Christmas movies and TV episodes (1 Viewer)

[cajunhillbilly]

A Christmas Story is one of my favorites. I even liked the sequel, of sorts, called My Summer Story aka It Runs in the Family. Yesterday I happened across information about a 2012 film called A Christmas Story 2.

Anyone ever heard of that before? I haven't. The only name associated with it that I've heard of is Daniel Stern. Ralphie is a teenager in this one. I don't know if it was in theaters, on TV or direct to video. Just because, I might try to find it somewhere to watch it.

I have it on dvd. While not as good as the original, it was a funny Christmas movie

 

[Jack P]

Christmas In Connecticut (1945)
Star In The Night (1945 short included as bonus on Christmas In Connecticut DVD)
Happy Days-S2
Father Dowling Mysteries-S3 (I can't believe I'd overlooked this one before. It was a nice "new" discovery).

 

[davidmatychuk]

A Christmas Story is one of my favorites. I even liked the sequel, of sorts, called My Summer Story aka It Runs in the Family. Yesterday I happened across information about a 2012 film called A Christmas Story 2.

Anyone ever heard of that before? I haven't. The only name associated with it that I've heard of is Daniel Stern. Ralphie is a teenager in this one. I don't know if it was in theaters, on TV or direct to video. Just because, I might try to find it somewhere to watch it.

It was filmed here in Vancouver. One of my best friends was a production assistant on it. It was made to go direct to video, when Warner Premiere was a company that Warner Bros. had set up to do such things. And on the day in 2012 when I first saw a copy of the Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital Copy on the shelf at a local Wal-Mart, I reached out to pick it up and the power in the building went out, and then security ushered everyone out. I took it as a sign, but I did return a few days later to buy it. The movie is sort of a horrible abomination, but it was a sweet payday for my buddy, and the art direction and costumes are certainly worth a look or three. Watch it with the sound off?

Finally, my friend also worked on "Jingle All The Way 2", which is a sequel that you really don't want to know about, and I couldn't have been more thrilled. To illustrate my enthusiasm, here's a new teaser poster for the Christmas concerts I do every year:

If you're in Vancouver this Christmas season, showing this post will get you in for free! I'm hoping to see any or all of my HTF pals there!

 

[davidmatychuk]

Christmas In Connecticut (1945)
Star In The Night (1945 short included as bonus on Christmas In Connecticut DVD)
Happy Days-S2
Father Dowling Mysteries-S3 (I can't believe I'd overlooked this one before. It was a nice "new" discovery).

That "Star In The Night" is outstanding.

 

[MartinP.]

That "Star In The Night" is outstanding.

When AMPAS was showing all of their Best Picture winners for their 75th Anniversary, early 2000's?, they would show an animated and live action short that won the Oscar that year as well, so I got to see Going My Way and Star in the Night in a theater! (FYI: The animated short shown was the Tom & Jerry winner titled "Quiet Please!")

 

[MartinP.]

I have it [A Christmas Story 2] on dvd. While not as good as the original, it was a funny Christmas movie

Thank you...and David, too, for the information. I am going to get a NetFlix rental of it!

 

[MartinP.]

--A Christmas Story 2

Well, faster than I ever expected, I received A Christmas Story 2 from NetFlix and I watched it last night already!

Let's say that if this had been with the same cast and crews a few years later, it would have been delightful. It was decent enough for my own personal tastes. At times you just felt like you were getting a substitute for the real thing. You could accept different actors in the older role parts, but the announcer is what I didn't like most of the time. It sounded like he was trying to imitate the original narrator and it was just kind of noticeable; didn't sound right.

The actor who plays Ralphie, Braeden Lemasters, is mostly good as an older Ralphie, perhaps a bit too goofy at times, but I always kept having the feeling that his hair was not really blond and they had to color it. (Same thing with the actor who plays Archie on Riverdale; his hair doesn't seem right because he isn't really a redhead.) Sure enough, I looked up Braeden Lemasters just now and his hair is as dark as night.

I liked all the period aspects of the story, though, and I did genuinely laugh out loud a few times. I enjoyed the references to a few things from the original film. It's source material still rang true seeing as how it's based on the same book and characters. It's probable that if this was written as another family and done that way, it would've come off as it's own and been more satisfying. (Yes, you'd have to eliminate the references to the first one, but that could be done.) When you watch it you can't help but keep comparing or thinking about the other one and that's not really helpful.

Bottom line, though, speaking for myself, I'm glad I watched it and enjoyed it enough.

 

[MartinP.]

Speaking of A Christmas Story, is anyone going to watch A Christmas Story Live on Fox this month? I've seen someone's copy of a Broadway performance of the musical, and it was pretty good. I'm going to watch, though I don't think we usually get these things LIVE on the West Coast.

 

[Eric Vedowski]

We watch the classics every year but every year I also look for something I've never seen-I troll the internet for lists of 'off the beaten path' and 'not really a Christmas movie but it's set at Christmastime' or 'Best Christmas Action Movies' movies-(film noir, crime, foreign, action and not the usual horror), etc. Here's the list I recently compiled. I haven't seen all these movies-as I mentioned I culled many of these titles from the internet. I'm working my way through the movies I can get from my local library. I would love any suggestions or additions you all might have.
Action
Batman Returns (1992)
Behind Enemy Lines (2001)
Die Hard (1988) Die Hard II (1990)
Enemy of the State (1998)
First Blood (1982) I didn't remember that it takes place at Christmas-it's on AMC December 7th & 8th-check your local schedules.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
The Last Boy Scout (1991)
Lethal Weapon (1987)
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Red (2010)
Red Dawn (1984)
Reindeer Games (2000)
Ronin (1998)
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
12 Monkeys (1995)
Crime/Film Noir
Backfire (1950)
Beware, My Lovely (1952)
Blast of Silence (1961) If you're a Baby Boomer from the New York City area you should definitely watch this.
Christmas Holiday (1944)
Cover Up (1949)
Crime Wave (1953)
D.O.A. (1989)
Eastern Promises (2007)
Go (1999)
Hard Eight (1996)
I, the Jury (1953)
The Ice Harvest (2005) Love this movie.
In Bruges (2008)
Inside Job (1946)
Kiss of Death (1947)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Lady in the Lake (1947)
The Man I Love (1946)
'R Xmas (2001)
The Reckless Moment (1949)
Repeat Peformance (1946)
Roadblock (1951)
The Silent Partner (1978) This is a good one if you haven't seen it, The final Canadian Film Awards Best Picture.
They Live by Night (1948)
Foreign
Brazil (England 1985)
Le Monte-Charge (aka Paris Pick-up) (France 1962) Crime/Noir
Duex hommes dans Manhattan (aka Two Men in Manhattan) (France 1959)
Horror
American Psycho (2000)
Black Christmas (aka Silent Night, Evil Night) (1974)
The Box (2009) (This was claptrap and not at all Christmas-y)
Christmas Evil (aka You Better Watch Out) (1980)
El día de la bestia (aka Day of the Beast) (Spain 1995) Only available in a Spanish language DVD with no subtitles.
Gremlins (1984) Obvious for many but I've never seen it.
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (Finland 2011)
Santa's Slay (2005)
Tales From the Crypt (1972)
So far we've watched "Rare Exports: A Christmas Fable" (Finland 2011) If you like dark humor (we do at our house) you would probably enjoy it. The Finnish Father Christmas can be evil. Inspired by a short that can be seen here-
Next up-Ida Lupino in "The Man I Love" and Paul Thomas Anderson's "Hard Eight."
For the record my all time favorite Christmas movies are "Miracle on 34th Street" and the 1951 "A Christmas Carol." The one Christmas short I would love to see in a cleaned up version is this-
Merry Christmas!

 

[MartinP.]

^^^

ODDS & ENDS

You have Action, Crime/Film Noir, Foreign and Horror...are you eliminating Comedy, Drama and Musicals or War movies?

Off the beaten path would apply to two titles I recently mentioned in a post, On Valentine's Day and In the Good Old Summertime. One is a Drama and the other an MGM Musical. I'd include Fanny & Alexander in Foreign films.

Comedy: Trading Places, Comfort & Joy (1984), The Hudsucker Proxy, Mixed Nuts
Drama: Most of The Apartment takes place at Christmas through New Year's, Meet John Doe
Crime/Comedy: The Ref
Horror: The Conjuring 2
War movie: A Midnight Clear
War movie/Foreign: Joyeux Noel

Do you also have a section for movies with great Christmas "scenes," like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or Desk Set or Babe
or Auntie Mame, or Mame or 101 Dalmatians?

I didn't get a chance to read this article, but I just saw it:

13 of the weirdest Christmas movies ever made

(A few of them you [and I] have mentioned.)

Rare Exports (2010)
Santa Claus vs Cupid (1915)
Maniac Cop 2 (1990)
Surviving Christmas (2004)
Santa's Slay (2005)
3 Godfathers (1948)
Comfort and Joy (1984)
Friday After Next (2002)
Santa with Muscles (1996)
The Hebrew Hammer (2003)
Mixed Nuts (1994)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972)

Some more I have not looked into yet:

Magic Christmas Tree
Santa Claus Vs. the Devil
Barbie in A Christmas Carol
A Cosmic Christmas
The Box
The Store (a documentary)
Santa Claus (Mexico)
A Christmas Tale (France)
Black Nativity (Musical)
The Ice Harvest
All is Bright (Crime)

 

[Jack P]

Two more items. Back in the mid-90s Nick at Nite aired two vintage Christmas variety shows and that was the first time I ever had a chance to see these kind of programs. Pretty soon I'll be as many years removed from the recordings as the specials were when they were replayed!

1963-Judy Garland Show Christmas program. (Where Judy flubs the lyric to "Christmas Song" even with Mel sitting next to her at the piano)

1970-Andy Williams Show Christmas program. (This one is a little more bizarre frankly. I had never seen any of Andy's shows at the time I recorded this so only now do I finally get the reference to the "cookie" bit early on, since the bear does not appear in this program. If I'm not mistaken he and Claudine had already separated at this point which I'm sure was surreal then and of course what Claudine did later makes it even more surreal. There is a much too long sketch with Captain Kangaroo and John Astin that mostly lands with a thud and offers a reminder to me how variety shows that starred singers needed to be more about music and less about comedy)

 

[AndrewCrossett]

The Christmas That Almost Wasn't is a weird one, too.

 

[Charles Ellis]

An Oscar-winning drama about a Christmas family reunion, only this takes place in 1183 and the family is the Plantagenet clan, the ruling family of England and a good deal of France! A film I highly recommend: The Lion in Winter starring Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Anthony Hopkins, and Timothy Dalton.

 

[MartinP.]

An Oscar-winning drama about a Christmas family reunion, only this takes place in 1183 and the family is the Plantagenet clan, the ruling family of England and a good deal of France! A film I highly recommend: The Lion in Winter starring Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, Anthony Hopkins, and Timothy Dalton.

I don't know why I didn't think of this. I totally agree with you. I love this film.

 

[MartinP.]

The Christmas That Almost Wasn't is a weird one, too.

For several years a friend of mine kept telling me about this one and I couldn't find anything out about it and thought he was crazy. Then one year he surprised me with the soundtrack CD of it he recorded from somewhere. And, yes, it is a weird one.

 

[Jack P]

Moonlighting-S2
Moonlighting-S3 (Any self-respecting fan of this show should treat this as the true "last episode")

 

[Eric Vedowski]

^^^

ODDS & ENDS

You have Action, Crime/Film Noir, Foreign and Horror...are you eliminating Comedy, Drama and Musicals or War movies?

Off the beaten path would apply to two titles I recently mentioned in a post, On Valentine's Day and In the Good Old Summertime. One is a Drama and the other an MGM Musical. I'd include Fanny & Alexander in Foreign films.

Comedy: Trading Places, Comfort & Joy (1984), The Hudsucker Proxy, Mixed Nuts
Drama: Most of The Apartment takes place at Christmas through New Year's, Meet John Doe
Crime/Comedy: The Ref
Horror: The Conjuring 2
War movie: A Midnight Clear
War movie/Foreign: Joyeux Noel

Do you also have a section for movies with great Christmas "scenes," like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or Desk Set or Babe
or Auntie Mame, or Mame or 101 Dalmatians?

I didn't get a chance to read this article, but I just saw it:

13 of the weirdest Christmas movies ever made

(A few of them you [and I] have mentioned.)

Rare Exports (2010)
Santa Claus vs Cupid (1915)
Maniac Cop 2 (1990)
Surviving Christmas (2004)
Santa's Slay (2005)
3 Godfathers (1948)
Comfort and Joy (1984)
Friday After Next (2002)
Santa with Muscles (1996)
The Hebrew Hammer (2003)
Mixed Nuts (1994)
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)
Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972)

Some more I have not looked into yet:

Magic Christmas Tree
Santa Claus Vs. the Devil
Barbie in A Christmas Carol
A Cosmic Christmas
The Box
The Store (a documentary)
Santa Claus (Mexico)
A Christmas Tale (France)
Black Nativity (Musical)
The Ice Harvest
All is Bright (Crime)

Thanks for this list. Some I was aware of but many of these are new to me. I have most of the comedies and musicals on DVD already but there is a lot on this list to keep me busy. Thanks!

 

[Eric Vedowski]

Two more items. Back in the mid-90s Nick at Nite aired two vintage Christmas variety shows and that was the first time I ever had a chance to see these kind of programs. Pretty soon I'll be as many years removed from the recordings as the specials were when they were replayed!

1963-Judy Garland Show Christmas program. (Where Judy flubs the lyric to "Christmas Song" even with Mel sitting next to her at the piano)

1970-Andy Williams Show Christmas program. (This one is a little more bizarre frankly. I had never seen any of Andy's shows at the time I recorded this so only now do I finally get the reference to the "cookie" bit early on, since the bear does not appear in this program. If I'm not mistaken he and Claudine had already separated at this point which I'm sure was surreal then and of course what Claudine did later makes it even more surreal. There is a much too long sketch with Captain Kangaroo and John Astin that mostly lands with a thud and offers a reminder to me how variety shows that starred singers needed to be more about music and less about comedy)

The GetTV channel is running the Judy Garland show this month in addition to a whole bunch of other stuff, including a Andy Williams show but not sure what year it's from. Go here and click on the link in the upper left hand side for a complete list-
https://www.get.tv/schedule/ct
I see the Garland show most every year, originally I recorded it off the short lived TV show that drew from the archives of the Paley Center TV Museum-that was a great show but it didn't last long. I love that bit with Garland muffing the lyrics (Tormé: "Close.")
What I would like to see again are "The Man in the Santa Claus Suit" with Astaire and "Christmas Eve" with Loretta Young. All these channels and so much that could be dusted off. The Movies! channel runs "Come to the Stable" frequently but never in December. Once again it's off to the library, no "Lemon Drop Kid" on broadcast TV this year either as far as I can tell. "Miracle on 34th St." marathon tomorrow on the Sundance channel-all the promos are the colorized version. AMC used to alternate between B/W then colorized when they did their marathon. I will also watch "A Christmas Story" at some point. I grew up in the same area Jean Shepard did and even though they filmed it elsewhere it looks just like it should. I even remember the Chinese restaurant where Shepard's family ended up. Enough of my rambling. I'm listening to Jack Benny Christmas radio shows today. He was the BEST.

 

[MartinP.]

Enough of my rambling. I'm listening to Jack Benny Christmas radio shows today. He was the BEST.

Rambling or not...I like it!

I recently watched The Jack Benny Program Christmas episode titled "Christmas Shopping."
It's quite hysterical with Jack trying to buy presents for all his staff and friends, but his frugality
causes some clerks to be driven to distraction! All his regular players have nice moments.

 

[MartinP.]

--Cher

A 1975 (I think) holiday Christmas episode of the Cher show. Get-TV aired it last year, but a friend gave me a copy of it as I hadn't seen it. Guests were, Chastity, the Hudson Brothers, the Lennon SIsters and Redd Foxx. I thought it quite good. Sonny & Cher, or Cher solo, never did a Christmas album, so it was nice to hear Cher sing some holiday tunes.