Surprised no mention of Remember the Night, with an excellent Preston Sturges script and the first of four times Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck starred together. The scene where Ms. Stanwyck's character is rejected by her mother is still heartbreaking all these years later. Family dynamics are only intensified around Christmas.
Like you, almost all the Christmas Carol movies.... but never quite finding *the* Christmas Carol, unless it is Mr. Magoo's Christmas. Now you can throw things, because I'm safely out of reach.
There is one great oddity in the Magoo Christmas Carol: the reversal of the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Past. The Magoo dialogue is extraordinarily faithful to Dickens, though of course when it comes to Dickens’ equally important narration, the Muppets win hands down.
“The Lord’s Bright Blessing” is a wonderful high point (though the Muppets’ “Bless Us All,” implicitly addressing God himself, is even better). Belle’s breakup song in the Magoo (“Winter Was Warm”) might be better than the one in the Muppets (which was cut for theatrical, though you can see the whole thing as a bonus feature on Disney+).
I'm convinced that Die Hard is a Hanukkah movie. J Mac (Judas Maccabee or John McClane, your call) goes against the enemies of the Jewish people that century (Hasnoneans or Germans) being vastly outnumbered even though in Jewish home turf (Judea / LA) having to resort to creativity and guerrilla tactics. There's even a traitor that gets killed. And the Christmas songs are by Jewish composers.
(There was an hilarious, way longer, post on Facebook about that, but I lost it, that is by no means an original thought of mine).
FWIW, Luis, in my review of Die Hard I argued that—unlike Raiders of the Lost Ark, a very Jewish action-adventure movie that ends with a climax straight out of the book of Samuel, with the power of Israel’s God in the ark of the covenant defeating antisemitic enemies—Die Hard is about a hero who “hasn’t set out on some quest or crusade to right some wrong, recover some great good, and/or destroy some great evil.” Furthermore, “no mystical artifacts or supernatural forces aid McClane: no ark, lightsaber, Force, or shekinah glory and destroying angel. The factors here are all mundane: guns, explosives, helicopters.”
Of course these same arguments also mean that Die Hard has nothing to do with what Christmas is about—which we knew anyway. But that’s just it: Hanukkah songs are pretty much all about the religious meaning of Hanukkah, but Christmas songs—in part precisely because of the cultural input of Jewish songwriters, along with others, not least Dickens himself—are also about a season, a vibe, a mood. In a sense, Hanukkah is culturally purer than Christmas. That’s why Die Hard is a Christmas movie, not a Hanukkah movie!
A bit late (but it's still Christmas), but Die Hard has another thing in common with a Christmas classic: both McClane and Bailey are reluctant heroes. They didn't want to be there, they didn't want to be heroes — they never saw them as one anyway — but by doing the right thing that is expected of them they become one.
You make your bed and you lie in it, Fr. Darryl. Having gone to the mat as I have for movies from White Christmas to Die Hard being Christmas movies despite not being originally released in the Christmas season, I can’t turn around and claim a movie like Galaxy Quest with no Christmas element whatsoever as a Christmas movie solely due to the release date. (Besides, based on that criterion, Christmas movies would include December 25th releases from The Wolf of Wall Street and Joel Coen’s Tragedy of Macbeth to this year’s Nosferatu remake by Robert Eggers, and that I will not do.)
"Gremlins" is my favorite off the wall Christmas movie. Also, I'm pretty sure that seeing the Ghost of Christmas Present spread his robe and reveal the nightmare children Ignorance and Want underneath in the 1980's George C Scott Christmas Carol was my first horror movie experience as a child.
The Shop Around the Corner is my favorite Christmas movie that isn't named on your list.
Thanks for confirming that our families would have a very easy time watching “Christmas” movies together. I’m going to steal your idea of watching other Dickens in October. We never have time to branch out in December and we’re too devoted to Muppets not to watch it first.
I inaugurated our new tradition this year with the Patrick Stewart version, not because it’s my favorite, but because the level of Patrick Stewart stanning in our household is high enough that I knew it would be an easy sell. I am planning Alistair Sim next year and George C. Scott in 2026.
Fair point: I should have been clearer! First, “movies featuring Tim Allen” really should have been “Tim Allen vehicles.” Second, “Christmas-adjacent” was my clumsy way of trying to say “either a) having some kind of Christmas connection, however slight, to the main plot (i.e., the three Santa Clause movies plus Christmas With the Kranks (and, more recently on Netflix, El Camino Christmas), or b) released in December accompanied with Christmas-themed marketing (i.e., Joe Somebody; For Richer for Poorer).” I have updated the original post to reflect this correction!
You have 3 of my 4 favorites in your list: A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s A Wonderful Life, and Muppet Christmas Carol. My favorite movie adaptation of A Christmas Carol, though, is the 1951 version starring Alastair Sim as Scrooge. Muppet Christmas Carol is a very close second, though. Make sure you get a version of it that includes the “When love is gone” song and scene with Scrooge’s then-fiancée, though, as that’s an important turning point in the movie.
I can’t stand Elf, though. I thought it was gross, immature, and not even funny, but, then again, I don’t find most of Will Ferrell’s humor funny at all. I don’t understand what so many people like about Elf.
I am so with you on hating Will Ferrell, Michael—I think the only movies I have ever walked out on as an adult were Anchorman and The Other Guys!—but Elf manages to work for me. Bob Newhart classes up the joint, and Caan and Asner do good work, and Zooey Deschanel is adorable. I even don’t hate Ferrell in this one.
Ferrell is one of those actors (see also Jack Black and Jim Carrey) whose movies I either really like or really dislike. The overly broad comedy and physical humor of, say, Step Brothers or Get Hard is not for me, but I enjoyed his performances in Elf, Adaptation, and The Lego Movie. The Eurovision movie was delightful.
Right there with you: I have basically no use at all for Jim Carrey, which is kind of sad because I enjoyed him a million years ago on In Living Color. And as for Jack Black, I haven't seen a lot of his movies, but there was one that a friend talked me into going to see with her, and I also found the story intriguing enough to ignore my distaste for the cast: Bernie. Not long into it I thought, "Man, this guy really *can* act." And it was also the first time I actually liked Shirley MacLaine!
Partially converging agreement with the both of you. I have a visceral dislike of Ferrell—he strikes me as a person I would dislike in real life, which is true of other actors who nevertheless create characters sufficiently distinct from their larger persona that I can connect with, something that usually doesn’t happen with Ferrell. Elf is a rare exception, and voice work, as in Megamind and The Lego Movie, adds another layer that probably helps. Jack Black I find fundamentally sympathetic and I feel like I would like him in real life, and that carries over in quintessentially Jack-Black-esque roles from School of Rock to Kung Fu Panda (and The Muppets, where he plays himself!). Haven’t seen Bernie!
Bernie and The Big Year are my two favorite Black performances. As for Carrey: The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (I don’t think I’m surprising anyone with these picks).
What about voicework, Michaelangelo? I think Megamind is pretty terrific! And, again, I’ve walked out of two live-action Ferrell movies and pretty much nothing else I can recall.
... KIND of like. Yes, most of it is relentlessly, malignantly, offensively stupid. But I just can't stop giggling at "We bears are a proud race, they must pay for their transgression."
I always loved Will Ferrell on SNL, and I still think of him as that guy from SNL. But my favorite Will Ferrell movie by far is _Stranger than Fiction_, a (mostly) non-comic role for him, a very non-Will Ferrell Will Ferrell movie, so to speak. It's charming and poignant and, while not specifically Christian, I think in the end it is what DSDG would call deeply "humanistic", in a good way. (I might even go so far as to call it one of my favorite top five movies, ever.) I'm surprised there isn't a review of it on Decent Films .com. (Though perhaps that's because, as DSDG says, he hates Will Ferrell movies, and doesn't assume there's any good reason to see one more of them.)
So again, full disclosure, I actually am a(n early, partial) (potential double meaning in this context noted) Will Ferrell fan; so maybe my opinion on this shouldn't be trusted. But I really think _Stranger than Fiction_ is the kind of movie that DSDG and others here would really like, as I do; and I doubt if the author or anyone else on this thread can say both that you've watched the whole movie, and that you dislike it--or at least that you dislike it the way you dislike other Will Ferrell movies.
It’s another special, not a feature film, but Emmitt Otter’s Jugband Christmas is worth an annual watch. And Millions is secretly one of the best “Christmas” movies ever made.
I specifically mentioned The Lion in Winter in my discussion with Eastern Orthodox writer Terry Mattingly about Christmas movies which led to this delightful essay, Will! (He did not, however, quote my mention of the piece in that piece.)
Two "Christmas-adjacent" movies that most people don't think of but that my dad watched (maybe he still does) annually are The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) starring Bob Hope and The Apartment (1960) starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley McClaine. I never saw the former but I love the latter. For whatever reason, The Apartment is the movie that I most closely associate with my father, even though he's not like any of the characters.
The Best Christmas movies were all created in the 1940s. Hollywood catered to its war-torn audience with comfort-fare with light comic touches, from Holiday Inn to Christmas in Connecticut, and continued this strain to assist the PTSD of returning veterans, from Miracle on 34th St to It Happened on Fifth Avenue. (I agree with you on The Bishop's Wife, BTW).
I can't go with you on the Muppets, for the singular reason that Marley was one person, not brothers. And Statler and Waldorf do not really understand the essence of Marley's ghost; they do not have remorse in their vocabulary.
A movie I will champion to my grave: Spielberg's woefully underrated 1941 works as a Christmas movie. Well worthy of a reappraisal, especially if you get tired of Clark Griswald's antics or Kevin McCallister's booby traps.
Your case against the Statler & Waldorf Marleys I will not challenge, Nick! I submit, however, the following counterarguments:
1. The unflagging decency, positivity, and generosity of spirit that sum up Bob Cratchit no human actor can possibly embody as persuasively, indeed as incontestably and indubitably, as Kermit the Frog. (By extension, few child actors could do as much justice to the innocence and goodwill of Tiny Tim as Robin.)
2. No live-action interpretations of the Christmas Spirits could evoke their uncanny, inhuman qualities as effectively as the creations of the Jim Henson Creature Workshop seen in this movie. In particular, no other interpretation of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is as suggestive of Dicken’s description of a shape “shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand … nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black.”
3. As has been most effectively argued by Ethan Warren of Bright Wall / Dark Room in that website’s most popular piece ever, no other adaptation of A Christmas Carol retains as much of Dickens’s narration—and Dickens’ narrative voice is far more essential to the charms of A Christmas Carol than the average adapted work of fiction.
"If, however, a cranky old Victorian man named Ebenezer Scrooge unironically snarls that any poor people who would rather die than live in a workhouse should “do it, and decrease the surplus population,” then it’s in the running."
Not for me, it isn't. It's in the running if it includes, in my opinion, the most important part of the book, the part which Dickens goes at great length to speak to the reader: The Ghost of Christmas Present's admonition to beware of Ignorance and Want. 1951 has it, 1984 has it, and 2009 has it. The Muppets chose to ignore it, even though its inclusion would have been a fantastic feat of muppetry. The aforementioned versions are the only three worth discussing.
You are allowed to like, even to prize highly, the passage with Ignorance and Want, Nick, and to regard its omission in The Muppet Christmas Carol as a major missed opportunity! The claim that this brief passage is “the most important part of the book” will, however, be widely and easily recognized as literary crankery of an unusually rarefied sort. The vast majority of Dickens lovers will effortlessly, even incredulously reject this exaltation, in a great parable of moral conversion, joyous celebration, and human solidarity, of a striking but minor bit of allegory as obvious myopia unworthy of serious consideration.
For example, G.K. Chesterton, in two appreciative essays—“Dickens and Christmas” (chapter 7 of _Charles Dickens_) and “Christmas Books” (chapter 11 of _Appreciations and Criticisms_)—gives no attention at all to this passage. Notable reviews written at the time and later, such as William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 review in Fraser’s Magazine, make no note of it. Examples could be multipled almost without limit.
All of which, naturally, you are free to dismiss as the stumblings of less perceptive readers who don’t get what is really great about Dickens! Insofar as we are talking about what is “worthy of discussion,” however, and inasmuch as discussions take place among a number of partners, I suspect I will have an easier time engaging discussion partners than you.
I can understand why many fans of Dickens' masterwork would skip over this passage, as it stops the story dead-cold, and it allows Dickens to explain quite plainly to the reader what it was that caused Scrooge to fall into his predicament to begin with, and, conversely, how we not fall into the same trappings. A lot of people choose to let the story speak for itself, as this imagery may appear superfluous to the moral. But I do love it, the stark imagery of it, and the reminder that it was Scrooge's ignorance of the destitute in his midst (those in want), not to mention the government's inability to properly care for such individuals to begin with. Dickens is speaking directly to the reader this very special message, and Gonzo (as Dickens) chose to not convey this same message, even though, I reiterate, this would have been an amazing, most memorable bit of muppetry!!
As I see it, this is the brown M&Ms of any Christmas Carol litmus test. For if they do cover this, then I can rest assured that all the other great lines would invariably be covered, including the "decrease the surplus population" dialogues.
With your advocacy for this episode thus phrased and defended, I have no quarrel either with your attachment to the episode or with your disappointment that it was omitted from The Muppet Christmas Carol, among other versions.
I do not think this “litmus test” is a valid reason to exclude from discussion, among others, the 1930s adaptations starring Seymour Hicks and Reginald Owen or the 1970 musical version starring Albert Finney. Or the Muppet version!
Well, I can't say I'm excluding from discussion if I'm discussing, now, don't you think? The 1938 version and the 1970 versions have their charms (they most certainly better, because the first detracts from the original the most, but it's short and we've quoted that version the best; as for the latter, it has that curious detour into G-rated hell). I've only seen the 1935 version once, as the Basil Rathbone version, the Patrick Stewart version and the Kelsey Grammer version.
Zemeckis' version should have been the best, had it not been so horrendously ugly and dependent upon killing time with Zemeckis' worst instincts in the CGI animation world. That leaves a virtual tie between Sim and Scott, and I give Scott the edge, because his version is the most rational, thus, the one most likely to resonate with the viewer realizing that we could be more like him than Fezziwig, Cratchit or Fred. But give me time, and Sim might overtake Scott over all, with its deeper, more thoughtful backstory, its mordant wit, and its phenomenal photography that would make Toland proud.
We rewatched it last Christmas, and we were struck at how we had forgotten it too! Suzanne is a nurse (and we have a daughter studying nursing), so that kind of thing stands out to us.
It's funny, I too seem to have selectively forgotten that scene, until you mentioned it here, and I thought "oh yeah -- could have lived without that." Still, Sydney Greenstreet, Cuddles Sakall, and Una O'Connor cover a multitude of sins.
Surprised no mention of Remember the Night, with an excellent Preston Sturges script and the first of four times Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck starred together. The scene where Ms. Stanwyck's character is rejected by her mother is still heartbreaking all these years later. Family dynamics are only intensified around Christmas.
Implicitly included in 7.
Like you, almost all the Christmas Carol movies.... but never quite finding *the* Christmas Carol, unless it is Mr. Magoo's Christmas. Now you can throw things, because I'm safely out of reach.
Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol is excellent, and honored in a footnote. The Muppets are better, but Magoo is very good!
It's remarkable how closely Magoo follows Dickens.
There is one great oddity in the Magoo Christmas Carol: the reversal of the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Past. The Magoo dialogue is extraordinarily faithful to Dickens, though of course when it comes to Dickens’ equally important narration, the Muppets win hands down.
“The Lord’s Bright Blessing” is a wonderful high point (though the Muppets’ “Bless Us All,” implicitly addressing God himself, is even better). Belle’s breakup song in the Magoo (“Winter Was Warm”) might be better than the one in the Muppets (which was cut for theatrical, though you can see the whole thing as a bonus feature on Disney+).
I can't remember if we've ever discussed this before: what do you think of 'The Star' (2017)?
Reviewed here, Cap (and I interviewed the director too)
https://decentfilms.com/reviews/star2017
I somehow overlooked that. Thanks for the link!
I'm convinced that Die Hard is a Hanukkah movie. J Mac (Judas Maccabee or John McClane, your call) goes against the enemies of the Jewish people that century (Hasnoneans or Germans) being vastly outnumbered even though in Jewish home turf (Judea / LA) having to resort to creativity and guerrilla tactics. There's even a traitor that gets killed. And the Christmas songs are by Jewish composers.
(There was an hilarious, way longer, post on Facebook about that, but I lost it, that is by no means an original thought of mine).
FWIW, Luis, in my review of Die Hard I argued that—unlike Raiders of the Lost Ark, a very Jewish action-adventure movie that ends with a climax straight out of the book of Samuel, with the power of Israel’s God in the ark of the covenant defeating antisemitic enemies—Die Hard is about a hero who “hasn’t set out on some quest or crusade to right some wrong, recover some great good, and/or destroy some great evil.” Furthermore, “no mystical artifacts or supernatural forces aid McClane: no ark, lightsaber, Force, or shekinah glory and destroying angel. The factors here are all mundane: guns, explosives, helicopters.”
Of course these same arguments also mean that Die Hard has nothing to do with what Christmas is about—which we knew anyway. But that’s just it: Hanukkah songs are pretty much all about the religious meaning of Hanukkah, but Christmas songs—in part precisely because of the cultural input of Jewish songwriters, along with others, not least Dickens himself—are also about a season, a vibe, a mood. In a sense, Hanukkah is culturally purer than Christmas. That’s why Die Hard is a Christmas movie, not a Hanukkah movie!
https://decentfilms.com/reviews/diehard
A bit late (but it's still Christmas), but Die Hard has another thing in common with a Christmas classic: both McClane and Bailey are reluctant heroes. They didn't want to be there, they didn't want to be heroes — they never saw them as one anyway — but by doing the right thing that is expected of them they become one.
I need to watch the movie now
Hehe :)
Though there is one Christmas movie starring both Tim Allen and Alan Rickman that must be on this list. Nay, it must even be in the top three:
Galaxy Quest, released in the USA on Dec. 25, 1999 (Dec. 23 in Canada. We are a bit slower here, eh.)
Never give up; never surrender!
You make your bed and you lie in it, Fr. Darryl. Having gone to the mat as I have for movies from White Christmas to Die Hard being Christmas movies despite not being originally released in the Christmas season, I can’t turn around and claim a movie like Galaxy Quest with no Christmas element whatsoever as a Christmas movie solely due to the release date. (Besides, based on that criterion, Christmas movies would include December 25th releases from The Wolf of Wall Street and Joel Coen’s Tragedy of Macbeth to this year’s Nosferatu remake by Robert Eggers, and that I will not do.)
"Gremlins" is my favorite off the wall Christmas movie. Also, I'm pretty sure that seeing the Ghost of Christmas Present spread his robe and reveal the nightmare children Ignorance and Want underneath in the 1980's George C Scott Christmas Carol was my first horror movie experience as a child.
The Shop Around the Corner is my favorite Christmas movie that isn't named on your list.
The Shop Around the Corner is pretty great. Implicitly included in 7.
I was raised on the George C Scott one, boy who gets turkey carries the whole production.
R, on the unique virtues of the Muppets version, see my reply to Nick Alexander!
Thanks for confirming that our families would have a very easy time watching “Christmas” movies together. I’m going to steal your idea of watching other Dickens in October. We never have time to branch out in December and we’re too devoted to Muppets not to watch it first.
I inaugurated our new tradition this year with the Patrick Stewart version, not because it’s my favorite, but because the level of Patrick Stewart stanning in our household is high enough that I knew it would be an easy sell. I am planning Alistair Sim next year and George C. Scott in 2026.
JOYEAUX NOEL (MERRY CHRISTMAS), the 2005 film about the Christmas truce of World War I, is my favorite Christmas theme movie.
It’s a good one, James!
"Also hating on any and all Christmas-adjacent movies featuring Tim Allen, yes all of them hate hate hate."
Remember the last scene of Toy Story?
Fair point: I should have been clearer! First, “movies featuring Tim Allen” really should have been “Tim Allen vehicles.” Second, “Christmas-adjacent” was my clumsy way of trying to say “either a) having some kind of Christmas connection, however slight, to the main plot (i.e., the three Santa Clause movies plus Christmas With the Kranks (and, more recently on Netflix, El Camino Christmas), or b) released in December accompanied with Christmas-themed marketing (i.e., Joe Somebody; For Richer for Poorer).” I have updated the original post to reflect this correction!
10/10, no notes.
You have 3 of my 4 favorites in your list: A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s A Wonderful Life, and Muppet Christmas Carol. My favorite movie adaptation of A Christmas Carol, though, is the 1951 version starring Alastair Sim as Scrooge. Muppet Christmas Carol is a very close second, though. Make sure you get a version of it that includes the “When love is gone” song and scene with Scrooge’s then-fiancée, though, as that’s an important turning point in the movie.
I can’t stand Elf, though. I thought it was gross, immature, and not even funny, but, then again, I don’t find most of Will Ferrell’s humor funny at all. I don’t understand what so many people like about Elf.
I am so with you on hating Will Ferrell, Michael—I think the only movies I have ever walked out on as an adult were Anchorman and The Other Guys!—but Elf manages to work for me. Bob Newhart classes up the joint, and Caan and Asner do good work, and Zooey Deschanel is adorable. I even don’t hate Ferrell in this one.
I can only take Ferrell in very small doses -- maybe about the length of the "More Cowbell" sketch on SNL. A full movie -- hell, no.
Ferrell is one of those actors (see also Jack Black and Jim Carrey) whose movies I either really like or really dislike. The overly broad comedy and physical humor of, say, Step Brothers or Get Hard is not for me, but I enjoyed his performances in Elf, Adaptation, and The Lego Movie. The Eurovision movie was delightful.
Right there with you: I have basically no use at all for Jim Carrey, which is kind of sad because I enjoyed him a million years ago on In Living Color. And as for Jack Black, I haven't seen a lot of his movies, but there was one that a friend talked me into going to see with her, and I also found the story intriguing enough to ignore my distaste for the cast: Bernie. Not long into it I thought, "Man, this guy really *can* act." And it was also the first time I actually liked Shirley MacLaine!
Partially converging agreement with the both of you. I have a visceral dislike of Ferrell—he strikes me as a person I would dislike in real life, which is true of other actors who nevertheless create characters sufficiently distinct from their larger persona that I can connect with, something that usually doesn’t happen with Ferrell. Elf is a rare exception, and voice work, as in Megamind and The Lego Movie, adds another layer that probably helps. Jack Black I find fundamentally sympathetic and I feel like I would like him in real life, and that carries over in quintessentially Jack-Black-esque roles from School of Rock to Kung Fu Panda (and The Muppets, where he plays himself!). Haven’t seen Bernie!
Bernie and The Big Year are my two favorite Black performances. As for Carrey: The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (I don’t think I’m surprising anyone with these picks).
I forgot about The Truman Show: I liked that one, too.
What about voicework, Michaelangelo? I think Megamind is pretty terrific! And, again, I’ve walked out of two live-action Ferrell movies and pretty much nothing else I can recall.
Huh. I don't know Megamind. Perhaps I should track it down.
Confession: I kind of like "Anchorman." Well, the bear-pit scene, at least.
okay you like Anchorman, we are not the same
... KIND of like. Yes, most of it is relentlessly, malignantly, offensively stupid. But I just can't stop giggling at "We bears are a proud race, they must pay for their transgression."
my review
https://decentfilms.com/reviews/megamind
I always loved Will Ferrell on SNL, and I still think of him as that guy from SNL. But my favorite Will Ferrell movie by far is _Stranger than Fiction_, a (mostly) non-comic role for him, a very non-Will Ferrell Will Ferrell movie, so to speak. It's charming and poignant and, while not specifically Christian, I think in the end it is what DSDG would call deeply "humanistic", in a good way. (I might even go so far as to call it one of my favorite top five movies, ever.) I'm surprised there isn't a review of it on Decent Films .com. (Though perhaps that's because, as DSDG says, he hates Will Ferrell movies, and doesn't assume there's any good reason to see one more of them.)
So again, full disclosure, I actually am a(n early, partial) (potential double meaning in this context noted) Will Ferrell fan; so maybe my opinion on this shouldn't be trusted. But I really think _Stranger than Fiction_ is the kind of movie that DSDG and others here would really like, as I do; and I doubt if the author or anyone else on this thread can say both that you've watched the whole movie, and that you dislike it--or at least that you dislike it the way you dislike other Will Ferrell movies.
Hilarious!
It’s another special, not a feature film, but Emmitt Otter’s Jugband Christmas is worth an annual watch. And Millions is secretly one of the best “Christmas” movies ever made.
Millions is good!
The Lion in Winter IS a Christmas movie. (We do not speak of the remake.)
I specifically mentioned The Lion in Winter in my discussion with Eastern Orthodox writer Terry Mattingly about Christmas movies which led to this delightful essay, Will! (He did not, however, quote my mention of the piece in that piece.)
https://tmattingly.substack.com/p/define-christmas-movie-ok-define
Two "Christmas-adjacent" movies that most people don't think of but that my dad watched (maybe he still does) annually are The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) starring Bob Hope and The Apartment (1960) starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley McClaine. I never saw the former but I love the latter. For whatever reason, The Apartment is the movie that I most closely associate with my father, even though he's not like any of the characters.
Two Lem(m)on Christmas films! I would not have thought to link them before. :-)
Yes, I also saw the "Lem(m)on" connection as I was writing my comment. 🙂 I'm pretty sure that my father didn't do that on purpose though.
The Best Christmas movies were all created in the 1940s. Hollywood catered to its war-torn audience with comfort-fare with light comic touches, from Holiday Inn to Christmas in Connecticut, and continued this strain to assist the PTSD of returning veterans, from Miracle on 34th St to It Happened on Fifth Avenue. (I agree with you on The Bishop's Wife, BTW).
I can't go with you on the Muppets, for the singular reason that Marley was one person, not brothers. And Statler and Waldorf do not really understand the essence of Marley's ghost; they do not have remorse in their vocabulary.
A movie I will champion to my grave: Spielberg's woefully underrated 1941 works as a Christmas movie. Well worthy of a reappraisal, especially if you get tired of Clark Griswald's antics or Kevin McCallister's booby traps.
Your case against the Statler & Waldorf Marleys I will not challenge, Nick! I submit, however, the following counterarguments:
1. The unflagging decency, positivity, and generosity of spirit that sum up Bob Cratchit no human actor can possibly embody as persuasively, indeed as incontestably and indubitably, as Kermit the Frog. (By extension, few child actors could do as much justice to the innocence and goodwill of Tiny Tim as Robin.)
2. No live-action interpretations of the Christmas Spirits could evoke their uncanny, inhuman qualities as effectively as the creations of the Jim Henson Creature Workshop seen in this movie. In particular, no other interpretation of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is as suggestive of Dicken’s description of a shape “shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand … nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black.”
3. As has been most effectively argued by Ethan Warren of Bright Wall / Dark Room in that website’s most popular piece ever, no other adaptation of A Christmas Carol retains as much of Dickens’s narration—and Dickens’ narrative voice is far more essential to the charms of A Christmas Carol than the average adapted work of fiction.
https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2019/12/20/a-grand-yuletide-theory-the-muppet-christmas-carol-is-the-best-adaptation-of-a-christmas-carol/
"If, however, a cranky old Victorian man named Ebenezer Scrooge unironically snarls that any poor people who would rather die than live in a workhouse should “do it, and decrease the surplus population,” then it’s in the running."
Not for me, it isn't. It's in the running if it includes, in my opinion, the most important part of the book, the part which Dickens goes at great length to speak to the reader: The Ghost of Christmas Present's admonition to beware of Ignorance and Want. 1951 has it, 1984 has it, and 2009 has it. The Muppets chose to ignore it, even though its inclusion would have been a fantastic feat of muppetry. The aforementioned versions are the only three worth discussing.
You are allowed to like, even to prize highly, the passage with Ignorance and Want, Nick, and to regard its omission in The Muppet Christmas Carol as a major missed opportunity! The claim that this brief passage is “the most important part of the book” will, however, be widely and easily recognized as literary crankery of an unusually rarefied sort. The vast majority of Dickens lovers will effortlessly, even incredulously reject this exaltation, in a great parable of moral conversion, joyous celebration, and human solidarity, of a striking but minor bit of allegory as obvious myopia unworthy of serious consideration.
For example, G.K. Chesterton, in two appreciative essays—“Dickens and Christmas” (chapter 7 of _Charles Dickens_) and “Christmas Books” (chapter 11 of _Appreciations and Criticisms_)—gives no attention at all to this passage. Notable reviews written at the time and later, such as William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 review in Fraser’s Magazine, make no note of it. Examples could be multipled almost without limit.
All of which, naturally, you are free to dismiss as the stumblings of less perceptive readers who don’t get what is really great about Dickens! Insofar as we are talking about what is “worthy of discussion,” however, and inasmuch as discussions take place among a number of partners, I suspect I will have an easier time engaging discussion partners than you.
Carry on, however!
I can understand why many fans of Dickens' masterwork would skip over this passage, as it stops the story dead-cold, and it allows Dickens to explain quite plainly to the reader what it was that caused Scrooge to fall into his predicament to begin with, and, conversely, how we not fall into the same trappings. A lot of people choose to let the story speak for itself, as this imagery may appear superfluous to the moral. But I do love it, the stark imagery of it, and the reminder that it was Scrooge's ignorance of the destitute in his midst (those in want), not to mention the government's inability to properly care for such individuals to begin with. Dickens is speaking directly to the reader this very special message, and Gonzo (as Dickens) chose to not convey this same message, even though, I reiterate, this would have been an amazing, most memorable bit of muppetry!!
As I see it, this is the brown M&Ms of any Christmas Carol litmus test. For if they do cover this, then I can rest assured that all the other great lines would invariably be covered, including the "decrease the surplus population" dialogues.
With your advocacy for this episode thus phrased and defended, I have no quarrel either with your attachment to the episode or with your disappointment that it was omitted from The Muppet Christmas Carol, among other versions.
I do not think this “litmus test” is a valid reason to exclude from discussion, among others, the 1930s adaptations starring Seymour Hicks and Reginald Owen or the 1970 musical version starring Albert Finney. Or the Muppet version!
Well, I can't say I'm excluding from discussion if I'm discussing, now, don't you think? The 1938 version and the 1970 versions have their charms (they most certainly better, because the first detracts from the original the most, but it's short and we've quoted that version the best; as for the latter, it has that curious detour into G-rated hell). I've only seen the 1935 version once, as the Basil Rathbone version, the Patrick Stewart version and the Kelsey Grammer version.
Zemeckis' version should have been the best, had it not been so horrendously ugly and dependent upon killing time with Zemeckis' worst instincts in the CGI animation world. That leaves a virtual tie between Sim and Scott, and I give Scott the edge, because his version is the most rational, thus, the one most likely to resonate with the viewer realizing that we could be more like him than Fezziwig, Cratchit or Fred. But give me time, and Sim might overtake Scott over all, with its deeper, more thoughtful backstory, its mordant wit, and its phenomenal photography that would make Toland proud.
Christmas is Connecticut is another classic
Yes, Christmas in Connecticut is a lot of fun, once you get past the regressive “old magoo” / Nightingale-syndrome business in the opening.
Somehow I always forget about that opening section, and so I'm unpleasantly surprised and have to fast-forward through it.
I forgot about that part, that's just wierd.
We rewatched it last Christmas, and we were struck at how we had forgotten it too! Suzanne is a nurse (and we have a daughter studying nursing), so that kind of thing stands out to us.
It's funny, I too seem to have selectively forgotten that scene, until you mentioned it here, and I thought "oh yeah -- could have lived without that." Still, Sydney Greenstreet, Cuddles Sakall, and Una O'Connor cover a multitude of sins.