Movies for the holidays

Madame · Post by **Madame** » Wed Dec 24, 2008 7:41 pm

The celebrations don't seem complete unless I watch 'It's A Wonderful Life', I love it as much today as when I first saw it.

What are your favorites/traditions?

John F · Post by **John F** » Thu Dec 25, 2008 2:31 am

A Christmas Carol, the 1951 film with this great cast:

Alastair Sim ... Ebenezer Scrooge
Kathleen Harrison ... Mrs. Dilber
Mervyn Johns ... Bob Cratchit
Hermione Baddeley ... Mrs. Cratchit
Michael Hordern ... Jacob Marley / Marley's Ghost
George Cole ... Young Ebenezer Scrooge
John Charlesworth ... Peter Cratchit
Francis De Wolff ... Spirit of Christmas Present
Rona Anderson ... Alice
Carol Marsh ... Fan Scrooge
Brian Worth ... Fred
Miles Malleson ... Old Joe
Ernest Thesiger ... The Undertaker
Glyn Dearman ... Tiny Tim
Michael Dolan ... Spirit of Christmas Past
Olga Edwardes ... Fred's Wife
Roddy Hughes ... Fezziwig
Hattie Jacques ... Mrs. Fezziwig
Eleanor Summerfield ... Miss Flora
Louise Hampton ... Laundress
C. Konarski ... Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come
Eliot Makeham ... Mr. Snedrig
Peter Bull ... First Businessman, Narrator
Douglas Muir ... Second Businessman
Noel Howlett ... First Collector
Fred Johnson ... Second Collector
Henry Hewitt ... Mr. Rosehed
Hugh Dempster ... Mr. Groper
Maire O'Neill ... Alice's Patient
Richard Pearson ... Mr. Tupper
Patrick MacNee ... Young Jacob Marley
Clifford Mollison ... Samuel Wilkins
Jack Warner ... Mr. Jorkin

Not to mention producer/director Brian Desmond-Hurst and composer Richard Addinsell. Besides Sim's classic Scrooge - he's the wrong physical type for the part but who cares? - and the other major actors, I treasure the cameo bits with Peter Bull, Miles Malleson, and Kathleen Harrison, "in keeping with the situation."

We watch it every year during the last-minute wrapping of gifts to be opened not 24 hours later.

JackC · Post by **JackC** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 12:50 pm

Yes, that's my favorite, too. Alastair Sim is fantastic as Scrooge.

We watched it on Christmas eve, just after watching my other favorite, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 1:51 pm

I third the 1951 Scrooge with Sim.

Actually, I watched parts of three different takes on A Christmas Carol this year. The transformation at the end always puts me in a good mood.

Ralph · Post by **Ralph** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 2:02 pm

As I've said before, I belong to that intrepid small band of courageous cinephiles who think "It's a Wonderful Life" is awful.

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 2:28 pm

Ralph wrote:As I've said before, I belong to that intrepid small band of courageous cinephiles who think "It's a Wonderful Life" is awful.

This merely confirms my suspicion. You have no soul!

Ralph · Post by **Ralph** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 4:11 pm

Barry wrote:
Ralph wrote:As I've said before, I belong to that intrepid small band of courageous cinephiles who think "It's a Wonderful Life" is awful.
This merely confirms my suspicion. You have no soul!

*****

But on CMG I have Saul!

Madame · Post by **Madame** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 5:46 pm

Ralph wrote:
Barry wrote:
Ralph wrote:As I've said before, I belong to that intrepid small band of courageous cinephiles who think "It's a Wonderful Life" is awful.
This merely confirms my suspicion. You have no soul!
*****

But on CMG I have Saul!

Not for Christmas, you don't

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 4:46 pm

I revere the Sim/Desmond-Hurst edition of Scrooge, too; but I'd like to remind a music board such as this one of a film that others, besides myself, must find attractive:

A Christmas Without Snow.

It's an '80 TV movie starring Michael Learned as a divorcee from Nebraska who's just moved to San Francisco to start a new social life, finding one via a church rehearsing Handel's Messiah which is conducted by a demanding director--terrifically played by John Houseman.

This movie first aired December 9, 1980: the day millions mourned John Lennon's assassination. With this movie's moments of high drama, I for one was emotionally wasted by evening's end.

Even so, there are many fine lighthearted touches to the film. A rather low-budget production, though: commercial DVD copies (and even 90s TV broadcasts) show the film to be shot on cheap stock.

Fergus · Post by **Fergus** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 6:10 am

Neither a film nor anything to do with Christmas but for some reason it has developed into a tradition that Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" gets an annual viewing around this time of year.

The wonderful adaptation and acting make this compulsive viewing for me.

lmpower · Post by **lmpower** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 2:30 pm

We watched "It's a Wonderful Life" again this Christmas, and I found it even more moving and meaningful than ever. Perhaps Ralph could share with us what he finds so objectionable about it.

slofstra · Post by **slofstra** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 11:51 pm

It's a Wonderful Life is my favourite movie and the only one to which I give a 10/10 rating on my IMDB list. And there can never be another Scrooge after Alistair Sim. We watched it again this year after a few years hiatus. My niece had never seen it before so that afforded an opportunity - it's great to introduce either of these movies to young people that have not seen them before.
I love the glee expressed by Sim/Scrooge when he wakes in the morning and realizes it's just an ordinary day. What a moment. One reviewer commented that the only fault he found in the movie was that the Cratchett family was too darn cheerful and he felt he wanted to slap them around. "Oh yes, Tim it's the best goose in all the town". This thought gave me some extra laughs this time as the Cratchetts worked through a number of lines like that. But again, Sim in the last scenes of the movie is just terrific.

lmpower · Post by **lmpower** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:29 pm

When we watched |"It's a Wonerful Life" I thought of Lionel Barrymore's annual performance as Scrooge on the radio. I have not seen Sim as Scrooge, though I regard him highly for other roles. I am wondering how his Scrooge compares with Barrymore's.

John F · Post by **John F** » Tue Dec 30, 2008 2:23 am

BBC Radio 4 has been rerunning some of Alastair Cooke's Christmas "Letters from America" and to my surprise, he thought the best Scrooge he ever saw was George C. Scott in the American TV version of the 1980s. Quite a few clips from it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... rch=Search

Scott is indeed good in a surprisingly understated way, for those who know him best for "Patton" and "Dr. Strangelove," but for me, Alastair Sim is Scrooge and there's no getting around it.

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:06 pm

I watched the George C. Scott version a day or two after Sim's a week or so ago. I think Sim ruined Scott's performance for me. "Understated" just didn't cut it for me after seeing Sim's joy at the end of the '51 Scrooge.

Wallingford · Post by **Wallingford** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 1:18 pm

Scott's performance is just locked into one mood throughout--I don't really believe his "transformation." He doesn't seem remorseful when the Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come shows him the grief of the Cratchit parents (he DOES, however, act like he's about to crap his pants when seeing those total strangers going through his stuff after HIS death).

In fact, I don't think ANY filmed realization (outside of the Sim/Desmond-Hurst version) manages to make the vision of Tiny Tim's death truly heartwrenching.

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