Somebody should do research and explain why is it that modern Christmas movies look so hapless, so tedious, and so deficient when compared to the ones made eighty years ago. When I start thinking about good Christmas films made this century, I can only come up with three or four decent examples (half of which are animated). I am not even selling my childhood here. The films I am going to be talking about had all been made ages before I was born. And they all tower well above anything that has been released since.
These are all black and white Hollywood movies, mostly from the 40s. Not every old black and white Christmas film is great, mind you (take Meet John Doe, for instance), but these ten are. Each of these films feels effortless. Each of these films has a disarming charm and an affectionate heart to it. Each of these films is an absolute joy to watch over the course of this festive season.
But before we get to the best three, a few others that are just as good: Shop Around The Corner (1940) - even if I am not a fan of Margaret Sullivan's character; Miracle on 34th Street (1947) - watch the original, not the sappy remake; Holiday Affair (1949) - the dinner speech from the elderly couple is one of the most heartfelt moments in cinema; The Bishop's Wife (1947) - what a deeply strange but beautiful film; Christmas in Connecticut (1945) - this one always has me in fits; It's A Wonderful Life (1946) - this one always has me in bits; It Happened On 5th Avenue (1947) - oh those eyes of Ann Harding.
The Man Who Came To Dinner (1942)
This film is completely insane. It has an insane premise and it has insane performances (from Monty Woolley, from Reginald Gardiner, from the inimitable Jimmy Durante) - but the more I watch it, the more I feel caught up in this insanity. It is Christmas time, obviously, and a successful and conceited American writer suffers an unfortunate slippery accident and is forced to spend the whole holiday season in the house of righteousness and boredom. Worse, he is tied to a wheelchair. The way the plot unravels beggars belief, but by the time we arrive at the sarcophagus scene at the end, you are ready to take on anything thrown your way.
At this point, I am completely in love with Monty Woolley's voice ('my blossom girl' never leaves my head) and Ann Sheridan's shamelessness, with Banjo's song (see below) and with Bette Davis's aristocratic detachment. Also, this was the film that started my love for baked sweet potatoes.
Remember The Night (1940)
Barbara Stanwyck is great in every film I can think of, but none is better than Remember the Night. John Sargeant (Fred MacMurray) is a prosecutor who is about to condemn Lee Leander (Stanwyck) to an extended prison term for stealing a bracelent from a jewelery store in New York City. However, this is almost Christmas Eve, and you can imagine where it goes from there.
Except nothing about Remember the Night feels trite and predictable. The film is a wild ride. The scene with cows is screwball comedy, the scene at sheriff's home is action thriller and the scene with Lee's mother is utterly devastating drama that for a moment makes you forget that Remember the Night is a Christmas movie. The best scenes, however, are all inside John's family house where the Christmas celebrations are filled with the kind of warmth and genuine feeling that you are bound to start longing for the old times you have never really experienced.
The Apartment (1960)
The Apartment is not just the greatest Christmas movie that I know - it is one of my favourite films of all time. The great Jack Lemmon plays a loser by the name of C.C. Baxter who lets his office superiors use his apartment in Upper West Side for dating purposes. Then Shirley MacLaine (elevator operator Fran Kubelik) appears and things begin to change.
This is a perennial story of self-worth versus corporate ladder but it is done with such style and great story-telling that you start to really care. The acting is superb, too, and the film is basically an endless collection of unforgettable scenes. I especially enjoy the ones with the doctor ("be a Mensch!"), but I believe it is the scene at the bar that truly gets me every time I watch The Apartment. It is a beautiful film that may get sombre on occasion but, equally, it is a film that never takes itself too seriously. To quote the wonderful Miss Kubelik, "Shut up and deal!"
