A Holiday Showcase: Exploring Overlooked Christmas Films
One thing that annoys concerning a lot of contemporary seasonal films is their excessive self-awareness – the gaudy decorations, the predictable soundtrack selections, and the clichéd dialogue about the essence of the season. Perhaps because the style was not ossified into routine, films from the 1940s often approach Yuletide from far more creative and far less obsessive angles.
The Affair on Fifth Avenue
An delightful gem from exploring 1940s holiday comedies is It Happened on Fifth Avenue, a 1947 lighthearted comedy with a great hook: a cheerful drifter winters in a vacant posh townhouse each year. One winter, he invites strangers to reside with him, including a ex-soldier and a teenager who happens to be the heiress of the property's wealthy owner. Director Roy Del Ruth imbues the film with a makeshift family warmth that most newer Christmas movies have to labor to attain. The film beautifully walks the line between a thoughtful story on housing and a whimsical metropolitan romance.
The Tokyo Godfathers
The acclaimed director's 2003 animated film Tokyo Godfathers is a engaging, heartbreaking, and deeply moving interpretation on the holiday narrative. Inspired by a western movie, it follows a trio of displaced people – an drinker, a trans woman, and a young runaway – who come across an discarded infant on the night before Christmas. Their mission to find the infant's parents unleashes a sequence of unexpected events involving yakuza, foreigners, and apparently fateful encounters. The animation celebrates the magic of coincidence typically found in seasonal tales, delivering it with a stylish aesthetic that steers clear of saccharine feeling.
The John Doe Story
While Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life rightly earns much acclaim, his lesser-known work Meet John Doe is a notable seasonal film in its own right. Featuring Gary Cooper as a down-on-his-luck everyman and Barbara Stanwyck as a clever reporter, the film starts with a fabricated missive from a man vowing to leap from a ledge on December 24th in despair. The people's response leads the reporter to hire a man to impersonate the fictional "John Doe," who later becomes a country-wide icon for neighborliness. The narrative functions as both an heartwarming story and a pointed indictment of wealthy publishers seeking to manipulate grassroots sentiment for their own ends.
The Silent Partner
While holiday slasher movies are now commonplace, the holiday crime caper remains a strangely rare style. This makes the 1978 gem The Silent Partner a unique surprise. Featuring a superbly vile Christopher Plummer as a thieving Santa Claus and Elliott Gould as a clever bank teller, the film pits two kinds of morally ambiguous characters against each other in a sleek and twisty yarn. Largely unseen upon its initial release, it is worthy of new attention for those who enjoy their Christmas stories with a chilling edge.
The Almost Christmas
For those who enjoy their Christmas reunions chaotic, Almost Christmas is a hoot. With a stellar ensemble that has Danny Glover, Mo'Nique, and JB Smoove, the film explores the dynamics of a family forced to endure five days under one roof during the festive period. Private dramas come to the top, culminating in situations of extreme comedy, such as a dinner where a firearm is produced. Naturally, the film arrives at a satisfying conclusion, offering all the entertainment of a seasonal disaster without any of the personal cleanup.
Go Movie
The director's 1999 movie Go is a Yuletide-set story that is a teen-oriented riff on woven stories. Although some of its comedy may feel product of the 90s upon revisiting, the picture nevertheless offers many things to savor. These are a cool role from Sarah Polley to a standout scene by Timothy Olyphant as a dangerous pusher who amusingly wears a Santa hat. It embodies a particular brand of fin-de-siècle movie attitude set against a festive scene.
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
Preston Sturges's wartime film The Miracle of Morgan's Creek rejects typical Christmas warmth in favor for bawdy humor. The film centers on Betty Hutton's character, who ends up expecting after a wild night but cannot identify the man involved. A lot of the comedy stems from her situation and the efforts of Eddie Bracken's hapless Norval Jones to help her. Although not obviously a holiday film at the start, the narrative climaxes on the Christmas, showing that Sturges has created a playful take of the Christmas story, filled with his signature satirical style.
Better Off Dead Movie
This 1985 adolescent comedy featuring John Cusack, Better Off Dead, is a textbook artifact of its time. Cusack's
