Holiday Movies On Tv Aren't Always What They Seem

Summary

---

There's more to this annual phenomenon than meets the eye. Aside from Billy Bob Thornton's hilariously bawdy "Bad Santa" (2003), which doesn't qualify as wholesome film fare, I can't think of a recent holiday movie worth its salt. Watching most of them is as annoying as hearing Elvis Presley's dreadful version of "Blue Christmas."

For my money, more adult and more meaningful for the season - although none of them slobbered over Christmas - were the gangster-oriented "Christmas Eve" (1947) with George Raft and Randolph Scott; the John Ford classic Western "3 Godfathers," with John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz and Harry Carey Jr.; and the Oscar-winning, star-studded "Battleground" (both 1949); "Stalag ir (1953); "The Apartment" (1960); the original 1962 "The Manchurian Candidate"; "The Victors" (1963); "The French Connection" (1971); "The Silent Partner" (1978); "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979); "Die Hard" (1988); and "Die Hard 2" (1990).

Then there's vintage stuff like Laurel and Hardy's "Babes in Toyland" (1934), re-titled "March of the Wooden Soldiers" for TV, "Holiday Inn" (1942) in which Bing Crosby introduced Irving Berlin's timeless "White Christmas," 1945's "The Bells of St. Mary's," "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947) set in Macy's department store with Edmund Gwenn in his Oscarwinning role as Kris Kringle, Bob Hope in "The Lemon Drop Kid" (1951), [Frank Capra]'s "A Pocketful of Miracles" (1961) with Bette Davis and Glenn Ford and 1969's "Silent Night, Lonely Night," with Lloyd Bridges and Shirley Jones.

[...] there's vintage stuff like Laurel and Hardy's "Babes in Toyland" (1934), re-titled "March of the Wooden Soldiers" for TV, "Holiday Inn" (1942) in which Bing Crosby introduced Irving Berlin's timeless "White Christmas," 1945's "The Bells of St. Mary's," "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947) set in Macy's department store with Edmund Gwenn in his Oscarwinning role as Kris Kringle, Bob Hope in "The Lemon Drop Kid" (1951), Capra's "A Pocketful of Miracles" (1961) with Bette Davis and Glenn Ford and 1969's "Silent Night, Lonely Night," with Lloyd Bridges and Shirley Jones. [...] I heartily recommend "The Gathering" with Ed Asner and Maureen Stapleton, which I was fortunate to be able to witness being filmed in Cleveland in 1977.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Holiday Movies On Tv Aren't Always What They Seem

"The song says '12 days of Christmas.' One day of Christmas is loathsome enough..." - Laurence Harvey, "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962)

Suffice it to say that the winter holidays - including Christmas - aren't embraced by everyone. Indeed, a whole lot of peo...

See the full content of this document

---