Christmas Films Have Been on my Menu of Late, With More to Come

'

The Happiest Season joins other Christmas classics.

Tis the season for holiday films. They are plentiful these days with Hallmark, Netflix and other stations and streaming services cranking them out by the dozen with increasing frequency. Most are sappy, facile and overly sentimental. If you want to watch a good Christmas-themed movie it’s better to stick with the classics as I’ve been doing this past week (with a notable exception). Here’s a brief look at what I’ve been watching and what’s still on tap.

Meet John Doe (1941) Capra, one of director Frank Capra’s trinity of great films (along with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It’s a Wonderful Life) though it barely qualifies as holiday fare. The final fifteen minutes take place on Christmas Eve. There’s passing reference to the birth of Jesus, but nary a word about Santa or gift-giving. Not a carol is heard. But I still wait until December before watching it. Doe is the story of a hobo (Gary Cooper) who is used by a columnist (Barbara Stanwyck) to act as a non-existent person who claims that he’ll jump off city hall on Christmas Eve to protest social injustice. As a result her paper's circulation goes through the roof. More that that an entire social movement about truly loving thy neighbor is inspired which an unscrupulous businessman (Edward Arnold) tries to exploit to begin a fascist regime with him as führer. For me it’s Cooper’s best role and another in a career of gems by Stanwyck. The supporting cast, led by James Gleason, is superb.

Happiest Season (2020) DuVall. What have we here? A recently made Christmas film that’s actually quite good? It is in many ways typical of the new formulaic Christmas film but unlike the others it has a smart screenplay, good direction and an excellent cast. It’s a good movie but for it’s genre it’s an absolute gem. Kristen Stewart (as Abby) and Mackenzie Davis (as Harper) play lesbian lovers who go to spend Christmas with Davis’ family. Ahh but Harper hasn’t come out to her folks yet and with her father (Vincent Garber) set to launch a mayoral campaign this is going to be awkward. Mary Holland (who also wrote the screenplay) as the wacky younger sister and Dan Levy as Abby’s best friend are scene stealers. The cast also includes Aubrey Plaza, Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie and Ana Gasteyer. Despite a one-dimensional character, a plot contrivance and an over-the-top scene, Happiest Season is a success and belongs with the best of holiday fare.

The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944) Sturges. It begins and ends on Christmas Eve but it also has barely anything to do with the holiday. Creek is part of the incredible run of films that Preston Sturges wrote and directed from 1940-1944. How he slipped it by the censors is still a mystery to many. The nebbish Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken) is madly in love with the young and vivcasiou Trudy Kockenlocker. One night she goes to a dance with soldiers who will the next day depart for the front. In the process she hits her head and thus doesn’t remember getting married or impregnated. Absent any clue who the new hubby is, Norval does the honorable thing, but complications aplenty ensue as does hilarity. Diana Lynn as Trudy’s wisecracking sister and William Demarest as her irascible father are both scene stealers.

Remember the Night (1940) Leisen is another vehicle for Stanwyck, this time co-starring  Fred MacMurray as John Sargent. The latter is a prosecuting attorney who’s bent on seeing Stanwyck’s character, Lee Leander, in the hoosegow for shoplifting. But a holiday recess is called and events lead to Sargent taking Leander home to Indiana for a cozy country Christmas with his mom, maiden aunt and a cousin. It’s all sweet, innocent fun with an inevitable love story in the middle. A real charmer.

The Bishop’s Wife (1947) Koster. By rights this movie is too religious for my tastes but it’s such a beguiling tale that I find it irresistible. How do you not like a picture in which Cary Grant plays an angel? Dudley (Grant) is an angel sent to help a bishop (David Niven) who is wrestling with materialism and the desire to have an ostentatious cathedral (is there any other kind?) built for his flock. Loretta Young is the titular wife and she’s as lovely as ever. Dudley — hardly a surprise — falls for her. But there are rules in heaven…. Monty Wooley as a sherry-loving professor adds to the film’s delights, as does our old friend James Gleason.

Tonight I’ll be watching A Christmas Carol (1951) Hurst. This is my favorite cinematic version of the story, in large part due to Alistar Sim’s performance as Ebenezeer Scrooge. He is the perfect miser and later the perfect repentant. It's an economic telling of the story but nothing crucial is omitted.

Tomorrow will be my almost annual (have missed it a few times) viewing of It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) Capra. I can practically recite the movie from memory. Suffice to say I recommend it highly to anyone who hasn’t yet seen it.

Friday I’ll be enjoying a double feature leading off with A Christmas Tale (2008) Desplechin which I haven’t seen since it’s initial theatrical run. I thus can’t say too much about it now other than I wrote about it at the time and am looking forward to revisiting it. In the evening I’ll be watching Christmas in Connecticut (1945) Godfrey for at least the 16th year in a row (it may be as many as twenty). I have yet to tire of it. The cast is lead by Stanwyck in yet another Christmas film. This may be one of her better roles (which is really saying something given her impressive filmography). She plays a writer for a magazine who extolls the country life and raising a family (despite living in the city and being single). Her boss (Sidney Greenstreet) insists she host a navy hero (Dennis Morgan) -- who survived weeks at sea after a submarine attack -- for Christmas at her country home. What a pickle! She navigates in and out of trouble as laughs and romance ensue.

Christmas Eve day I’ll finish my Yuletide film marathon with The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) Keighley. This used to be a Christmas staple for me but I finally grew weary of it. After a few years hiatus it’s back on the menu. Bette Davis co-stars along with Monty Wooley with appearances by Jimmy Durante and the deliciously lovely Ann Sheridan. It’s a familiar story to most having been done on the stage repeatedly for decades. It’s also jolly good fun.