Welcome to the 836th edition of my series. I decided to do a special holiday release on this one. I hope everyone is having a good holiday however celebrated. This month, I did a full holiday focus which I have not done in the past. I got the idea from my fellow film geeks Harriett and Winslow who had a good list of suggestions. I tried to find selections that at least had some sort of holiday reference.
Scrooged (1988): Richard Donner directed this classic variation of the Charles Dickens classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Bill Murray stars as tv executive Frank Cross who is very selfish and only seems to care about his work and ratings. He is visited by the ghost of his late mentor Lew Hayward, played by John Forsythe, who is obviously our Marley and warns of three ghosts coming to visit him. Karen Allen co-stars as Claire who is Frank's old flame that he lost through his work selfishness. John Glover, Bobcat Goldwait, David Johansen, Carol Kane, Nicholas Phillips, Michel J. Pollard, Alfre Woodard, Mabel King, Jamie Farr, Robert Goulet, Buddy Hackett, John Houseman, Lee Majors, Pat McCormick, Brian Doyle-Murray, Mary Lou Retton, Al Weber, Jean Speegle Howard, Mary Ellen Trainor, Jack McGee, Anne Ramsey, Wendie Malick, Joel Murray, Maria Riva, Miles Davis, Paul Shaffer, and many others co-star or have cameos, some of which as themselves. This is a very popular version of the Dickens classic with Murray perfect for his role. This delivers a lot of laughs while also providing a good message. This also has an underrated music score from Danny Elfman. An interesting thing I read is that Donner wanted everyone to have Christmas Day off and Paramount refused saying they should continue onto Christmas Day so Donner fired everyone and rehired them on December 26th to continue filming. Great holiday classic that still holds up today.
Ernest Saves Christmas (1988): I follow up with another holiday comedy from the same year. John R. Cherry III directed this holiday comedy starring Jim Varney in his iconic role of the bumbling but lovable Ernest P. Worrell. Ernest meets the actual Santa Claus, played by Douglas Seale, who is trying to pass the torch to children's tv show host Joe Carruthers, played by Oliver Clark, to take on the helm of Santa Claus. With the help of runaway teen Harmony, played by Noelle Parker, Ernest looks to save Christmas as we know it. Gailard Sartain, Billie Bird, Robert Lesser, Patty Maloney, and many others co-star in this holiday comedy. For those that enjoy Ernest P. Worrell should really like this movie and this might be the best one. I really have not revisited this character in a long time but was good to see Varney again in his iconic role and his many disguises. I also see what people are seeing about John Cena kind of looking like Ernest, especially in one of Ernest's disguises. This is available to watch on Disney Plus.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020): Here is a horror comedy that takes place around the holidays. Jim Cummings wrote and directed this horror comedy and also stars as Officer John Marshall who while already dealing with a lot of personal issues, has a lot of brutal murders the resemble possible werewolf killings. Riki Lindhome, Robert Forster, Chloe East, Will Madden, Annie Hamilton, Jimmy Tatro, Hannah Elder, Kelsey Edwards, Skyler Bible, Anne Sward, Demetrius Daniels, Kevin Changaris, Chase Palmer, Daniel Fenton Anderson, Rachel Jane Day, Marshall Allman, and many others co-star in this comedy horror movie. This is Forster's last movie which was released over a year after his death. This is a pretty fun entry that combines the gore and the comedy very well.
Festive Season (1958): This is my short film for the week which is technically an episode from the anthology series ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and one that takes place around the holidays. Arthur Hiller directed this episode of the series which starts and ends with an amusing introduction from Hitchcock himself. Edmon Ryan plays family attorney John who visits feuding siblings Celia and Charlie, played by Carmen Matthews and Richard Waring, in hopes he will be able to get them to reconcile. Nothing doing as Charlie is still bitter toward his sister blaming her for his wife's death and plots to kill her. This is not for those looking for some upbeat holidays but it was good to find a holiday episode to put on here. This is available to watch on Peacock along with the rest of the series.
Holiday (1938): George Cukor directed this holiday romantic comedy based on a play by Philip Barry. Cary Grant stars as Johnny Case who is engaged to the wealthy Julia Seton, played by Doris Nolan. As he gets to know her family, he finds that he relates more to Julia's black sheep sister Linda, played by Katherine Hepburn, and her drunken brother Ned, played Lew Ayres. Edward Everett Horton, Henry Kolker, Binnie Barnes, Henry Daniell, and many others co-star in this movie. Just seeing the cover, I think just about everyone can guess where this is going. This does have a good message of money not being everything. This has some really funny moments like a puppet show scene. This a remake of the 1930 movie of the same name but was unable to find a copy so settled for this one. This also takes place around the holidays and was really worth a watch.
Babes in Toyland (1961): Jack Donohue directed this fantasy fairy tale musical based on the musical by Victor Herbert and George Bruns. Annette Funicello stars as Mary Contrary who is about to marry Tom Piper, played by Tommy Sands. Things get complicated when local miser Barnaby, played Ray Bolger, has Tom killed and forces Mary to marry him. Gene Sheldon and Henry Calvin co-star as Rodrigo and Gonzorgo who are hired by Barnaby to drown Tom but have their own ideas that don't involve killing Tom. Ed Wynn, Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran, Mary McCarty, Ann Jillian, and many others co-star in this fairy tale film. Bolger is most known as the Scarecrow in THE WIZARD OF OZ and is nearly unrecognizable in this movie. Wynn is very amusing as Toymaker. This is the first live action musical that Disney Studios released though there is some stop-motion animation involving the soldiers. There are also lots of fun music numbers and is a great blend of iconic fairy tale characters. This is available to watch on Disney Plus.
Love Actually (2003): Richard Curtis wrote and directed this ensemble romantic comedy that happens to take place around the holidays. This looks at multiple tales of love in London England. Some of these stories involve Bill Nighy as an aging rock star, Liam Neeson as a widowed stepfather, Colin Firth going to some pretty extreme measures to win over his housekeeper, Hugh Grant as the British Prime Minister even dealing with love. Lots of different stories and characters that I just can't continue to describe. Laura Linney, Alan Rickman, Gregor Fisher, Sienna Guillory, Emma Thompson, Kris Marshall, Heike Makatsch, Martin Freeman, Joanna Page, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Nina Sosanya, Martine McCutcheon, Rodrigo Santoro, Anthony McPartlin, Declan Donnelly, Elisabeth Margoni, Lucia Moniz, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Parkinson, Rowan Atkinson, Ivana Milicevic, January Jones, Elisha Cuthbert, Claudia Schiffer, Shannon Elizabeth, Denise Richards, and many others co-star in this ensemble romantic comedy. I think my favorite storyline was with Neeson as the widowed father trying to form a bond with his stepson and tries to help him talk to his school crush. This does have some really good and funny stories but is rated R so it is not really a family holiday watch.
3 Godfathers (1948): John Ford directed this western variation of the Three Wise Men. John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, and Harry Carey Jr. star as a trio of outlaws on the run. They end up meeting a dying woman who has just given birth to a baby son and make a promise to care for that child. With this happening, they cannot really escape but they refuse to break a promise to a dying woman. Ward Bond, Mae Marsh, Mildred Natwick, Jane Darwell, Guy Kibbee, Dorothy Ford, Ben Johnson, Charles Halton, Hank Worden, Jack Pennick, and many others co-star in this western. This is a really good variation of the biblical story and a good story of redemption. Bond is really good as the town marshall and I'm still waiting to get a documentary about the character actor Ward Bond.
The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971): Fielder Cook directed this tv movie and I believe this is the start of what would go onto come THE WALTONS. This is a very poor but loving family during the time of the depression. As the family prepare for Christmas, they are concerned that John Walton, played by Andrew Duggan, has not returned home from a job that was out of town. Richard Thomas co-stars as John-Boy who is the oldest of his siblings and aspires to be a writer. Patricia Neal, Edgar Bergen, Ellen Corby, Dorothy Stickney, Josephine Hutchinson, William Windom, Cleavon Little, David Huddleston, Woodrow Parfrey, Jon Walmsley, Judy Norton, Mary Beth McDonough, Eric Scott, David W. Harper, Kami Cotler, and many others co-star in this holiday tv movie. This is a pretty moving holiday movie and a good look at the depression. This would spawn a long running tv series that would go on into the early '80s.
Home Alone 3 (1997): I broke down and decided to finally give this sequel a shot. Raja Gosnell directed this sequel where we have the Pruitt clan instead of the McCallisters and John Hughes continued to write the script. Alex D. Linz stars as the 8 year old Alex Pruitt who receives a remote control car and finds that international spies, played by Olek Krupa, Rya Kihlstedt, Lenny Von Dohlen, and David Thornton, are after a chip that is inside it. Dealing with chicken pox, Alex stays home alone and deals with the spies. Haviland Morris, Kevin Kilner, Marian Seldes, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Curry, James Saito, Richard Hamilton, Krista Lally, Neil Flynn, Pat Healy, and many others co-star in this holiday sequel. A young Johansson has her first feature role as Alex's older sister. The tricks and traps are a little more technological that the first two and thought Alex was a little less sadistic than Kevin McCallister. Pruitt still holds his own though in this different approach to the franchise. It would go onto get mostly bad reviews from the critics excluding Roger Ebert who actually liked this one and gave thumbs down to the first two. This, like the rest of the franchise, is available to watch on Disney Plus.
Well, that is it for this week. Tell me what you like and dislike in this last of my holiday edition. Stay tuned for next week which will be more of a return to normal, at least for me, where so far includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Marlon Brando, Debbie Reynolds, and many others.
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