Festive faves
Following our take on the turkeys last week, we present a selection of ten movies without which Yuletide simply couldn’t exist. A very happy Christmas to all our readers!
Not all of them have a festive setting, but there are no apologies – in terms of mood, memories and magic, these are the films that this reviewer always seeks out in the festive schedules. I hope you don’t have a problem with that? Do let me know, won’t you…
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
Let’s start with what is still possibly the best Christmas movie ever, shall we? Often misreported as being a director who heaped on the saccharine, Frank Capra’s vision of just how big a hole one of us, any of us might leave if we had never been born is in fact a dark descent (with a sterling turn from Lionel Barrymore as the evil Mr Potter) before we are allowed release into the feel-good luminescence of that ending. It’s quite simple – if the story of compassionate Bedford Falls Everyman George Bailey (the wonderful James Stewart) and the last-minute intervention of Angel Clarence (Henry Travers), who’s still without his wings, doesn’t make you cry, doesn’t make you love life, check to see if you’ve still got a heart beating, OK?
Scrooge (1951)
One of the earlier versions, but still the best – no-one has topped Alistair Sim as the bitter old miser turned born-again philanthropist, in Brian Desmond Hurst’s wonderful, warm and faithful adaptation of the Dickens classic. Best bit? Scrooge losing the plot with happiness near the film’s end, and the reaction of his maid Mrs. Dilber (Kathleen Harrison).
The Great Escape (1963)
Go on, watch it again, just the one more time – you know you want to. Maybe this time, ‘Cooler King’ Hilts (Steve McQueen) will make that final motorcycle leap? Or maybe ‘Intelligence’ Macdonald (Gordon Jackson) won’t make the mistake he warned his junior officer about, namely responding in English to a German? Or perhaps ‘The Forger’ Blythe (Donald Pleasance) will manage to get away after all, in spite of his failing eyesight? So many moments, and that’s why so few war films compare with John Sturges’ masterpiece. ‘This film is for the fifty.’
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
Even in spite of Sean Connery’s absence, ‘The Big Fry Guy’ (George Lazenby) proved that the name was still Bond, James Bond. True, Lazenby was only ever a solid, dependable, somewhat uncharismatic 007 in his first (and only) effort, but director Peter Hunt and screenwriter Richard Maibaum’s near-complete fidelity to Ian Fleming’s original novel, combined with a ‘Bond-girl’ performance from Diana Rigg that is the franchise’s best ever and a believable, physical villain in the form of Telly Savalas as Blofeld, makes OHMSS one of the series’ very best, certainly its most tragic, and this reviewer’s favourite. Plus, a good portion of the action takes place at Christmas. ‘This never happened to the other fella!’ Too true, too true…
The Selfish Giant (1971)
Anybody else remember this? Peter Sander’s animation is perhaps the most charming visualization of Oscar Wilde ever rendered, with its personifications of Snow, Hail, Sleet and Frost, who come to stay chez the Giant when he bans the children from his garden.
‘Nay, but these are the wounds of love.’
‘Who art thou?’
Tears of joy, guaranteed.
A Warning to the Curious (1972) and The Signalman (1976)
Two annual reminders (which can normally still be found somewhere on one of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s digital channels) that (i) the BBC used to be a damn fine public service broadcaster (ii) faithful literature adaptations should never have gone out of style, and (iii) ghost stories don’t come much scarier than Lawrence Gordon Clark’s take on, respectively, the terrifying tale of MR James, and the Andrew Davies-adapted version of Charles Dickens’ chiller. The first sees Peter Vaughan digging for treasure where he really, really shouldn’t, the second Denholm Elliot, as the solitary signalman of the title, cursed by a nameless horror that is beyond my capacity to describe here – refined refrigeration. And don’t ever say that Picturenose doesn’t look after you – A Warning to the Curious can be viewed here, and you can shiver to The Signalman here.
Murder By Decree (1979)
Director Bob Clark (who sadly died in a car accident in 2007) takes the rare honour of two nods, with this and (see below) A Christmas Story (1983). Forget, if you can, Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Ritchie’s simply appalling Sherlock Holmes (2009), and enjoy Christopher Plummer as perhaps the most compassionate screen interpretation of the great detective, with an excellent, non-bumbling performance from James Mason as Watson. Cleverly combining Holmes mythos with a meticulously researched background concerning the 1888 ‘Jack the Ripper’ killings, this was the first film to present what has now become a favourite ‘Whitechapel Murders’ conspiracy theory, namely that it was a Masonic plot with royal connections. No matter whether you buy the story or not, this is still a wonderfully atmospheric trip into the dark heart of Victoriana. An elementary choice.
A Christmas Story (1983)
There had to be a comedy somewhere on the list – as its tagline put it, ‘A Tribute to the Original, Traditional, One-Hundred-Percent, Red-Blooded, Two-Fisted, All-American Christmas…’, but Clark’s A Christmas Story is so much more besides, with its marvellously witty and affectionate account of the efforts of young Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) to convince his parents, teachers, and even Santa Claus that a Red Ryder BB Airgun really would be the perfect gift. ‘You’ll have your eye out!’ A gem.
Die Hard (1988)
And to finish, the Christmas ‘machine’ – the fact that, even some 20 years on, action flicks are still trying (and mostly failing) to duplicate the excitement, style and appeal of Bruce Willis as John McClane, and his efforts to gatecrash the terrorists’ party, still shows how and why director John McTiernan changed action cinema forever. Throw a deliciously erudite, evil (and Brit playing a German) Alan Rickman into the mix, and you have a festive firework that simply soars.
This post featured in Expatica’s regular weekly film column, supplied by Picturenose.
Why is it that spook stories go so well with Christmas? Is it a Dickens thing, harking back to A Christmas Carol? Is it because it’s winter, and howling gales and a chilly atmosphere somehow go well with the festive spirit? Or perhaps because there’s a sense of magic about the season that primes us for the supernatural? Whatever the reason, I do love a good ghost story at this time of the year, so its great to see The Signalman and A Warning… on your list and thanks (or ‘thinks heaps’, as they say in Oz) for the link.
You know why I have a beef with The Great Escape. It’s a bloody war film, and it’s one they show over and over at christmas. The glory of the English vs the evil of the Hun, etc – if there is one time when war films should be erased from our screens, it’s Christmas, so I can’t agree with that one.
But, replace it with Groundhog Day and your list would have been pretty much perfect. Merry Christmas James, and to all the Picturenose mob. There’s nothing like a good argument about film – row with you in the New Year.x
Hi Chris,
And a very Merry Christmas back to you, mate. It’s an interesting question you raise, and I agree completely – there is an undeniable pleasure to be had from enjoying a really creepy spook story at this time of year. Enjoy the links in question, and be aware that most of the superb MR James adaptations (such as Oh Whistle, and I’ll Come To You My Lad and View From A Hill) are also now available on YouTube. When it comes to this kind of ghost story (ie, prosaic settings, utterly malevolent phantoms), there is nobody better than Montague Rhodes. As I am sure you know, he was a Cambridge and Eton professor, who used to recount such tales to a select group of his students come Christmas time.
And the Dickens tale is something of a one-off – he wrote other stories such as A Christmas Carol that had supernatural elements, but The Signalman is, to my knowledge, his only all-out screamer.
Anyway, I look forward to your continued input in 2010. Keep it with Picturenose – you know it makes sense.