Christmas Specials and Cartoons

This year, Fathom events is bringing the Christmas favorite - Miracle on 34th Street - to your local theater.



Released in 1947, this perennial favorite features Edmund Gwenn, Natalie Wood, Maureen O'Hara and John Payne.

To find our more and see where it's being shown in your area, visit Fathom Events online.

When one stops to think of the Thanksgiving holiday in America, on inevitably thinks about The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

That is where our latest entry begins.

 Miracle on 34th street was made by 20th Century Fox and stars Maureen O'Hara, Edmund Gwenn, John Payne and Natalie Wood.

 Set surrounding the parade, the story is of a little old man named 'Kris Kringle' who becomes Macy's Santa Claus. Only then do the employees find out that he believes that he really is Santa Claus.

 The movie was released in May of 1947 due to the fact that Darryl F. Zanuck believed more people went to the movies during the summer.

 On a trivial note, according to Wikipedia, The Christmas window displays seen in the film were originally made by Steiff for Macy's. Macy's later sold the window displays to FAO Schwartz in New York. FAO Schwartz then sold the windows to the Marshall & Ilsley Bank of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where they are on display every December in the bank's lobby on North Water Street.

 Here is the climactic scene in this holiday favorite


 

Christmas Seals were widely popular until the early 80s as a way to raise money for charity.  Specifically, for the American Lung Association.  Christmas Seal commercials and ads were commonplace in America until this time.

Here is a short featuring our boy, Bob Hope from 1944.

Made in 1971 by accalimed animator Chuck Jones, A Christmas Carol was originally created as a television special but was later released theatrically to critical acclaim winning an Oscar for best animated short in 1972.

Featuring non other than Sir Alastair Simm as Ebeneezer Scrooge, this half hour presentation of Charles Dickens' classic is very well done.

Here is the feature in it's entirety.

Starring Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh,

Holiday Affair is a romantic comedy about a veteran drifter who is employed as a clerk by a New York dept. store who falls for a war widow and her son, Timmy.

Distributed by RKO pictures.

Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Sydney Greenstreet, this farcical comedy tells the story of one Elizabeth Lane, a writer for Housekeeping magazine who writes about her homestyle life as a cook, expert mother and wife.  The only problem is, she is neither.  The situation is further complicated when the unsuspecting editor of the magazine concocts a scheme to have a Naval hero from the war spend a real, old-fashioned Christmas at the Lane farm in Connecticut with her husband and children.

Stuck in this predicament, Elizabeth spends the movie trying to juggle lie after lie to keep from being exposed and fired, while in the meantime, falling for the Naval hero.

This film was made by Warner Brothers and was released in August of 1945.

Here is the movie in it's entirey (while it lasts, Lol)

Directed by Henry Edwards, this 1935 British film is the first sound adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

Starring Seymour Hicks as the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge, this film differs from all other adaptations in that none of the ghosts of Christmas are ever shown - save The Ghost of Christmas Present.  Marley is only shown super-imposed on a door knocker.

The achievement of special effects was not yet advanced enough to offer film makers a way to believably show the spirits.

Seymour Hicks was a veteran actor who had played Scrooge on stage many times beginning in 1901 and had played him in a 1913 silent film.

Here is the film in its' entirety.

Today is November 11th, the day we honor our Military Veterans.  So to honor them, here is a rendition of White Christmas sung on a front line in Europe during WWII......

MGM pictures have always been a bit saccharine.  It was Louis B. Mayer's intention to make "feel good" movies for the public to take them away from the problems in the everyday world.  Their 1938 production of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" is no different.  Starring Sir Reginald Owen and Gene Lockhart, this film is a sort of compact, Christmas card version of the famed story.  But, it is fun to watch and has plenty of Christmas spirit.

Here is an MGM promo featuring Lionel Barrymore for your viewing pleasure.

Holiday Inn is a film based on composer Irving Berlin's idea of an Inn that only opened on holidays. Berlin signed an exclusive contract with Paramount Pictures to write songs expressly for that project.

This is considered by most to be the definitive film version of A Christmas Carol and I would have to agree. This version stars Alastair Sim as Ebeneezer Scrooge and features a cast of some of England's best character actors such as Kathleen Harrison.

The film was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and the film itself was approved by one of the granddaughters of Charles Dickens. The film was not widely known in the US until the early 1970's when it had begun to be played on PBS. Until then, the most widely popular version was the 1938 MGM adaptation starring Sir Reginald Owen.

The film represents the much bleaker vision that the original story had. Sim's Scrooge also represents a real man as opposed to a cookie-cutter "baddie" who shows no reason for being bitter and unkind and then suddenly changes his ways. This Scrooge has a past with bad circumstances and choices made along the way. His redemption at the end is understood and even The Ghost of Christmas present acknowledges that Christmas itself is about the birth of Christ and that Scrooge has refused to seek him in his heart.

This movie is the epitome of what is considered a "Dickensian" style Christmas setting.

What else can you say about this movie? Directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, this perennial favorite was shown every year on just about every station in America about 100 times every Christmas and people never grew tired of it.

The story for this movie was originally a short story written by Phillip Van Doren Stern. He had about 200 printed up as Christmas cards and sent to family and friends. RKO pictures got a hold of the idea and bought the rights for $10,000. They had writers work on the story but nothing ever really developed out of the three of four scripts. Frank Capra heard about the idea and decided he wanted a crack at it. So, he bought the idea from RKO for the same $10,000 they paid. He even got the scripts thrown in for free. Capra began work on the film and came up with "It's a Wonderful Life". He wanted Jimmy Stewart right away and also wanted his co-star from two previous Capra films, Jean Arthur. Jean was already committed to a Broadway show and had to turn the role down. So Capra settled on a fresh-faced MGM contract player named Donna Reed. The rest, as they say, is history.

The story of George Bailey is a story that resonates within each of us. If you've ever felt useless or unimportant to people, then you can appreciate George as he sees what life would really be like without him. We never realize how we affect the people and, thereby, the world around us for good or evil. Each person is important and makes a difference.

From horrible old Mr. Potter to ZuZu's petals, this is probably the favorite Christmas movie of all time.

White Christmas was supposed to be a sequel of sorts to Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn which starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. In fact, the set for General Waiverley's Inn is an exact remake of the Inn from Holiday Inn.

After reading the script, Astaire turned down the role. Donald O'Connor was originally tapped to replace him but had to bow out due to illness.

So producers at Paramount turned to Danny Kaye and so was born White Christmas. The cast also included Vera-Ellen and Rosemary Clooney. It also had great character actors like Dean Jagger and Mary Wickes.

White Christmas was produced by Paramount Pictures and was directed by Michael Curtiz who directed such classics as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca. It features a musical score written by Irving Berlin including the perennial favorite, White Christmas. This was the first movie to be released in Paramounts VistaVision™ which was a new wide screen filming process at the time. This movie is filled with vibrant colors which were an integral part of musicals in the 1950's and adds to the holiday theme of the picture.

Here is a number from the film featuring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen, and Rosemary Clooney.

Enjoy!

The Bishop's Wife stars David Niven, Lorretta Young, and Cary Grant. It centers around the story of the angel, Dudley. Dudley is sent to earth to help Niven's character deal with building a new cathedral and the stresses involved as well as his wife (Young) and the toll Henry's work has taken on their marriage.

This is a great movie. It's simple and never leaves the Christmas background. David Niven's rousing sermon at the end can even rival those of well known clergymen today. It's underlying tones of human frailty and the tendency of human beings to focus on the less important things in life while ignoring the most important ones is brought out in Dudley's relationship with Julia (Young).

The movie was released by RKO in 1947. Niven was originally cast as the angel, Dana Andrews as the bishop, and Teresa Wright as his wife. However, Wright had to bow out due to pregnancy. According to Robert Osborne, Andrews was lent to RKO in order to obtain Loretta Young. Koster then brought in Cary Grant, but he wanted to play the angel, so the role of the bishop was given to Niven.

from Wikipedia™

Now a cult classic in it's own right, A Christmas Story was released in 1983 by MGM/UA and was based upon the short stories from the book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd.

It starred child actors Peter Billingsley and Scott Schwartz as well as seasoned actors Darrin MacGavin and Belinda Dillon who most remember from her role in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The movie is a depression-era story about a 9 year old boy's quest for what he deems to be the perfect Christmas Present: A Red Ryder 200 shot range model air rifle. The movie is a farce of sorts and wasn't that well received when first released. It has since gained cult classic status with constant airings every holiday season on TBS and TCM (Turner Classic Movies).

The movie was directed by Bob Clark who up until that point had been famous for directing the Porky's© movies.

Here is one of the most famous clips from that movie: The tongue on the lightpole scene, enjoy!

Scrooge is a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring Albert Finney and Sir Alec Guinness.

It was directed by Ronald Neame and musical score by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley who also brought us the score for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the next year. In 1971, Albert Finney won a Golden Globe award for best actor in a musical/comedy.

Here is a number from that movie.

Enjoy!