Tales from the Crypt (“All Through the House”)
Cast: Joan Collins, Marty Boddey, Oliver MacGreevy, Chole Franks
Credits: Director: Freddie Francis; Writer: Milton Subotsky; Based on the Stories “Tales from the Crypt: and “The Vault of Horror” by Al Feldstein, Johnny Craig and William Gaines; Amicus, 1972
Joan Collins is terrorized by a psycho Santa.
Tales of the Third Dimension (“Visions of Sugar-Plum”)
Cast: Helene Tryon, Kathy O’Toole, Neal Powell
Credits: Director: Todd Durham; Writers: Tom McIntyre, Worth Keeter, Todd Durham; Shapiro, 1985
A visit to grandmother’s house over Christmas is not the jolly adventure it should be in this scary tale.
Teletubbies: Christmas in the Snow
Credits: PBS Kids, 2003
Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Po and Laa-Laa play in the snow and learn how children around the world celebrate Christmas. Good for those little ones not ready for the usual holiday programs.
Tenth Avenue Angel
Cast: Margaret O’Brien, Angela Lansbury, George Murphy, Phyllis Thaxter, Warner Anderson
Credits: Producer: Ralph Wheelwright; Director: Roy Rowland; Writers: Eleanore Griffin and Harry Ruskin (Based on a Story by Angna Enters and Craig Rice); MGM; 1948
Yes Tenth Avenue Angel is hokey, and yes it pulls out all the stops in the heart-wrenching category, and yes the characters are stereotypical, but nevertheless several things make this minor little film a holiday keeper.
Margaret O’Brien is her usual effervescent self as Flavia Mills, a little girl who revels in her little world that encompasses the neighborhood of Tenth Avenue. She is adored by all as she scoots about the street on her one roller skate (her family is unable to afford a real pair) calling hello to everyone on her way to help blind newspaper salesman Mac (Rhys Williams) sell his papers. Flavia trusts everyone and truly believes the fairy stories her mother tells her.
But like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, Flavia finds her world shaken to the core when she learns family friend Steve (George Murphy), planning to go straight, wants to leave town without her Aunt Susan (Angela Lansbury). Flavia is also disenchanted when, believing the mouse she has caught turns to money, she is set straight by the adults she loves. She is crushed to learn the wonderful stories her mother told her are not true and loses her faith. The contented little girl who charmed everyone on Tenth Avenue is no more.
Flavia’s family is poor, her father Joseph (Warner Anderson) gives violin lessons, but the couple is happy when Helen (Phyllis Thaxter) learns she is having another child.
On Christmas Eve, as Steve is purchasing roller skates for Flavia, he meets her father who is planning to hock his violin. Steve, knowing that is his only source of income, tells him not to worry, he will lend him the money.
Unfortunately, Steve doesn’t have the money either and goes to the man he took the fall for on the botched job that sent him to prison. Steve agrees to take a truck from the garage where he works as well as drive for the job planned that night.
A heavy snow is falling on Tenth Avenue as the doctor leaves the Mills’ apartment. He tells Helen she must rest or she could lose the baby and tells Flavia to run to the drugstore to get her mother a prescription. As Flavia is getting the money, she knocks her little cow bank to the floor. The front legs are broken off, but her mother tries to reassure the little girl.
“Oh look darling, the little cow isn’t broke. She’s just kneeling. Getting ready for Christmas. All over the world cows kneel on Christmas Eve. Didn’t you know that? They kneel in honor of the Child who was born in the manger. They were the first to worship Him.”
“How do cows know that it’s Christmas?” Flavia asks.
“Because then God is very close and the cows feel his presence as they did on that first night and they fall on their knees for his blessing.”
“What’s a blessing?”
“It’s God’s love enfolding us darling. It’s his way of answering our prayers.”
As her mother hands her the bank Flavia asks, “Mama, did you ever see a cow kneel?”
Her mother pauses, wondering what to do, but decides truth is the best route. “Why... I... No. Not really darling.”
Flavia is not ready to accept stories yet. “Then it isn’t true.”
Her mother tries again. “Don’t you like to think the Holy Child loves us so much that he comes back on Christmas Eve? Don’t you want to believe it Flavia?”
“Yes, mama, but I can’t.”
On her way to the drugstore for the medicine, Flavia goes to see Steve to see if he is really leaving. She overhears a conversation and learns he wasn’t really traveling the world, but was in prison. She feels her entire life has been a lie. She confronts her mother, “Everybody lies to me. Even the ones I love the most.” The little girl runs out of the apartment and down the stairs, her mother following the sobbing child. Helen loses her balance and falls. The baby is safely delivered, but the doctor notes, “Only a miracle can save the mother.” Flavia, sitting quietly in a corner, hears this information and then looks at the kneeling cow and wipes away her tears. She decides she must find a cow-not an easy thing to do in the big city. Mac tells her she should find someone to take her to the stockyards.
Now it just so happens the stockyards are where Steve has driven the truck to meet those crooks who are pulling a Christmas Eve job. He spies Flavia who desperately asks for his help in finding a cow. Steve realizing Flavia and those he loves are more important than money, walks out on the job-just in time-for the police were waiting for the crooks.
Steve and Flavia find a cattle car and get an attendant to open the door. A policeman watches from a distance. The cow is lying down but when the clock strikes midnight the cow kneels. Flavia folds her hands and, in a tearful voice that Margaret O’Brien managed to do so well, prays:
I can’t see you, but I know you’re close. Please listen to me. I’ve been a very bad girl. I didn’t believe. But now I saw. You made the cow kneel to show me. I know you’re close listening. Make my mama live. Only you can. It would be only one more miracle. Please, please dear God, make my mama live.
The policeman smiles and walks away as a star shines in the sky. Steve takes Flavia home. The little girl is confident she will find her mother well. But Helen is still unconscious. Flavia strokes her face.
Mama, mama, oh mama. You’ve got to get well because everything you said was true. We found the cow and just as it started to turn Christmas the bells started ringing and the cow kneeled. It’s true mama. It’s really true!
Joe, unaware anything has happened, returns home announcing he has a job. Helen wakes and Flavia gets to open some Christmas presents. A pair of skates from the Tenth Avenue businessmen, a pair from Steve and a pair from Mac. Carolers sing outside the window as Steve and Susan reconcile. Steve announces he will not leave the city.
Although Tenth Avenue Angel was not critically praised, Variety chiding, “Hokum plot lays the sob stuff on thick, and without too much interest...,” it is still worthwhile Christmas viewing that will warm the cockles of your heart. As Flavia, Margaret O’Brien is her usual effervescent self; we have no trouble believing any neighborhood would fall in love with this little angel, who not only won the hearts of those on Tenth Avenue, but the entire country as well in her debut as a frightened war orphan in Journey for Margaret (1942).
George Murphy, who starred as Steve, is a underrated performer whose always dependable work contributed to many excellent films. Murphy could sing and dance with the best of them, holding his own with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly in For Me and My Gal (1942). He would also appear in dramas including the war films Battan and Battleground. In 1950 he received a special Oscar “for his services in interpreting the film industry to the country at large.” After that he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Angela Lansbury, another trouper who always turns in fine performances, gives Susan life, while Phyllis Thaxter as Helen brings a tear to the eye as a mother who wants to shield her child from the harsh realities of life with fantastic stories of myths and miracles, and what child doesn’t need to believe in magic?
Terror on the 40th Floor
Cast: John Forsythe, Joseph Campanella, Don Meredith, Pippa Scott
Credits: Director: Jerry Jameson, Writers: Edward Montagne, Matthew F. Leonetti; TV, 1974
Christmas Eve office partygoers are trapped by a raging fire that started in the skyscraper’s basement.
The Thin Man
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O’Sullivan, Henry Wadsworth
Credits: Producer: Hunt Stromberg; Director: W.S. Van Dyke II; Writers: Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich (Based on the Novel by Dashiell Hammett); MGM; 1934
The sophisticated comedy sparring of Powell and Loy makes this first in The Thin Man series by far the best. Nick and Nora Charles (Powell and Loy) are spending Christmas in New York doing some serious shopping and drinking while schmoozing with Nick’s old hoodlum cronies. They have a riotous Christmas party attended equally by reporters, police, detectives and Damon Runyonesque criminals, but they take it in stride, only worrying about the supply of booze on hand. During the party, Dorothy Wynant (O’Sullivan), the daughter of an old friend, shows up asking Nick’s help in finding her father, who has mysteriously disappeared. Her bimbo mother (Minna Gombell) and egghead brother (William Henry) also show up adding to the confusion.
Nick only wants to retire from the detective racket, but Nora is anxious for a little excitement, and together they solve the disappearance and murder. There is little mention of Christmas except for the party scene, but this film is classic viewing any time of the year.
This Man is Mine
Cast: Tom Walls, Glynis Johns, Hugh McDermott, Barry Morse
Credits: Producer/Director: Marcel Varnel; Writers: Doreen Montgomery, Norman Lee, Nicholas Phipps, Reginald Beckwith, Mable Constanduros, Val Valentine and David Evans (Based on A Soldier for Christmas by Reginald Beckwith); Columbia British; 1946
This British-made comedy is unavailable for screening but Variety notes, “Christmas of 1946 finds Bill Mackenzie (Hugh McDermott), ex-Canadian soldier enjoying his holiday in Saskatoon. Greetings cable signed “The Fergusons” is excuse to flashback across the Atlantic to an English village in 1942 where soldier was Christmas guest of the Fergusons. Home is in a pleasant state of turmoil. Brenda has left her husband because he couldn’t supply a turkey, second daughter Phoebe can’t make up her mind about boyfriend Ronald, ex-maid Millie (Glynis Johns), now in uniform, arrives as a billette and MacKenzie, primed by his Colonel about Anglo-American relations, comes in time to sweep Millie and Phoebe off their feet. Both girls make a bee line for him, having decided that the gloves are off... Final shot shows Millie preparing Christmas for her Canadian husband Mackenzie.”
Three Days
Cast: Kristin Davis, Reed Diamond, Tim Meadows
Credits: Director: Michael Switzer; Writers: Robert Tate Miller, Eric Tuchman; TV, 2001
A successful businessman has ignored his wife and marriage for his career, but when his wife dies in a tragic accident just before Christmas, an angel gives him a chance to make her last days happy.
Three Godfathers
Cast: Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Walter Brennan
Credits: Producer: Joseph L. Mankiewicz; Director: Richard Boleslawski; Writers: Edward E. Paramore and Manuel Seff (Based on Peter B. Kyne’s The Three Godfathers); MGM; 1936
In 1936, MGM remade Hell’s Heroes/The Three Godfathers with an impressive cast consisting of Chester Morris, Lewis Stone, Walter Brennan and Sidney Toler.
As the film opens four hardened outlaws gather outside of town to rob New Jerusalem, hometown of Bob (Chester Morris), who holds the devout citizens in high contempt.
Doc (Lewis Stone), the philosophizing elder of the group, notes to Gus (Walter Brennan again typecast as an old codger with a heart of gold), “Wonderful air, Gus. You can almost smell Christmas.” Right off the bat the audience feels an affinity for Doc and Gus. But the abrasive Bob is another matter. We hope he will be the “deep down he’s really a good guy” type bad guy, but our optimism is dashed by the violent robbery soon to occur.
The foursome separate and enter the town. Gus helps an immigrant win a hand of poker against a cardshark while Doc gets a drink. Since they are strangers in town, they are welcomed at the Christmas social. The bandits attend the social where the entertainment consists of a lecture from the comical town dentist (Sidney Toler). The lecture room quickly empties when the band begins to play the “Virginia Reel.” The festivities come to a screeching halt when the dressed-in-black Bob enters the room. He tries his best with his old girlfriend Molly (Irene Hervey), who almost succumbs to his dangerous charms before coming to her senses, realizing she truly belongs with her fiancé Frank (Robert Livingston), the town banker. Bob turns his eyes toward the more willing saloon girl Blackie (Dorothy Tree), the typical Western mainstay, a hooker-with-a-heart-of- gold.
The next morning the entire town is at the saloon for a pie sale to benefit the town’s Christmas fund. Frank drops Molly off and heads toward the bank where he delightedly tries on a newly arrived Santa suit. But the joy is short-lived as Bob, Doc and Gus hold up the bank. When Frank makes a sudden move, Bob cold-heartedly shoots him. “There ain’t no Santa Claus,” he announces.
As the outlaws flee, Doc is shot in the arm and the fourth robber, Pedro (Joseph Marievsky), is killed nonchalantly by the dentist. They ride out into the desert looking for the closest waterhole, but when they come upon it, they find a warning sign-it is poison. The next watering spot is not too much farther, so they confidently move on.
Soon the trio come across the body of George Marshall, a tenderfoot who shot himself. They travel a little farther and find a sad-looking little wagon sitting alone in the desert. A woman who is very ill is lying inside.
Gus and Doc give the dying woman a drink from a canteen as a tiny baby peeks his head out. The adorable baby is the image of a live Kewpie doll. The dying woman tells them her husband, George Marhsall, went for help and will be back soon. Doc shakes his head as the woman tells them she knows it is too late for her. She dies with her arm around the baby. Audiences, especially women, are suckers for dangerous men falling prey to the charms of a toddler-this film will tear their hearts out as Doc and Gus immediately submit to the adorable baby’s charm.
Doc picks up the child and cradles him in his arms. Always a softie, Bob says, “If it was up to me, I’d put him out of his misery.” He intends to leave for the next waterhole in the morning.
That morning, the horses are gone and buzzards circle overhead-the horses found a poisoned water hole and have died. The settlers had three precious cans of milk which the outlaws gather. Bob is about to have one for breakfast when Doc buys it from him for Doc’s share of the loot and gives it to the babe. With the horses dead they have no option but to head back to New Jerusalem on foot. Doc takes the child first, knowing his shoulder won’t hold out forever-he wants to carry the child as long as possible. Cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg uses the barren scenery as an effective backdrop when Doc, holding the baby, pays his respects at the mother’s grave before starting off.
Doc is forced to drop his books as they continue on under the cruel sun. At sundown Gus, obviously worried about the future, asks Doc to help him make a will. He leaves all his possessions to Bob and scrawls an “X” beside Doc’s name as witness. The two outlaws fall asleep with their arms around the baby.
Doc, knowing he cannot go on any longer, tells them to leave him. As they prepare to go, Gus squeezes Doc’s arm, who grabs his hand in a sad farewell. Lewis Stone is impressive in this last scene as the educated outlaw who faces death knowing he did one last good deed. Doc quotes Macbeth as Bob and Gus walk away, Gus carrying the little infant. A shot is heard as the duo continues on.
There are only a few drops of water left in the canteen. When they take a rest Gus pulls his gun out. Is he thinking that if he can’t go on, Bob wouldn’t take care of the child, and that killing the little baby would be the only way to ensure he doesn’t suffer?
“Bob, if I give out what will you do?”
“I won’t hold him up. If he can crawl to New Jerusalem, it’s all right with me.”
Gus puts the gun away. The baby is crying because it is teething. Gus looks beseechingly at Bob, who gives Gus his most precious possession, his mother’s watch, for the baby to chew on.
As they settle down for the night Gus listens to see how much water is left. He cradles the baby and lays him down along with his share of the loot and the will Doc wrote for him. He recites,
Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Look upon this little child. Pity my simplicity. Suffer me to come to thee.
He walks off into the desert with the cherished book Doc had given him.
Bob sits beside the baby and reads the will.
Bob. If you get this will it means that Gus is dead too. If you never did anything human before-give the kid an even break. James Underwood, Doc.
He begins to gather coins from around the baby, who cries. Bob commences to walk away and we see a rattlesnake crawl toward the unprotected tot. Bob turns around and fires his gun. We think it is to hush the child, but he kills the snake.
Bob, his cold heart melting in the desert heat, picks up the baby and gives him a drink of water. “Desert must be getting to me. I’m acting crazy.”
Later he gives the child the last drop of water as buzzards circle overhead. They are nine miles from town. He drops the stolen money, his gunbelt and bedroll as he struggles onward.
“Nothing human can help us now.” He looks toward the sky.
Listen, it ain’t for me I’m asking. I don’t rate nothin. But I always heard you was good to babies... Our father... I can’t pray-I don’t know how to pray.
Bob sheds tears, possibly the first in his life and looks up and sees water. But it is the poisoned waterhole. The sign says “New Jerusalem, 5 1/2 miles.”
He remembers Doc saying that the poison wouldn’t affect a person for an hour. He decides he may make it to the town in that time and he smiles at the baby, “Here’s to you kid” bending down to drink deeply of contaminated water.
Finally stumbling into town he hears singing from the church and enters. He slowly finds Molly seated in the first row and hands her the baby. Bob leans against a post that holds a crown of thorns. The film makes it clear Bob has become a Christ figure-giving his life to save the baby as Jesus gave his life to save mankind. He lurches into the aisle, a lighted stained glass window behind him as he collapses and dies.
The performances are excellent throughout. Walter Brennan as Gus made a career of character roles, winning the Academy Award for Supporting Actor three times (William Wyler’s Come and Get It [also in 1936] as Swan Bostrom, Kentucky [1938] where he appeared as Peter Goodwin in this Romeo-and-Juliet-at-the-racetrack tale and as the legendary Judge Roy Bean again for director William Wyler in The Westerner [1940] with Gary Cooper). Brennan was only 42 at the time of his heart-breaking turn as the elderly Gus. With this character Brennan adds another fine performance to his outstanding career.
Lewis Stone as Doc is perhaps better known to audiences as Andy Hardy’s father, Judge Hardy, in that popular film series from MGM. He began his distinguished Hollywood career in silent films and went on to make over 90 pictures including Grand Hotel, Angels in the Outfield, Key to the City and The Mask of Fu Manchu.
Chester Morris as Bob was also a familiar face to movie audiences. He came to renown as Boston Blackie in the 1940s sleuth films, the first of which was Meet Boston Blackie in 1941. He would return to the stage when the series ended, later returning to Hollywood as a character actor in several films.
In its March 11, 1936 review Variety noted, “This is a case of the cast surmounting uneven direction and meandering plot development.”
Director Richard Boleslawski was trained at the Moscow Art Theatre before turning to Hollywood, where he directed films such as Theodora Goes Wild with Irene Dunne and Rasputin and The Empress-notable as the only film in which John, Ethel and Lionel Barrymore appeared together. Of his direction Variety opined, “It is [in] the latter portion of the Kyne story that director Boleslawski really hits his stride. Has focused most of the interest on the regeneration of Chester Morris, showing the transition from the swashbuckling braggart into a human being eager to save a baby’s life at the sacrifice of his own and his gold.”
3 Godfathers
Cast: John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, Harry Carey, Jr., Ward Bond, Mildred Natwick
Credits: Producers: John Ford and Merian C. Cooper; Director: John Ford; Writers: Laurence Stallings and Frank S. Nugent (Based on Peter B. Kyne’s The Three Godfathers); MGM; 1948
In 1948 MGM and John Ford again remade The Three Godfathers, this time starring a Ford favorite, John Wayne. Ford called upon his talented stable of regular actors such as Ward Bond as Perley Sweet (the sheriff who pursues the bankrobbers), Ben Johnson, Hank Worden, Jane Darwell and Fred Libby as the comic relief, deputy Curly.
Screenwriters Laurence Stallings and Frank S. Nugent basically stuck with the original story although they softened the character of Bob Hightower and gave the film a happy ending, a move which makes this film the recommended version for Christmas viewing.
John Wayne as Robert Marmaduke Hightower is not the hardened killer portrayed by Charles Bickford and Chester Morris. Wayne’s Bob Hightower is a tough guy with a heart of gold-making sure there is no killing involved in the robbery in Welcome, Arizona and riding back to pick up the injured Abilene Kid (Harry Carey, Jr.). Even before the robbery he tries to talk his partners out of going with him.
When the trio find the dynamited waterhole and the stranded wagon, Bob, shaken, tells Pete (Pedro Armendariz) and the Kid about the poor woman (Mildred Natwick) soon to give birth and the snake husband who left her there. Panic is in his voice as he rants, “I’m a tough bird, a awful tough old bird, but I’m not going back in there!” Later Ford uses the size of John Wayne to comic advantage as the giant of a man sits in a small chair on the desert sands and holds a tiny blue bundle. Wayne’s reactions range from sheer terror to absolute delight as he holds the small miracle. The trio find a book on baby care and debate the merits of a bath but eventually decide to smear the baby with oil. Bob and the others laugh with delight as the infant squirms under the huge hand of Bob.
Bob loses his companions, but their spirits urge him onward, the Kid singing “Streets of Larado” as they both encourage him. Bob throws the Bible and reads the section it opened to, which tells of two donkeys who helped deliver the Christ child to Jerusalem. As Bob exits a canyon, Perley and posse close behind, he spies the donkeys, just like the Bible said he would. He places the baby onto the larger one and heads toward New Jerusalem. It is Christmas Eve as Bob staggers into the saloon carrying the child. “Merry Christmas everybody! Merry Christmas to all. Set ’em up bartender. Milk for the infant and a cool, cool beer for me!” The piano player plays “Silent Night.”
Pedro “Pete,” the second outlaw, delivers the baby and, when they bury the mother, prays to himself in Spanish as the Kid sings, “Shall We Gather at the River,” a song John Ford used in many of his films. Pete carries the baby but stumbles and falls, breaking his leg. He orders Bob to go on to New Jerusalem and asks him to leave his gun, for the coyotes. But we know it is not for protection. “Merry Christmas,” he tells Bob. “Merry Christmas, Pete.” Bob sadly answers.
As the film opens a silhouetted cowboy sits atop a horse (reportedly the favorite horse of Harry Carey) and we see the words “To the memory of Harry Carey. Bright star of the early Western sky.” Carey was a much-loved Western star who worked often with John Ford and John Wayne and had also appeared in another Christmas film covered in this book, Beyond Tomorrow. Carey’s son Harry Carey, Jr. would make his film debut in 3 Godfathers as the Abilene Kid, the third member of the outlaws. The Abilene Kid was the innocent of the group and immediately connected their odyssey to that of the Three Wise Men. As the men argue about their next move, Bob, in a rage, throws a Bible. The Kid picks up it and reads where it opened. “It says right here where we’re to go. Just like it’s told everything about all this. You fellas don’t understand. Ya think this is all just chance? Us coming here this way. Finding the mother, helping her, the infant in the manger, the star so bright last night... it tells where we’re going to next... They lifted up the child and brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.” The Kid, weak from his gunshot wound, insists that he be the first to carry the baby. “That’s in the book, too. There was three wise men come from the East wasn’t there?... I’m one of them.”
Sheriff Perley “Buck” Sweet, a name that Bob finds hilarious, is a fair man who respects the men they are chasing. “They ain’t payin’ me to kill folks,” he says as the outlaws ride out of sight. But Perley has a plan and hastens his posse to the railroad station where they mount a flatbed car and ride to the next water tower, forcing the outlaws to move on. Perley leaves guards at the first tower and rides to the next in line where he meets up with Miss Florie (Jane Darwell), a cousin of his wife. Miss Florie is delighted with her unexpected guests and cracks merrily, “If this ain’t a Christmas present for me. A whole passel of men!” When Perley figures out the trio eluded him by backtracking, he remarks, “Yes sir, the more I think of that big fella in the Texas hat, the more I admire him.” Ford sets up the classic conflict of two men engaged in a duel of wits, both good men, both smart men and one man must lose.
But Bob Hightower doesn’t lose, for not only has he discovered a strength and love within himself, he also wins the respect and admiration of an entire town as the folks of Welcome turn out in droves for his trial. The judge (Guy Kibbee) offers to reduce Bob’s sentence if he agrees to sign papers allowing Perley and his wife to adopt the baby (whom the mother named Robert William Pedro Hightower) and never set foot in Welcome again. But Bob never hesitates, “You can throw the book at me judge. I ain’t breakin’ a promise to a dyin’ woman.” “That’s just what I’ve been waiting for to hear you say son. I hereby give you the minimum sentence under the law. One year and one day. Court’s closed, bar’s open!” Bob is cheered by the town as he heads to prison; Perley’s wife Carrie Lou (Mae Marsh) tearfully sees Bob off; he lovingly glances at the baby as he leaves, kissing Carrie on the cheek. The town ladies sing “Shall We Gather at the River,” and the men wave their hats. Perley asks Bob to look after his deputy Curly and make sure he gets on the right train home, and the banker’s daughter Ruby Latham (Dorothy Ford) asks if she can write to Bob. We just know there is romance in their future.
John Ford, a master filmmaker, once again made the most of his location filming using the stark and beautiful deserts of Death Valley and the Mojave as the pallet for his first Technicolor film. Ford’s characters always were multi-dimensional, neither all good nor all bad, and Bob Hightower and Perley Sweet are no exception. The stellar teaming of John Ford and John Wayne would create some of the greatest films ever made including The Quiet Man, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and, of course, The Searchers. They would also team on another film that takes place during Christmas, Donovan’s Reef. Ward Bond, a character actor of incredible talent and range, has the distinction of appearing in more of the AFI’s Hundred Greatest Film List released in the summer of 1998 than any other actor. Also appearing in the film was Jane Darwell (Nellie Thursday in The Lemon Drop Kid), who won an Academy Award for her performance as Ma Joad in John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath. Ford also won an Academy Award for his direction of that film.
I must confess, on a purely emotional level, this is my favorite version. It has John Wayne, the genius of John Ford and a happy ending. What more could you ask for?
As much a tear-jerker as a Western, 3 Godfathers is a touching holiday film So get out the handkerchiefs and watch a triple-bill of the 1929, 1936 and the 1948 versions. The story was adapted one more time, this version for television in 1974 as The Godchild. It starred Keith Carradine and Jack Palance. I’m sure there will eventually be another remake to add to the list, but for my money, nothing can replace the John Wayne version.
The Three Wise Guys
Cast: Robert Young, Betty Furness, Raymond Walburn, Thurston Hall, Bruce Cabot, Donald Meek
Credits: Producer: Harry Rapf; Director: George B. Seitz; Writer: Elmer Harris (Based on the Story by Damon Runyon); MGM; 1936
This film is not available for review, but Variety’s review reads, “Film opens Christmas Eve on a train, with a bogus hard luck story racket [by Cabot and Furness] that cues into a hat-passing among the passengers... the girl marries the rich boy [Young] abruptly and with every indication that it’s for coin, yet she immediately claims to her accomplice that she really loves the boy... the father tosses the son out on his own... the couple... are picked up on a farm in Pennsylvania, broke... Not until the end does the spurned accomplice catch up with the dame who has, in his opinion, two-timed him. Again it is Christmas Eve (there are three Christmas Eves in the story) and the girl is alone in a barn with only a kerosene lamp. It’s snowing and there’s money hidden in the barn. One of the crooks is an ex-doctor and he officiates as obstetrician at the birth of the girl’s child. Then the revenge-eager tough guy goes Santa Claus and returns $20,000 in bonds in order that the rich man’s son, jailed under an alias, can be cleared. It’s all on the Santa Claus motif and the pretty little tongue-in-cheek-fadeout has one of the crooks going wistful about ‘Peace on Earth-good will to men’ and winding up asking ‘what town are we in, anyhow?’ Camera then picks up sign: You are now leaving Bethlehem.’”
Variety didn’t care for the film, noting, “This one gets pretty boresome as one improbable sequence leads to another.”
To All A Good Night
Cast: Buck West, Sam Shamshak, Katherine Herington
Credits: Producer: Sandy Cobe; Director: David Hess; Writer: Alex Rebar; IRC; 1980
A school for girls is terrorized by killer Santas.
To Grandmother’s House We Go
Cast: Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen, Rhea Perlman, Jerry Van Dyke, Stuart Margolin, Cynthia Geary
Credits: Director: Jeff Franklin; 1992
The Olsen twins wind up kidnapped by a pair of bumbling crooks while trying to get to their grandmother’s house because they think it would be easier for their single mother if they were gone.
Tom and Jerry: Paws for a Holiday
Credits: Warner Bros. DVD, 2003
Kids will enjoy the fighting duo in this set of holiday cartoons including “Snowbody Loves Me” and “Mice Follies.”
Trading Places
Cast: Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche
Credits: Producer: Aaron Russo; Director: John Landis; Writers: Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod; Paramount; 1983
John Landis is commonly thought of as a director for the masses, a director who is not afraid to appeal to lovers of low art and pop culture. The title of Landis’ debuting film as director, Schlock, sums it all up. He is most known for Animal House, American Werewolf in London and The Blues Brothers, common denominator films that entertain the great unwashed masses of American movie viewers. However, one of Landis’ best films, Trading Places, aims a tad higher, offering thoughtful insights about human nature, while at the same time making its audience laugh. It just happens to be one of the most inventive Christmas movies of the last two decades.
Trading Places is a movie of extremes, contrasting the haves and the have-nots, as the opening credit sequences reveal. On the one hand we have images of the poor: A man sleeps in a stairway, several poor folks warm their hands over a fire in a steel drum, people swarm to a welfare/unemployment office, inner-city children play basketball. On the other hand we have images of the very affluent: well-dressed servants preparing complex breakfast meals, expensive homes with fancy cars in front populated by nattily dressed businessmen.
Into this prosperous world steps Louis Winthorpe (Dan Aykroyd), the golden boy of Duke and Duke, commodity stockbrokers who do not always play by the rules, but always win. The Duke brothers Randolph (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer (Don Ameche) like to wager bets (one dollar goes to the winner), and their latest concern is the controversy surrounding heredity vs. environment (what really makes the man, his gene pool or where he is raised and brought up?). Randolph and Mortimer are petty, greedy, unfeeling people who are only concerned about one thing: making money. “You are about to make millions of dollars in frozen orange juice and you talk about human nature,” Mortimer warns. “Mother always said you were greedy,” Randolph retorts. “But she meant it as a compliment,” Mortimer adds. Meanwhile, the black servant serving them drinks is given a Christmas bonus by the brothers, five dollars. Sarcastically the servant offers, “Oh, five dollars, maybe I can go to the movies-by myself!” Mortimer chimes in, “Half of it is from me!” Meanwhile Winthorpe, stiffly walking through the office as the employees offer mechanical good-mornings, offers checks for the Duke brothers to sign. One check for $50,000 to a Clarence Beeks is suspect, and when Winthorpe questions it, the Dukes act suspiciously and tell him not to worry. After he leaves they both express how lucky they are to have a manager like Winthorpe, one brother claiming he’s the product of good environment, the other claiming he’s the product of good breeding. “Like race horses, it’s in the blood,” Mortimer declares.
Meanwhile Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) is a black street hustler, a man pretending to be a Vietnam veteran getting around on a platform because he supposedly lost both legs. “Merry Christmas,” he shouts and smiles, asking for donations. When people ignore him he pops off little asides, such as “you got lots of soul, I appreciate it!” Eyeing a beautiful woman scurrying past, his eyes light up and he beams, “Once you have a man with no legs, you never go back, baby... we can make it baby, me and you!” By now he has latched on to her coat, but she pulls away. “You bitch!” Soon the two policeman come upon the scene and figure out his angle. Pretending also to be blind, his head bobbing and weaving like Stevie Wonder, he mentions stepping on land mines in Nam, losing both legs. He says his inside name was Agent Orange. However, as both policeman lift him up by each arm, Valentine’s legs drop down to the ground and Valentine turns on the act, screaming, “I can see! I have legs! I can walk! Jesus! Praise, Jesus! This is beautiful!” Slowly backing off down the street, Valentine keeps smiling telling the policemen they are beautiful as he disappears farther and farther down the street. While keeping a watchful eye on his pursuers, Valentine bumps into Winthorpe, knocking him over. Valentine smiles and picks up his briefcase to hand it back, but Valentine thinks this black man is robbing him and he screams for help and tells Valentine to take his case. Soon police are chasing the misunderstood Valentine through the exclusive Heritage Club where he is cornered. Winthorpe wants to press full charges. However, the crafty Randolph immediately asks Valentine if he’s from a broken home (“We was broke I guess,” he answers), if he had a history of juvenile arrests, spent time in reform school, had any drug arrests. Randolph immediately declares he is a product of a poor environment. Mortimer claims that since he is a “Negro” he probably stole since he could crawl; thus, a product of bad genetics. Soon they strike a wager, betting that they will ruin Winthorpe, making him lose his job, his money, his fiancée, his friends and that he will resort to a life of crime (a product of bad environment). By taking Valentine and putting him into Winthorpe’s environment, Randolph claims he will become just as good a worker as Winthorpe was.
Using the Dukes’ dirty-dealings man Beeks, Winthorpe is framed for stealing money from the Heritage Club and is immediately
fired by the Dukes. Arrested and taken downtown to police headquarters, he is forced to strip. Another man working for the Dukes hides a bag of Angel Dust in Winthorpe’s jacket, which causes his very exclusive bank to freeze his accounts and take back his credit cards. Thinking he is a drug dealer, his fiancée Penelope is about to forgive him when Beeks hires prostitute Ophelia (Jamie Lee Curtis) to kiss and caress Winthorpe and beg him for more drugs, claiming she will do “all the things you like!” Penelope slaps him and leaves him there on the spot. However, the prostitute with the heart-of-gold honestly tells Winthorpe that some man paid her $100 to pull off that stunt as a joke, but realizing she caused real damage, she takes the broken man home to her place to offer him help.
Meanwhile. the Dukes bail Billy Ray Valentine out of jail, citing their privately funded program to rehabilitate culturally disadvantaged people. They offer to provide Valentine with a car, a home, a generous bank account and a job starting at $80,000 per year. The charges against Valentine have been dropped, so he can leave a free man if he chooses, or accept their offer. Of course Valentine is offered Winthorpe’s house and his servant Coleman (Denholm Elliott). The first order of business is for Valentine to revisit one of his old haunts, a bar filled with people ready to party. He invites the entire crowd back to his home. However, within the hour, Valentine is upset that people spill drinks on “his” Persian rug and drop cigarette butts on his floor. Soon the women are taking off their tops and going wild, and Valentine even finds a naked girl in his bed waiting for him. Immediately realizing that these people don’t belong here, he orders them “to get...out!” He tells Coleman that they are a bunch of freeloaders who treat his home like a zoo. Already he has become alienated from the people he used to hang out with.
Nervous about starting his new job, Valentine is told by Coleman, “Just be yourself; whatever happens, they can’t take that away from you!” But the street-smart Valentine takes well to the commodity broker market. As the Dukes explain, “We broker commodities (coffee, wheat, pork bellies, frozen orange juice concentrate, gold, etc.); we are speculators. We buy or sell such commodities for our clients who empower us to use their money for this purpose.” The Dukes smile and say we make a commission whether they make or lose money. Valentine, becoming savvy fast, says they are like bookies. However, using common sense, Valentine catches on quickly and becomes an ace predicting at what price the Dukes should buy or sell.
Back at Ophelia’s place, she lays down the law. She claims she is 24 years old, has saved $42,000 and in three more years of working “on her back” she will be able to retire. She doesn’t use a pimp and she doesn’t do drugs. Hearing and believing Winthorpe’s tragic story, she tells him she will help him get back on his feet and carry him temporarily if he pays her “five figures” when and if he gets his past life back. But she truly cares for Winthorpe, and uses her body heat to warm him when he catches cold and develops a fever of 103 degrees. In one comic sequence, getting drunk dressed in a Santa Claus outfit, Winthorpe invades the annual Duke and Duke Christmas party, shoving huge pieces of fish and meat down the front of his Santa outfit, stocking up food for later. Soon he breaks into his old office, now Valentine’s, looking for papers to vindicate him. However, he is caught by Valentine, and pulling a gun on the entire office staff, he threatens “you will all be very, very sorry,” before leaving. When Randolph and Mortimer voice sympathy for their old employee Winthorpe, Billy Ray says, “But he has money to buy drugs. You can’t be soft on people like that, I know!” In other words, the characters of Valentine and Winthorpe have flip-flopped, each becoming the man the other used to be. With this realization, Randolph turns to Mortimer and smiles.
Billy Ray is hiding in a bathroom stall, sneaking a quick buzz (the drugs Winthorpe found in Valentine’s office were Valentine’s, not a “plant” as Billy Ray claimed), when he overhears Randolph and Mortimer reveal their entire scheme and plan to return Valentine to the ghetto. Mortimer remarks that the idea of having Billy Ray run the business is ridiculous.
However, in a very complex scheme, Billy Ray gets back together with Winthorpe, and with the aid of Coleman and Ophelia, they pool all their money to concoct a plan using orange juice stock to make a fortune for themselves and drive the Dukes into bankruptcy, By movie’s end, all of them are living in a tropical paradise, while the Dukes are facing their worst nightmare-becoming financially ruined.
Interestingly, amidst a Christmas (and New Year’s) framing story, the true message of Christmas is illustrated through American capitalism and greedy money-makers. In the best illustration yet of “the first will be last and the last will be first,” Winthorpe learns that all his status and money are transient and can vanish in an instant, that his friends are not his friends but only like his status and wealth. Learning humility once his wealth vanishes and the meaning of friendship, something Ophelia extends to Winthorpe simply because she cares about people, Winthorpe learns what an empty life he had and what an interesting life lies ahead. By flushing his life of all excess and insignificance, he can retire to a tropical island where money is needed only for the basics of living and not to impress because of his breeding. True, Ophelia wants Winthorpe to take care of her needs, but she still brings him into her home realizing that the chances of him paying her back are next to none. And Billy Ray Valentine, a shrewd, sharp operator, does the right thing and helps Winthorpe get his revenge when Valentine realizes that he is being set up by the Dukes. He also needs Winthorpe’s experience of the business world to ensure their scheme’s success. By movie’s end the greedy and the uncaring have been vanquished, and the meek have surely inherited the Earth, or at least a little corner of it.
Trail of Robin Hood
Cast: Roy Rogers, Penny Edwards, Gordon Jones, Jack Holt, Rex Allen, Tom Tyler, Ray Corrigan, Rocky Lane
Credits: Producer: Edward J. White; Director: William Witney; Writer: Gerald Geraghty; Republic; 1950
The B Western was about to ride off into the sunset and become a thing of the past in 1950. Even with King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers, riding high in the saddle, television was looming in the near future (Roy Rogers’ television show would make the transition easier for Rogers and his fans).
The theme of this superior B entry, Trail of Robin Hood, alludes to the end of one era and the beginning of another. One of the pivotal characters, retired Western star Jack Holt (playing himself), talks to young upstart Sis McGonigle telling her, “I was a movie star long before you were born.” To which the wisecracking kid responds, “But we have television.” And Holt glumly replies, “Yes, I know!”
Nearing the end of an era, taking full advantages of TruColor photography, and utilizing the talents of ace Republic serial director William Witney, this Roy Rogers entry attempted to not reinvent the wheel, but to disguise “the wheel” under Christmas ornaments with plenty of good cheer thrown in for good measure.
A common staple of the B Western storybook included the rival cattle ranchers, one comprising the hero and the struggling community, the other involving rich, profit-minded villains, who battle it out to see who gets his herd to market first.
In this holiday variation, we have-seriously-rival Christmas tree growers battling it out to get their trees to market first. And the fun and action starts right away.
Jack Holt, the retired Western star, has been growing Christmas trees for six years, to sell them at cost to families of poor children when rival growers cut and steal a wagon-load of trees from his land. Fortunately, Roy Rogers is in hot pursuit and follows the tree thieves to their camp: “J.C. Aldridge Xmas Cutting Camp #1, Mitch McCall Foreman.” When Roy confronts the drivers at camp and asks, “Hey, you’re cutting your Christmas trees a little early, aren’t you?”, he is greeted with a cold, “Any law against it!” To which the hero states, “There is when you steal them off of somebody else’s property.” Then the classic B Western brawl erupts as the entire camp takes on Roy, one man at a time, none of the camp ganging up on Roy. And, of course, Rogers righteously pounds each and every pursuer into the ground. Only when one camper picks up an ax does Roy’s dog Bullet growl and hold the man at bay.
By this time Christmas tree tycoon Jack Holt has arrived, having followed Roy after seeing many of his trees cut down and stolen. With pride Holt introduces Rogers to foreman Mitch McCall, making sure McCall realizes that Rogers is the local head of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. McCall with equal pride announces to Holt he makes the contracts with the Aldridge company, to which Holt mumbles, “King of the Christmas trees,” recognizing the name. But when McCall offers to cut Holt in and buy all his trees for 50% of the profits, Holt gives an immediate refusal. “Sorry Mitch, but I’m gonna do my own cutting and hauling.”
Roy adds, “Jack doesn’t want a profit. He’s selling his trees for what it cost him to raise them.” Holt intends to sell his trees for 75-80 cents apiece instead of the going rate of $8 to $10 each. This underselling would put the Aldridge syndicate out of the tree business. Jack gives his reasons for selling trees at cost. “I made a little money in pictures, that’s why I’m ranching. Every family that wants a tree is gonna get one. I’m not interested in making a profit-if there is one, then I’ll give it to the Children’s Home. Kids like that made it possible for me to become a star!”
Thus, the basic conflict is immediately established in the plot. Now, let’s examine the B Western ingredients that catapult this mixture into motion. First, we have the hero’s right hand man, usually a dolt with the heart of gold. As an added treat, throw in an adorable child actress whose purpose is to bounce one-liners and visual gags off the sidekick. Thus we have Splinters McGonigle (Gordon Jones), “The Fix-It Man,” whose motto painted on the side of his wagon reads: “If your banjo’s busted and you can’t plinker, bring it to me, I’m the town’s biggest tinker.” His counterpoint is provided by spunky but wise Sis McGonigle (Carol Nugent), the tomboy who always takes charge with Splinters and is usually right. For instance, Splinters’ shots miss at the turkey shoot, but hiding up high in a tree, Sis hits the target with her slingshot. Coming down out of the tree to compete fairly, her dead-on shot with a huge rifle wins her first prize: a live turkey that she affectionately names Sir Galahad (since, as Splinters declares, the bird would look grand on their round table). Also, after Sis comments on Splinters’ lack of understanding even simple words, he retorts with the hilarious, “What I lack in brains, I make up for in ignorance.” But basically, Splinters is the gadget king, the man who can fix anything (except maybe that big radio that pops out toast that is always too brown). And Sis, even though she generally takes charge, is loving and supportive to the big galloot. Bottom line: They supply comic relief and do it well.
While foreman Mitch McCall turns out to be the major villain (he hires cowboys to join Holt’s gang to sabotage the operation, murders one of his own men to frame Rogers and, as we’ve observed, is not afraid to hire men to literally steal Christmas trees from Holt’s land), his boss, J.C. Aldridge, the owner of the operation and the New York big city loudmouth (we first see him on the phone barking “All I get are alibis, alibis!”), becomes heroic and likable by movie’s end (when he takes his doctor’s advice of a vacation and secretly goes out West to infiltrate McCall’s gang to see what exactly that rascal is pulling off). His equally aggressive daughter Toby (whom Aldridge tells “at least there’s some satisfaction from having a daughter with a business head on her shoulders”), wearing all the latest New York fashions, goes out West to get Holt to sign a contract with her father stating: “I’ll have a contract for those trees before he knows what happened.” She is big-city savvy and isn’t above using her womanly wiles to get what she wants. Arriving on the scene during the Turkey Shoot, she parades down the steps wearing her Sunday finest, which puts her directly in the line of the skeets, which someone lets loose simply to frighten the Easterner. After she picks herself up from the dirt and dusts herself off, Roy smiles and walks up declaring, “Looks like you had your tail feathers clipped.” After briefly meeting McCall and seeing children ask Jack Holt for his autograph, she quickly borrows paper from McCall and walks up to the ex-film star asking for his autograph. “It isn’t often I’m asked for an autograph by such a big girl.” To which she coos, “Mr. Holt, you were wonderful in all of them.” Soon Roy blows her scheme by announcing to Holt that this is Miss Aldridge, and all the pieces in her puzzle suddenly fall apart as Holt understands her motives. But true to form, this hard-as-nails businesswoman soon melts to Rogers’ charms by the last quarter of the movie and even volunteers to cook and serve the Christmas meal, near the movie’s end. Also, by this time the now-domesticated citygal even wears cowgirl outfits and hat (although she stills dresses like a fashion plate).
And Jack Holt himself becomes the titular town leader, the man who inspires the whole town to close down to help him bundle and tie his trees to get them to market (even the telegraph operator closes the office, horrible for Toby who awaits a message from her father). As the merry workers tie the trees, Splinters, in typical form, falls off a tall ladder while trying to decorate the gigantic Christmas tree inside the saloon, as Roy and friends sing “Get a Christmas tree for Johnny, Santa’s on his way... and the world will smile at you.” In the movie’s most affectionate sequence, McCall attempts to burn down the livery stable and torch the saloon housing all of Holt’s trees. Miraculously, the volunteer workers manage to carry all the trees to safety. Even Toby joins in. Sis remembers that her turkey is still inside and runs back into the inferno. Sis and Sir Galahad run to freedom, but the concerned Holt, rushing in to save Sis, is overcome by smoke. Roy uses Bullet to sniff Holt out, and carries the old codger to safety. The town doctor announces that Holt might not make it. Semiconscious, Holt mumbles that Christmas has arrived, so the entire town pretends to celebrate Christmas Day at his house, his bedroom door being opened wide to observe all the festivities in the dining room. Toby cooks the turkey dinner (the audience being allowed to think that Splinters slaughtered Sir Galahad, causing all the assembled town folk to lose its appetite, when in reality, Galahad’s “brother or cousin” was slaughtered), Roy carries in the presents and the looming Christmas tree bathes the sequence in quaint nostalgia. Roy and the fellows sing “Every day is Christmas in the West.” As they all gather around Holt, the very conscious man asks, “Tell me, did you get the trees to the city on time?” The honest Roy momentarily hesitates when Splinters bursts right in: “You should have seen it. Sold out almost before we could get them off the wagons!” To which Holt responds excitedly, “That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear! That makes Christmas perfect. You kids better get into the dining room... I’ll open my presents later.” Holt reveals to Sis that he knows that it’s not Christmas and that he knows the trees have not been delivered, but he didn’t want to ruin all the fun for everyone.
However, word gets back to the party that all the Christmas tree drivers are quitting because one of them was beat up and the others were frightened by the town fire and the seriousness of the threats. But the imaginative Sis notices the framed pictures around Holt’s bed of all his Western star cronies, people waiting to be called away from their homes on Christmas Day to help a friend in need. Unbeknownst to all assembled, Sis has managed to contact every one of them. 
Toby reluctantly offers to buy all of Holt’s trees, since Roy has failed to assemble enough drivers, but in the movie’s standout sequence, all the major B Western heroes suddenly ride into town. All eyes look down Main Street at the approaching strangers who yell “howdy Roy, remember me, I’m... Allan ‘Rocky’ Lane, Monte Hale, William Farnum, Tom Tyler, Ray Corrigan, Kermit Maynard, Tom Keene, Rex Allen.” For all the youngsters of the time, this sequence must have been akin to seeing an all-star lineup of horror veterans parading into the Gothic castle. The wonderful sequence even sports a joke. When George Chesebro approaches, Sis frowns and states, “You’re the meanie,” to which Chesebro utters, “But having made 20 pictures with Jack Holt, he reformed me.”
Soon all the heroes are following in a procession of wagons filled to the top with Christmas trees when Roy gets word that McCall and his men are burning the Red River Bridge, preventing Holt’s trees from reaching market. Rogers races to warn the caravan to “whip ’em up” as he rides ahead, reaching the bridge before the wagons arrive. Unfortunately, McCall and party have already started the fire, but instead of attending to the blaze, Rogers jumps on top of the two villains present, McCall included. While the fighting goes on, the wagons race across the bridge, each driver ducking to avoid the raging flames that lick at the horses’ heels. Sis is the last driver to cross the bridge, coaxed on by Splinters, and after she passes safely, the entire structure collapses. Rogers still pursues McCall, who rides to a scenic watermill where he falls to his death trying to climb over the mill.
“Jack, you cost me a quarter of a million dollars, but it was worth it,” the now compassionate J.C. Aldridge utters. “From now on, we’re partners, and we’ll be selling them so cheap they’ll think we’re giving them away.” The crowd begins singing again as the snow starts falling harder and faster. The always conscientious Roy Rogers announces he has to check the fences as he rides off into the snowset, framed by the strums of Christmas tunes.
B Westerns during the 1940s were probably more popular than B horror movies, for most childhood heroes of the era were Western stars, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry (and perhaps Hopalong Cassidy) being the favorites. And what a coup to have all the runners-up make a brief but thrilling cameo appearance in a film that exudes warmth, charm and nostalgia for an era of moviemaking about to end with the advent of television.
In this crazy B world of Rogers, the old West era exists side-by-side with all the glories of the modern world. Thus, we have the very important sequence where we first meet Aldridge and his daughter Toby, wearing modern clothes, barking at each other in a modern office building, using the telephone. Even when Toby makes her appearance at the Turkey Shoot, her introduction to Roy’s world, she drives up in a car wearing Eastern clothes. The juxtaposition of horses and autos makes the Roy Rogers universe just as unreal as Universal’s Vasaria or Transylvania. While citizens in this version of the old West ride horses, gather around storefronts to sing Western tunes and drop everything at a heartbeat to band together and help one another, this world seems strangely real and alive. In every little boy’s heart, he can believe in a real place out West where people truly care about their neighbors and pull together to help one another. The concept of “selling at cost” does not seem ridiculous, just decent. Villains are not slain, as much as they are challenged, pursued and then accidentally fall to their death. Aldridge might be an old codger, but one rough and tumble week in the old West cures all his ills and transforms him into an equal partner with the Western spirit. Even Toby loses her aggression and joins the team.
Today, movies such as Trail of Robin Hood don’t seem dated as much as stylized, anachronisms of a more innocent, bygone era. The Christmas motif married to the B Western formula works only too well because the warm and fuzzy holiday spirit blends perfectly with the soul of the Hollywood Old West. By movie’s end, we definitely believe that “every day is Christmas in the West.”
Trapped in Paradise
Cast: Nicholas Cage, Jon Lovitz, Dana Carvey, Madchen Amick
Credits: Director/Writer/Producer: George Gallo; 20th Century-Fox; 1994
On first viewing, this film just doesn’t seem to work, despite the talented cast. However, like an annoying relative, it will grow on you if given a chance. Cage, Lovitz and Carvey portray bumbling Three Stoogesesque brothers who rob a bank in the idyllicly peaceful town of Paradise, PA. They manage to crash their car while fleeing and the people of Paradise, especially the bank president and his wife, shower them will goodwill, care and Christmas gifts. The remorseful robbers have second thoughts and return the money. Before this occurs however they must escape the clutches of the FBI, two moronic store clerks and an escaped con who’s annoyed they pulled the gravy bank job he had been planning for years. His daughter (Amick), who is a bank teller in Paradise, realizes the trio are the robbers but, rather than turn them in, tries to get them to leave town. The ex-con holds everyone hostage but the slow-witted town deputy saves them as Cage tries to persuade the con to let the innocent people go.
The FBI hauls everyone to the police station but the local townspeople cover up for the trio. Cage stays with Amick while the other two head home with their mother (Florence Stanley).
There are some truly lovely Christmas scenes in this film, and kudos must be given to the art department and set designers for the Norman Rockwellish flavor of the movie. Not great but the filmmakers did try to capture the Christmas spirit of love and forgiveness.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Cast: Dorothy McGuire, Peggy Ann Garner, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan
Credits: Producer: Louis D. Lighton; Director: Elia Kazan; Writers: Frank Davis, Anita Loos, and Tess Slesinger (Based on the Betty Smith Novel); Fox; 1945
A wonderful film that follows Francie Nolan (Peggy Ann Garner) and her family as they struggle to make ends meet. Francie is the apple of her father’s eye, but John Nolan can’t keep a job and frequents the local bars. He is beloved by everyone but his wife Katie (Dorothy McGuire), who still loves him but can’t abide his ways and constantly worries over money. She moves the family to a smaller apartment upstairs when she finds she is pregnant. Christmas Eve, Francie and her younger brother Neeley (Ted Donaldson) anxiously await midnight so they can go to the Christmas tree lot. The owner throws the trees, and if you can catch one, you can keep it. Francie and Neeley have been eyeing a large tree which together they manage to catch. They drag the tree home. Officer McShane (Lloyd Nolan) helps them carry it into the foyer. Katie watches out the window as her sister Sissy (Joan Blondell) tells her, “They’re trying to make a Christmas; help them, kid.”
John rushes down to help and as they carry the tree up, all the neighbors come out of their apartments and laugh and sing “Silent Night” as the merry family carries the tree. Officer McShane sadly watches and turns away.
Snow is falling heavily outside as the family decorate the tree with candy canes and paper chains. Francie and Neeley open their presents, long underwear, but are happy nonetheless. Officer McShane stops in on his way home and gives the children more candy canes for the tree. They invite him to stay but he declines saying, “This evening’s for families.”
Katie tells John she is having another baby and Francie will have to stop going to school and get a job. John knows how much Francie loves her school and is distraught. He goes in to see Francie who tells him she is going to be a writer.
“Papa, the people in the hall when we brought up the tree, the look on their faces, all friendly and nice. Why can’t people be like that all the time, not just at Christmas?”
Her father doesn’t really have an answer. “Well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because Christmas is like they really are and the other part ain’t true.” He kisses Francie goodnight and goes out. “Don’t start drinkin’, not tonight,” Katie tells him as he leaves. “I won’t Katie.” He doesn’t return and Katie goes looking for him in his favorite bars. But she has no luck. Officer McShane comes to the door and tells her they found him collapsed in the doorway of an employment agency in Manhattan. Francie is devastated by the death of her father and believes her mother doesn’t love her, only Neeley. But in the spring the two come to an understanding when Katie needs her help delivering the new baby. Francie can stay in school because a friend of their father’s, Mr. McGarrity (James Gleason), offers her and Neeley part time work after school. Officer McShane asks to keep company with Katie and the film ends as Francie and Neeley discuss how the baby will not have the tough life they did and look at the little tree that survived the cold winter, now blooming again.
Peggy Ann Garner received a special Oscar for Best Child Actor for her performance as Francie in this film, while James Dunn took home the Best Supporting Actor trophy for his role as John Nolan.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn does not center on Christmas but on the Nolan family throughout the year. However, this is an always enjoyable and heart-warming film that should be on your top holiday viewing list.
Troublemakers
Cast: Bud Spencer, Terence Hill, Anne Kasprik, Ruth Buzzi
Credits: Producer: Matthias Wendlandt; Director: Terence Hill; Triboro; 1995
Travis (Hill) goes to great lengths to get his brother Moses (Spencer) home to see their mother (Buzzi) in this comic Western.
Turkey Time
Cast: Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn, Dorothy Hyson, Robertson Hare
Credits: Producer: Michael Balcon; Director: Tom Walls; Writer: Ben Travers; Gaumont; 1933
This film is not available for screening. Cinebooks remarks, “A durable comedy about two pals, Walls and Lynn, who spend Christmas at the seaside home of Walls’ fiancée. Walls soon falls for another girl, Hyson, but is restored to his first love when Lynn also falls for Hyson.”
Twilight Zone (April 1956-July 1959) “Night of the Meek”
For me, of all the Christmas episodes shown on network television, “Night of the Meek,” from the original Twilight Zone series (it was remade during the 1980s when the series was briefly resurrected), is my favorite. The quality of the acting (especially the career-defining performance by Art Carney) and of the writing (the words of Rod Serling have never felt more profound) propel “Night of the Meek” into one of television’s finest moments.
The story opens in a large department store, before a huge banner proclaiming “North Pole,” the locale of Santa Claus’ throne. The floor manager, Mr. Dundee (John Fiedler), makes apologies to the swarming crowd that the missing Santa Claus will be back by six.
However Henry Corwin (Art Carney), sloppily dressed in his Santa Claus outfit, is sprawled over the bar in a nearby tavern, drinking way too much, even trying to sneak a drink when the bartender is busy on the phone. “I’ll break both arms up to the shoulder blades,” the bartender threatens, telling the person on the phone, “No, it’s just Santa Claus trying to heist the joint!”
Venturing outside into snow-covered urban city streets, Corwin is recognized by the neighborhood children who smile, wave and run up to him, demanding their presents. Trying to balance himself by holding onto a lamppost, Corwin falls, the children swooping around him. “Please, Santa, I want a carriage and a dolly,” a young girl asks. Another child, a boy, states, “I want a gun,” and they ramble on. Finally, “And please Santa Claus, a job for my daddy,” can be heard. All that the drunken Corwin can do is hug the children and cry.
Corwin, now returning to the store, is playing with the toy trains, obviously drunk, when the irate Mr. Dundee tells the employee that he is over an hour late. “If you could keep from disillusioning a lot of kids that not only isn’t there a Santa Claus but this one in this store happens to be a wino who would be more at home playing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer...” Corwin stumbles up to his Santa throne and has a child climb up on his lap. After the child leaves, Santa falls flat on his face as the amazed child yells, “Look Ma, Santa Claus is loaded!” When the shocked mother complains to Mr. Dundee about hiring Santas from the gutter, that she will never shop here again, Dundee has no choice but to fire Corwin. The disgraced man apologizes for his drunkenness, “I could either drink or I could weep, and drinking is so much more subtle.” But he states he was not rude to the woman and suddenly the pathetic man’s dignity begins to peek through. “As far as that woman, someone should remind her that Christmas is more than barging up and down department store aisles and pushing people out of the way... Christmas is richer, finer than that. It should come with patience, charity, love, compassion. That’s what I would have told her.” He carries on his impassioned message: “I am an aging, purposeless relic of another time and I live in a dirty rooming house on a street with hungry kids and shabby people where the only thing that comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve is more poverty.” When Corwin drinks he can almost imagine he is actually Santa Claus distributing presents to all the neighborhood children. “I could save some of the hopeless and dreamless ones... for one Christmas I’d like to see the meek inherit the Earth. That’s why I drink... weep.” Perhaps derelicts in real life don’t speak as eloquently as Mr. Corwin speaks, but Rod Serling’s words ring true.
Returning to walking the streets, still dressed as Santa Claus, Corwin hears strange Christmas tinkling and follows the music to an abandoned back alley lined with trash cans and screeching cats. Soon, as he turns, he eyes a large bag with presents overflowing, slings it over his back, and runs out to the main streets yelling for kids and everybody to gather round. Then he assumes his real-life role as benevolent Santa, giving out presents to order from anyone who asks.
At the Dulancey Mission House, Sister Florence (Meg Wyllie) is leading the despondent people in song, as an old man (Burt Mustin) announces that Santa Claus is coming down the street, giving out presents to everyone. The old man, upon Santa’s arrival, asks for a pipe and smoking jacket and gets exactly what he asks. “I’m just as much in the dark as anyone else... as long as it’s putting out, I’m putting in,” Corwin crows. However, the fetched-for policeman is not so festive, asking if Corwin has receipts for all this merchandise. The policeman than asks Sister Florence to collect all the stolen merchandise as Corwin is led off. Mr. Dundee, arriving at the police station to identify the missing merchandise, hopes that Corwin will get 10 years in prison. However, when Dundee reaches inside the bag, all he pulls out is garbage and a cat. Dundee, to prove Corwin wrong, asks for a bottle of cherry brandy, vintage 1903, and Santa pulls it out immediately, disappearing with his bag off into the night.
After giving out the reminder of the presents, Corwin is greeted in the streets by the old man with the pipe and smoking jacket who asks, “Nothing for you?” Corwin smiles, “You know, I can’t think of anything I want... I wanted to be the biggest gift-giver of all time. In a way, I think I had that tonight.” His wish is to be able to do this every year.
Corwin, out of curiosity, again returns to the back alley when he originally found the bag of never-ending presents, and there waiting is a sleigh with reindeer and an elf. “We’ve been waiting quite a long time for you, Santa Claus. We have a year of hard work to get ready for next Christmas.”
As the policeman and Dundee, now staggering drunk himself, wander off down the street and look overhead, they are dumbfounded as they see Corwin fly overhead. Dundee mutters, “We’ll thank God for miracles.”
While the last sequence showing the sleigh and reindeer with the over-anxious elf does strain credibility, this becomes the only false moment in an otherwise emotionally gripping TV half-hour. Never has the spirit of yearning to give to others been this powerfully portrayed, and Art Carney’s dignity, even when embarrassingly intoxicated, is never less than poignant. With all the human flaws and miseries surrounding the plight of the poor in the city, the Christmas spirit still contains the power to heal. And “Night of the Meek” manages to touch all our hearts.