Christmas movies and TV episodes (1 Viewer)

[cajunhillbilly]

well just watched the new musical "A Christmas Story Live" It was a nice twist on the classic story

 

[Jeff Flugel]

The wife and I watched "Murder Under the Mistletoe," the climactic episode of season 2 of The Miss Fisher Mysteries. It's a lushly produced Australian series about a 1920s-era wealthy socialite who, with her extended "family" of pals, employees and hangers-on, helps an inspector investigate murders. It's a fun series with sometime quite clever Golden Age-style mystery plots. The lead actress, Essie Davis, is striking and I like the actor who plays the inspector. The series features lots of interesting tidbits and details about life in Melbourne in that period. This episode, though loaded with Christmas trappings, gets pretty dark thematically and features a high body count, ala Ten Little Indians, and a truly heinous, cold-blooded killer.

Also checked out 1.14 "The Child" from The Restless Gun. Kind of a strange episode, but pretty interesting, especially for its guest cast, including a pre-Bonanza Dan Blocker as the mute giant "El Bruto," Anthony Caruso as a sympathetic priest, and good old James Gleason as an Irish padre with a knack for dealing with orphaned children. I'm a big fan of the late-period OTR series "The Six-Shooter" starring James Stewart, which apparently was the model for this TV series. Though he ain't no Jimmy Stewart, I like John Payne just fine. Will try and check more of this series out.

 

[Jack P]

And a Merry Christmas to all! I have in the last couple days taken care of my "best for last" with "Wagon Train", HGWT, Dragnet and of course S1 "Dr. Kildare". Before turning in, the old Christmas Eve Tonight Show "Christmas With Friends" special which aired every year from 1984 to 1991 is my last item. There'll be a couple other random things tomorrow night in the special category.

 

[Jeff Flugel]

Merry Christmas to you, too, Jack, and to all my fellow HTFers!

All I've watched Christmas TV-wise over the past few days is another episode of The Box of Delights, but I hope to get a few more things viewed before the holiday ends.

 

[John*Wells]

When a movie is Colorized Miracle on 34th Street (1947) for example, Does the Colorization process match up the actual Color of clothing, homes buildings?

 

[MartinP.]

They don't even match up when they film "now." I was lookjing at behind the scenes footage of a recent film and what you see there wasn't what you saw in the released film, which was dark and monochromatic.

 

[Rick Thompson]

My final sequence of Christmas watching is:
Dec. 22 -- Miracle on 34th Street (orig.)
Dec. 23 -- The Muppet Christmas Carol
Dec. 24 -- The Nativity Story (Keisha Castle-Hughes and Oscar Isaac, directed by Catherine "Twilight" Hardwicke)
Dec. 25 -- After all the dinner has been eaten, the presents are opened and the family is gone, two half-hour Christmas episodes: "Santa '85" from Amazing Stories and "No Room at the Inn" from Newhart.

 

[Malcolm R]

I've been getting caught up on Mrs. Brown's Boys' Christmas Specials (British sitcom). Also managed to watch Santa Claus: The Movie (Dudley Moore, John Lithgow), Better Watch Out (Olivia deJonge, Levi Miller), The Christmas Chronicles (Kurt Russell) and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (in 3D!). Hoping to catch a couple more movies before month's end. I usually watch A Muppet Christmas Carol every year, but haven't watched it yet this year.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The sequel to Netflix's surprise hit The Christmas Chronicles is in production for a December 2020 debut. Real life couple Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn are returning as Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus respectively.

Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) is directing, from a script he co-wrote with the original movie's screenwriter, Matt Lieberman.

Also returning, per Entertainment Weekly:

• Darby Camp as Kate Pierce, the young heroine of the first movie "who is unexpectedly reunited with Santa".
• Judah Lewis as Teddy Pierce, Kate's older brother.
• Kimberly Williams Paisley as Claire, Kate and Teddy's mother.

New casting:

• Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople) as Belsnickel, "a mysterious, magical troublemaker" who "threatens to destroy Christmas."
• Jahzir Bruno ("The Oath") as Jack

EDIT: Updated reference per Nick's post below.

 

[Nick*Z]

Just a small footnote here - Russell and Hawn are not 'real life' marrieds. They never married and, in fact, made a joke of their enduring (non)union at the 1989 annual Oscar telecast (link provided below).

 

[John*Wells]

I have watched Miracle on 34th Street 1947 this year. Now that Fox is owned by Disney, I hope there will be DVD release of the 1973 remake

 

[usrunnr]

We're partial to "HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS" around here, with Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Robert Downeyt Jr., et. al. Watch it at least once a year and send it out to various friends and relatives at the holidays.