Favorite Christmas Movies and favorite Christmas cartoons

by James K. Sayre

5 January 2005

Everyone has their favorite Christmas season movies (except for scrooges and grinches, of course), and since we have just zoomed through another Christmas season, I became inspired enough to post my own favorites:

1930s black-and-white movie:

A Christmas Carol (the transformation of Ebezener Scrooge) 1938 Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhardt. The original and probably the best movie version of the famous story by Charles Dickens.

1930s color cartoons:

Jack Frost 1934 produced by Famous Studios

Somewhere in Dreamland 1936 by Fleischer Studios

Christmas comes but once a Year 1936 by Fleischer Studios and featured Betty Boop.

Christmas Night 1938

1940s color cartoons:

Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer 1941

Hector's Hectic Life 1948

Snow Foolin' 1949

1940s black-and-white movies:

The Man Who Came to Dinner 1941 Monty Woolly, Bette Davis, Jimmy Durante, Ann Sheridan and Reginald Gardiner. This satire usually not mentioned in lists of Christmas movies. However, it does include Christmas and Monty Woolly gives his usual brilliant performance and the others all chime in.

Holiday Inn 1942 Bing Crosby, Fred Astire, Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale. Ah, if life itself and earning a living were only so easy as setting up a "Holiday Inn" and working only twelve or so weekends a year.

Going My Way 1944 Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh. Bing is unbelievably, a Roman Catholic priest in this charming story (this picture thus showed his true acting ability).

Christmas in Connecticut 1946 Barbara Stanwyck, Sydney Greenstreet, S. Z. Sakall, Dennis Morgan, Reginald Gardiner, Robert Shayne. This too-good-to-be-true story starts very slowly with two WWII war heroes and their hospital recovery, but then picks up speed rapidly. (recently colorized).

Miracle on 34th Street 1947 Edmund Gwen, Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood, William Frawley. Edmund Gwen stars as Kris Kringle or Santa Claus. A classic Christmas story that blends fantasy and reality. (recently colorized).

The Bishop's Wife 1947 Cary Grant, David Niven, Loretta Young, Monte Woolley, James Gleason. Cary Grant is an Angel from above who comes to help David Niven build a new church. Catch the great skating scene with Cary, Loretta and James Gleason.

Holiday Affair 1949 Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh, Wendell Corey. A very charming Christmas story with model railroads.

1950s color cartoons:

Gift Wrapped 1952 Tweety and Sylvester - by Warner Brothers

Santa's Surprise 1957

1950s black-and-white movie:

The Lemon Drop Kid 1951 Bob Hope, Marilyn Maxwell, Lloyd Nolan, William Frawley, Fred Clark, Jane Darwell. Classic story of a race-track tout that has to pay up by Christmas...

1950s color movies:

White Christmas 1954 Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Vera-Ellen, Rosemary Clooney. Another White Christmas in a Holiday Inn.

Desk Set 1957 Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Joan Blondell, Gig Young. Smart women vs. a computer: an early version.

Bell, Book & Candle 1958 Kim Novak, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Elsa Lanchester, Hermione Gingold. Kim is her usual bewitching self and James is duly bewitched.

1960s color cartoons:

A Charlie Brown Christmas 1964 animation by cartoonist Charles Schulz, with music by Vince Guaraldi.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas 1966 an animated version of the classic story by Dr. Seuss, (Theodore Seuss Geisel) first published in 1957.

1980s color movie:

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 1989 Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid. All hell (physical and social) breaks loose at the Griswold family Christmas reunion.

1990s color movies:

Home Alone 1990 Macauley Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern. A smart young kid takes on two dumb but masochistically persistant burglers.

Home Alone 2 1992 Macauley Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern. A smart young kid takes on two dumb but persistantly masochistic burglers again, two years later. Same result.

1980s color cartoon:

A Garfield Christmas Special 1987 Garfield the smart, self-centered, fat cat goes with master and dopey dog to visit country relatives. Animation by Jim Davis, the Garfield cartoonist.

1990s television movie:

Silent Mouse 1990 A very charming PBS story of the origin of the Silent Night Christmas carol in a small town in Austria in 1887. Narrated by Lynn Redgrave. Filmed in Austria and Czechoslavia.

end.

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