Sunday, December 20, 2015


   



Watchingwell      

   Curated classic films





     Barely in time for the holidays, here are some films I recommend that you make a tradition to watch with the family or alone with a box of popcorn and a glass of eggnog. You might have other favorites, but perhaps, there are one or two here that you’ve never seen and might seek out as a result of my recommendation.  In that regard, I will say at the outset that most of the films I write about are the ones that I think most people have not seen, that is, older films.  So that is the reason that this list does not include Home Alone, any of the versions of A Christmas Carol, or the terribly popular, A Christmas Story, which never really spoke to me –sorry.


The top 5:
The Cheaters
1.      The Cheaters 1945  Republic Pictures
This is my go-to holiday film and it was years before it was available on DVD.  I had taped it from a television station with a bad reception, so for many years I really had to suffer to keep up this tradition. Unfortunately, even the DVD is not easy to find. I have one but I also found it on YouTube®.

A shamelessly rich and entirely unlikeable family finds out that they are bankrupt and can only be saved with an inheritance from a distant relative.  Unfortunately, the will has named someone else as the heir and the family will only inherit if she cannot be found.  So they devise a plan to find her first and keep the news of the inheritance a secret. Meanwhile, at the urging of the social-climbing older daughter, they have invited an alcoholic actor who has fallen on hard times to be their ‘charity’ Christmas guest. The guest, played by Joseph Schildkraut, catches on to their plan and even helps them find the real heir, who is also an actress and out of work. Eugene Pallette in the familiar patriarch role is Mr. Pigeon, and Billie Burke plays the always-distracted, Mrs. Pidgeon. This is a good Christmas story with all the right elements – snow, caroling, presents under a tree, and the value of family and friendship.  But what impressed me when I first saw the film as a child was the scene at the mansion where Mrs. Pidgeon is directing the gift-wrapping for the family.  In a large room, an assembly line with many employees is directed by the younger daughter to wrap her presents in a particular color when she is told that the color has already been used.  When she complains, her mother asks why she can’t use a mix of colors.  Her reply that fashionable people use the same color for all their gifts, made me wrap my presents in the same color paper for years.  The witty script by Frances Hyland offers humor and, of course, redemption.  Everyone ends up doing the right thing.  Directed by Joseph Kane.

2.      Remember the Night 1940  Paramount Pictures
This would be number one on my list if I hadn’t seen The Cheaters first when I was at such a young and impressionable age.

Who doesn’t love Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray together? With a script by Preston Sturges?  He’s an assistant district attorney and she’s about to spend Christmas in jail for shoplifting. He agrees to bail and then when she appears to have nowhere to go, takes her to dinner where they find out that they are from the same area of Indiana.  He offers to drive her home on his way to see his own family for the holidays. When that doesn’t work out, he invites her to come home with him and she spends a week with his mother (Beulah Bondi), Aunt Emma (Elizabeth Patterson) and Willie (Sterling Holloway. When I think of the spirit of Christmas that many people complain about losing to consumerism, I think of the scene in this film on Christmas morning where handmade gifts are exchanged, unopened perfume is ‘re-gifted’ so that Lee (Stanwyck) has a present, simple, thoughtful things have been brought from the city.  It doesn’t seem terribly important what the gifts are, it’s the giving that counts and being together.  Lee’s tough exterior softens in this loving environment and she and John begin to fall in love.  Naturally, there are problems.  His mother convinces Lee that she would ruin his legal career, so Lee doesn’t let John throw it all away by letting her escape to Canada.  He tries to botch the prosecution, so she pleads guilty to save him.  She goes to prison and he promises to wait. Directed by Mitchell Leisen

 3. Christmas in Connecticut 1945 Warner Bros.
Yes, another Barbara Stanwyck film, this time it’s Connecticut where the romance happens with Christmas as a backdrop.  It’s a lighthearted comedy with Stanwyck playing a writer of a very popular column on food and the domestic arts, the Martha Stewart of her day.  The magazine she writes for, is owned by Alexander Yardley, played by Sidney Greenstreet, who decides it would be excellent publicity to invite a wounded sailor to spend Christmas with his star columnist, Elizabeth Lane (Stanwyck) on her farm in Connecticut.  This presents a slight problem for Elizabeth because she neither lives on a farm nor does she know much about cooking.  All her recipes come from her friend, the restaurant chef, played by S.Z. Sakall.  She is not married, either, but, her architect fiancĂ©e does have a home in Connecticut, and Elizabeth really needs the job, and so the deception begins.  It gets even trickier when Yardley decides to invite himself as well, and the sailor, played by Dennis Morgan, is attracted to Elizabeth and she to him.  In the end, romance wins over employment concerns.  Ah, Hollywood.   Directed by Peter Godfrey.

.      I’ll Be Seeing You 1944 Selznick International

For those who find a more poignant story uplifting for the season, this little known film starring Joseph Cotten and Ginger Rogers should fill the bill. Two people meet by chance on their way to the small town where the Rogers character is visiting her family.  She is on a furlough from prison and the Cotten character is on leave from a military hospital where he is recovering from physical and psychological wounds. Sensing a kindred spirit, perhaps each other’s fragility, they are drawn to each other.  The aunt, played by Spring Byington, and the Uncle, played by Tom Tully, with a significant role as the cousin, an adolescent Shirley Temple, all welcome the serviceman, Zachary Morgan into their home for Christmas dinner, even though knowing the secret of the Rogers character (Mary), keeps everyone in the family on edge.  But the real affection they have for their niece and the firm belief that they are doing what’s right give the story just the right amount of warmth without being too syrupy.  Mary and Zachary spend the week together and finish the holiday by attending a dance with the family on New Year’s Eve.   When Cousin Barbara, who has been reluctant to make friends with Mary inadvertently spills the beans, she is genuinely horrified at what she had done and is able to feel empathy for Mary for the first time. It ends rather realistically, but not sadly. Directed by William Dieterle.

5. Desk Set 1957 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Yes, I do watch some films in color. One of my very favorite movies from childhood, it was the penultimate film pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn.  I must admit that the setting of this film drew me in even if nothing else appealed.  It takes place in the research library of a television network during one Christmas season.  A staff of four women, led by Hepburn, answers any and all questions from network employees that come up in the course of producing television shows.   These women have reference materials, books, and newspapers on two floors, but all but the newest member of the staff, have much of it in their heads, and, if not, know exactly where it can be found.  These are bright and well-educated women doing a valuable job and Hepburn’s character, Bunny, even has a boyfriend who is an executive with the network.  Life was good.  And, of course, it doesn’t last. Tracy plays a man with a computer, the size of Univac (we would call him an IT guy today), and a plan to digitalize the network.  Everyone in research is aghast, thinking that they will be replaced by a machine, and they set out to show that it can’t be done.  Critics don’t generally rate this as one of the best Hepburn-Tracy films.  Looking at it from today, it is hopelessly outdated, but this shouldn’t be held against it. It is a very light comedy that doesn’t require much more of Hepburn and Tracy than to play themselves, which they do entertainingly, although some thought at the time that they were a little too old for romantic leads (ageists, obviously). The script may not have been sparkling in its wit, but I liked the relationship that the women in the department had and that the women were competent in their jobs.  Ironically, the computer was the enemy in Desk Set, when it ultimately became synonymous with information.  Who could have known in 1957? Directed by Walter Lang.

By the way, just like everyone else, I enjoy Miracle on 34th Street, directed by George Seaton, and I always love the part when they bring the bags of mail into the courtroom, It’s a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra, because although we’ve seen this way too many times, the message is pretty profound (If you can imagine that a world in which you never existed would be pretty much the same, you’d better change your life while you still have the chance), Holiday Inn, directed by Mark Sandrich, worth watching just to hear Bing Crosby sing “White Christmas”, and Meet Me In St. Louis, directed by Vincente Minelli, for the same reason, if only to hear Judy Garland sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, but it’s a lovely film.

For the New Year’s mood, I recommend After the Thin Man, directed by W.S. Van Dyke, the second of the series, with William Powell and Myrna Loy solving a mystery while celebrating New Year’s Eve, Swing Time, directed by George Stevens, -- there’s something festive about watching Astaire and Rogers in any of the great dance musicals of the thirties, and Bachelor Mother, directed by Garson Kanin, another with Ginger Rogers, this time with David Niven on a New Year’s date.