A Festive Tour de Force: Exploring Overlooked Christmas Pictures
One thing that irks me about a lot of contemporary holiday movies is their overly meta-commentary – the gaudy ornaments, the predictable music selections, and the stilted conversations about the true meaning of the holidays. Maybe because the category was not yet hardened into routine, pictures from the 1940s often explore Yuletide from far more creative and not as obsessive perspectives.
It Happened on Fifth Avenue
A cherished discovery from delving into 1940s seasonal fare is It Happened on Fifth Avenue, a 1947 romantic comedy with a brilliant concept: a jovial drifter takes up residence in a empty luxurious townhouse each year. That season, he invites new acquaintances to live with him, including a former GI and a runaway who turns out to be the offspring of the mansion's rich proprietor. Director Roy Del Ruth imbues the movie with a surrogate family coziness that numerous newer holiday movies have to labor to attain. The film beautifully occupies the space between a class-conscious story on affordable living and a delightful metropolitan romance.
Godfathers in Tokyo
The acclaimed director's 2003 feature Tokyo Godfathers is a fun, heartbreaking, and deeply moving take on the holiday tale. Inspired by a classic Hollywood film, it follows a group of down-and-out individuals – an alcoholic, a trans woman, and a adolescent throwaway – who discover an discarded infant on a snowy December night. Their journey to reunite the baby's mother sets off a chain of unexpected events involving yakuza, foreigners, and seemingly serendipitous connections. The animation celebrates the enchantment of chance often found in seasonal stories, delivering it with a cool-toned animation that sidesteps cloying sentiment.
The John Doe Story
While Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life rightly gets plenty of praise, his lesser-known work Meet John Doe is a notable holiday story in its own right. With Gary Cooper as a handsome drifter and Barbara Stanwyck as a resourceful writer, the film kicks off with a fabricated letter from a man promising to leap from a building on December 24th in despair. The nation's embrace compels the journalist to find a man to impersonate the mythical "John Doe," who later becomes a national figure for neighborliness. The movie serves as both an uplifting fable and a sharp indictment of powerful businessmen attempting to use grassroots feeling for their own ends.
A Silent Partner
While holiday horror movies are now plentiful, the Christmas thriller remains a relatively rare style. This makes the 1978 film The Silent Partner a novel surprise. Featuring a superbly vile Christopher Plummer as a criminal Santa Claus and Elliott Gould as a clever bank teller, the movie sets two varieties of morally ambiguous individuals against each other in a sleek and twisty tale. Mostly ignored upon its original release, it deserves new attention for those who enjoy their festive films with a dark tone.
The Almost Christmas
For those who prefer their Christmas gatherings dysfunctional, Almost Christmas is a hoot. Featuring a impressive cast that includes Danny Glover, Mo'Nique, and JB Smoove, the story examines the strain of a clan gathered to endure five days under one roof during the holidays. Secret dramas bubble to the top, leading to situations of high comedy, such as a showdown where a firearm is brandished. Naturally, the film finds a touching ending, giving all the entertainment of a seasonal catastrophe without any of the actual consequences.
Go
Doug Liman's 1999 film Go is a Christmas-adjacent tale that functions as a teen-oriented riff on interconnected narratives. Although some of its comedy may feel of its time upon a modern viewing, the picture nevertheless contains many elements to enjoy. These range from a engaging performance from Sarah Polley to a standout scene by Timothy Olyphant as a dangerous drug dealer who fittingly wears a Santa hat. It embodies a specific kind of late-90s cinematic attitude set against a Christmas backdrop.
Morgan's Creek Miracle
Preston Sturges's wartime comedy The Miracle of Morgan's Creek forgoes typical holiday warmth in favor for cheeky comedy. The movie is about Betty Hutton's Trudy Kockenlocker, who ends up expecting after a wild night but cannot remember the father involved. Much of the humor stems from her predicament and the devotion of Eddie Bracken's hapless Norval Jones to rescue her. Although not immediately a Christmas movie at the beginning, the plot climaxes on the Christmas, making clear that Sturges has created a satirical take of the birth narrative, loaded with his characteristic sharp humor.
Better Off Dead Movie
This 1985 adolescent film featuring John Cusack, Better Off Dead, is a quintessential specimen of its decade. Cusack's
