Holiday Movie Classics
TCM is the best place to catch the greatest Christmas Movie Classics! While you are making popcorn, eggnog and baking those holiday treats you can catch some of these old classics:
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, dir. Frank Capra)
What can I say about “It’s A Wonderful Life” that hasn’t already been said? If you’ve seen it, you either enjoyed it or didn’t pay attention or are a genuine cynic. If you haven’t yet seen it, I’d like to know your secret to avoiding it, since one of the keys to the movie’s popularity is the fact that its copyright was allowed to expire without being renewed, allowing every TV station that wanted to show it to do so without paying royalties ever since the early 70s. This movie probably has more Web sites devoted to it than any other I’ve run across.
The movie with the ending of all endings!
It’s A Wonderful Life – Trail
The Perfect Ending-It’s a Wonderful Life
Miracle On 34th Street (1947, dir. George Seaton
While this movie is sometimes thought of as another sappy Christmas flick that shows up over and over every Holiday season, it’s actually a pretty funny look at non-conformity and the fine line between faith and insanity. After 50 years, nothing’s really changed, has it? Okay, okay, it’s sappy, too, but a young Natalie Wood will steal your heart, and the supporting cast is excellent (especially William Frawley as the ward-healer). Edmund Gwenn is perfect as Kris Kringle. I try to watch it all the way through every Christmas.
MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET TRAILER 1947
A Christmas Carol (1951, dir. Brian Desmond Hurst
Alastair Sim leads an all-star British cast in the best of many filmed versions of the venerable Dickens tale of greed and redemption. I know you’ve seen this story a thousand times, but this one is the real McCoy, trust me. It was released as Scrooge in the UK.
A Christmas Carol (1951) Movie Trailer with Alastair Sim as Scrooge
The Bishop’s Wife (1947, dir. Henry Koster)
A heartwarming tale of an angel, played by Cary Grant, who comes to earth to help a preacher (David Niven) rediscover his calling, but who instead seems to be stealing his life, not to mention his wife (Loretta Young).
The Bishop’s Wife – trailer
It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947, dir. Roy Del Ruth
For some reason people remember the film, but don’t remember the title. This story of a hobo who ends up squatting during Christmas at a posh mansion is becoming kind of a cult favorite. Don’t miss it if you get a chance to see it. My absolute favorite along with It’s A Wonderful Life!
It Happened On Fifth Ave.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Though it inspired You’ve Got Mail, this rom-com classic feels more akin to Love Actually in its unabashed romanticism. James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan are the oblivious couple on a crash-course toward love one X-mas Eve, proving one of film’s best pairings in the process.
The Shop Around The Corner Trailer
Christmas in Connecticut
Christmas in Connecticut is a holiday film that plays 365 days of the year. Barbara Stanwyck gives a brilliant, sardonic performance as Elizabeth Lane, a columnist for Smart Housekeeping magazine, whose enticing descriptions of the exquisite meals she prepares for her husband and baby on their bucolic Connecticut farm earns her fame as “America’s Best Cook.” A writer, she is; a cook, she is not. As she types the words, “From my living room window, as I write, the good cedar logs cracking on the fire…” the view is of clothes flapping on the line outside her bachelorette Manhattan apartment. An able supporting cast keeps her lie on life support: her editor, her stuffy and detestable architect suitor, and the wonderful “Uncle” Felix (S.Z. Sakall), an English-garbling Hungarian chef who provides the recipes that fill her column.
CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT TRAILER 1945 BARBARA STANWYCK
I hope you get to catch some of these great old Christmas Classics. I saw each and every one of them at least once, the old movie buff that I am! Merry Christmas and best wishes for a healthy and happy holiday season! : )