Christmas Movies: 'Blackadder's Christmas Carol' (1988)

I'm sure amazon.com's Home Alone Blu Ray page has a link to buy a blu-ray player as well

 

"Elf" seems to be the new candidate, but some films don't make it into the rotation--"Fred Claus" so far hasn't.

 

Grown men wearing tights is creepy, not funny.

 

Infantile male humour is not my thing.

 

I thought Elf was pretty overrated. Bob Newhart was great in it and Zooey's cute, but that's about all it has going for it.

 

Christmas Movies You Haven't Seen: 13 Underrated Classics:

'Christmas in Connecticut' (1945). In her magazine column, Barbara Stanwyck poses as the perfect homemaker and housewife. In fact, she's not married and has never set foot in a kitchen, which becomes a problem when her boss (Sydney Greenstreet) invites himself and a contest-winning war hero over to her home for a traditional Christmas dinner. Her effort to keep up the deception makes up the bulk of this farce that's too seldom shown during the holidays."

Well, I have seen this, and it's not bad.

 

I've heard of, but never seen, this film.

Sydney Greenstreet and Barbara Stanwyck?



ed/ Definitely put on 'to do' list.

 

I think it's pretty funny.

 

'Christmas in July' (1940). One of three movies on this list scripted by the great Preston Sturges, who also directed. It's a short but sweet farce about a clerk (Dick Powell) who goes on a spending spree after his pals fake a telegram telling him he's won a coffee company's slogan contest. As the title suggests, it's a midsummer holiday miracle that gets him out of debt and reminds him that there's more to life than material possessions."

This is not on TCM's roster, and I haven't seen it.

 

Preston Sturges? Sounds good. I haven't seen it either.

 

'A Christmas Tale' (2008) A squabbling family is forced to come together at Christmastime when it's revealed that the matriarch will die within months if she doesn't receive a bone marrow transplant. Yes, you've seen this sort of melodrama before, but not with Catherine Deneuve as the matriarch, or with the constant inventiveness of Arnaud Desplechin's direction and screenplay."

Not this one, either.

 

'Comfort and Joy' (1984). In this comedy by Scottish master of drollery Bill Forsyth ('Local Hero'), a Glasgow radio DJ (Bill Paterson) gets dumped by his girlfriend at Christmastime. Full of holiday blues, he mopes miserably until a chance accident gets him caught in a gang war between two rival ice cream truck companies. (There's a plot twist you don't see every day.) There are lots of movies where a lost sad sack rediscovers love and purpose during the holidays, but none as offbeat or drily funny as this one."

I loved "Local Hero", and I haven't been able to see this one.

 

Oh, wow, hadn't heard of that one. I loved Local Hero too; that one sounds awesome too.

 

'Frozen River' (2008). Not many saw this indie movie when it was released two years ago, but it earned an Oscar nomination for star Melissa Leo. Playing a woman whose husband disappears along with the family savings a few days before Christmas, Leo stumbles across a dangerous but lucrative business opportunity, smuggling illegal aliens across the Canadian border via the iced-over waterway of the title. She develops an unlikely friendship with a similarly desperate Mohawk woman (Misty Upham) who becomes her partner in the scheme, and amid the plot's bleak events, the two learn some holiday lessons about friendship, loyalty, and family."

 

'Hi-Life' (1998). In Manhattan, Santa Claus is Jewish, hates kids, and gets beaten up for his troubles. Everyone else in this genial, shaggy-dog comedy, however, gets about what they deserve. The action centers around a tavern whose soft-touch bartender (Campbell Scott) makes the rounds hitting up friends for the money they owe him because his sister (Moira Kelly) claims an emergency. But actually, she's planning to give the money to her boyfriend (Eric Stoltz), a weaselly actor who hasn't told her he owes the whole sum to his bookie (Charles Durning). The characters (including several more only-in-New-York types) finally unite at the bar, where poetic justice is meted out and many cups of holiday cheer are knocked back."

 

A Midnight Clear' (1992). Maybe this would have become a hit and a holiday staple if it hadn't been released in April. In a snow-covered forest in the last months of World War II, American soldiers find a group of German soldiers who are about ready to give up the fight. Recognizing their shared humanity, they all enjoy a brief Christmas celebration before the fighting inevitably resumes. For a few moments in this dreamlike, poignant drama, the armed men are reduced to being innocent, snowball-hurling children - not hard to believe, since they're played by some now-familiar stars when they were at the dawns of their careers and startlingly baby-faced, including Ethan Hawke, Kevin Dillon and (making his movie debut) Gary Sinise."

 

The reason this one hasn't become a classic has more to do with the absolute bleakness of its vision than with its release date. It's a great, great movie, but it's just incredibly sad and painful. I watched it with a friend who said, as soon as it was over, "That was really good, but let's never watch it again." I didn't blame her. But you should definitely see it. It's a great movie.

 

'A Midwinter's Tale' (1995). Shakespeare maven Kenneth Branagh wrote and directed this comedy (shot in wintry black-and-white) about a troupe struggling to mount a Christmastime production of 'Hamlet' in order to save a local church. Naturally, things go awry backstage, love blossoms, actors' egos get bruised, and more laughs abound than you'd imagine from a movie centered around a Shakespearean tragedy."

 

'The Miracle of Morgan's Creek' (1944). This may be the funniest movie in Preston Sturges' celebrated career, though it's nearly forgotten now by all but film buffs. Betty Hutton plays the unfortunately named Trudy Kockenlocker, who, after a wild night with the USO, discovers she's been impregnated by a soldier she can't remember (who has already shipped off). Eddie Bracken is the 4-F nebbish who loves Trudy and is willing to make an honest woman out of her. The whole farce climaxes in a truly improbable Christmas miracle that not only makes everything all right but also probably saved the risqué plot from the Production Code censors. Really, it's a wonder Sturges was able to get away with making this movie at the height of World War II; indeed, there's much about it that would raise eyebrows even today."

Seen this one, and both Rogue and I are baffled at how they got this by the censors of the day. (My theory: Sturges had something on the head of the Catholic League of Decency). Not only funny, but also touching, and usually I am no fan of Hutton.

 

Oh, yeah, my favorite Sturges. "One day they're gonna find an ax and your hairbow and that's all. The Mystery of Morgan's Creek." Sidesplittingly funny movie.

 

'R Xmas' (2001). 'Sopranos' veterans Drea de Matteo and Lillo Brancato play a upwardly mobile immigrant couple living two lives, one as parents of a girl performing in her private school's Christmas pageant, the other as drug dealers. The two lives collide when a kidnapper (Ice-T) lures the husband into a trap by cliaming to have a black-market toy, the popular but unavailable doll that the daughter wants for Christmas. It's up to the wife to ransom and rescue him. Indie auteur Abel Ferrara's film is both a realistic crime drama and an oddly touching holiday fable."

 

The Ref' (1994). One way to get Denis Leary to go on a profane rant is to mention this Christmas satire, which flopped in part because Disney released it around St. Patrick's Day. Leary felt the movie deserved better handling, and he's right. He does some of his best work in this bracing satire, playing a burglar who takes as hostages a well-to-do suburban couple (Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis), only to be stuck inthe middle of their epic family squabble on Christmas Eve. Beneath all the cynicism, there's a holiday lesson (which is: count your blessings), but if you're looking for miracles and sentiment, you should probably look elsewhere."

I've actually seen this, and it's rather interesting.

 

Remember the Night' (1940). In another far-fetched farce from Preston Sturges, Fred MacMurray is a New York City assistant district attorney who takes pity on shoplifter Barbara Stanwyck, who's far from her home in Indiana. He brings her home for the holidays, and amid the warm family gathering, love blossoms. What's that going to mean when he has to prosecute her in court in a few days? Mitchell Leisen's direction keeps things light and frothy, and it's fun to see MacMurray and Stanwyck in very different roles from the murderous couple they would play a few years later in 'Double Indemnity.'

It's a funny and touching movie that deserves to be seen more often.