A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story
Cast: Melinda Dillon, Darren McGavin, Peter Billingsley, Ian Petrella, Scott Schwartz
Credits: Producers: Rene Dupont and Bob Clark; Director: Bob Clark; Writers: Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark; MGM; 1983
How are Christmas classics created?
Are such movies artistic and financial hits upon initial theatrical release? Are holiday classics the darlings of critics but shunned by mainstream audiences? Are classic Christmas movies created because of their unavailability, becoming classics only after being rediscovered and re-released? The truth be known, none of these questions actually addresses the nebulous nature of newly emerging movie classics.
Some classics were ridiculed and slammed by critics, some were financial bombs, others were simply not very popular upon initial release. Some found immediate popularity with audiences of their time, but others were discovered decades later. The only common denominator was time, the revelator. Time which separates the diamonds from the coal, the fool’s gold from the real thing, the hip this-year’s-model from the resonating long-term. And while I was not around (or barely born) for the initial release of Christmas classics such as Scrooge (1951), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947), I was 33 years old in 1983 when Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story was released theatrically, a movie that played town for several weeks, made modest money and quickly vanished. When Susan and I saw it, it was magic, and we knew we had seen a very special movie. But a classic Christmas movie, no way... modern films can never be classics, or can they? Even before TNT began the tradition of showing A Christmas Story non-stop for 24 hours beginning on Christmas Eve, A Christmas Story became a holiday classic, a four-star movie, by virtue of the fact that it perfectly encapsulated every Baby Boomer’s fantasy of what a perfect holiday would be. But the movie speaks to even younger generations, as demonstrated when three girls in my senior English class this year asked to see one of our Midnight Marquee Press books, and I showed them a copy of the original edition of It’s Christmastime at the Movies. Within minutes the girls had found the chapter on A Christmas Story and were giggling, oohing and aahhing and refreshing each other about their favorite scenes. All of them, each 16 or 17 years old, felt this was their favorite Christmas movie and one of their favorite films of all time. So the film resonates across generations making it the idyllic Christmas experience for people of all ages, not just those of us who were children in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
A Christmas Story resonates because every sequence, every frame, every interchange is totally honest and absolutely “nails” the experience. Not one false note exists in the movie. The characters, first of all, are well chosen. Melinda Dillon and Darren McGavin (who deserves the title “the Old Man” for having such young children) are letter-perfect as the parents. First, mom is lovingly annoying (we hear her screaming in her first offscreen appearance), encouraging young son Randy to play piggy with his food and constantly telling older child Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) he can’t have his desired BB gun-”You’ll shoot your eye out!” And the father seems quite bland and predictable in a nostalgic way by constantly speaking about sports, furnaces, changing tires and hating the neighbor’s free-roaming dogs. However, in two sequences, Dillon and McGavin transcend such nostalgic stereotyping to become extra-special characterizations. Dillon gains our respect when she comes to comfort the out-of-control Ralphie who is beating bully Scut to a bloody pulp; Ralphie finally loses emotional control and falls into the arms of mom, tears streaming down his cheeks. Ralphie fears his life will be over when his father gets home; mom instead protects Ralphie by downplaying the fight and quickly engaging her husband in conversations involving sports. Ralphie turns to his mother, they make eye contact, and his entire face twinkles and lights up. Similarly, the old man shows his true colors when he asks Ralphie Christmas night if he received every present he desired, and Ralphie honestly tells him no. The father says, smiling, there’s always next Christmas, as with a twinkle in his eye he alerts his son to a hidden package over in the corner... a well-wrapped box, long and lean. As Ralphie beams and rips off the paper, he immediately realizes he has gotten the “best Christmas present he ever received or will ever receive,” his Daisy Red Ryder BB rifle! The father smiles and chuckles out loud, turning to a more concerned wife and declares he was eight when he got his first air rifle. After feeling his son’s embarrassment and voicing disapproval of Aunt Clara’s ridiculous pink bunny outfit that mother makes him wear, here is the chance for father and son to bond with a testosterone-derived present of which neither Aunt Clara nor mother would approve. And the old man chuckles because this is indeed a male rite of passage and Ralphie, now age 13, leaves some of his childhood innocence behind.
At first the numerous fantasy sequences seem off-putting, but now the sequence with Ralphie wearing his rhinestone cowboy outfit, spitting tobacco, and dead-aiming and picking off the silent movie style comic villains (who wear striped outfits and move in a herky-jerky movements) seems just about perfect. Mother hides under the kitchen table wearing a ridiculous bonnet, equally fearful dad wearing his Davy Crockett coonskin cap also cowers under the table, and such a sequence becomes the fantasy of every child... saving the lives of his family.
The classroom sequences are perfect, from the shenanigans in the classroom (everyone wearing those plastic buck teeth)
to the teacher’s deadpan reaction. The boyhood male bonding is perfect, with all the daring, double daring, double-dog daring, and triple-dog daring posturing, and when poor pathetic Flick accepts the challenge of having his tongue stuck to the metal pole, screaming and flapping his arms wildly about, when the recess-ending bell rings, obedient Ralphie automatically abandons his pal, repeating twice, “the bell rang,” shrugging his arms in a “what can I do?” helplessness. And what can be more honest than the teacher’s sermon, with poor Flick sobbing away, his raw swollen tongue wrapped with bandage, as Ralphie’s innocent eyes dart to the left and right, his body language screaming “who would do something so lowdown to a friend,” when we all know how guilty he actually is. Children always think they are being slick, but such transparent diversions are warmly humorous.
And who cannot recall encountering a yellow-eyed, red-haired schoolyard bully such as Scut, who is slightly older, much larger and loves to twist and bend your arm until you yell “uncle.” Those sequences showing the screaming, frantic chases, edited in-between more significant sequences, just seem so perfect, especially since every one of them is punctuated with younger brother Randy, bundled like “a tick ready to pop,” always running far behind, barely able to stand up, let alone run.
Director Bob Clark made a wise choice allowing Jean Shepherd’s onscreen narration to become Ralphie’s inner voice, revealing the young boy’s secret thoughts. This directorial decision was perhaps the movie’s most satisfying, for it allows sequences such as Ralphie, thinking he’s clever, placing the full-page ad for the Red Ryder rifle ad in-between the pages of Look magazine, perfectly positioning the magazine on his mother’s bed, to take on an emotional honesty that could never be captured if director Clark had not shared the inner emotions of Ralphie. The same is true in the Higbee department store Christmas sequence, where Ralphie and his brother Randy wait in the never-ending line to confront the nasty and often horrific Santa Claus (the whirling subjective shots from Ralphie’s point-of-view show the wide-eyed Santa with his bellowing “ho, ho, ho” to be the forerunner of slasher Santa movies such as Silent Night, Deadly Night). And worst of all, the sidekick elves, with their whining voices and nasty scowling faces, serve as complementing visual images which explains why many children, myself included, have always been afraid to sit on Santa’s lap. As realistically depicted here, the required department store Santa visit is an ordeal that causes more stress than pleasure for children. But such sequences demonstrate Peter Billingsley’s superb performance; his face and precious expressions bring the entire childhood Christmas experience to vivid life. Whether masking his guilt (when he breaks his glasses out in the snow), anticipation (unwrapping his air rifle box), disappointment (when he discovers his secret decoder ring message is only a thinly veiled advertisement), sibling rivalry (the wonderful romps of both brothers running up the family staircase, tackling one another) and total bliss (sleeping with his rifle curled up in his arms), Billingsley recreates the inner child within all males to perfection. And it is no surprise that director Clark constantly keeps his camera tight on Billingsley’s face, for that face conveys so much childhood truth.
Surprisingly, just about every iconic childhood experience is approached within 93 brief minutes. Just think about it. The movie demonstrates our childhood love affair with the media (in this case listening to radio broadcasts of Little Orphan Annie), the family visit to the local Christmas tree lot and the intense bargaining that occurs, the actual decorating of the tree and the spousal in-fighting concerning whether the tree is straight or not, the opening of the Christmas presents (and the immediate tossing away of worthless gifts such as socks), the traditional Christmas dinner (even if held in a Chinese restaurant), the encounters with after-school bullies, the pranks in the classroom, the agony over writing the required “theme” or essay, the dropping not-so-subtle hints about what presents we want for Christmas, the visit to the local festively decorated department store to Christmas shop and meet Santa (and the wide-eyed ecstasy upon first checking out the department store Christmas display window), the big-kid-sin of saying the “F” word in front of parents for the first time and the washing out the mouth with a bar of soap as punishment, the anticipation of coming home every day to check the mailbox to see if that special mail-order something has arrived, the communal family dinner, the frantic do-it-yourself home repairs including the overloading of electrical sockets and blown fuses, and finally, disputes over home decoration including the winning of the glorious leg lamp with Ralphie’s inquisitive hand stroking the leg from top to bottom.
Literally, an entire childhood worth of life experiences are explored in A Christmas Story and every single sequence rings with truth. No wonder people can constantly watch and rewatch the movie, because one of the primary fantasies of adults is taking a time machine back to those best years of our lives to relive such glorious childhood memories over and over again. While such fantasies can never become reality, Bob Clark’s movie allows us the best chance to return to and to relive these happy memories, and thus, by nature of its honesty and nostalgia, A Christmas Story becomes a holiday classic for all time.
The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t
Cast: Rossano Brazzi, Paul Tripp, Alberto Rabagliati, Lydia Brazzi
Credits: Producer: Barry B. Yellen; Director: Rossano Brazzi; Writer: Paul Tripp; Childhood; 1966
This Italian film features international film star Rossano Brazzi as the evil Phineas T. Prune who evicts Santa and Mrs. Claus. The children of the world unite to save the day. Not one of the better holiday features and most kids will find it dull.
The Christmas Toy
Cast: (voices) Jim Henson, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Jerry Nelson, Kathryn Mullen
Credits: Director: Eric Till; Writer: Laura Phillips; Henson Associates; 1990
When people aren’t in the room, the toys come to life, but if they are caught, they will be frozen forever. Rugby wants to be opened again for Christmas, and the other toys must get him back in place before being discovered.
The Christmas Tree
Cast: William Holden, Virna Lisi, Andre Bourvil, Brook Fuller, Madeleine Damien
Credits: Producer: Robert Dorfmann; Director/Writer: Terence Young; Continental; 1969
A young boy, Pascal (Fuller) goes on a happy outing to the beach with his father (Holden) when Pascal absorbs a lethal dose of radiation when a plane carrying an atomic bomb explodes. The father spends the next six months trying to make Pascal’s remaining days happy. Somewhere wolves come into the meaning of the film and eventually the child dies on Christmas Eve. While I’m sure this film is full of messages and deep meaning, to us it just doesn’t add up to happy holiday viewing.
The Christmas Tree
Cast: William Burleigh, Anthony Honour, Kate Nicholls, Anthony Baird
Credits: Producer: Ed Harper; Director: James Clark; Writers: James Clark and Michael Barnes (Based on a Story by Edward Harper); Augusta; 1966
British film which concerns three youngsters and the adventures they have while taking a Christmas tree to a hospital. We were unable to find a screening copy of this film and had to rely on a description from other sources.
Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie’s Island Adventure
Cast: Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn, Dana Barron, Jake Thomas
Credits: Producers: Elliot Friedgen, Evi Quaid, Matty Simmons; Writer: Matty Simmons; TV, 2003
This sequel to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation finds Clark’s hillbilly cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) fired at Christmas. But his boss sends Eddie and his family to the South Pacific to avoid being sued by Eddie, who was bitten by a laboratory monkey. Should appeal to fans of the first film.
A Christmas Visitor
Cast: Reagan Pasternak, Aaron Ashmore, Meredith Baxter, William Devane
Credits: Director: Christopher Leitch; Writer: George Samerjan; Television, 2002
A sad family does not have the heart to celebrate Christmas since losing their son in the Gulf War. A stranger arrives who will change their lives.
The Christmas Wife
Cast: Jason Robards, Julie Harris, Don Francks
Credits: Producer: Patrick Whitley; Director: David Hugh Jones; Writers: Katherine Ann Jones and Helen Norris; Television, 1988
Robards lives a lonely existence in a mountain cabin. He decides to pay a woman (Harris) to be companion over the holidays.
A Christmas Without Snow
Cast: Michael Learned, James Cromwell, John Houseman
Credits: Director: John Korty; Television, 1980
Michael Learned is a divorced mother who moves to San Francisco to start life anew. Her son stays with her mother in the midwest until she can afford to send for him. She finds a family in her church choir, which has a new choirmaster (Houseman) who wants them to perform Handel’s Messiah on Christmas day. There is very little Christmas seen in the film but we are overloaded with the sad problems of the choir members: Learned’s mother is constantly harping at her, a church member loses her husband to cancer, the Reverend’s son trashes the pipe organ, the stereotypical desperate female turns in a young black choir member whom she sees leave the church the night the organ is destroyed and he is arrested, an older woman is asked to leave because she can no longer sing the correct notes, and Houseman has a stroke. What a fun movie. The scripters wish us to see how the conflicts of everyday life can be overcome by a love of church and family and a lofty goal, but the film is heavy-going and not the type of holiday viewing most people are looking for in December.
Conquest of Space
Cast: Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy, Phil Foster
Credits: Producer: George Pal; Director: Bryon Haskin; Writers: James O’Hanlon, Philip Yordan, Barre Lyndon and George Worthing Yates (Based on The Mars Project by Chesley Bonestell and Willy Ley); Paramount; 1955
A spaceship crew takes off for Mars against the better judgment of some of the crew members. While on Mars, Brooke goes crazy and starts to release all of the ship’s water needed for the return flight. When Fleming tries to prevent him from killing them all, he is forced to shoot Brooke, who plays his father. A depression sets in over the ship. “It’s going to be a long cold winter,” one notes, when the strains of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” are heard. It is December 25. The men drink a toast using precious water amidst decorations hung on the instruments. A Christmas miracle occurs as it begins to snow on Mars and the crew rushes out to gather the snow for a return trip.
Cowboy and the Indians
Cast: Gene Autry, Sheila Ryan, Frank Richards, Jay Silverheels
Credits: Producer: Armand Schaefer; Director: John English; Writers: Dwight Cummins and Dorothy Yost; Columbia; 1949
Gene Autry helps Jay Silverheels and his people fight a dishonest Indian Agent. Autry goes all the way to Washington to help the Indians. The only Christmas theme is at the very end of the film when Autry and crew show up to deliver presents on the reservation and Autry sings his famous “Here Comes Santa Claus.”
Crooks Anonymous
Cast: Leslie Phillips, Stanley Baxter, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Julie Christie
Credits: Producers: Julian Wintle and Leslie Parkyn, Director: Ken Annakin; Writers: Jack Davis and Henry Blyth; Independent Artists; 1962
British comedy has criminal Phillips join an organization that helps bad guys reform-Crooks Anonymous. He does quite well and ends up with a job as a department store Santa. Things begin to go awry when he is locked in the store overnight and gives in to temptation. This film is unavailable for viewing and we had to rely on other sources for the description.
The Crowded Day
Cast: John Gregson, Joan Rice, Freda Jackson, Patricia Marmont
Credits: Producer: David Dent; Director: John Guillermin; Writer: Talbot Rothwell (Based on a Story by John Paddy Carstairs and Moie Charles); Advance; 1954
The drama concerns the lives of five women working in a London department store over the Christmas holiday. This rare British film was unavailable for screening; we are relying on other sources for the description.
Curse of the Cat People
Cast: Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Ann Carter, Elizabeth Russell, Julia Dean
Credits: Producer: Val Lewton; Director: Robert Wise; Writer: DeWitt Bodeen; RKO, 1944
Do not be put off by the title of this film, for rather than being a horror film, the story is of Amy’s (Ann Carter) fantasy friend Irena (Simone Simon) and the fear her imagination sparks in her father (Kent Smith). Amy is very shy and has no friends, but finds solace in her imaginary friend Irena and Julia Farren (Dean), an old actress she has befriended. Amy learns not to talk about Irena because it upsets her father. On Christmas she brings down packages for everyone including Mrs. Farren. When her parents ask who the unmarked present is for, she hesitates but is saved by carolers at the front door. As they sing around the piano, she hears Irena singing a French carol in the garden and gives her the present. Irena covers the trees with ice and lights them up as her present for Amy.
When Amy gives her present to Mrs. Farren, the woman tells her she has not had a Christmas present in a very long time, even though an unopened present from her daughter is beside her.
When the family is taking down the Christmas tree a photo falls from an album, and Amy excitedly asks her father how he knows her friend. The picture is of his first wife Irena, and he is distraught that Amy thinks his dead ex-wife is her friend. He takes her to the garden and demands she tell him Irena is not there. When Amy refuses, he takes her upstairs and spanks her. Irena comes to her in the bedroom and tells Amy she must send her away and fades from the room. Amy runs outside into a snowstorm searching for Irena. She is lost and frightened but manages to find Mrs. Farren’s house. The actress’ daughter (Russell) is jealous of the love her mother gives Amy and has threatened to kill the child the next time she visits. Irena saves Amy and, when the search party finds the child, her father decides to try to accept her imaginary friend.
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