation is always on our holiday viewing list. Maybe some of these are on yours too?

 

Two Netflix original films, Christmas Chronicles and Christmas Chronicles2 with Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn will be added to our DVD collection within a few years. Right now, these films are too recent to be reasonably priced. All of the above-mentioned holiday films added to our collection this year were purchased online for $5 to $6 with free shipping. Buying several older films wasn't costly and definitely provided a lot of evening entertainment for us this year and in the future.

Now, I'll admit we haven't watched Hallmark holiday movies as we're not cable subscribers. Many of these can be seen on YouTube and so are next on our holiday watching list. After all, there's still time left before Christmas and we're not going anywhere then or afterwards.

Plus, there's no shame in being a Hallmark Christmas movie addict as lots of folks are now. My brother told me he's been watching them too.

Your turn, what holiday films, if any, have you been watching the past couple of months and what are some of your favorites?