In the spirit of the season... here's the 10 movies that i would use to make up a holiday film-festival. see if you can pick up on around when (as far as i'm concerned) hollywood lost the touch for making GOOD christmas movies. NB: you will NOT find jingle all the way... scrooged... deck the halls... any of the santa clauses... home alone... santa claus: the movie (despite my love for lithgow)... prancer... bad santa... 8 crazy nights... christmas vacation... or any of the remakes of any of the movies on the list, including the remake that's in theatres soon...
ready? here we go. in chronological order

1. a christmas carol (1938, dir: edwin l marin)
surprised? you shouldn't be. this is near-universally accepted as THE great christmas movie. the story has been retold dozens of times (scrooged, the muppet christmas carol) & the musical remake (scrooge, 1951) may be the best of them... but reginald owen & a cast of studio stalwarts hold the lead as the best of 'em. it's a story that just shouldn't be told in colour, i guess.
2. christmas in july (1940, dir: preston sturges)
not a christmas movie at all... but it's got christmas in the title & i haven't been able to get a preton sturges movie onto any of my lists yet. besides, have you ever TRIED to come up with TEN great christmas movies? this is an hilarious screwball comedy w/ dick powell leading the way as an office schmuck who thinks he's won a lottery. nothing to do with christmas... but that's fine too.
3. it's a wonderful life (1946, dir: frank capra)
4. the bishop's wife (1947, dir: henry koster)
5. miracle on 34th st (1947, dir: george seaton)
with the end of wwii, hollywood kicked its dream factory into hyperdrive. & for a few years, xmases were met with magical fantasies of angels coming to earth at christmas time to fix the problems of good people fighting for survival in a world gone mad. jimmy stewart's classic you all should know. miracle on 34th st (remade recently w/ that little girl that i wanted dead at the time) is a classic tale of santa claus as a real person... but the bishop's wife... cary grant & david niven playing roles that were each originally written for the other (grant suggested he & niven switch roles, & it's impossible to imagine the movie being as good had HE played the bishop & niven played the angel). i haven't seen the remake (the preacher's wife), but i don't watch whitney houston OR denzel washington movies, so yer on yer own... you'll need a tolerance for post-war saccharine, but these three should be required viewing at this time of year. this year (f'rinstance) marks the 23rd consecutive xmas-time that i've watched "it's a wonderful life". & seeing jimmy stewart running down the street shouting hello to all the buildings still chokes me up a little.
this marks the end of hollywood's ability to make GREAT xmas movies. the next five (& i swear to GOD this wasn't on purpose) deal with the dark side of xmas. after the 1950s... hollywood tries dozens of times every year to recapture the glory of pre-1950 & just can't. just can't.
6. santa claus conquers the martians (1964, dir: nicholas webster)
oh... my... god... if yer a fan of terrible movies... if you own more than one ed wood movie... if the idea of a movie that MIGHT be the worst sci-fi movie ever made tickles yer fancy... then this little gem is right up your alley. martians kidnap santa because their children have been watching christmas programs on tv & are sad because they don't have christmas... oh, you think THAT sounds good? you should see the REST of the movie!!
7. how the grinch stole christmas (1966, dir: chuck jones)
this is NOT the jim carrey remake (ron howard should be SHOT... although my issues with howard long precede that abomination). HEY PEANUTS FANS: feel free to replace one or t'other of movies #6-7 w/ 1965's "charlie brown christmas". anyways, for me... this is the highlight of my annual xmas tradition. dr seuss... chuck jones... boris karloff... little known facts?: the voice of little cindy-lou who (who was no more than two) was provided by june foray, who voiced rocky squirrel... & thurl ravenscroft, who sang "you're a mean one, mr grinch," was best known for providing the voice of tony the tiger (they're grrrrrrrEAT!)
8. black christmas (1975, dir: bob clark)
since the remake is heading into theatres any day now... i'll take this seasonal slasher movie over silent night, deadly night... or you better watch out (both from the 1980s). a canadian production (starring margot kidder & andrea martin), this is a good 'n scary little movie, with just enough holiday sickness to go 'round. (seriously... the psycho kills his family & makes christmas cookies out of their skin??). it's been many years since i saw it last... & i've just learned that the leading man is keir dullea, who played hero dave in 2001. & that kidder won a "best actress" prize from the canadian film industry for this movie. yep... we're THAT desperate!
9. gremlins (1984, dir: joe dante)
don't feed them after midnight.
10. the nightmare before christmas (1993, dir: tim burton)
burton has acknowledged that the idea for this movie came from the original mr grinch. it's fitting, i suppose, that the last movie on this list is the one which most explicitly demonstrates the dark underbelly of christmas that has made for enjoyable seasonal movies over the last 60 years. why the "serious" holiday movies are so universally painfully unenjoyable is beyond me. but it probably has to do with the general inability of hollywood studios to make enjoyable movies anymore...
happy holidays all. up next: 10 movies that are years (if i can do it...). otherwise i may have to release my 10 remakes a little earlier than anticipated.