The Unholy Three (1925)

Note: Okay this may not really be a Christmas movie, but some very important story points take place during the Christmas season,  particularly Christmas Eve.


Fantastic silent film.

Though this was far from director Tod Browning's first film, it was the one that truly defined who he was a director. Though his early films had some strange stuff, this film was very weird as you would expect from this director. Browning would go on to direct such films as Freaks, The Unknown and Dracula (1931). All of these films reveled in the bizarre and strange. In this film Browning also worked with actor Lon Chaney, who he had great collaborations with such as The Unknown, London After Midnight, Where East is East and West of Zanzibar.

The story involves three former sideshow performers a ventriloquist named Echo (played by Lon Chaney), a midget (played by Harry Earles), and a strongman (played by Victor McLaglen), who work with a pickpocket named  Rosie O'Grady (played by Mae Busch (who my fellow Laurel and Hardy lovers should recognize)), whom Echo is in love with. The work at a pet shop as a cover for a man named Hector (played by Matt Moore), who loves Rosie. After a robbery on Christmas Eve  ends with murder, the whole gang turns against each other and Hector is blamed for the robbery.

This is a great film. The weirdness works perfectly and just adds a great atmosphere (especially a very strange scene involving an ape). The actors are perfectly cast. The story is quite a good one as well.

This film would be remade in 1930 as a talkie. Though that film would also star Lon Chaney, it would be directed by Jack Conway, instead of Tod Browning. The remake would be Lon Chaney's only appearance in a talkie (and his last film) as he would die shortly after.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/14037/The-Unholy-Three/articles.html
imdb.com

Yogi's First Christmas (1980)

I love Hanna-Barbera cartoons. So seeing all these characters together as almost one big family, and in a movie centered around Christmas, just makes me feel warm inside. It doesn't hurt that this is an excellent film in it's own right.

The songs used in this film were used in previous Hanna-Barbera Christmas themed work.  The songs Christmas Time is Here Again, and Making Much Ado About This Christmas both come from the TV special Casper's First Christmas, while the song Hope was previously used in both A Christmas Story (Not to be confused with the popular live action movie) and A Flintstones Christmas, however here they do work much better. They fit in the movie perfectly and only enhance the audiences enjoyment in the film.

The film's director was Ray Patterson, who had worked as an animator for William Hanna and Joseph Barbera since the days of Tom and Jerry. He became one of the first non-William Hanna and non-Joseph Barbera directors for Hanna-Barbera cartoons. He directed many other made for TV movies for the studio, and even the theatrical feature GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords. Nearly all of the already existing characters were voiced by their original voice artists Daws Butler and Don Messick.

This film is fantastic. The characters are very lovable. The writing (by Willie Gilbert) is great. The humor is quite good. However it does have faults. For instance The villains are not that interesting, and feel like they have been done before too often. However the rest of the film is so good that any problem won't get in the way of you enjoying the movie a lot. Overall this is an excellent film and a Christmas tradition for me.

Well this is it for this season of Michael's Christmas Movie Guide, but I still have many more Christmas movies to write about (including many more really good ones), so wait to see more next Christmas season. Thank you for reading and hope you join me next Christmas season.

-Michael J. Ruhland

A Flinstones Christmas (1977)

This is a charming little film. The characters are just as likable as ever and it is always great to see The Flintstones again. This movie also has a nice, warm Christmasy feeling to it. On the downside this film does lack the amount of laughs the TV show had, and the songs come out of nowhere and don't fit in well. Though this may not be the classic that the Christmas episode of the TV show, or A Flintstones Christmas Carol were, it is fun, and that is just what you want from The Flintstones.

The movie's director was Charles A. Nichols. My fellow Disney buffs might reconize his name because he directed a lot of Pluto cartoons. Charles A. Nichols had also worked as the animation director for the original TV show. Mel Blanc and Jean Vander Ply repise there roles as Barney and Wilma. Jean Vander Ply even is still the voice of Pebbles, even though Pebbles is older and can talk now. However Fred and Betty's voices have been taken over by Henry Corden, and Gay Autterson, both would voice the characters many more times in the future. This film even features some of the original Flintstones animators like Ed Barge and Hugh Fraser.

-Michael J. Ruhland

It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

Possibly the greatest Christmas film ever made, and a classic on every level. The Characters and situations are very relatable. The writing directing, and acting, all come together perfectly.  A must watch every Christmas season.

It's A Wonderful Life was the first film to be made for Frank Capra's Liberty Films studio. The original first film for the studio was going to be another Christmas themed movie called It Happened on Fifth Avenue. However Capra fell in love with this story and gave It Happened on Fifth Avenue to the Allied Artists studio and to director Roy Del Ruth.

It's A Wonderful Life started it's life as a short story called The Greatest Gift written by Philip Van Doren Stern. RKO had bought this story in 1944, and showed it to Cary Grant's agent, to turn it into a vehicle for the actor. However they could not come up with a suitable script. So they sold the rights to Liberty Films.

This film was also important because it was the first film Frank Capra directed after WW2. During World War 2, Capra had not been making his usual films. He instead was enlisted by the army, to make films for the army, and these became the classic, Why We Fight series. So the director had been absent from public light for a few years. While other directors who were enlisted in the army such as John Huston, William Wyler, and George Stevens, had begun making films that related to their war experience, Capra's film hardly changed and rarely reflected his war experience.

Capra had trouble casting many of the parts, and went though many people, but for George Baily, he knew the actor had to be Jimmy Stewart from the beginning, and he was right, Stewart was perfect.

Oddly enough when this film came out it lost money at the box office, and received mixed reviews from critics. Not quite the welcome back Capra was expecting. However through various TV showing this film has earned it's rightful place as a classic.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resoures Used
Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide by Leonard Maltin

The Night Before Christmas (1913)

Wladyslaw Starewicz is one of the greatest pioneers of stop motion animation, and one of the most important animation directors (and I'd argue directors of any kind) to come out of Russia. He was also one of the first film makers to prove that animation could be art, and he was a co-director, co-writer, cinematographer, art director and animator on the first feature to be done completely in stop motion animation, The Story of the Fox (Which by the way is a masterpiece). He also directed many of the best stop motion animated short films of all time, such as The Cameraman's Revenge, The Frogs Who Wanted a King, The Mascot, and The Insects Christmas. What is interesting about The Night Before Christmas though is that it is one of the director's very few forays into live action film.

The Night Before Christmas is a very charming film. The humor is spot on the acting is good, and the whole film has a unique charm to it. However this film at a mere 41 minutes (two minutes less and it would have been a short instead of a feature) feels like it should have been longer to flesh out the characters, and story more. The look of the film is more dated than the director's animated films, but it still does feature some amazing animated effects, that are the visual highlight of the film. This is a very good film that despite not being quite up to the standard of his animated work is still well worth watching.

The critics of the time praised this film, some calling it one of the great works of the Russian cinema.

-Michael J. Ruhand

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Excellent, warm, silly Christmas romantic comedy. This film doesn't aspire to be anything more than a fun silly comedy that takes place at Christmas time, but it exceeds extremely well at being just that.

This film was directed by Peter Godfrey, who was a prominent B movie director at Warner Brothers during this period, he would later be a fairly prolific TV director. Peter Godfrey would later direct this movie's leading actress, Barbra Stanwyck, in Cry Wolf, and The Two Mrs. Carolls, but this was the first time they worked together.

Barbra Stanwyck was best known as a serious actress, and today is best remembered for a role she played one year earlier in Billy Wilder's classic film-noir Double Indemnity. However she loved being in comedic films like Christmas in Connecticut. She often felt that doing films like this was a great way to wind down after doing a serious film.

Peter Godfrey became good friends with two of the movie's stars, Barbra Stanwyck and Sidney Greenstreet. Godfrey and Greenstreet were said to keep the rest of the cast in crew and hysterics, between shooting the film.

The film was rightfully beloved at the time it was released, and remains a classic with classic movie fans. This is a great watch that I really recommend.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/611/Christmas-in-Connecticut/articles.html

A Christmas Carol (1951)

There have been many, many film versions of A Christmas Carol, but this 1951 version may be the best one. One of the main reasons for this is Alistair Sim's excellent performance as Scrooge, but there are many more reasons to recommend this great movie including the rest of the cast. Brain Desmond Hurst is the perfect director for this film. The look of this film is perfect as well, and it is hard to imagine this film with out the work of Art Director, Ralph W. Brinton and Cinematographer, C.M. Pennington-Richards. Everything comes together to make this a classic, and probably the best film version of A Christmas Carol.

Much of the art direction was heavily based off of John Leech's original illustration for the book. According to the audio commentary on the DVD version, one of Charles Dickens's Grand Daughters visited the set, and said it looked just the the book installations to life (Another visitor mentioned was one of my favorite actresses, Bette Davis, who was a big fan of Alistair Sim)

This film has two titles in Britain, where it was made, it was called Scrooge, however in the U.S. it was called A Christmas Carol. It's U.S. Premiere was meant to take place at New York's Radio City Music Hall at Christmas time, however the theater management was not happy with the film as they felt it was too dark and grim, and therefore not good entertainment for a family audience. The much more lighthearted 1938 MGM version did premiere there by the way.The film's actual U.S. Premiere was at the  Guild Theater on Halloween Night. It did not do very well in the U.S., but was a huge hit in it's home country of Britain. Despite this it would still as the years went by grow into being considered a classic in the U.S. as well.

The editor for this film was Clive Donner, who would later direct the 1984 film version of A Christmas Carol, that starred George C. Scott. Two of the actors in this film, Alistair Sim and Michael Hordern would reprise their roles as Scrooge and Marley for the 1971 animated version, directed by Richard Williams (best remembered as the animation director for Who Framed Roger Rabbit).

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/70899/A-Christmas-Carol/articles.html
DVD audio commentary by Marcus Hearn and George Cole
DVD introduction by Leonard Maltin