I shall bookend my old favorites with some new stuff.
After my disappointment with the last season of Doctor Who, the JOY TO THE WORLD Christmas special was a welcome improvement. We open with the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) popping up through locked doors to offer various people a pumpkin latte and a ham-and-cheese toastie (whatever that is). Then we get into the main plot involving a briefcase that transfers itself to different people with the previous host dropping dead right afterwards. And Joy (Nicola Coughlin) who’s spending Christmas in the world’s blandest hotel room, has become the new vessel.
This was a very Doctor-centric episode—Gatwa’s on camera constantly and the fun is in his interactions with Joy, with his future self and with Anita (Stephanie de Whalley) in the year the Doctor’s stranded. Ultimately a lot threat level but it succeeds on charm and warmth. “You live in a big empty spaceship without any chairs because nobody ever visits!”
Now the old stuff, starting with Boris Karloff narrating HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, with a story by Dr. Seuss and some absolutely amazing animation by Chuck Jones — seriously, his ability to fill out a half-hour without making it feel padded is amazing. Always a pleasure. “Then the true meaning of Christmas shone through/And the Grinch found the strength of ten grinches plus two!”
12 DATES OF CHRISTMAS (2011) has Amy Smart deducing her Christmas Eve time loop is obviously so she can win her ex back from his new love — certainly it can’t have anything to do with blind date Mark-Paul Gosselar, can it? One of the better Christmas rom-coms, and one of the best Christmas time-loop stories. “My life is a parking garage!”
THE FAMILY STONE (2005) isn’t one of my top Christmas movies but that’s why I picked it to watch (less familiar, therefore fresher). Sarah Jessica Parker plays the uptight fiancee Dylan McDermott introduces to mom Dianne Keaton, dad Craig T. Nelson and sister Rachel McAdams—though the only one Parker can connect with is stoner brother Luke Wilson. Enjoyable. “Meredith’s the racist, crazy, bigoted bitch from Bedford — that’s what you all think.”
SCROOGE (1970) has, of course, Albert Finney as the miser disgruntled by impertinent clerk Michael Crawford, by his obnoxious nephew’s invitation to Christmas dinner and then by dead partner Alec Guinness dropping in on him. Due to my hectic schedule, the only one big-screen adaptation of Dickens I caught this year, but it’s always a pleasure. “Mankind should be our business, Ebenzer — but we seldom attend to it.”
KARROLL’S CHRISTMAS (2004) has the protagonist’s miserable Christmas rendered even worse when Jacob Marley’s Jamaican rasta descendant and three oddball spirits show up at his house — isn’t it obvious it’s grouchy Wallace Shawn up the street who needs spiritual guidance? It turns out, of course, Shawn isn’t the only one whose soul needs reawakening … “The word ‘lunatic’ is very hurtful. To me and well, lunatics.”
WE’RE NO ANGELS (1955) was last weekend’s date movie, and TYG enjoyed the story of swindler Humphrey Bogart (“I once ran a company that sold bottled air for people who’d been advised they needed a change of climate.”), safecracker Peter Ustinov and Brute Man Aldo Ray (“It was the way I asked him — hitting him over the head 17 times.”) coming to the aid of Leo G. Carroll and Gloria Talbot against malevolent relative Basil Rathbone. Watching this year made me very aware of the stage show roots in the blocking and the limited number of sets, but it still works.. “We’re going to bash their heads in, break their bones, gouge out their eyes — right after we do the dishes.”
A CHRISTMAS STORY (1984) is our perennial Christmas Day viewing with its story of Red Ryder BB guns (TYG was amused Red Ryder’s Native American kid sidekick was named “Little Beaver”), double-dog dares, having your mouth washed out with soap and learning about Chinese Christmas turkey. “It’s a major award!”
I was going to skip CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945) this year but as things quieted down Christmas afternoon … The story of Barbara Stanwyck having to choose between stuffy fiancee Reginald Gardiner and free-spirited artist Dennis Morgan, all the while under the watchful eye of publisher Sidney Greenstreet remains fun as ever — though I’m always surprised that Obnoxious and Irritating as Una O’Connor and SZ Sakall find each other, they don’t end up snogging in the kitchen by the end. “When you’re kissing me, don’t talk about plumbing.”
Much to my surprise, I discovered the DVD for the above included a special feature, A STAR IN THE NIGHT (1945) that I’d never watched. This short film has dour motel operator J. Carroll Naish insisting his inn has no room for a poor traveling couple but hey, he has a barn where they could take shelter—and wouldn’t you know, three cowboys show up with gifts just at the moment she gives birth, guided by the star in Naish’s logo? I’m really surprised that the vagabond who argues Naish out of his cynicism wasn’t even implied to be an angel. “That’s what I’m talking about — peace, brotherhood, it’s a lot of baloney!”
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