Penny Serenade
Cast: Irene Dunn, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, Edgar Buchanan
Credits: Producer/Director: George Stevens; Writer: Morrie Ryskind (Based on a Story by Martha Cheavens); Columbia; 1941
Christmas time is the season of both the greatest joy and greatest tragedy in the life of Julie and Roger Adams (Irene Dunne and Cary Grant) in this tear-filled offering from Columbia. The film begins in the present where Julie is preparing to leave Roger. She sadly listens to records she and Roger have collected though the years-records that bring back precious memories.
Newspaperman Roger Adams meets Julie, the girl of his dreams, at a record store where he buys an armful of records (even though he has no record player). They fall in love and, when Roger gets a promotion which means moving to Japan, he and Julie quickly decide to be married. When Julie arrives in Japan, she tells Roger he is to be a father. Roger is a happy-go-lucky sort who takes things as they come. When he receives a small inheritance, he quits his job and tells Julie they are going to see the world before the baby arrives. Julie, thinking of the future, is angry with him and heads upstairs when an earthquake hits. She is pinned under rubble and, when she awakes in the hospital, she has lost the baby and can never have another child.
Roger buys a small-town newspaper, and Julie tries to make a home but her heart isn’t in it. Family friend Apple Jack (Edgar Buchanan) engages in a little white lie telling Julie that Roger wants to adopt but is afraid to suggest it. Julie is delighted, and Roger is relieved something has brought her back to her old self. The couple arrive at the adoption home expecting to pick out a baby like they would a head of lettuce. They are crushed when they find they may have to wait a year or more.
Luckily, Miss Oliver (Beulah Bondi) soon has a little girl for them. Roger isn’t sure he wants a girl, he had his heart set on a boy, but he melts when the tiny baby grabs his finger. A year passes, and it is time for a hearing for final adoption. The newspaper has temporarily closed and the couple has no income. The judge is going to place Trina in a foster home when Roger makes an impassioned plea for his daughter. Grant heartbreakingly delivers this speech as a tearful Miss Oliver (not to mention viewers) looks on. The judge relents, and the little family is once again united.
The years pass happily and little Trina (Eve Lee Kuney), a freckle-faced sweetheart, is the apple of her daddy’s eye. She is anxiously awaiting Christmas and her first Christmas play. She is too little to be on stage, but happily tells her parents she needs a pair of sneakers because she is to be the voice of the angels. She will push a cloud into the sky and sing a reply to the song sung below.
The big day arrives, and she can hardly sit still as they drive to the school. “I hope we’re not late,” she worries. The audience is filled with proud parents, not the least of which are Roger and Julie. Apple Jack sneaks in just in time to hear Trina, in a sweet voice, sing her reply to “Silent Night.” She starts to move down the ramp when she slips and slides down, offering a sorry smile to her surprised teacher. In the car she is in tears as they drive home. Julie tells her the teacher said she did fine and next year she will be an angel.
Truer words were never spoken. The next year, three weeks before Christmas, Trina comes down with an illness and dies. Thankfully we are not subjected to this, merely the convincing sadness of Roger and Julie-which may actually be even more heart-wrenching. Rather than turning to each other in their grief, Roger and Julie can no longer communicate. We ache for them to take each other in their arms and comfort each other, but they cannot get past their own grief, especially Roger. It is pouring rain when a knock is heard at the door. It is a little boy and a soaked mother whose car broke down. They ask to use the phone. The boy is in the school Christmas play. Julie tells them she will drive them, but Roger says the car will have to be cranked and drives Julie and the mother and son. The little boy jumps out of the car (we see his little sneakers) saying, “I hope we’re not late.”
Roger stops the car in front of a bar and tells Julie to take it home. He tells her he won’t be back. He never wants to see anything that reminds him of his prior happiness. Julie can no longer take the strain and decides to leave. Roger does come home and proclaims he doesn’t blame her for leaving. He never gave her anything he promised. They are about to leave when the phone rings. Miss Oliver just happens to have a little boy who needs a home.
Watching this film is actually physically draining. Even those who manage to make it though the earthquake, miscarriage and court scene will never be able to hold back the tears against the tide of Cary Grant’s grief. His performance was so strong he was nominated for an Academy Award. Irene Dunne also turns in an excellent performance. While Dunne was a huge star in her day, today the average person rarely places her name up there with those of Hepburn and Davis. But Dunne did some absolutely wonderful work in films such as Show Boat (1936), Love Affair (1939) and her tour de force performance in 1948’s I Remember Mama for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1937 Grant and Dunne had appeared together in the highly successful The Awful Truth and in 1940 they again starred in My Favorite Wife-both classic screwball comedies much adored by audiences. Irene Dunne died at age 91, by all accounts a wonderful person onscreen and off.
Edgar Buchanan, perhaps best known as Uncle Joe on TV’s Petticoat Junction, turns in a fine performance as Apple Jack. When Julie cries under the strain of trying to bathe the squirming baby, he nonchalantly steps in and proceeds to take charge-a wonderful scene that shows the strength of this versatile character actor.
The film was based on a story by Martha Cheavens from McCall’s magazine and directed by veteran George Stevens, whose work would include Alice Adams, The Diary of Anne Frank, I Remember Mama, A Place in the Sun, Giant, Woman of the Year, and Shane.
Variety advised, “Exhibitors would be smart to furnish handkerchiefs at the box-office. Incidentally, they had better lay in a big supply. This is the best tear-jerker that has come to the screen...”
Period of Adjustment
Cast: Jim Hutton, Jane Fonda, Anthony Franciosa, Lois Nettleton
Credits: Producer: Lawrence Weingarten; Director: George Roy Hill; Writer: Isobel Lennart (Based on the Tennessee Williams Play); MGM; 1962
During Christmas, Korean vet Hutton marries a nurse (Fonda) who helped him recover from a breakdown. The marriage gets off to a bad start when they have their wedding dinner in a low-class diner and spend the night in an even lower-class motel. Hutton wants to become a partner in a cattle business with his friend from the service (Franciosa), so they travel to his house. But he is having difficulties himself. He got drunk at the company Christmas party and told his wife’s father (his boss) exactly what he thought of him. His wife (Nettleton) takes their young son and moves in with her parents. Franciosa comes to realize that even though he married Nettleton for the job, he has come to love her.
Franciosa and the in-laws, along with Hutton and Fonda, are hauled down to the police station when they cause a commotion. Nettleton goes down to settle the dispute and meets Hutton and Fonda. They go back to the house to discuss Christmas for their son. When Nettleton finds a fur coat Franciosa has bought her for Christmas, she forgives him, and they plan to move West to a cattle ranch. Hutton confesses his fears of inadequacy to Fonda, who tells him they have the rest of their life to discover each other, and Christmas Eve ends happily for all involved. It always disturbs me that they all forgot the kid, who was still at the in-law’s house. Based on a play by Tennessee Williams.
Pocketful of Miracles
Cast: Glenn Ford, Bette Davis, Hope Lange, Arthur O’Connell, Peter Falk, Edward Everett Horton
Credits: Producer/Director: Frank Capra; Writers: Hal Kanter, Harry Tugend, Jimmy Cannon (Based on the Damon Runyon Story “Madame”); Franton; 1961
Glenn Ford stars as Dave the Dude who believes his good luck is brought on by his purchase of apples from old Apple Annie (Bette Davis). Dude is about to make a deal with Chicago gangster Darcey (Sheldon Leonard) when Annie learns that her daughter (Ann-Margret), who has been educated in a Spanish nunnery, is coming to New York to visit Annie. She believes Annie is an important socialite and is bringing her fiancé and his father Count Romero to meet her mother. Queenie (Hope Lange) forces Dude to help Annie pull off the charade of the century in this film based on Damon Runyon characters. The film takes place in December, but actually little of the holiday is seen. The film would be the final one for Frank Capra.
The Powerpuff Girls: ’Twas the Fight Before Christmas
Credits: Warner Bros. DVD, 2003
Bubbles, Blossom and Buttercup discover coal in the stockings on Christmas morning and must discover how Santa came to believe they were very naughty. Kids will adore the holiday adventures of the adorable Powerpuffs.
Prancer
Cast: Sam Elliott, Rebecca Harrell, Abe Vigoda, Rutanya Alda, Cloris Leachman
Credits: Producers: Raffaella De Laurentiis, Greg Taylor and Mike Petzold; Director: John Hancock; Writer: Greg Taylor; Orion; 1989
Prancer may have flown from theaters before many people had a chance to view this charming little film of a girl, a reindeer and a fierce belief in all things wonderful. But it is available on videotape and should become mandatory holiday viewing for families.
Jessica Riggs (Rebecca Harrell) is a joyful vibrant little girl who dearly loves Christmas-she sings carols all year long and bubbles over with innocent childlike enthusiasm as the holiday approaches. Her teacher wishes her enthusiasm were a little quieter-Jessie manages to drown out the other children as they rehearse carols for their Christmas pageant. Later in the film after a fight with her father (Sam Elliott), Jessie is soon playing her record “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and hanging reindeer across her window. Aunt Sarah (Rutanya Alda) is visiting and calls Jessie to supper.
Jessie excitedly discusses the approaching holiday: “There’s going to be a full moon this Christmas.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” her father corrects.
“Sorry. That means there’s bound to be magic things happening.” Jessie is so full of life and wide-eyed belief in all things that the audience wants to embrace her and recapture this lovely feeling so many may have lost.
Jessie skips through life with her best friend Carol (Ariana Richards) by her side, but she and Carol have a falling out over Jessie’s strong beliefs. Jessie is still wearing her angel costume as she walks home with Carol and is bubbling over with the thought of Santa. Carol doesn’t believe in Santa but lets Jessie ramble on. They watch as workmen hang Santa’s sleigh and reindeer across the main street. One of the deer falls, the third one-Prancer-and is run over by a car.
Later Jessie and Carol go sledding down a hillside. Jessie’s sled is broken and she crashes through the garden of creepy old Mrs. McFarland (Cloris Leachman). With black high heels slipping on the snow, hair and clothes flying wildly, brandishing a shovel, the woman, resembling a nightmarish witch, chases Jessie through the yard. That evening darkness is falling and the woods seem quiet and spooky as Jessie heads home. She hears a twig snap and begins to run but stumbles and falls. She looks up to see a most majestic sight, a huge reindeer. She reaches out to touch him but he runs away.
The next day at lunch she tells Carol about the deer.
“The moon’s almost full. It’ll be full on Christmas Eve. Don’t you see, it all fits together,” Jessie excitedly tells her friend. She is sure the deer is Prancer.
Carol is troubled. “The problem is Jessie, I don’t believe in Santa Claus anymore.”
“What!”
“I mean think about it. How could one man climb down all the chimneys in the world in one night?”
“He’s magical, Carol,” Jessie answers rolling her eyes at her friend’s ridiculous thinking.
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“Well Carol, not everything in the world can be explained.”
“I’ve never seen Santa Claus and I’ve done a lot of looking.”
“Well, you’ve never seen God either. Does that mean there’s no God?”
“I don’t know about that for sure.”
Jessie is getting more upset. “Because if there’s no God, there’s no heaven.”
“Well maybe there isn’t.”
“All right for you Carol Wetherby. You’re not my friend anymore.”
“What did I say?”
“That there was no heaven.”
“So.”
“What about my mother then?”
Jessie, like many children who lose a beloved parent, finds some small comfort in the belief that her mother is happily living in heaven. When Carol questions the big picture, Jessie cannot face the thought of her mother not being anywhere.
Jessie, although seemingly cheerful, also seems like a lost little girl. At the pageant, the children sing “Silent Night” as they walk toward the stage, while their proud parents sit in the audience. Jessie is still joyfully singing at the top of her voice. But after the pageant, when the other children run to their parents, she looks with sorrow at the happy families.
Another small but telling scene shows Jessie pouring imaginary tea from a play set and setting the little cup along with a flower before a picture of her mother.
The relationship between father and daughter is loving but strained. Jessie buries her sadness at losing her mother deep, but not as deeply as her tough-talking father John. Sam Elliott as John Riggs portrays the character as a sad, tired man, not sure how to cope with his motherless children and fearful of losing his farm. He clearly loves his two children but hasn’t a clue how to deal with them. After the school pageant, Jessie arrives home to find John working in his apple orchard. Jessie, her arms waving about, begins to describe the pageant to her preoccupied father.
“Are we going to starve?” Jessie asks.
“Of course not. Stop worrying about these things will ya. We’re going to be all right.”
Later she hears her father and aunt talking: “Have you told her yet, John? You’ve got to.”
“I know,” he replies.
Later Jessie walks home alone after school, once again walking through the woods, even though her father has warned her not to. She follows deer tracks before hearing gunshots. As Jessie continues home along a snow-covered road, a truck pulls alongside and her father yells, “Get in here.”
He is very angry and tells her she could have been shot by hunters. Jessie asks him what he and Sarah were talking about.
“You know it’s just not right when a little girl’s got to grow up without her mom around. We’ve been talking about you maybe going to live with her [Aunt Sarah].”
Jessie is frantic. “No daddy, please. I don’t want to do that. You’re what’s best for me.” This is truly a real, heartbreaking scene and one not uncommon just a few generations ago when parents sent children to relatives who could better care for them.
As the father and daughter argue, Jessie yells, “Dad, look out!” He throws his arm across her and slams on the breaks. Prancer is standing in the middle of the road. Jessie wants to help him but her father takes his rifle to put the shotgun-wounded deer down. “I hate you,” Jessie screams. When they look up the deer has vanished.
Jessie finds the deer (which she is convinced is Prancer) in the barn and hides it in a shed. She persuades the local vet to treat the deer and manages to keep it secret from her father.
Jessie has the enviable ability to charm those around her. The crusty old vet (Abe Vigoda) gives in to her pleas and helps Prancer. She hugs him saying, “History’s going to love you for this.” She also manages to warm the heart of the frightening Mrs. McFarland when she offers to clean any room in her house for five dollars. The sly old woman tries to take advantage of Jessie, but soon melts under the exuberance of the child. Jessie finds a box of Christmas lights in the attic and strings them up yelling “Surprise!” when Mrs. McFarland comes looking for her. She talks the woman into decorating her house-like she used to many years ago. Mrs. McFarland gives Jessie extra money, enough for Jessie to buy a red beribboned bag of oats for Prancer.
Jessie also urgently bullies a department store Santa (Michael Constantine) into delivering a message to the real Santa. “I’m sorry I don’t have any time to chitchat. Can you get this letter to him?” Rebecca Harrell is priceless in this scene as she grabs the startled Santa by the beard. “Prancer is in the shed, near my house. I plan to take him to Antler Ridge on December 23, midnight.” This is not the usual request and the man reacts with amazement. “Oh, wait a minute. Now is that all you want for Christmas?” Jessie hurriedly answers, “Well, for now, anyway. I really don’t want to live with my aunt, but I don’t know if Santa can do anything about that.”
Santa takes the letter to the local newspaper editor who prints it under the heading “Yes, Santa, there are still Virginias.” That Sunday Jessie attends church with her aunt and brother. The preacher reads her letter as she slowly sinks into the pew. Meanwhile, her father is home reading the Sunday paper feeling something is amiss, but he’s not quite sure what. John is even more perplexed when cars begin pulling up looking for the reindeer. He finds Prancer wandering through the house wreaking havoc. John grabs a rifle but someone yells, “Don’t shoot!” John sells the deer to a local butcher who is going to display him.
Jessie’s relationship with her father hits a new low. Sobbing she proclaims, “Mom would have never done this-I wish she were here instead of you!” Words that cut deeply into the soul of the bereaved father.
Jessie and her brother Steve (John Duda) have the typical brother/sister relationship-constant bickering. But as Jessie sets out that night to rescue Prancer, Steve follows, asking why she is taking her clothes with her. Jessie explains about Aunt Sarah. “I didn’t think you’d care.” “Of course I do,” Steve answers.
As any parent of emotional children can attest, Jessie considers herself the ultimate martyr and sorrowfully declares, “With Prancer gone there’s nothing left for me in this town. Good-bye Steve.”
Steve, as any good brother would, goes along to help. Jessie climbs a tree and tries to remove the wire from the top of the cage. She pulls the wire back and tells Prancer to fly. When he doesn’t, Jessie loses her last ounce of faith. Then local constable Burt (a tribute to It’s a Wonderful Life perhaps?) stops by to check on Prancer; Jessie grabs a tree limb and holds on precariously. Steve begins to climb the tree but Jessie loses her grip and falls to the ground. Her frantic brother runs for help while Prancer breaks down the cage and lays down beside the unconscious girl to keep her warm.
Steve decorates the Christmas tree as John, on the phone, asks the hospital if Jessie was released too early. She won’t get out of bed or play her Christmas records. “It’s just a deer, Aunt Sarah,” she tells her worried aunt.
The finale of the film resembles Disney’s Pollyanna as neighbors gather outside singing Christmas carols. Even Mrs. McFarland, the vet and Carol are in the crowd. John enters the darkened room.
“Haven’t got much to give you this Christmas.”
“That’s okay, Daddy.”
“No, it isn’t. I’ve been thinking maybe we could do some of the things we used to do, you know, before. On other Christmases.”
“I’d like that Daddy... I didn’t really want to run away. I just wanted you to find me and bring me back here and tell me everything’s going to be okay, like it used to be.”
“Aw, Jessie. I can’t tell you everything’s going to be all right... Could be we’ll even lose this farm some day. I can bear that. What I can’t bear is when you were gone last night, I saw what it would be like around here not to have you around. I love you Jessie.”
John has Prancer in the back of his pickup and he and Jessie finish the little girl’s quest of returning Prancer to Santa.
John comes to realize the magic of Christmas is within ourselves and our precious loved ones. He and Jessie both regain their shaken faith and look forward to a life lived happily ever after.
Prancer was released in 1989 and filmed on location in Three Oaks, Michigan and Laport, Indiana. The film was directed by John D. Hancock, whose first directorial effort was the horror film Let’s Scare Jessica to Death in 1971. He would follow that film up with baseball tearjerker Bang the Drum Slowly in 1973. Sam Elliott has the rugged looks that fit comfortably into cowboy/farmer roles in films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Gettysburg. Prancer was the first film of Rebecca Harrell, who stole the show from the seasoned veterans. Her exuberance and sparkle drive the film; her disappointment in the harsh realities of the real world devastates the audience as much as Jessie herself.
Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times noted, “The best thing about Prancer is that it doesn’t insult anyone’s intelligence. Smaller kids will identify with Jessica’s fierce resolve to get Prancer back into action, and older viewers will appreciate the fact that the movie takes place in an approximation of the real world.”
The Preacher’s Wife
Cast: Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, Courtney B. Vance, Gregory Hines, Cissy Houston, Jenifer Lewis
Credits: Producer: Samuel Goldwyn, Jr.; Director: Penny Marshall; Writers: Nat Mauldin and Allan Scott (Based on The Bishop’s Wife by Leonardo Bercovici and Robert E. Sherwood); Buena Vista: 1996
The Bishop’s Wife was remade in 1996 with a stellar cast featuring Whitney Houston as Julia Briggs and Denzel Washington as Dudley. Again, Julia’s marriage to Reverend Briggs (Courtney B. Vance) is lacking passion. Briggs, whose congregation has been slowly decreasing, is trying to decide whether to stick it out in the old church, which Julia’s father built, or sell out to mega-developer Joe Hamilton (Gregory Hines). Meanwhile their son Jeremiah (Justin Pierre Edmund) is saddened by the loss of his best friend who was taken away by social workers. Angel Dudley suddenly appears to help the Briggs family and indulge in a little flirtation with Julia. Houston gets to put her immense vocal talents to good use in the choir scenes. The film was directed by Penny Marshall and makes pleasant holiday viewing.
The Railway Children
Cast: Dinah Sheridan, Iain Cuthbertson, Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett, Bernard Cribbins
Credits: Producer: Robert Lynn; Director/Writer: Lionel Jeffries (Based on a Novel by E. Nesbit); Universal; 1971
During Christmas an employee of the Foreign Office is sent to prison. His family, who have lost almost everything, must move to a poorer neighborhood. While their mother makes a game of pretending they are poor, the children make friends, one of whom helps them clear their father’s name.
The Ref
Cast: Denis Leary, Judy Davis, Kevin Spacey, Glynis Johns
Credits: Producers: Ron Bozman, Richard LaGravenese and Jeff Weiss; Director: Ted Demme; Writers: Richard LaGravenese and Marie Weiss; Buena Vista; 1994
Like Mixed Nuts, 1994’s The Ref is another twisted Christmas tale, one where the spirit of the Christmas log does not warm the cockles of the heart as much as suggest a means of burning it to a cinder. Director Ted Demme, working with a screenplay by Richard LaGravenese and Marie Weiss, takes a reality-based approach to the holidays, and the tone is anything but “ho, ho, ho.” Presenting a bevy of grating, dysfunctional characters that come at us from different directions (the central family, the incoming visiting family, the Baybrook police, Santa Claus-garbed neighbor George, etc.), Demme seems to think that all these ugly interactions can meld into the warm spirit of Christmas if everything is worked out in a tidy fashion in the final minutes of the movie. But ultimately, the mean-spirited and ugly proceedings cannot be erased by a few minutes of warmth and understanding.
Once again the scene is set for an ideal Christmas in small-town America. Framed by a Christmas wreath, we have a high-angle shot of the main street of Baybrook, bathed in the warm glow of Christmas lights. The camera pans revealing a manger scene, a chorus singing in front of a church, the Salvation Army collecting money, store fronts showing toy trains and ice skaters, and children running up and down the street. We slowly zoom to the office of Dr. Wong, Marriage Counselor, above the Village Books shop. But this ends the traditional season of peace on Earth.
Inside Wong’s office, Lloyd (Kevin Spacey) and Caroline (Judy Davis), the fragmenting married couple, are attempting to talk out their problems. Caroline shares a recurrent dream she has of Lloyd’s head sitting on a salad. Lloyd seems offended by such an image, so Wong asks about sexual problems. Lloyd complains that they haven’t had sex in a long time, and Caroline adds the same routine and the too-fast conclusion led to sexual monotony. Caroline admits to an affair, but seems annoyed that Lloyd expects her to wear the scarlet “A” on her chest. “It didn’t mean anything to me so it doesn’t matter,” Caroline pleads. Lloyd turns to Wong and snaps back, “I think we need a ruling here!” Their problem child Jesse (Robert Steinmiller, Jr.) is mentioned as being a strain on the marriage. Caroline confesses she is not happy in the marriage, while Lloyd states he is very content with things as they are now. She confesses she is disappointed that Lloyd gave up the excitement of running their own restaurant to work for his mother and manage her antiques shop, taking out a loan from “Satan Mom” for 18 percent. The session ends with concurrent obscenities being directed at Dr. Wong.
Elsewhere, a masked bandit is breaking into the safe of a rich neighbor in the community. At first, after opening the safe, the thief is bombarded with a spray of animal urine, but he continues onward. Next, moving another gem, an alarm system goes off, a trap door opens and the criminal falls to the floor below, where he is bitten in the leg by a huge dog, but still manages to escape.
The session is over but Lloyd and Caroline are bickering in the car driving home. “You can divorce me, say I was unfaithful,” Caroline states matter of factly. Lloyd, angered, says, “Say you were unfaithful, no, you were unfaithful!” He refuses to grant her a divorce. Halting their bitching long enough to stop in a convenience store, Caroline goes inside shopping, but the very same criminal who attempted to rob the house in the earlier scene holds a gun on Caroline and demands they go out to her car. Forcing Lloyd to drive, the gunman, Gus (Denis Leary), tells Lloyd to drive him to their home. Lloyd and Caroline are still bickering and Gus comments in disgust, “I hijacked my... parents!”
Meanwhile, the incompetence of the Baybrook police department comes into play, as their police chief confesses that nothing ever happens in this town and they lack experience to handle any type of real crime. Starting the on-scene criminal investigation, the Baybrook Police are called off as the State Police are on the way.
Getting home, Caroline tells Gus that their son is due back from military school at any time, and that Lloyd’s family is due by nine for Christmas Eve dinner. Of course, Lloyd’s very same family is stuffing their faces at some roadside restaurant claiming they all hate Caroline’s cooking.
Back at the home, Gus ties up the married couple with bungee cord that Caroline tells him where to find. But even when tied up, the married couple continue to yell accusations at one another, to the extent that Gus has to knock their chairs backwards and startle them into submission. Only when Caroline and Lloyd are tied together, face to face, and Caroline detects her husband’s excitement, does she playfully comment she should have tied him up more often.
Gus contacts his older drunken partner, Murray, in a local bar. Murray abandoned Gus, citing the excuse, “I was scared.” Not knowing exactly where to go, Gus orders Murray to go to the boatyard and steal them a boat, to escape.
Gus wants a cigarette, and while Lloyd sneers, “I’ve never smoked,” Caroline more softly offers that she quit. Gus then immediately asks Caroline where she keeps them hidden, realizing that the woman is lying. When she confesses where her stockpile is, this gives Lloyd more reason to yell at his wife, but Gus quickly proves that Lloyd is also a liar. When Caroline sees Gus’ leg bleeding, she tells him where to find the Band-Aids, but “use the Ouchless in the green container.” Lloyd comments that she will use this trauma as her excuse to have her next affair.
Soon neighbor George, dressed as Santa Claus, rings the bell, and the too-jolly man declares, “Bet you thought Margaret forgot you on the fruitcake list,” as he delivers his annual present (that in a few moments Gus will spit out when he attempts to eat a slice). Before leaving, George reminds Lloyd to ask Jesse if he saw his baby Jesus lawn decoration which was missing from last year. Of course Caroline is offended that the neighbor would hint that their son stole something, but minutes later, Gus, searching through Jesse’s room, finds it hidden in his chest.
Gus mocks the couple, stating “at least I have a skill,” that he can break into any house in 10 minutes, leave no prints and get away. The criminal hates the rich. “What do you do?” Gus asks Lloyd, and then Caroline reveals he works for his mother. But Lloyd proudly admits, “Someone has to take responsibility!”
The local police department (trying to solve the case before the state boys arrive) manage to record a copy of It’s a Wonderful Life over a videotape of Gus in action, literally stealing gems from the vault, identifying him as the burglar. Also, Murray befriends a woman who lives on a boat in the harbor who agrees to take the criminals away, but that the boat needs a little work, and Gus gives them an hour to fix it.
Jesse comes home and is tied up, causing even more headaches for the burglar who declares that the family is ready for Oprah and he screams, “I am in Hell. It is the fifth ring of hell!” Continuing, he explains that the robbing of the Willard mansion was going to be his final job. “It sucks when you’re 35, have no family, no house, a partner 55 who can’t figure out why they took Happy Days off the air.” He tells the depressed Jesse that he has “opportunities up the ass... everything goes your way.” Before the relatives arrive, the local police arrive to check every house for the burglar; but of course, their incompetence allows Gus to remain undetected.
The family rolls in and all hell breaks loose, with Caroline serving a traditional Scandinavian Christmas feast, requiring family members to wear a wreath of lighted candles on their heads. This is in honor of a female saint who was burned at the stake by the Romans, but when she would not burn, they stabbed her to death. Mother yells, “My head is blistering.” Before the main course is finished, mother manages to bring up Caroline’s adultery, making everyone feel uncomfortable. Gus turns to Lloyd and, referring to Lloyd’s mother, says, “She’s a... bitch.”
The animosity that threatens to consume Lloyd and Caroline is fueled by his mother, who declares that Caroline is “a selfish woman who thinks only of herself.” And Caroline retorts, “Why don’t you sleep with him and let all of us off the hook!” But soon the arguing leads the married couple back to the truth. Caroline always felt Lloyd gave up on himself, on them, when he allowed their restaurant to fail. But Lloyd defends his actions by saying, “When the Restaurant Guide Book recommends you to Hindus looking for a fun night out fasting, I closed.” Further damning him for accepting the loan from his mother, Lloyd says, “I refused mother at first, but you were confused and felt we should consider it.” Lloyd accuses her of not being able to make a decision, but he made the one he felt was best for them at the time. Lloyd finally stands up to his mother, telling her, “Mother, is it possible for you to shut... up,” offering to give her a wooden cross next year, so she can nail herself to it whenever she likes. Gus then sums up his first impression of Lloyd’s mother. “I know loan sharks nicer than you!”
Neighbor George returns briefly to complain that their family gives Lloyd and Caroline a fruitcake every Christmas, “and you don’t give us a god-damned thing.” Charging into the living room, Santa meets Gus’ fist and winds up unconscious. Gus convinces Jesse to face up to his problems, “that once you start running, you never stop.” Caroline and Lloyd, starting to warm up to each other again, allow Gus to escape to the boat, guided by Jesse. Gus, disguised in George’s Santa suit, isn’t recognized by the police who call him George. Gus’ final words before escaping are, “Christ, I’m never having kids!” And back at home, Caroline and Lloyd give conflicting stories about where Gus has fled, pretending they were tied up by the criminal. As the boat speeds off to safety, a Christmas tree shines from the back of the boat.
True, Lloyd and Caroline are reconciled by movie’s end, and Jesse agrees to stay at home and clean up his act. All ends well. Lloyd stands up to his mother and defends his wife in front of her. But somehow, after 90 minutes of Tennessee Williams filtered by way of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, this pat, warm little ending just does not work. Too much animosity has been fueled for everything to be tidied up in a cinematic speech or two. Too much nastiness and insensitivity to be so neatly settled after Christmas Eve dinner. Perhaps reality-based humor was a characteristic of the 1990s, but The Ref is ultimately hollow and unconvincing, containing several funny gags and comic situations, but overall, films like this one give Christmas a bad name.
Remember the Night
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Sterling Holloway
Credits: Producer/Director: Mitchell Leisen; Writer: Preston Sturges; Paramount; 1940
Back in 1940 when Preston Sturges was writing movies, memorable Christmas ones like Remember the Night, the term literate script really meant something. Even when working within the restrictive confines of Hollywood’s infamous production code era when those who broke the law had to be “punished” for their infractions by movie’s end, Sturges was still able to offer a world of moral ambiguities where the good and the bad were never clearly defined. Even though Sturges works with stereotypes-the smug and heartless big-city lawyer, the hardened yet beautiful female jewel thief, the hick Justice of the Peace, the spinster aunt, the outraged farmer-his characters all demonstrate some aspect of surprise in their characterizations, they grow and gain insight. They surprise the audience and force us to change the way we look at them as the movie unreels. Even though Christmas is pivotal to this movie (the movie occurs a few days before Christmas and concludes on January 3)-both in setting and theme-the holiday becomes a mere steppingstone to explore the many divergent themes of home, family, personal morality and falling in love. Remember the Night’s tone changes from playfulness to sadness, from hilarity to warmth, from passion to fear, sometimes within the same scene. And under Mitchell Leisen’s direction and Ted Tetzlaff’s photography, the wonderful Preston Sturges story resonates and somehow manages to reflect the true spirit of Christmas, on adult terms.
The movie begins almost as a crime caper, with a wonderful tight close-up of a black-gloved hand wearing a gold bracelet. “Could I see that one down there, please?” As the salesman bends over, then looks up, the woman, wearing the bracelet, has suddenly disappeared. The panicked salesman starts to yell for his boss. Moments later, the same woman, wearing an expensive fur, still wearing the bracelet, walks down the holiday-decorated New York City streets, passing both people carrying Christmas presents and the Salvation Army Santa ringing his bell for donations, as holiday tunes are heard in the background. She rushes into a pawn shop, shows off the bracelet, and the man behind the counter quickly closes the front door, locking it shut as the woman bangs upon it to be let out.
Even though this is an open and shut case, the District Attorney realizes it is very difficult to get a woman convicted, especially at Christmas, and especially one as beautiful as Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck), so the D.A. phones John Sargent (Fred MacMurray), an expert lawyer when it comes to getting female convictions. Houseboy Rufus (Snowflake) answers the phone and covers incompetently for his employer: “If this is the office, he’s already left.” From the background, the nasty John yells, “I didn’t say to say that, you dumb bell.” Picking up the phone, John pleads that he was told once he finished the Matthews case, he was free for the holidays-free to begin his seven-hour car ride home, to his mother’s farm in Indiana. The D.A. promises the case will be finished by noon tomorrow.
In court John is further dismayed that the woman’s lawyer is Francis X. O’Leary (Willard Robertson), “a windbag” who is a former ham actor who loves the sound of his own voice. In a marvelous sequence where O’Leary holds the jury and entire courthouse in the palm of his hand, he creates a fantastic, melodramatic story where Leander is supposedly hypnotized by the gem, steals it being unaware, comes to her senses and returns to the store to return the gem, but panics as she realizes the store is closed. She then supposedly uses the phone book to find the owner’s number at home, but she has no money to either make the call or take a train. Thus, the pawn shop idea came into her head. At the end, the lawyer concludes with, “The defense rests,” turning around as though expecting a standing ovation. John, who is calm and smiling throughout, is repeatedly asked by his assistant why he doesn’t object. Instead, the handsome lawyer sits back and enjoys the show. When he is at last allowed to speak, he does so briefly and effectively: “The hypothesis of hypnotism is a very interesting one, let me be first to admit it. But I am no Svengali. Nor are you, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.” The state psychiatrist, an expert on the matter, is unfortunately away for the holiday, but the wily John, realizing getting a conviction against a woman near Christmas is almost impossible, instead asks for a continuance. The court will reconvene Tuesday January 3, and a $5,000 bond is placed on Leander as she is led off to the promise of a turkey dinner in jail. John smiles to himself, very proud, “he fell for that one.”
However, John’s guilt gets the best of him for putting a lady away for the holiday (besides, the store got its bracelet back); he calls in a favor to bail bondsman “Fat” Mike (Tom Kennedy), who surprisingly drops the grateful girl off at John’s apartment (thinking the young lawyer expected the girl to demonstrate her gratitude via hanky panky). When the astonished lawyer eyeballs the attractive woman, she asks, “Well, what do I have to do for it?” The lawyer, composing himself, answers, “Well, for one thing you might say thank you, but if that doesn’t fit in with your plans, skip it.”
Lee, still not convinced of John’s honorable intentions, states, “One of these days one of you boys is going to start one of these scenes differently, and one of us girls will drop dead from surprise... I guess you do this with all of the lady prisoners!” To which John playfully replies, “Oh yes, my life is just one long round of whoopee!” “And I guess if anyone says no, you put them right back in the cooler!” she says. John explains his intention to put her in prison after the holiday, but since she hasn’t been convicted yet, she deserves a good holiday like any decent person does. “Then why did that gorilla bring me up here?” To which John honestly reveals, “Because he has a mind like a sewer.” When John tells Lee she is free to leave, she decides to stay anyway. “There’s nothing as dangerous as a square shooter. If all men were like you there wouldn’t be any nice girls left.” Since she is giving up a free room and a turkey dinner in jail, John agrees to take her out on the town for a nice turkey dinner.
At the supper club Lee and John have the opportunity to get to know one another better, and before long a mutual attraction appears to be brewing beneath the surface. “You really didn’t want me to come up at all then,” Lee asks slightly confused and disappointed. Beginning the theme of ambivalent morality, Lee states: “Right or wrong is the same for everybody, but the rights and the wrongs aren’t the same... like in China they eat dogs... Try it like this...” Lee sets up a story, you are poor and starving, but you have no money. Loaves of bread are set out in front of a market, and the owner’s back is turned. “Would you swipe one,” Lee inquires of John. “You bet I would,” John smiles back. Surprisingly, Lee says, “That’s because you’re honest. I’d have a six course dinner... across the street and say I’ve forgotten my purse. Get the difference?” To which John responds, “Yeah, your way’s smarter.” Soon the very same judge trying the case ambles past John’s table offering a quick, polite hello but his eyes glare disapproval all the same (socializing with the very women he seeks to prosecute). Soon, Lee asks John (who has just requested “My Indiana Home” from the band) to dance and it is revealed they are both Hoosiers, having grown up 50 miles apart in the American heartland. But how differently both turned out. John reveals that his mother (his father having died) still runs a successful farm; Leander states that she ran away from home, that the only time she heard from her mother was the letter she wrote when her father died. John, always the thoughtful one, offers to drive her home to her mother’s place and pick her up on his way back.
However, in the changing tone of the story, John is sidetracked by a WPA roadblock and gets thoroughly lost, ending up in a farmer’s field after first crashing through his fence. The next morning, after trying to milk one of the cows for breakfast, the duo finds an irate farmer holding a rifle on them. The farmer makes a citizen’s arrest taking them (in John’s car, no less) to the Justice of the Peace. Taking Lee’s advice to not use their real names, Lee becomes Mary Smith, bubble dancer, and John becomes Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a steamfitter. However, the major concern of both the farmer and the Justice is that they are “not even married” and both “spent the night in my fields,” the farmer leers. When John asks the judge, “what will you settle for?” the Justice becomes outraged over the notion, spouting “when you drive girls over the state line.” Creating a diversion, Lee sets the trash can on fire, allowing the fugitives to sneak away, vowing that for their return trip that they will have to take the longer route via Canada. Confessing that she started the fire, she adds “I told you my mind works differently than yours.” “But that’s arson!” John rants and raves, bringing up the morals of the case. To which Lee smiles and answers, “What do morals have to do with it... you treated me like a sister!” With lines like these, the duo’s romance begins to spark.
They arrive in Eltonville and drive to Lee’s home and knock on the door late at night, Lee’s stepfather answers the door and calls for Ma. When the bitter old woman appears, she grudgingly invites the young people in, then lowers the boom. “What did you come here for!” Lee mentions “it was Christmas” to which her mother barks, “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” reminding her daughter of when she stole mission money. Lee pleads, “I didn’t steal it. I told you a thousand times I only borrowed it. I was going to pay you back!” But her mother reminds her she never paid it back. Her only defense: “How could I after you called me thief in front of the whole town. Do you think anyone would let me work for them after that!” Mother stills holds a grudge and damns her daughter for this one act of childhood indiscretion. John, getting Lee out of the house as quickly as possible, indicates that she is spending the holidays at his mother’s farm for the next week!
The visit is idyllic for both John and Lee. John demonstrates that the $14 spent on his piano lessons was money well spent as he plays and sings for the family. Presents are shared, gifts are even given to Lee. Lee fits right in, volunteers to do the dishes and help around the house, a loving family home which she envies. At the end of the day, alone in her room, Lee’s eyes fill with tears because of her acceptance in the family home. Mrs. Sargent (Beulah Bondi) tells John “I think she’s charming-she reminds me of your father’s cousin...” But John must be honest with his mother. “She’s charming mother, but unfortunately, she’s a crook. When I get back to New York, I’m gonna try to put her in jail. In the meantime, she didn’t have any place to spend Christmas.” Mother finds such a statement hard to swallow: “That girl’s as honest as all outdoors... if she did anything, I’m sure it was entirely by mistake... She probably didn’t get enough love as a child.” Then creating a parallel situation, mother reminds John how he stole her stash of money that she was saving for a new dress, that he had to work to pay it off. John tenderly admits, “You made me understand,” to which mother responds, “No, it was love that made you understand.” In other words, Lee steals from her mother and is branded as a thief by the entire town; mother does not forgive her, and she is forced to run away from home (continuing to steal throughout her adult life). John, on the other hand, commits a similar offense but is confronted by the unwavering love of a devoted mother who both forgives her son and allows him the opportunity to work off the debt. Two people the same age, growing up in a similar environment 50 miles apart, but one is disciplined with the family spirit of love, and the other is damned and cursed for the unforgivable crime. One grows up amidst a loving family and becomes a successful big city lawyer, the other has to fend for herself in a loveless environment and becomes an adult thief.
Mother’s sister, Aunt Emma (Elizabeth Patterson), a spinster who views the ways of romantic love only as a spectator, states that she can tell John and Lee are in love, a statement which concerns mother, now knowing the sad history of the young house guest. At the old-fashioned New Year’s Eve barn dance, it is readily apparent that the young couple are indeed fast falling in love (sharing a long, passionate kiss at the crack of midnight). Returning home, John invites Lee to his room “for a cigarette.” She says she’ll come in a few minutes. However, mother wishes to have a few words alone with Lee. “I wanted to tell you how sorry I am that you’re in trouble and how much I hope everything will turn out all right.” Then she tells Lee John’s story, how he worked to put himself through college and law school. “I don’t think we should allow anything to spoil it now.” Then she confesses, “He’s in love with you!” To which Lee responds, “He never had any more interest in me than some panhandler you buy a meal for.” Mother reminds her, “But he kissed you tonight!” To which, in an almost shy, retreating way she mumbles, “Well, I’m not exactly... ugly... oh, he might have a little fever for me, but it isn’t going any further, and it hasn’t been anyplace, either. I wouldn’t hurt him or you!” When asked “you do love him though,” she responds, “I’m afraid so.”
After breakfast and good-byes, John and Lee leave for New York the next morning, John drives through Canada as promised. He reminds Lee that he could not force her to return to New York if she didn’t want to return, offering the woman he loves a way out. He confesses the dirty trick he pulled in court, forcing the trial to be continued after the holidays. Lee smiles and says, “So your conscience was bothering you, when all the time I thought it was my legs... you seemed so gentle.” John then explains the legal strategy of using kid gloves to get convictions from juries for women, how, if a male lawyer comes on too strong, the case will always be lost. “Part of the technique, I’m a specialist.”
Later that night at Niagara Falls, John and Lee confess the love they feel for one another. John mentions he wishes to marry her after the acquittal stating “everything’s gonna come out all right” and Lee realizes this means John is purposely throwing the case.
Back in New York City, back in court, John makes his strategy very clear immediately: He comes on like gangbusters. The D.A. is listening to the case from the judge’s chambers, and as John becomes more and more aggressive, the D.A. says to himself, “Not so rough, Jack. How many times have I told you when you’re working with a woman...” Even the jury members notice his harsh manner. “What’s he getting so tough about,” to which another jury member responds, “He’s just naturally mean!” The first jurist continues, “I sat in on a murder case and they didn’t get that rough!” Finally, in the courtroom, tears begin to well up in Lee’s eyes as she realizes what John is doing, despondent that such an act will jeopardize his career, she turns to the judge and pleads, “I just want to plead guilty; I am guilty-when you make a mistake, you have to pay for it. Otherwise, you never learn!” Reluctantly the judge sets the sentencing date for January 10 as Lee is led by the matron to her city jail cell.
John, who follows her there, is upset that she pleaded guilty just when he thought her acquittal was in his hand. “You understand-there’s no appeal, no retrial, no mistrial... nothing but jail!” he storms at her. She peacefully answers, “I’d never have a chance against you and you’d never have a chance with me... like just now when you were trying to lose the case... aren’t you ashamed...” Her tone soon changes as she pleads, “Will you come and see me some time,” to which John responds by asking her to call in the judge to marry them right here, right now. She slows up things by stating, “If you still wanted me afterwards. I’d be all square. And you would have had plenty of time to think things over, plenty of things.” She then asks John to stand by her and hold her hand during sentencing. They then passionately declare their love for one another, hug, and kiss, as the end credits appear. No happy holiday ending here!
Obviously, the Production Code demanded that Lee Leander pay for her sin of stealing a diamond bracelet during the Christmas season, and pay she did at the end. She could have remained silent and allowed ace John Sargent to skillfully lose the case, both lawyers now working in her corner. But unlike the courtroom sequence at the movie’s beginning, Leander was a different woman after the holidays, a woman who wanted to clean the slate of her past indiscretions, to make amends, and to start life afresh. As she swore to John’s mother, she would never do anything to harm John or allow him to harm his hard-earned career. As this movie makes clear, love is both the end-all (as John’s mother told him, it was love that turned him around after he stole her dress money) and the true test of self-sacrifice: Love prompted Lee to monkey-wrench John’s plans and to plead guilty. For once, love made her think of John before herself. Love just wasn’t reason enough for her to flee the country by staying in Canada or allowing John to throw the case so both of them would be free to marry. For Lee, love means looking into the mirror and feeling good about yourself and good about your actions and deeds. Once her two-year (as John predicted) or so jail sentence is complete, she would then be able to start a fresh life, allowing her to look ahead, not behind.
Remember the Night is a movie that both embraces the Christmas message (to offer good will toward all men, to help your fellow man, to be kind, to forgive and to love unconditionally) but also transcends and goes beyond it. The movie’s moral vision is not that simplistic or easy to achieve. The movie shows the limitations of love, the ability for human beings to return to the past and learn from it-and most importantly-to change. Morality is always convoluted and complex. “Fat” Mike is anxious to help his lawyer friend, but Mike thinks John wants the woman freed for all the wrong reasons. The rube farmer and the power-hungry Justice of the Peace see the law as vindictive; for a relatively minor infraction they want to punish John for bringing a girl across state lines, a morals rap of which John and Lee are innocent (John only wished to unite her with her mother). At the movie’s beginning, John plays legal tricks to win a continuance to have a better chance of winning a conviction; by movie’s end John again plays legal tricks to get the same woman off the hook, simply because he now knows and loves her. John’s mother likes Lee very much and wishes her son to marry, but she realizes all the hard work he has put into his career and doesn’t want him to throw his life away over a tainted woman.
A delightful romp that literally will make you laugh and cry, a movie rich in thematic insight by exploring the hard moral decisions all of us have to make sooner or later, Remember the Night is a movie too infrequently screened and discussed. It is a Christmas movie that forces us to think about the importance of the past, our home, our family, our careers and of love. Remember the Night reminds us that Christmas movies can be both fun and thoughtful, and the performances of MacMurray and Stanwyck drive the point home time and time again.
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Credits: Director: John Murlowski; Writers: Mark Furey, Rob Kerchner; TV, 1998
Richie Rich after basking in love and attention from friends and family, finds himself blamed for ruining the town Christmas party and wishes he had never been born. A wishing machine grants his wish and he is forced to try to return the world back to the way it was.
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Cast: Avery Brooks, LeVar Burton, Shaun Cassidy, Louis Gossett, Jr., Michael Learned
Credits: Director: Kevin Hooks; Writer: Alex Haley; Television 1988
Kunte Kinte (Burton) tries to escape slavery via the underground railroad during Christmas 1770. We were unable to find the film to screen and had to rely on other sources for the description.
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Cast: (voices) Burl Ives, Larry D. Mann, Billie Mae Richards
Credits: Producers: Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr.; Directors: Kizo Nagashima and Larry Roemer; Rankin-Bass Productions; 1964
Wonderful holiday television special that has Sam the Snowman (Ives) relate the tale of how Rudolph overcame the reindeer who used to laugh and call him names and never let poor Rudolph play in any reindeer games. Rudolph’s adventures with another little outcast elf who wants to be a dentist and the Abominable Snowman are the surrounding story as Rudolph saves the reindeer from the Snowman and becomes the lead reindeer for Santa.