HIS BROTHER'S WIFE (1936)

Plantations in South America are suffering through epidemics of spotted fever spread by ticks. A respected doctor (Jean Hersholt) and his young playboyish assistant (Robert Taylor) are heading down to the jungles but Hersholt gives Taylor a two-week vacation first. At a casino, Taylor meets Barbara Stanwyck and falls for her. She's a model, but casino boss Joseph Calleia wants to hire her to get wealthy customers to be fleeced at the gambling tables. Taylor and Stanwyck have an intense ten days together, and Taylor decides not to leave with Hersholt. But Taylor has to pay off a large debt to Calliea; Taylor's brother (John Eldredge) agrees to pay it off for him, but insists that he leave for South America. But when Stanwyck finds out what happened, she takes the job with Calleia and uses her earnings to pay Taylor's debt, telling Eldredge. In the jungle, the search for a cure is not progressing well and Taylor goes back to New York at Christmas for a break where he discovers that his brother impulsively married Stanwyck after which she left him and he had a breakdown. Stanwyck admits she loves Taylor and she agrees to follow him back to the jungle and wait for Eldredge to come to his senses and grant her a divorce. Meanwhile, a possible serum for spotted fever needs an experimental subject; after the first subject dies, Taylor decides to use it on himself, but Stanwyck, feeling bad for the problems she feels she's caused, injects herself with spotted fever. Unfortunately, Hersholt is out of serum. Can they produce another batch in time to save Stanwyck?

Melodramas about the romantic entanglements of doctors working on cures for tropical diseases were not uncommon in the early classic era. The most famous is JEZEBEL with Bette Davis (yellow fever in New Orleans), though the first is probably THE SEVENTH VEIL with Greta Garbo (cholera in Hong Kong). Both of those were A-level pictures with big stars. This one has star power (Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor who would get married a few years later) and was made by MGM but feels a little second-rate in writing and production. I've never been a fan of Taylor's—he comes as artificial, like he wants us to know he's trying really hard to act his ass off. This is a problem in the first half, but he becomes more natural in the last half. Stanwyck, who rarely gave a bad performance, is a bit weak here, like she was rushed through her scenes, but she and Taylor have good chemistry, even if it's difficult to accept the soap opera circumstances of the romantic triangle. This is partly because Eldredge is out of his league with the other two—his acting is OK but the character is underwritten and just not believable. There is some nicely witty banter between Stanwyck and Taylor (pictured) early on. Directed competently but drably by W.S. Van Dyke. A hit in its day, it is now a mostly overlooked item in Stanwyck’s canon. [TCM]

TARGETS (1968)

In a studio screening room, the latest horror movie starring the living legend Byron Orlock is running. The response, even from Orlock himself, is tepid and Orlock announces his retirement. Sammy, the film's young director, has a new script he wants Orlock to read and gets drunk in Orlock's hotel room trying to talk him into it. Orlock remains adamant, saying he feels like an anachronism, with the horrors of real life outdoing those on the screen. Even the actor's charming assistant Jenny can't talk him into it. Sammy passes out (and he has a fun reaction to waking up in the morning in bed with Orlock) and the next day, Orlock agrees to attend an in-person publicity event at a drive-in which is showing his new film. In a parallel plotline, we follow young, cleancut Bobby Thompson who lives in suburbia with his wife and parents. We see him buy a lot of guns and ammo and arrive home for dinner. He seems quiet and passive, almost a bit too much so, and the next day, he gets up, calmly shoots his mother and wife dead (and the grocery delivery boy) and heads out to an oil refinery where he sets his guns up and starts randomly shooting at cars on the freeway, killing several people. When cops show up, he leaves and heads to a nearby drive-in theater, the one showing Orlock's movie, and settles in behind the screen, ready to pick up his shooting spree when the movie starts. Meanwhile, Orlock and Jenny arrive at the theater just as the shooting starts and, parked near the screen, are sitting ducks for Bobby's scattershot shooting.

This is a thriller, a piece of social commentary, and a satire all in one, and it’s notable for being the first movie from Peter Bogdanovich, who directs, writes and stars as Sammy. It's also one of the last movies made by Boris Karloff who gently parodies himself as Orlock. The film being unveiled at the drive-in is The Terror, a film Karloff made with Roger Corman a few years earlier, and there is very effective use made of the juxtaposition of Karloff on the big screen and Karloff at the theater. We also see a clip of Karloff in a very early film of his, The Criminal Code, and it's identified as such which permits direct identification of Orlock as Karloff, at least for film buffs. Karloff is subtle and effective, almost but not quite playing himself—he never retired, making at least four more movies after this before his death in 1969. Bogdanovich is also good if a bit artificial at times. The most effective performance comes from Tim O'Kelly (pictured) as Bobby. His steely, blank-faced blandness is scary, and the character never changes—no attempts are made at any kind of psychological explanation for his behavior. From his first appearance at the gun shop, he's single-mindedly preparing for the shootings. He is calm with just a touch of something disturbing behind his eyes. It's a stunning performance, which makes it all the odder that O'Kelly, who mostly did TV work, left acting just two years later. Despite its grim subject matter, most of the scenes focusing on Karloff are fairly light in tone; the violence is graphic but not sensationalized. Bogdanovich went on to direct another thirty movies, but this remains one of his best. [DVD]

IKARIE XB 1 (1963)

This Czech sci-fi film is slow and serious with little action but lots of interesting sets and visuals. It's sometimes claimed that it influenced 2001: A Space Odyssey, but though some of the visuals reminded me of 2001, it's not otherwise much like Kubrick's film. Released in the States in 1964, American International dubbed it into English, retitled it VOYAGE TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE (or ICARUS XB 1), and gave it a twist ending to replace its otherwise fairly bland ending. In the year 2163, Ikarie XB-1, a giant spaceship manned by dozens of people, is sent to Alpha Centauri to explore a "white" planet, one which scientists think could support life as we know it. Their round-trip journey will feel like a couple of years to them but fifteen years will pass on Earth, so many of the passengers are understandably concerned about eventually reuniting with their loved ones. For long stretches, not a lot happens in terms of action or narrative incident, but the 90 minute movie did hold my attention in its presentation of the everyday lives of the passengers: we see them eat, socialize, flirt and even dance. The usual interpersonal conflicts highlighted in space travel movies of the era are present but downplayed. There's even a robot, reminiscent of Robby from FORBIDDEN PLANET. There are two action setpieces which are presented in the same serious, non-exploitative manner of the rest of the film. In the first, a couple of people are sent out to investigate a floating wreck of a ship from the 20th century which contains dead bodies but also unexploded atomic weapons. Near the end, a nearby dark star (what we would think of as a black hole, I guess) affects the behavior of the passengers, causing both deep sleep and, in one man, psychological damage. The ending, though satisfying narratively, is a little anticlimactic, and apparently the English dubbed version, which is about five minutes shorter, makes the ending surprising and a bit ironic. I would like to see the American International cut sometime, but the original (in Czech with English subtitles) is an interesting if low-key sci-fi film. [YouTube] 

POSTMARK FOR DANGER (1955)

In London, Tim Forrester, a commercial artist, and his brother Dave, a charter pilot, room together in a flat that doubles as Tim's studio. Tim is using Jill, an old girlfriend with whom there may still be a spark, as a model for a beer ad, though she is soon to marry the wealthy Henry Carmichael. The Forresters learn that a third brother, Lewis, a journalist, was killed in Milan when his car went crashing off a hillside road. The burned body of actress Alison Ford was also found. The crash is declared an accident but Inspector Colby from Scotland Yard suspects sabotage, as Lewis was in the middle of an investigation of a jewel smuggling ring, headed by a mysterious figure known only as Mr. Nightingale. There may be a clue in a postcard Lewis sent (we don't know to whom) featuring a sketch of a woman's hand holding a bottle of Chianti wine. Alison's grieving father commissions Tim to paint a portrait of the late Alison based on a photograph. Next, in short order, Jill enters Tim's flat while he's out and is later found dead, and Alison turns up alive, also at Tim's place, and defaces his sketch of her. Later she asks Tim for help; her father was part of the smuggling ring but wants out. More suspicious characters pop up and a couple more deaths occur before everything is sorted out.

This noirish B-mystery, with its painting of a dead woman who isn’t really dead, is reminiscent of LAURA, and though the American title does reference an important plotpoint (the postcard), the British title PORTRAIT OF ALISON, is perhaps more effective. It’s a little talky and a bit stagy, with the bulk of the film set in the brothers' flat, but there is one well-staged bit of fisticuffs near the end. The mildly beefy Canadian actor Robert Beatty is perhaps a bit wooden as Tim, but William Sylvester (pictured) picks up the slack as Dave. American starlet Terry Moore (who later married Howard Hughes) is a bit boring as Alison, but better are Josephine Griffin as Jill and Allan Cuthbertson as Henry. The plot is twisty and tricky but never gets too complicated to follow. Some viewers have called this Hitchcockian (the postcard is a perfect MacGuffin; I never quite figured out what the importance of the portrait was) but it's too small-scale for Hitchcock. Still, I got wrapped up in the plot, if not necessarily the characters, and enjoyed it. Fun trivia: Sylvester and Beatty share a scene together in 2001: A Space Odyssey; Sylvester has the important role of Heywood Floyd and Beatty has a one-scene bit as one of the men in the lunar rover with Sylvester waiting for a sandwich. [TCM]

DEADLY DUO (1962)

The wealthy Leonora Spence hires struggling lawyer Preston Morgan for a delicate job. Her son Robby has just died in a car racing accident in Acapulco and she wants custody of her grandson Billy. Robby had squandered his money and his widow, Sabena, was just a common dancer when they got married, and Leonora thinks that she can give the child a better life than Sabena can. Preston will get $50,000 for getting Sabena to accept $500,000 for Billy. The job must be low-key because she wants no publicity. In Acapulco, Preston makes his offer and Sabena, who is a much better mother than Leonora gives her credit for, is not inclined to take it. Even Preston begins to question the offer. But Sabena's twin sister Dara tells Preston to hang around a while because she might change her mind. Dara's husband Jay thinks that Dara and Sabena should revive their twin sister dance act, but Dara has another plan: get rid of Sabena, impersonate her, and take Leonora's offer. The plan is set up, but Manuel, Sabena's loyal servant, threatens to muck things up when he beats up Preston, whom he is suspicious of, and the fight makes headlines. Leonora and her lawyer head down to Acapulco to see what's going on, and all the pieces are in place for a clash of morals, with Preston caught in the middle. This 70-minute second feature got more exposure than the average B-film because it was paired with the very successful DR. NO in second-run houses. It's very much a mild by-the-numbers thriller but it's well produced, looks good, and has at least two solid performances. The handsome vanilla lead, Craig Hill, is quite good as Preston. It's difficult to tell where he'll land on the moral continuum: unaware of Dara's plan, will he keep working for Leonora or will he counsel Sabena to hold her ground? Classic-era character actor Robert Lowery is also good as the slimy Jay. Unfortunately, Marcia Henderson (pictured with Hill) is a bit of a weak link in the dual role of the sisters. She doesn't really give the goody-goody Sabena or the wicked Dara their due. Irene Tedrow is not particularly impressive as Leonora. Between those bland performances, and the movie’s rather antiseptic visual style, there is a lot less tension built up than there should be. Still, taken on the level of a TV-movie, this is enjoyable enough and there's a nice twist near the end that is predictable but satisfying. [YouTube]

ODD MAN OUT (1947)

In a city in Northern Ireland (not named but clearly Belfast), a group of men belonging to an underground political organization (not named but clearly the IRA) are plotting the robbery of a mill office. Johnny McQueen, the gang leader, was imprisoned for illegally supplying weapons to the organization but escaped from prison and has been hiding in a safe house with Kathleen and her grandmother for several months. Other gang members aren't sure that Johnny has it in him to participate, and indeed Johnny himself has become disillusioned by the use of violence, but he insists on going along. The robbery goes off but outside, Johnny has a dizzy spell and is shot and wounded by a security guard whom Johnny then shoots (and, we learn later, kills). The men try to get Johnny in the getaway car but he falls out and drags himself, half-unconscious, to a hideaway in an old air raid shelter. The rest of the (almost real time) film consists of his attempts to get to safety with the help of various folks along the way, and it's these folks who become the focus of the story, with Johnny himself largely out of commission, slowly dragging himself across the nighttime city streets; it's possible to see Johnny as a Christ figure, embraced by some, betrayed by others. Dennis, the first gang member to find Johnny, runs decoy for him and is captured on a crowded bus (in an impressively chaotic scene). When Johnny is grazed by a car in the street, two passing women take him home and discover his wound. When the husband of one of the women arrives, they argue about whether to help him or turn him in, and Johnny slips away into a cab, but the cab driver eventually puts him out on the streets in the rain. By this time, the whole town knows that Johnny is on the run and the police are out in force. A raggedy fellow named Shell finds Johnny, now feverish and slipping in and out of a dream state, and wants to essentially sell him to, first, a priest, and later, whoever will pony up money, even the police. A slightly crazed artist named Lukey, inspired by Johnny's tortured saint look, wants to paint him. Johnny manages to get up on his feet and wanders into a bar where the barkeep hides him in a corner snug until Shell and Lukey show up and start a brawl. As Johnny gets weaker and begins hallucinating, Kathleen, who has decided to pull off a murder/suicide action if she has to, follows his trail through streets, now filling with snow, to a final showdown with police.

Carol Reed directed this film, a political melodrama (which refuses to engage in politics) shot like a film noir, and it's often compared to Reed's better known The Third Man. I've never liked that movie much; this one is difficult to like though easy to admire—the strength of both movies is their compelling look. This is often referred to as the movie that made James Mason (Johnny, pictured) a star, though oddly enough, Mason is reduced to a supporting role for much of the film, either slumped in hiding, or falling in and out of consciousness and barely aware of his surroundings. Mason is very good and he's always in the viewer's thoughts even when he vanishes from the story from time to time. We get good supporting performances from Cyril Cusack and Robert Beatty as fellow gang members, F.J. McCormick as Shell, Robert Newton as Lukey, and Kathleen Ryan as Kathleen. The two-hour movie is slowly paced and I got fidgety at times, but the real draw here is the visual presentation, a city at night full of shadows and rain and desperate faces, and some interesting interiors, especially the bar and Lukey's loft. The rain turns to snow later in the film, and it adds a stark beauty to the nighttime streets. This is one of the few non-Christmas themed movies I can think of where snow is an important element. A title crawl lets us know that, despite being set in a city of political unrest, the movie is concerned only with the "conflict in the hearts of the people" who get involved. Indeed, as in other IRA-themed films like The Informer or Young Cassidy, politics are barely present—this can be viewed simply as a noirish crime movie, and that’s probably how it's best appreciated. [TCM]

CHRISTMAS SHORT TAKES

CHRISTMAS ABOVE THE CLOUDS (2025)

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens remains in print and popular after 180 years, and is adapted every year in books, on TV, and in movies. One reason for its popularity is that everyone knows the basic story and we find it fun to see how the adapters will adjust bits of the story and characters to bring it up to date. This is a solid comedy version with good performances and nice up-to-date changes, though the basics remain: a Scrooge figure, some ghosts, a beleaguered employee, a relative who still has faith in Scrooge, and the sickly Tiny Tim. Here, Scrooge is Ella Neezer, the high-powered head of a successful travel agency who treats her employees like crap, especially her chief assistant Bobbi Cratchit, expecting everyone to work on Christmas Day while she flies first class to Australia for a business meeting. Tiny Tim is single mom Bobbi's son who has life-threatening asthma; the good-natured relative is a sister; Marley is Marlene, Ella’s late mentor. On the flight to Australia, Ella winds up next to her ex-fiancé Jake whom she gave up years ago to focus on her career and discovers that he never quite got over her (as she never quite got over him). The mystical stuff starts when she sees Marlene on her laptop screen; instead of chains, her ghost is burdened by wearing polyester. The three ghosts (a flight attendant, a pilot, and a scary silent man in black) take her through her life to show her how awful she’s been and what she can do for redemption. Erin Krakow does a great job as Ella, both present and past. It took me a little while to warm up to Tyler Hynes (pictured with Krakow), who looks and acts more like a country singer than a typical Hallmark small-town guy, but he's fine and has a nice beefy sexy aura. Erik Gow is fun as Christmas Present, and the movie's director, Peter Benson, is one of the disgruntled employees. There's a fun little reference to It's a Wonderful Life when, in the future, Ella discovers that Jake has become "a lonely librarian!" A very good adaptation that I could see myself rewatching in Christmas Future.

THE SNOW MUST GO ON (2025)

This is the gayest non-gay Christmas movie ever. Its first scene is great fun. Corey Cott (at right) is a former Broadway star trying to make a comeback with a one-man musical called Frost/Blitzen in which he plays a version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It's a flop and his divorced sister suggests he come and stay with her for the holidays. He winds up directing his niece's high school Christmas musical in which he takes the lead role hoping that a big Broadway producer, who is the mother of one of the students, will see him and hire him. His mercenary move is resented by some of the kids and the guidance counselor (Heather Hemmens) who is assisting him, but eventually the Christmas spirit wins out and Cott fixes everything in time to be a hero to everyone. Hallmark's theater plots never ring true but I like that they keep trying. Cott, a musical star in real life, is very good and looks quite adorable in Christmas pajamas which he wears in public insisting that it’s a "sweat set." However, he has zero chemistry with Hemmens—their romantic feelings barely register and they kiss as though it were 2020 and they were filming under Covid lockdown conditions. Kaelyn Yoon-MacRae as the niece is the standout supporting player. Some of the kids get a moment or two in the spotlight but not much more. I don't mean to imply that any romance connected to the Broadway scene should be gay, but Cott is so cutely whimsical that for a while, I assumed the character was gay as his connection with Hemmens has no heat whatsoever. I hope someone remakes this with Jonathan Bennett as the actor and maybe Luke Macfarlane as a hunky guidance counselor. 

MOONLIGHT AND MISTLETOE (2008)

The teenage Holly Crosby works at the family business, an all-year-round Christmas store and inn. A shaggy boy named Peter chats her up; she inspires him to get interested in The Nutcracker, and he leaves her a self-carved wooden necklace, but he's gone before she can thank him. Many years later, Holly (Candace Cameron Bure), who became disenchanted with the holidays, returns to her hometown to care for her father who was injured in a fall. She finds him on crutches and in good hands with his assistant Peter (Christopher Weihl), the same Peter from the first scene, though it takes Holly half the movie to realize that—and she still has that necklace. When Holly learns that her dad is in danger of losing the inn, she meets Ben (Matt Walton), a handsome financial advisor who offers to help her by finding silent partners who will pay off his debts. Too good to be true? Indeed—the fine print of the contract states that the debt must be paid by December 25th. Did I mention that Peter has a side business carving beautiful one-of-a-kind Nutcracker figures? Did I mention that the townsfolk still have warm nostalgic feelings for the place? So despite the title, it's Nutcrackers and nostalgia that might save the day. This is Candace Cameron Bure's first Hallmark Christmas movie; she went on to become the queen of the genre and a Hallmark Channel spokesperson for a time. Here, she’s the typical Hallmark heroine, a big-city gal drawn back to her roots who meets a handsome small-town guy who works with his hands. Weihl is a little quirky-looking and a bit more passive than later Hallmark men of the earth, but he's fine. Tom Arnold is compelling if not always likable, and the likability problem is more about the script than the actor. [All movies are from the Hallmark Channel]

GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS ALWAYS (2022)

Somewhere in a large, lovely and beautifully decorated afterlife realm, there are dozens of ghosts who are given assignments every Christmas to come to earth to "scrooge" people, that is, to instill the Christmas spirit into scroogey people. They make a point of calling it scrooging even though it's really anti-scrooging, and this is just the first of a number of plot points that don't make sense, though the movie is generally charming enough to survive them. We see Roy, Katherine and Arlene, ghosts of, respectively, Christmas past, present and future, complete the de-scrooging of a singer named Susan Kraine in the town of Hartford. As it happens, in her earthly life many years ago, Katherine lived in Hartford and she takes a detour to visit a pub called the Rooty Tooty which she used to frequent but which is now closed and dilapidated. As she walks around reminiscing, a handsome young man named Peter Baron walks in; we learn that he is a rich man's son who spends his off-time feeding the homeless across the street, and since his family owns the building, he stores his food and supplies there. Peter asks if he can help her, and Katherine is quite surprised because no one can see the ghosts except the people being de-scrooged. They clearly have chemistry, but she has to skedaddle off to the afterlife before their meet-cute can fully bloom. The ghosts get their assignments for next Christmas, and these three get, guess who, Peter Baron. 

A year later they appear to him in his apartment. Of course, he's freaked out, because: 1) three ghosts have materialized; 2) he recognizes Katherine from a year ago; 3) he is already an awfully nice guy. He's the opposite of his father Robert, the head of a grocery store chain, who is all business and no sentiment, and has very little regard for his son whom he loves but can't relate to. In the present day, Peter is still intimidated by Robert but has remained working for him because he still has hopes of getting Dad's respect. What he really wants to do is convert the Rooty Tooty into a place to feed and house homeless people. And yes, rest assured, the two will become close by the end of the movie. But that's only half the story. The rom-com half involves Peter and Katherine who are obviously falling in love. But she's dead, right? And, as we find out, despite looking young and beautiful, she's the same age as Peter's late grandparents and was best friends with Peter's grandmother. The ghosts learn that they were actually supposed to be de-scrooging Robert, not Peter. Have no fears, a happy ending is in store for all, even the living Peter and the dead Katherine.

This is a cute Christmas fantasy (though oddly it's not one of the more Christmassy feeling Hallmark movies, despite references to the movie Elf) with a nice set-up and great looking leads. Which is why it's frustrating that the script is fairly weak with lots of plotholes here and there. The rules that apply to the de-scrooging ghosts are vague and illogical. The three ghosts each get dossiers on the subject's past, present and future, but are not supposed to discuss their case with each other, despite the fact that they take an entire year to research their subject. The father-son conflict feels like something that could (and should) have been resolved years ago, and for all those years of bad feeling, the resolution happens quickly and to my mind, not terribly convincingly. The acting is so-so. Lori Tan Chin (Arlene) is irritatingly one-note and Christopher Innvar (Robert) has no charisma and is so low-key, he barely seems to be acting. Beth Leavel, the singer from the opening scene who returns near the end, won a Tony for The Drowsy Chaperone and she's wasted in an unimportant role. But Reginald VelJohnson is fun as Roy, and the leads, both of whom are new to me, are quite good. Kim Matula is wholesomely sexy and throws herself into her role. Even better is Ian Harding (pictured at right), sweet, charming, and vanilla handsome (that's a compliment in my book). The two work together so well that they single-handedly (quadruply-handedly?) make the movie worth watching. Pictured at top are Matula and Harding. [Hallmark Channel]

HOLIDAY INN (1942)

Film buffs like myself who love to think and talk about genre often get quite worked up when trying to define what makes a movie a Christmas movie, as opposed to just a movie that is set at Christmastime. I've touched on this in the past; for me, the mere presence of Christmas isn't enough to make a movie a Christmas movie. Movies about the nativity would fit, but there aren't really many that focus solely on the birth of Jesus—2006's The Nativity Story is the only theatrical film that comes to mind. Some fans want the presence of magic or heavenly intervention to be an element of the story, which covers lots of classics, from Miracle on 34th Street to It's a Wonderful Life to any version of A Christmas Carol. Lacking magic, the presence of the holiday as a major element of the story may suffice. This lets in movies like The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Shop Around the Corner, and White Christmas—I fought for a while against this movie's inclusion in the holiday canon, despite its title, as it seems to me that Christmas is actually a minor part of the narrative, but I've decided to give up the fight and allow it in. Actually, any movie that has the word "Christmas" in its title is probably a Christmas movie. I'll even carve out a space for religious movies like Going My Way or Come to the Stable which only have one or two scenes set at Christmas. But I draw the line at films like Die Hard; though set at Christmas, the holiday is a fairly minor part of the story. The Lion in Winter is on the edge—it takes place entirely at Christmas though there aren't many holiday references aside from the great line, "What shall we hang—the holly or each other?" And that leaves me with HOLIDAY INN, a movie which is shown every Christmas and is the source of the classic song, “White Christmas,” yet whose holiday content is relatively small.

The film came to be as a project for showcasing the songs of Irving Berlin. The setting is a roadside inn that's open holidays only, and in addition to Christmas, we get songs about Thanksgiving, Easter, Valentine's Day, and Independence Day (a song which includes the deathless line. "On this day of independence / On this Independence Day…"). The story is a traditional take on a love triangle between showbiz folks. Jim and Ted are a song and dance team. Jim is getting married to their girl singer Lila and retiring to a lazy life on a farm, but Lila decides at the last minute that she loves Ted and wants to stay in the business. Jim, feeling betrayed, goes ahead and retires and eventually comes up with the idea to open the farm as a sprawling nightclub open on holidays only. He cozies up to his singer Linda and they become unofficially engaged, but soon Ted shows up, Lila having left him for a millionaire oil man, and falls for Linda. Let the silly games and tricks begin. There are two scenes set at Christmas. The first, with Jim teaching Linda "White Christmas" on Christmas night in front of a roaring fire, is lovely and atmospheric. The climax, the reconciliation of Jim and Linda, is also set at Christmas and features an instrumental version of "White Christmas." The rest of the movie plays out over other holidays. And, oh yeah, Bing Crosby, later the king of Christmas TV specials, is Jim and Fred Astaire is Ted. 

I would argue that, if "White Christmas" had not become a pop culture phenomenon, the movie would probably have faded into relative insignificance like most of Bing's other movies. But having seen it quite possibly a hundred times or so, its place as a Christmas movie stalwart (and as a fun musical) is set solidly in my mind. Crosby, whatever else he may be, is generally not a great actor, and his casual performance here relies on his public persona for its effectiveness. Astaire is better, and his dancing scenes mostly outshine Bing's singing scenes. Marjorie Reynolds, as Linda, gives a B-movie performance which suffers from being in an A-movie. I enjoy Walter Abel as Ted's manager and Virginia Dale as Lila. Louise Beavers, as Jim's cook, has a couple of fun moments., especially when she scolds him for sitting around "like a jellyfish with the misery" when he thinks he's lost Linda to Ted. The set, the huge farmhouse set up as an inn, is spectacular—some might say it's practically a character itself, like Rick's Cafe in Casablanca. "White Christmas" is far and away the best song here, though the Valentine's song "Be Careful, It’s My Heart" is catchy. The rest of the songs aren't exactly classics, and the blackface number on Lincoln's birthday is painful to sit through; sometimes I skip it. But this movie always makes me feel warm and cuddly. It's a Christmas movie that can be watched any time of the year. Pictured at top are Crosby, Reynolds, Astaire and Dale. At right, Astaire, Crosby and Abel. [Blu-ray]

THE PLAY OF THE NATIVITY OF THE CHILD JESUS (1952 TV-movie)

The story of the Nativity is narrated in a series of episodes which each begin as stagy and shadowy tableaux that come to life when lit. The first features the Virgin Mary, in a spotlight, being visited by the angel Gabriel who tells her she will bear a holy child. Later, a confused Joseph is visited by Gabriel, and when he asks whose child it will be, Gabriel replies, "God’s and yours." Mary and Joseph head to Bethlehem where she gives birth in a lowly manger. The other major plotlines of the story are then introduced. In his throne room, King Herod receives word of the birth of a king whom he assumes will be a rival for his power, and he eventually orders the slaughter of all newborn Jewish boys. We also see the Three Kings who see the Star in the East and go to Bethlehem to worship the child and give their standard gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Meanwhile, a small group of shepherds, wrestling and carousing, are spooked by the bright Star in the sky and an angel sends them to Bethlehem where they give the child simple rough gifts; a young and handsome shepherd has nothing to give so he says he gives Jesus his heart and suggests they sing praises to the Lord as they leave. Finally, an angel warns Mary and Joseph about Herod's wrath and sends them to Egypt to escape the slaughter.

This hour-long TV program, originally broadcast live on Westinghouse Studio One in 1952, would normally be out of the realm of the sort of films I review here, but I found it interesting and unusual enough to report on. We are told at the opening that this was "fashioned from" a cycle of English mystery plays from the 14th and 15th centuries. It's mostly rendered in verse and we are warned about the archaic language (probably middle English though pronounced in modern fashion) that is used because it adds to "the sense men once had of the majesty […] of great events." Between the language, the live TV staging, and the murky look of the kinoscope recording, this will not be everyone's cup of tea, and indeed most IMDb viewers, who have little sense of history, report being disappointed that this 70+ year old program is so primitive looking. For me, the look and sound of the play gave it an ancient and slightly otherworldly feeling that did successfully convey the feeling of "majesty" promised in the prologue, an old-fashioned somewhat stiff reverence which is the polar opposite of the messier, earthier tone that modern restagings strive for. I agree with Matt Page of Bible Films Blog who notes that the stark look of the proceedings, scenes "largely in darkness punctuated only by the occasional shafts of light," adds a great deal of effective atmosphere. Carols such as "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming," "This Endris Night," and "Coventry Carol" are sung as background music by the Robert Shaw Chorale. The play is more staged than acted, and as is often the case with religious productions of this era, the actors seem too much in awe of the material to give actual performances, but the film was directed by Franklin Schaffner who went on to direct Patton and Planet of the Apes. Though the crediting is unclear, the show's creator Fletcher Markle, narrates, and Hurd Hatfield provides the voice of the unseen Gabriel. Sight and sound are affected by the poor quality of the version on YouTube, but actually that adds to the out-of-time feel of the play. [YouTube]