Favorite Christmas movies:

It's a Wonderful Life
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
The Muppet Christmas Carol
White Christmas

Least favorite:

Call me a scrooge, but pretty much everything else. Especially A Christmas Story and Ron Howard's How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

My wife's and my favorite is the version of 'A Christmas Carol' with George C. Scott: it contains an appropriate measure of Dickensian quirkiness, with a strong cast, beautiful settings, and an emotional punch. Watching it is a yearly tradition for us.

A Wish For Wings That Work - An unknown gem based on Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County/Outland characters. If nothing else, it stars Bill The Cat for crying out loud. If that doesn't scream "classic", I don't know what does.

The Apartment above all.

I concur with the Scott version and beg to differ, Darryl, on A Christmas Story. I'm a longtime fan of both Jean Shephard and Darrin McGavin. One of my best friends' family traditions is Peking Duck at one of the few restaurants open on Christmas. Been that way ever since the movie came out. Apparantly, this is an improvement over the haphazard celebration from when her Mom died when she was young. Now they do it as a lark and a joke. That's not one of the reasons why I like the film though.

Others in no particular order: The Family Man, Scrooged, Pocketful of Miracles, Die Hard, The Preacher's Wife, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, While You Were Sleeping, White Christmas. Almost all of these are rotating traditions with us (no time anymore to see 'em all).

Though it is my wife's favorite, I have little use for It's A Wonderful Life. I watchit with her occasionally, though.

Aw Rich, "little use for It's a Wonderful Life? That's my all-time favorite film!

Has anyone else seen Remember the Night starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray? This is a really warm-hearted Christmas film that deserves a lot more attention than it gets. Darryl, check this one out.

Sim's version of A Christmas Carol is probably my favorite. Of course, Mr. Magoo's version IS the best version, but I can't seem to find a copy of it anywhere.

Christmas specials (TV, really). None of them are great, but in descending order: The Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original), Frosty the Snowman, It's Christmas, Charlie Brown. Many of the others are just unacceptable, such as Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

I'll think of some more movies soon.

OK, I did a keyword search on IMDb for Christmas. Here are some of my favorites among the 1099 results (?? = not sure if this counts):

• The Apartment ??
• Brazil ??
• A Christmas Story
• Citizen Kane ??
• The Decalogue (parts)
• Die Hard and Die Hard 2 ??
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
• The Night of the Hunter

Of course they count. Christmas is Christmas. I tell you, nothing like Die Hard to get you out of the funk of a Christmas gone haywire (just like this one for us, at the moment). No Christmas I've been aware of gets that bad. My wife and I have a game we play in coming up with films with obscure references to Christmas.

Jazzaloha wrote:
: Has anyone else seen Remember the Night starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred
: McMurray? This is a really warm-hearted Christmas film that deserves a lot more
: attention than it gets.

[ blink ] [ blink ]

Wow, it DOES exist.

But I don't think I could ever see it without having constant flashbacks to Double Indemnity.

And written by Preston Sturges, too, eh?

I was very pleased to see Scrooge (1970) get a Region 2 release at long last. I'm about halfway through my second viewing this year -- the songs border on the banal at times, but that's Leslie Bricusse for you. Overall, it's a joy. Finney makes a great Scrooge, and Alec Guinness is hilariously camp as Marley.

Of the other Scrooge adaptations, I rank the Alistair Sim version (1951), the Muppet version (1993) and Scrooged (1988) the highest.

It's a Wonderful Life is the all-time ultimate Christmas film, of course. And I am looking forward to seeing the Capraesque "alternative" Christmas film Gremlins again this year.

Does anyone remember Henry Winkler's An American Christmas Carol?

Saw it on TV when it came out, but don't remember much except that it was weird to see the Fonz in a white wig, and his acting style was severely understated.

I would rank Scott slightly above Sim. Haven't seen the Owen version.

While channel-surfing in a hotel in Ocean Shores, Washington, my wife and I came across what has to be the worst Christmas Carol adaptation ever: The Gospel According to Scrooge. It was showing on TBN. Produced by Jesus People Church in Minneapolis, it features a scene where Bob Cratchit and Fred the Nephew meet up at First Victorian Charismatic Chapel and pray for Scrooge's soul, and there's an elbow-patch-jacketed pastor interrupting with wry homilies in case you can't follow the story. Every so often one of the actors will tear into a lame CCM tune, or remember to speak with a British accent.

On my list to watch: Patrick Stewart, Rich Little, Blackadder, Reginald Owen. On my list not to watch: Kelsey Grammer (this year, apparently), Hoyt Axton, Vanessa Williams.

I caught the 1937 Scrooge last night. It was short, but good. I still prefer Sim's 1951 version most of all. I have it set to record tonight!

I haven't seen all of Scott's version--just bits and pieces. I'll keep an eye out for it.

I have seen Blackadder--it's very funny in parts, but inconsistent. Best parts: Shakespeare/Branagh and the French army. Atkinson has a gift for sticking it to "the Frenchies".

Actually, some of his old "Frasier" Christmas specials were unparralleled, particularly the doorslamming farce from a few years ago where Frasier must pose as Jewish for the mother of a girlfriend even as Niles gets stuck playing Jesus Christ Superstar in the building hodge podge holiday catchall spectacular that he started out only directing.

The Ref.

DITTO!! I love this version. My wife got me hooked on it as it was her family's favorite Christmas flick. My 3-year old son is addicted. Finney is outstanding. Hard to believe he was so young. The special effects are horrible and there are one or two songs that need to go. "Happiness is a tall tree. Can I climb it? Watch, and see." Yuck.

But the Thank you very much, number, I hate People/Father Christmas and December the 25th are fantastic! And I do feel a little of Scrooge's pain when he sings "You" to Isabelle.

I second "Remember the Night." My wife and I make it a perrenial each year. Although it does get slow in the second half, I think it's a great hidden treasure.

Other hidden gems not mentioned here: Holiday Affair--a romantic comedy starring Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh--very very cute. And there's a quirky romantic comedy "Beyond Tomorrow" made in the early forties that is also really pleasant.

I think my all-time favorite unheralded Christmas movie, tho (and it probably doesn't count coz it was an hour-long TV special), was "Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas." An early Muppet departure, it doesn't have an ounce of cynicism, it is what it is, and the story will bring a tear to your eye.

As for heralded Christmas movies, I love "Holiday Inn", "Miracle on 34th Street", "Christmas in Connecticut", and "It's a Wonderful Life."

Dang, I almost got through the whole thread thinking I'd be the first to post this one, but SDG beat me to it.

BTW, I think this also meets your "Christmas movie challenge" from a few weeks ago - i.e., movies not too chicken-hearted to mention Jesus. I'm mis-remembering the exact quote, but there's a very funny exchange between a couple of Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis's awful relatives, where one of the kids complains about being bored and says, what are we gonna do now, and the kid's mother (Christine Baranski) snaps "Celebrate the birth of Christ!"

Other sentimental favorites are A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life.

Least favorite is Ron Howard's Grinch - a bad movie in its own right, made all the worse for soiling my childhood memories of the TV special (which I still watch every year).

mrmando wrote:
: While channel-surfing in a hotel in Ocean Shores, Washington, my wife and I
: came across what has to be the worst Christmas Carol adaptation ever: The
: Gospel According to Scrooge. It was showing on TBN.

Heh. Sounds dreadful. Any relation to this?

Yeah, as a matter of fact, there's a passing resemblance. In the TV show, Scrooge shows up at Fred's house proclaiming, "I'm saved!"

I was disappointed that the Jesus People Church couldn't accept Dickens' story on his own terms—they felt compelled to translate it into theirs. Awfully anachronistic of them.

The Bishop's Wife
The Bells of St. Mary's (that pageant scene is priceless)

In keeping with this, I would add The Hudsucker Proxy. I love the scene that takes place at the annual Christmas party for Hudsucker top brass and shareholders.

My favs.... traditional

It's a Wonderful Life
A Christmas Story
A Christmas Carol (Sim or Scott)
A Charlie Brown Christmas

My favs... non-traditional

Go
Bad Santa
Die Hard

Least Favorite

Christmas With the Kranks... OK, any Tim Allen Christmas movie
NBC's A Christmas Carol: The Musical ... my review

Pete,

Yes, Sturges wrote Remember the Night. I think you can get over the Double Idemnity vibe. This is a film I can recommend to anyone.

Nick,

I think I remember "Emmit Otter" the film/TV special, but I know I remember reading the book as a child. Loved it!

It's a bit offbeat, but isn't there a subtle Christmas undercurrent to About a Boy? There's the infamously bad Christmas song, and at least one Christmas...maybe two, as our hero discovers true love over the course of the film. I saw the DVD on sale today for an absurdly low price, but couldn't convince my DH that we needed it, so I can't refresh my memory just now...perhaps Santa will drop it down the chimney on Friday night

I have a low tolerance for Christmas movies. Alastair Sim as Scrooge, the 1947 Miracle on 34th Street (Natalie Wood, Edmund Gwenn). I'm a bit burnt out on It's a Wonderful Life (even though it IS). At some point, I always fall for A Christmas Story.

Christmas classics
The western and the musical may be dead, but the charmless Xmas movie is now a genre all of its own and doing gangbusters. Do they teach it in film school yet? In fact, it's really two genres: there are intentionally charmless Christmas movies like Bad Santa, and then the accidentally charmless ones, like that Ben Affleck flick where he's some heartless yuppie who rents a bluecollar family for the holiday season to give him the authentic home-made Christmas he's never known. The great American Christmas, the ne plus ultra of e pluribus unum, cooked up by Germans and Dutch, musicalised by Jews, appears on celluloid an utterly exhausted seam. My advice is skip 'em all and get a Looney Tunes DVD with Gift Wrapped on it, six minutes of pure pleasure in which Sylvester tries to land the only Christmas present he really wants -- Tweety. The film opens with Granny slumbering upstairs and the impatient cat sneakily unwrapping his gift. It's a rubber mouse and he's not happy about it. 'Why couldn’t I get thumthin' practical?' he complains. 'Like a real mouse.'
Mark Steyn, The Spectator, December 18

Top 5 Bah-Humbug Movies (MSNBC)
[indent]Five Christmas movies for people who really just don't like Christmas...

Less Than Zero...

Die Hard...

Gremlins...

Trading Places...

Lethan Weapon[/indent]...

I've never seen many of the classic Christmas films, so most of my favorites are modern. This year I'll be seeing It's a Wonderful Life in its entirety for the first time.

Faves:

Christmas Vacation
Home Alone
Die Hard

Least Favorites:
Silent Night, Deadly Night - a slasher movie involving a homicidal Santa. Its even worse than it sounds
8 Crazy Nights

(Nick, thanks for pointing out that typo. It's fixed.)

J.R. wrote:
: 8 Crazy Nights

Isn't that more of a Hanukkah movie?

Forgot A Midnight Clear—really liked that one.

Friends subjected us to Mixed Nuts the other day. Predictably, my reaction was mixed. It's scary how good Liev Schreiber is as a transvestite, and Adam Sandler does his SNL Elmer Fudd-meets-Tiny Tim schtick, if you like that sort of thing ... but if pressed I really couldn't say I recommend it. I mean, the first time you see Juliette Lewis, she's 8 months pregnant and counting. And it's a Christmas movie. How do you think it's going to end?

Joyeux Noel goes on the good list.

I'm trying to pick a good film for church the week after Thanksgiving to move us into Advent and Christmas. Already done It's a Wonderful Life (which nearly everyone said they had never seen all at once, just bits and pieces over the years until they had seen it all). My group doesn't do subtitles, so I can't do JN. Leaning toward Miracle on 34th St. Open to other suggestions.

The Bishop's Wife.

Capote.

Catch Me If You Can.

Every year my wife and I make a concentrated effort to catch another, rare, Christmas movie we've never seen before.

So far this season, we have caught three "new" rare Christmas movies. Since none of these have been mentioned before, I'd thought I'd share here.

1) The Nativity (TV) starring Madeline Stowe, Leo McKern and John Rhys-Davies. This film was apparently a cheap attempt to cash in on the "Jesus of Nazareth" television-movie phenomenon. Altho it gets a lot of historical things wrong (Salome?!?), and it includes a trio of "Dragnet" type Herod-appointed investigators to the story (of which bare-shouldered Rhys-Davies is one of them), and even though Madeline Stowe was clearly in need of some acting training before taking this job (her smiley-but-banal recitation of the Magnificat is priceless), this film is still not the catastrophe it could have been. Once it gets going, it is not boring, and the filmmakers have a lot of sincerity on their minds, which truly complements the season. C

2) One Magic Christmas starring Harry Dean Stanton and Mary Steenburgen. - Another discovery at a closing of a video rental store... this film is one of those terribly missed chances, where the acting, cinematography, and magical elements are all top-notch, but the story is so awful that you wonder what the screenwriters were smoking. It starts morosely enough, as it focuses upon the hardships of a blue-collar family enduring some unlucky breaks. But then a series of unfortunate incidents at the half-way mark are so over-the-top in its banal melodrama that you don't know whether to laugh out loud or kill yourself. Lessee... within a timespan of ten minutes, the sole breadwinner wife (Mary Steenburgen) loses her job, witnesses her husband's death in a bank robbery, has her car stolen by same bankrobber, with her two precocious kids inside... after which it runs off a bridge into the river. The resolution to all of this has a few moments of movie magic, but not nearly enough without becoming a true slap in the face to families who have endured hardships on their own. D

3) The Cheaters - This is a super rare movie that doesn't play on television anymore... I purchased a VHS off the turnerclassicmovies.com website. Made in 1945. the only recognizable actress in this ensemble comic effort is Billie Burke, otherwise known as Glenda, the Good Witch. Here she plays the matriarch of an upper-class spoiled family that takes in an unfortunate drunkard/actor for the Christmas holidays (not for altruistic reasons, but to impress a future son-in-law). During this time they discover that a relative has passed away, but has left his will entirely to an actress he admired some many years ago. The family schemes to find this actress, keep her from this knowledge, and take her in under false pretenses, just long enough until the lawyers give up finding this person, and give the will to them. Screwball madness ensues.

This lost film is cursed by the worst title I've ever encountered for a Christmas movie, but a Christmas movie it truly is, particularly in its last fifteen minutes, where the mad screwball comedy switches to a phenomenal scene where we are given a beautiful rendition of "Silent Night" by carollers, after which the drunkard/actor, who has had a change of heart, goes into a wonderful monologue about the meaning of Christmas, touching upon the religious and Dickensian elements of the holiday. Some critics have compared this film favorably (or not) to _It's a Wonderful Life_, and altho it does not reach such heights, it is a worthy movie all the same. Worth the search. B+

My wife is insisting that we watch some movie called "The Fourth Wise Man," starring Martin Sheen. I'm thinking it was made for cable.

Anyway, she explains the plot: A fourth wise man can't make the trip with the other three, but tries to catch up to them, helping others along the way. Later in life, feeling like a failure who missed out on Christ's birth, Jesus appears to him and explains that everything worked out according to God's plan, or something like that.

It sounds dreadful, but Sarah wants to watch it again. With me.

I guess it'll be this year's Christmas viewing.

We watched Bad Santa this weekend. Add it to the list for a piece of coal in the stocking.

I've seen bits and pieces of it, but from what I've seen it's not that bad. Any film with Alan Arkin in it is worth a look (Santa Clause 3 and Chu Chu and the Philly Flash notwithstanding...)

Just got round to watching Patrick Stewart's A Christmas Carol. Some thoughts:

It starts with Marley's funeral/interment, which, I think, is an innovation. Works pretty well, except when the screenwriter tries to put the narrator's "Mind you! I don't know what there is particularly dead about a doornail" into the dialogue. Feels forced.

Stewart plays the early scene in the office unlike any other Scrooge I've seen: Evidently he's worried that business isn't going so well just at the moment, which serves to explain his grouchy mood. (Maybe Uncle Billy mislaid eight thousand dollars at the bank?) Terrific choices by Stewart early on.

Bob and Mrs. Cratchit are quite well played; Mrs. Cratchit in particular might be the strongest one in any of the films.

Marley's a bit stiff, and his lines are where I begin to notice that the screenwriter is "modernizing" the language a bit too much. You can't improve on Dickens' dialogue, especially with lines like "I missed it."

Joel Grey is an interesting Christmas Past. The screenwriter has inexplicably changed the name of Scrooge's sister from the delightful, mysterious "Fan" to the completely ordinary "Fran." Bah, humbug. Bit of anachronism with Mrs. Fezziwig professing to be "on a diet"; a shame considering that the period costumes are actually quite good.

Christmas Present has a promising beginning and then starts mailing in his lines. (Check out the Scott version for an unforgettable Christmas Present.) Screenwriting takes a turn for the worse, as Christmas Present gets stuck saying things like "You should have accepted your nephew's invitation." That should be subtext, not dialogue. Pacing gets bogged down at Fred's party, with Scrooge and the Ghost bickering about whether to leave.

Until we see Christmas Yet to Come, the production design has been nothing short of brilliant, down to the serpent player at Fezziwig's. For some inexplicable reason, however, YtC has a pair of glowing eyes under his black hood. Looks like an overgrown Jawa; not the least bit frightening. The actor can't seem to get his arms clear of his body (blame it on the costume?), severely limiting his ability to communicate with gesture ... which is a shame since that's all he has to communicate with. Screenwriting gets downright wacky in this section. Bob Cratchit has his famous line about "how green a place it is," referring to Tiny Tim's grave. Then he goes upstairs, and lo & behold, Tim's corpse is still lying in bed. What the ...? When Scrooge finally encounters his grave, it cracks open and he falls into it, coming face to face with his own corpse. Then he keeps falling down a rabbit hole and wakes up in his own bed ... downright silly if you ask me.

Strong finish that spends a bit more time on the reformed Scrooge than is usual, but by this point the damage to the story is done. Stewart's acting is strong throughout, but the screenwriter should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.

I quite like The Snowman. Heck, it's one of my favourite movies period.

Hmm, a few unrelated points to make.

Firstly one of the highlight of my Christmas was getting to watch "It's a WOnderful Life" in a cinema - fnatastic (esp the complimentary mince pies and mulled wine) - it went on to come top in the AFi 100 years 100 cheers poll.

Secondly I caught the end of the STewart film over Christmas two, and was surprised by the ending I found therein. Looked good and was annoyed I'd not watched more.

Thirdly, I was even more annoyed to miss a Swiss animated version of the Fourth Wise man

The UCC church I've been attending from time to time is going to be doing an Advent film series with The Fourth Wise Man, Amahl and the Night Visitors and A Christmas Story.

I've never seen (at least since I was a child too small to appreciate it) Amahl, so I've just put in a request at the library and I'll watch it sometime during Advent. It's the 1979 version. Is the Golden Age of TV version available anywhere (other the the Museum of Radio and TV?) Interesting that in a quick perusal of this thread, it hasn't had a mention.

Come to find out, this is straight from the book. Am still not convinced that it works, but at least it's faithful.

I like many of the traditional (It's a Wonderful Life) and non-traditional (Die Hard, Hudsucker Proxy). And I really, really like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. I could go on and on about the virtues of this movie (and, well, the faults too).

OK. I'm going to venture beyond the safe walls of the music forum and venture into the big bad world of movie buffs, because I can at least offer up favorite Christmas movie. Without a doubt it is It's a Wonderful Life. Since getting married five years ago Lindsay and I have started a tradition of watching the movie the Sunday following Thanksgiving. It's a tradition that I love and I can't wait to settle down a live a little in Bedford Falls this upcoming week.

A second tradition we're starting is to purchase a holiday related movie once per year, although we might run out of worthy contenders quickly. To put this in context, we don't buy movies very often, so to purchase even one is a very big deal. The first year this started we purchased It's a Wonderful Life. Year two was a new holiday favorite of mine: Elf. This year we're considering the animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas or the original Miracle on 34th Street which my wife swears she has never seen, which I find absolutely criminal because I'm certain we've watched it together. I'm leaning towards the Grinch because our daughter is at the age where she might be interested for a few minutes in the singing and the motion of the Grinch. We could at least share a couple of holiday moments with her.

Slate identifies some overlooked Christmas movies.

Of course, It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story would be at the top of my list of favorite Christmas movies. And Ron Howard's Grinch movie was utterly abominable.

But a film that I don’t know if this belongs in the best or worst Christmas movies list, but certainly the strangest Christmas movie I've ever seen is a 1959 Mexican film named Santa Claus. The Mexicans bring their own weird ideas into the Santa myth. Imagine that Santa lives in a Crystal Palace in outer space where Merlin the Magician helps him in his work. I can only assume he's moonlighting from his gig in Camelot. Santa has a nativity scene in his workshop as well, providing the film with a strange mix of Christian and Santa theology. In the film, Satan sends his top devil, Pitch, to up to Earth and turn all the children of earth against Santa. The depiction and costume design for the devil offers the same realism that one would find in the dramatic productions on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Fortunately Santa saves the day in the end, just like Bibleman would dispatch any demons that get all up in his grill.

Fortunately Mystery Science Theater 3000 preserved this film and provided the commentary that a bizarre piece of work deserves. As they also provide on the classic film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians which is the same kind of thing, only instead of Satan, Santa Claus has to face off against Martians who try to kidnap him, and prevails by showing love to the Martian kids.

The best thing I can say about both of these films is that Tim Allen is not involved in either one.