6 Classic Christmas Movies That Are Often Overlooked
1. Remember the Night (1940). Starring Babara Stanwyck & Fred MacMurray. Directed by Mitchell Leisen. Synopsis: A hard charging district attorney (MacMurray) invites a shoplifter (Stanwyck) back to his family’s Indiana home for the holidays to spare her jail time before trial. Response: A heartwarming & romantic comedy that shows Stanwyck at her absolute best. She & MacMurray have abundant chemistry that was exploited in 3 other films during the 1940’s. One of the last films Preston Sturges wrote, but did not direct.
2.Christmas in Connecticut (1945). Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet & S.Z. Sakill. Directed by Peter Godfrey. Synopsis: A homemaking magazine columnist (Stanwyck) must recreate her fictionalized ‘perfect life’ on a Connecticut farm in order to fool her publisher & a war hero sent to experience the perfect Christmas. Complete with a boorish fake husband & a linguistically challenged uncle (Sakill). Response: A wonderful comedy of mistaken identity, romantic asides & a dash of slapstick.
3.Holiday Affair (1949). Starring Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh & Wendall Corey. Directed by Don Hartman. Synopsis: A war widow (Leigh) with a young son must decide between 2 suitors, one a stable attorney (Corey) & the other a dashing drifter. (Mitchum). Response: Mitchum gets the opportunity to play a true romantic lead, without a gun, a horse or a uniform, but still drips with the charm & dangerous appeal that made him one of my favorite actors. Leigh, in one of her early leading roles, is completely charming as she must upend her life during the Christmas holidays to try to fine true love.
4.The Shop Around the Corner (1940). Starring James Stewart & Margaret Sullivan. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Synopsis: Retail clerks (Stewart & Sullivan) navigate blind romance when they unknowingly answer each other’s romantic want ads. The original version of You’ve Got Mail (1998), Shop Around the Corner was one of master director Lubitsch’s last triumph’s & every bit of his wit & sly humor shines through in the supporting cast, while the sentimental love affair burns between 2 characters who don’t like each other, but fall in love through the power of the written word.
5.It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947). Starring Victor Moore, Don DeFore, Gale Storm & Charles Ruggles. Directed by Roy Del Ruth. Synopsis: A homeless man (Moore), who takes up residence in a millionaire’s home during the holidays, invites a rag tag group of homeless veterans (DeFore), their families & inadvertently the homeowner (Ruggles), his wife (Ann Harding) & their daughter (Storm) to join him. The sense of community created by Aloysuis T. McKeever (Moore) leads to everyone mending their lives to a greater & more loving purpose. Response: The perfect fable for the holidays, It Happened on 5th Avenue is a forgotten gem that has been resurrected by TCM. McKeever is a pied piper of homespun wisdom, drawing out the best in everyone as he wears the expensive clothes, smokes the cigars & liberally depletes the larder of the money hungry millionaire, who is forced to wash the dishes to disguise his presence.
6.Christmas Holiday (1944). Starring Deana Durbin, Gene Kelly, Gale Sondergaard, Dean Harens. Directed by Robert Siodmak. Synopsis: A young woman (Durbin) hides from the family of her estranged husband (Kelly) & meets a young soldier (Harens)stranded during the holidays. Her life is told in flashbacks that reveal the dark past. Response: Directed by Noir master Siodmak, Response: Christmas Holiday is as dark as It Happened on 5th Avenue is bright. Durbin plays one of her too few adult roles brilliantly as the idealistic, then disheartened Femme Fatale-esque singer in what fronts for a brothel. Kelly plays the darkest character of his career, but the against-type casting is eye opening & well done. Sondegaard is at her evil best as Kelly’s twisted mother. Set in New Orleans, the film has all the eerie atmosphere of Siodmak’s best Films Noir.
2.Christmas in Connecticut (1945). Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet & S.Z. Sakill. Directed by Peter Godfrey. Synopsis: A homemaking magazine columnist (Stanwyck) must recreate her fictionalized ‘perfect life’ on a Connecticut farm in order to fool her publisher & a war hero sent to experience the perfect Christmas. Complete with a boorish fake husband & a linguistically challenged uncle (Sakill). Response: A wonderful comedy of mistaken identity, romantic asides & a dash of slapstick.
3.Holiday Affair (1949). Starring Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh & Wendall Corey. Directed by Don Hartman. Synopsis: A war widow (Leigh) with a young son must decide between 2 suitors, one a stable attorney (Corey) & the other a dashing drifter. (Mitchum). Response: Mitchum gets the opportunity to play a true romantic lead, without a gun, a horse or a uniform, but still drips with the charm & dangerous appeal that made him one of my favorite actors. Leigh, in one of her early leading roles, is completely charming as she must upend her life during the Christmas holidays to try to fine true love.
4.The Shop Around the Corner (1940). Starring James Stewart & Margaret Sullivan. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Synopsis: Retail clerks (Stewart & Sullivan) navigate blind romance when they unknowingly answer each other’s romantic want ads. The original version of You’ve Got Mail (1998), Shop Around the Corner was one of master director Lubitsch’s last triumph’s & every bit of his wit & sly humor shines through in the supporting cast, while the sentimental love affair burns between 2 characters who don’t like each other, but fall in love through the power of the written word.
5.It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947). Starring Victor Moore, Don DeFore, Gale Storm & Charles Ruggles. Directed by Roy Del Ruth. Synopsis: A homeless man (Moore), who takes up residence in a millionaire’s home during the holidays, invites a rag tag group of homeless veterans (DeFore), their families & inadvertently the homeowner (Ruggles), his wife (Ann Harding) & their daughter (Storm) to join him. The sense of community created by Aloysuis T. McKeever (Moore) leads to everyone mending their lives to a greater & more loving purpose. Response: The perfect fable for the holidays, It Happened on 5th Avenue is a forgotten gem that has been resurrected by TCM. McKeever is a pied piper of homespun wisdom, drawing out the best in everyone as he wears the expensive clothes, smokes the cigars & liberally depletes the larder of the money hungry millionaire, who is forced to wash the dishes to disguise his presence.
6.Christmas Holiday (1944). Starring Deana Durbin, Gene Kelly, Gale Sondergaard, Dean Harens. Directed by Robert Siodmak. Synopsis: A young woman (Durbin) hides from the family of her estranged husband (Kelly) & meets a young soldier (Harens)stranded during the holidays. Her life is told in flashbacks that reveal the dark past. Response: Directed by Noir master Siodmak, Response: Christmas Holiday is as dark as It Happened on 5th Avenue is bright. Durbin plays one of her too few adult roles brilliantly as the idealistic, then disheartened Femme Fatale-esque singer in what fronts for a brothel. Kelly plays the darkest character of his career, but the against-type casting is eye opening & well done. Sondegaard is at her evil best as Kelly’s twisted mother. Set in New Orleans, the film has all the eerie atmosphere of Siodmak’s best Films Noir.
