SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEAPON (1942)

In a cafe in Switzerland, an old man with a bundle of books approaches two men and offers to sell them some rare books. But actually, the two man are German spies trying to get their hands on a new bombsight made by Prof. Tobel, who lives just across the street from the cafe, and the old bookseller is their contact, who has been assigned to approach Tobel while the other two men wait for his signal to come and grab the bombsight. But the old man is Sherlock Holmes in disguise and he uses Tobel's servants as decoys to spirit Tobel away and off to safety in London. Holmes has Tobel stay the night at his place (221B Baker Street, of course), and leaves his associate Dr. Watson to guard him, but Tobel sneaks out to see his girlfriend Charlotte. He gives her a coded message, written in the form of dancing stick figures, to give to Holmes if anything should happen to him. The next day, Tobel attends a test of the bombsight and, though he offers its use to the British government, he insists on keeping its secrets to himself, going so far as to hire four different technicians to make the parts of the device. Soon, Tobel has vanished and Scotland Yard is called in, with Inspector Lestrade assisting Sherlock Holmes. Charlotte gives Holmes the envelope with the coded message, but inside is just a note saying "We meet again" from his nemesis, the evil Prof. Moriarty. Following leads, Holmes again disguises himself and noses around the docks only to be caught by Moriarty and his thugs. Holmes is stuffed into the false bottom of a large trunk and is about to be dumped in the river when Watson and Lestrade come to the rescue. Moriarty decodes the dancing men message and finds three of the four bombsight parts, then tortures Tobel to find the fourth scientist. Meanwhile, Holmes has also pieced together the coded message, and he and Moriarty do meet again, this time in person, where Moriarty plans on killing Holmes by slowly and painfully draining his blood from his body. Can Watson and Lestrade save the day?

This is the second of the 1940's based Holmes films, and like the first (VOICE OF TERROR), it has a wartime propaganda element—a patriotic quote from Richard II ends the film in a rousing fashion—but that doesn't detract from the adventure. Rathbone as Holmes is fine, as is Nigel Bruce as Watson, though this movie seems to mark the beginning of making Watson a bumbler, beginning with his falling asleep while guarding Tobel, allowing him to leave the apartment. Lionel Atwill is a bit of a letdown as Moriarty, seeming a little low energy compared to George Zucco in Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Dennis Hoey makes his first of several appearances as Lestrade, and Mary Gordon is back as Mrs. Hudson. It is fast-paced with lots of action, and the blood draining scene is worthy of being included in a horror movie. A notch above Voice of Terror in plotting, a notch below in terms of style and mood. Pictured are Rathbone and Atwill. [DVD]

BELLE STARR'S DAUGHTER (1948)

New Mexico, the 1880s. A truce has been called between Cherokee Flats, a town ruled by bandit queen Belle Starr, and Antioch, a town that Starr and her men frequently plunder. No one from Cherokee Flats is supposed to be in Antioch's city limits while carrying a gun, but the marshal finds Bittercreek Bob and his sidekick Yuma in town and armed, and the two shoot him dead, an incident which threatens to stir up tensions again. Bob is sweet on Belle's daughter Rose and has been teaching her to use guns, but when Belle finds out what happened in Antioch, she confronts the two men, leading to Bob shooting her and Rose's uncle, setting fire to their cabin, and trying to lay the blame on Tom Jackson, Antioch's new marshal. Rafe, Belle's sidekick, suspects Bob, but Rose is led by Bob to think it was Tom, so she heads into Antioch, angling for revenge. She's hired as a saloon worker and, though Tom gets interested in her, she is soon outed as Belle's daughter. Their relationship is stilted at first but starts to thaw a bit until Bittercreek Bob comes to town, afraid that Rafe, who has accompanied Rose to Antioch, will voice his suspicions about Belle's death. There's a rousing barfight in which Rafe is shot dead, and Bob takes Rose, now sure that Tom killed her mother, into his gang and she joins in on some robberies. Tom goes after them, and during a chase, Yuma is badly wounded. Rose wants to bring him on the run with them, but Bob, knowing his chances of recovery are nil, wants to leave him to die. When Yuma admits to Rose that it was Bob who killed her mother, she redirects her need for revenge. You can look up information about the real Belle Starr and the real Rose (who was not Belle's daughter), but this movie is much less about those women than about the conflict between Tom (George Montgomery) and Bob (Rod Cameron). Both actors are fine here, with Cameron perhaps getting the edge just because his character is a little more layered and developed; we learn very little about Tom and he becomes basically a good guy stick figure. Also, Bittercreek Bob is based on a real outlaw, Bittercreek George. Ruth Roman (Rose, pictured with Montgomery) had been in several movies, but this was her first lead. She is third billed behind Montgomery and Cameron, and frankly, her character is only third in importance. She's out of the action at times, though she plays a large part in the climax. Wallace Ford is Rafe and William Phipps is Yuma. This is probably a B-film but it's a notch above average for the era. [TCM]

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR (1942)

In WWII London, the Voice of Terror makes radio broadcasts from Germany, trying to damage the morale of the British people by predicting specific acts of terror by the Nazis (an oil refinery set on fire, a deadly train derailment, the destruction of an airplane factory). The Intelligence Inner Council is stymied and Sir Evan Barham calls on Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson, an old friend of Barham's, for help. Some members of the Council resent hiring a mere private investigator whom they regard as being "unorthodox and theatrical," but Holmes is reluctantly allowed to work for them. Back home, when Watson tells their landlady Mrs. Hudson that they are working on the greatest case of their career, she replies, "Mercy, it always is!" Gavin, an underworld spy working on the case for Holmes, falls into his doorway, a knife stuck in his back, mutters the word "Christopher," and dies. Holmes and Watson head down to Limehouse, a disreputable part of town, find Gavin's widow Kitty and enlist her in a drive to get the tramps and crooks of Limehouse to help him. She gives a stirring patriotic speech and to a man, they all fall in behind Holmes. Meanwhile, Holmes discovers that the Voice of Terror's broadcasts are pre-recorded; even though the broadcasts have been traced to Germany, Holmes theorizes that they are being recorded in England and smuggled back to Germany. Barham is shot at near his home but escapes with just a hand wound. The Limehouse denizens discover that Christopher is a reference to a specific set of waterside docks. When Holmes and Watson head down there, they are followed by Anthony Lloyd, a council member who is opposed to their mission. Holmes, Watson and Lloyd are captured by a group of Nazi spies, but they are rescued by some Limehouse men. Holmes allows Meade, the Nazi leader, to escape, then Holmes sends Kitty on double agent duty, finding Meade and cozying up to him. When the Voice of Terror warns that the Germans will soon pull off a sneak attack on the northern coast, the council suggests that all coastal defenses be moved there, but Holmes figures out that the attack is really going to happen in the south. And Holmes has figured out that one member of the council is a traitor. The exciting climax occurs in a bombed-out church on the coast.

After ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, the second A-list Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone (Holmes) and Nigel Bruce (Watson), Fox gave up the franchise and Universal took it over, assigning it to their B-movie production unit and moving the plots into the current day so they wouldn't have to spend money on period sets and costumes—the film opens with a card noting the switch so fans aren't confused, calling Holmes "ageless." Given the wartime context, Holmes was a logical choice for use as war propaganda, which this film certainly is, though that does not diminish audience enjoyment. Rathbone and Bruce have gotten at home in their roles (Bruce's doddering comic relief, which started in BASKERVILLE and which irritated Holmes fans in later movies, is mostly absent here, possibly in the name of patriotism). There's even a joke at Holmes' expense when Watson warns Holmes to leave his deerstalker hat behind when they head out for Limehouse. There is no Lestrade or Moriarty here; instead, for chief support, we have Reginald Denny (Barham) and Henry Daniell (Lloyd) as council members and Thomas Gomez (Meade) as the villain; this was his first role in a long career as a character actor. Evelyn Ankers does a nice job as Kitty, and Mary Gordon continues in her role as Holmes' landlady Mrs. Hudson, a role she would continue in through most of the series. Some critics mark this film as the beginning of the decline of the Holmes films (though they would remain popular enough to warrant production of eleven more films over the next four years), and though you may notice a downturn in terms of budget and style, the film is still fun and fast-paced. Pictured are Denny and Rathbone. [DVD]

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1939)

Criminal mastermind Prof. Moriarty has just been found not guilty on a murder charge when Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) comes racing into the courtroom with new evidence, but he is too late. Holmes and Moriarty have a tense conversation before parting, leading Moriarty to declare to one of his associates that he plans to pull off the biggest crime of all time right under Holmes' nose and that Holmes' own restless mind will be his undoing. Moriarty sets up two situations for Holmes to deal with, with one case distracting from the other. First, he sends an anonymous note to the police claiming that the priceless jewel the Star of Delhi, being sent to be put with the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, will be stolen. Next, he sends a crude drawing of a dead man with an albatross hanging around his neck to Lloyd Brandon, and his sister Ann goes to Holmes because the same drawing was sent to her father years ago just before his death. Holmes takes on Ann's case, setting aside his duty to help protect the Star of Delhi. Ann's fiancé Gerald, a lawyer, thinks the note is a prank, but Holmes' associate Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) sees Moriarty leave Gerald's office so Holmes is sure the danger is real. In fact, Lloyd is murdered and Gerald is found with the body and arrested. Then Ann herself gets an albatross note, putting her life in danger. While this case is consuming Holmes' attention, Moriarty makes devious plans to steal not just Star of Delhi but the Crown Jewels themselves.

The first Holmes movie with Rathbone, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, was successful enough that Fox rushed this sequel out just six months later. Credited as based on a popular 1899 Broadway adaptation by William Gillette, there is apparently little connection plotwise except for the three main characters. Though an A-film like its predecessor, with a good cast and sets, it bogs down in the middle and the action-filled climax feels a bit rushed. Rathbone and Bruce are comfortable in their roles, as is George Zucco as Moriarty, one of the best villains in the film series. Despite his fall to his death at the end of the film, Moriarty returns in a couple of later films, though never again played by Zucco (though he does appear as a different character later in the series). Ida Lupino (Ann) broke out of a string of B-movies to make the big time here and is fine. Alan Marshall plays Gerald, a somewhat ill-conceived character and doesn't really have much to do. Terry Kilburn, Tiny Tim in the 1938 CHRISTMAS CAROL, is the young lad who does the cleaning at Holmes' boarding house, and also runs the occasional errand for Holmes. This was the last Holmes film for Fox; in 1942, Universal picked up the series, setting them in the present day, giving them B-film budgets, and cutting them down in running length to be shown as second features. Nevertheless, most of them are worth watching, some actually more enjoyable than ADVENTURES, and I'll be reviewing them each soon. Pictured are Rathbone and Lupino. [DVD]

NEVER FEAR (1950)

We see Guy and Carol, a dance duo at the beginning of a promising career, in a nightclub doing a fencing number. The next day on the beach, Guy (Keefe Brasselle) proposes to Carol (Sally Forrest) who happily accepts. But at their next rehearsal, she gets dizzy and feverish and collapses, and is eventually diagnosed with polio. Unable to walk, she is taken to a rehabilitation center where her prognosis is unclear. She encourages Guy to find a new partner but instead he becomes a real estate agent and says he’ll wait for her. In the center, Carol is bitter and impatient with herself and others, and swats away the attentions of the handsome, wheelchair-bound Len (Hugh O’Brien). However, as she begins to make progress, she warms to him. Then Guy visits, still waiting for her, though now she swats him away by screaming, “I’m a cripple!” which brings contemptuous looks from the able-bodied partner of other patients. At her 21st birthday party, Guy breaks the news that he has found a new dance partner and is about to go on tour. Suddenly Len seems a lot more attractive, but is he still interested? This medical melodrama, a genre that was big in the 1950, gets points for mostly downplaying the drama and adopting a quasi-documentary style—much of it was filmed at the Kabat-Kaiser Institute in Santa Monica with real patients as extras, including a fascinating wheelchair square dance. But what isn’t downplayed is Carol’s self-pitying attitude, which I’m sure is realistic but which also bogs the middle of the film down. Sally Forrest got good notices for her performance, but she was unable to parlay that into a solid film career and left the screen in 1956 although she appeared in a few TV parts later. For what it’s worth, her movements make the character’s disability seem real. Brasselle, another marginal 50s name, is fine as is O’Brien. This is Ida Lupino's first credit as a director; she'd been acting in movies since the 1930s and continued to do so into the 1970s. Her touch here is impersonal with little manifested in the way of style or strong storytelling, though she went to make the tense little thriller THE HITCH-HIKER and forged a strong career as a television director. Pictured are Forrest and Brasselle. [TCM]

THE PREVIEW MURDER MYSTERY (1936)

At World Attractions movie studio, star Neil Du Beck is finishing filming a bullfight musical, Song of the Toreador, a remake of a silent film that starred Edwin Strange, a popular silent actor who died mysteriously before the arrival of sound. Neil's leading lady is Claire Woodward, who was married to Strange but is now married to the director, E Gordon Smith. Neil is a little on edge as he's been getting notes warning him that he won't live to see the premiere of his movie. The studio's PR man, Johnny Morgan, is called in to investigate on the premise that the notes are part of a publicity stunt, but nothing turns up, except that the press gets wind of it and breaks the story on the night of the film's sneak preview. The film seems well received, but as the audience applauds, Neil is found dead in his seat from poison put in his bicarbonate. A few days later, Claire, shooting another film, is almost killed when she is shot at from a blank gun that was loaded with real bullets, and another threatening note is found. The police lock down the studio to investigate while allowing filming on various projects to continue. Meanwhile, Johnny and his secretary Peggy, a horoscope fan and potential girlfriend, snoop around on their own. They set up a trap that snaps a picture in the dark of someone who looks like the late Edwin Strange—has the actor returned from the grave, or is someone masquerading as him to cause havoc?

A few months ago, Turner Classic Movies paid tribute to B-movies of the classic era, and they showed this film from the Paramount library that I'd never heard of, but I'm glad I watched. The hook behind the plot is that we get to see life inside the studio gates, and though the premise of a multi-day lockdown is a bit far-fetched, it works. Reginald Denny (Johnny) was a very busy character actor at the bigger studios (Rebecca, the original Of Human Bondage, the 1936 Romeo and Juliet) but was just as busy in B-films; he played occasional leads but is best known to B-buffs as Algy, Bulldog Drummond's sidekick in a series of movies. Frances Drake (Peggy) had a relatively short career, retiring in the early 1940s, best known to me as the damsel in distress at the hands of Peter Lorre in Mad Love. They're supposed to be the leads here, but they wind up overshadowed by supporting actors such as Rod La Roque (Neil), Gail Patrick (Claire), Ian Keith (Smith), and George Barbier (a studio head). Part of this is due to the fact that Johnny and Peggy don't take center stage until almost a third of the way into the movie, and part of it is due to the writing—as characters, the leads just aren't terribly interesting. We see brief glimpses into a number of movies being shot, the most interesting being what looks like a Caligari-like horror movie with Henry Brandon (pictured) as a character called The Bat Man, a few years before the Batman superhero we all know was created. The actor Charlie Ruggles appears as himself very briefly. This is no neglected gem of mystery or suspense, but it works nicely as a fun novelty. [TCM]

CHRISTMAS SHORT TAKES

CHRISTMAS LAND (2015)

Nikki DeLoach is a high-powered PR person planning to marry her high-powered attorney boyfriend (Jason Shane-Scott) and move into an expensive condo in Manhattan. Just before Christmas, she finds out that she has inherited Christmas Land, a Christmas tree farm and tourist attraction. She takes a quick trip to the snowy property intending to sell it, but handsome lawyer Luke Macfarlane has mistakenly led villagers to think that she might be interested in reviving Christmas Land herself. Jason finds a potential buyer, but he wants to chop the land up, gutting the village. Torn between her high-powered fiancé and the handsome small town lawyer, what's a high-powered city gal to do? I found this worth watching for the hot and handsome Macfarlane and the chemistry that he works up with DeLoach. The location shooting at Pioneer Village in Utah is a plus—I've read that the snow was fake but there are several night scenes in which you can see the actors' breath, indicating actual cold conditions. But the rest is kind of a mess, especially the deus ex machina ending. Maureen McCormick from The Brady Bunch has what amounts to a cameo as Nikki's grandmother, but she’s creepily intense in her few minutes on screen. Shane-Scott is OK as the Hallmark standard issue bad boyfriend. I emptied my brain and wallowed in Luke Macfarlane. [Hallmark]

THE SANTA CLASS (2024)

Kimbely Susted has inherited (sound familiar yet?) a struggling Santa Claus training school that is in constant competition with another nearby Santa school. She needs help with her latest class and, coincidentally, Benjamin Ayres (pictured), who works for the competition, is fired because of budget problems and asks her for a job. Reluctantly (because of his cockiness) she hires him. Just before the class convenes, the two of them run into a man dressed as Santa, lost in the woods and suffering from amnesia. They see his sleigh and reindeer take off into the sky and realize he's the real Santa Claus, so they enroll him in their class, hoping something will jog his memory before Christmas Eve. Among the other students are a woman, a puppeteer who only communicates through his puppet, and the Hallmark Christmas actor Paul Campbell (playing himself). Oddly, I don't usually take to the Hallmark movies that involve real Santas; for me, folkloric magic and modern romance don't mix well. But this is cute, and as with Christmas Land, the two leads are reasons to watch. As I noted in a review of one of his earlier movies, Ayres occasionally has an intense, almost sinister look in his eyes which makes him a bit spicier than the typical Hallmark vanilla leading man. Campbell is delightful, making fun of himself and his career, at one point winning a trivia question about Christmas movies ("I’ve made 35 of these!"). Trevor Lerner is a nicely low-key St. Nick, and Graeme McComb is a standout as a shy and nerdy student who eventually blossoms. A fun continuation of Hallmark’s recent movement towards meta-movie material. [Hallmark]

BABES IN TOYLAND (1934/1961)

The 1934 version of Victor Herbert’s popular 1903 operetta begins with Mother Goose singing "Toyland" and introducing the various nursery rhyme characters that will populate the film, including Little Bo Peep, Tom Tom the Piper's Son, The Three Little Pigs, The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, and others. The sinister Silas Barnaby threatens the Old Lady with eviction for herself and her many children because she's behind on mortgage payments. Two boarders in the shoe, Stannee Dum (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy) assume they can get the money from their boss at the toy factory, but they made a rather big mistake in completing an order for Santa Claus; instead of making 600 1-foot-high wooden soldiers, they made 100 6-foot-high soldiers. One of the soldiers goes out of control and destroys the toy shop leading to Dum and Dee getting fired. Barnaby then says that if the lovely young Bo Peep (who keeps losing her sheep) agrees to marry him, he will tear up the mortgage. But she's in love with Tom. Dum and Dee try to help and finally, after Bo Peep agrees to marry Barnaby, Dum dresses up as her in a heavy bridal veil and takes her place at the ceremony. The furious Barnaby exiles Tom to Bogeyland, home of apelike ogres, and at the climax, the Bogeymen invade the town, to be driven back by Dum and Dee and the lifesize wooden soldiers. Bo Peep and Tom can marry and the Old Lady can stay in the shoe.

This is basically a vehicle for Laurel and Hardy whose characters don't appear in the operetta but are based loosely on Gonzorgo and Roderigo, two of Barnaby's henchmen. They are amusing as they carry on like they would in any Laurel and Hardy film—at one point, Hardy uses a version of the "another fine mess" line they were famous for. Charlotte Henry (Alice in the Alice in Wonderland film from 1933) as Bo Peep and opera singer Felix Knight as Tom are fine, though this was Knight's only major film role. The sets are great, with Toyland looking a bit like Munchkinland would look a few years later in The Wizard of Oz. The operetta songs have mostly been stripped away or relegated to background score. Though Santa makes an appearance, Christmas isn't really part of the story, but this (later retitled March of the Wooden Soldiers) became a popular film to be shown by local TV stations around the holidays, partly due to its Toyland setting and partly because, as in the case of It's a Wonderful Life, the film entered the public domain for a time and could aired for free. I watched the colorized version on Freevee and, though I usually pass those up, the colorizing was well done and added to the fantasy element.

In 1961, Walt Disney used this material for his company's first live-action musical. The through line is essentially the same, with Mary Contrary (Annette Funicello) standing in for Bo Peep, Mary being the heroine of the original operetta. Though the Laurel and Hardy characters are gone, the original henchmen, Gonzorgo and Roderigo, are played by Henry Calvin and Gene Sheldon as Laurel and Hardy stand-ins and they do a nice job. Funicello, fresh from her stint on the Mickey Mouse Club, is OK as Mary though she ultimately has little to do besides fret, be threatened, and stand around at the climax doing nothing while poor Tom has to battle Barnaby. Tommy Sands as Tom is wooden and charisma-free, and has a goofy front hair clump that is distracting. Ed Wynn's Toymaker has a much larger role than in the 1934 version; the setting here is identified as Mother Goose Village but the last half moves to Toyland. Tommy Kirk (pictured with Wynn) is quite good as Wynn's well-meaning but goofy assistant Grumio who comes up with a toy making machine that malfunctions, and a shrinking machine that helps save the day. Ray Bolger as Barnaby would seem to be good casting, but he never quite comes off as evil or as comic as the character seems intended to be. Rated on visuals alone, the movie is spectacular, quite colorful with wonderful sets and fun choreography, but at 105 minutes, it drags something fierce, with a couple of the songs (especially "A Castle in Spain") going on way too long. This is one of the first movies I ever saw in a theater (a drive-in, actually) but I remembered very little about it except Ray Bolger who I knew from Oz. Actually, two of my favorite moments from the movie involved Bolger telling his henchmen, "Let us pussyfoot" as they exaggeratedly lifted their arms and legs and walked away. This was an expensive production and apparently lost money, and I imagine kids today would be bored out of their minds, but nostalgic boomers might like one more visit to Toyland. [Disney+]

SAVING CHRISTMAS SPIRIT (2022)

Lucy Stewart, a professor of archeology at a university in Vermont, is in danger of being let go because of budget cuts. Even though it's almost Christmas, her department head Percy encourages her to go to the Scottish Highlands on a task to authenticate some old journals that were recently found. She settles in at a cozy bed & breakfast owned by the mildly eccentric but friendly Edina who insists that the ghost of her late husband Killan pulls pranks and watches over them all, the 'all' consisting of her American teenage nephew Finn, living in Scotland to get away from his divorced parents, and her handsome son Duncan who runs his dad's whisky distillery, famous for Christmas Spirit, its holiday brand. But the distillery is undergoing hard times and may not be able to get the newest batch out by Christmas. A corporation wants to buy the company but Duncan is heartily opposed to that. Lucy authenticates the journals and discovers in them evidence of a lost shrine to the winter goddess Cailleach, so hoping to make a grand discovery and save her job, she heads out to look for it, with Duncan as her guide. Despite their differences (American academic professor vs. stubborn Scottish rustic distiller), they bond quickly but any possible romance hits some snags. She puts her trust in practical science and he wants her to trust her instincts, or maybe the fairy folk and ghosts and magical reindeer that might surround them. In a side plot, Finn has fallen for local girl Caitrin who wants the school to start a girl's rugby team, so he tries to help her. Both couples suffer from communication problems, with the indecisive men unable to tell their women what they feel. Lucy can't find the shrine and gets laid off, but finds a museum job in Chicago, and Duncan is forced to sell his distillery. Finn quits the rugby team on the eve of their big charity match, but his plan backfires when Caitrin resents his meddling. You don't suppose that ghosts and magical reindeer will save the day, do you?

Some online critics note that this Christmas romance is refreshingly different from Hallmark holiday movies, but aside from its being filmed in Scotland, it exactly fits the Hallmark template: a dumb title, main characters with culture clashes, ridiculous Christmas time deadlines—why would a distiller be putting out a new batch of holiday booze on Christmas Eve??—an interfering relative trying to get the leads together, and Christmas decor splashed all over the place. The slight twists in the story, almost all having to do with being set in Scotland, do make things interesting for a while, but by the time the ending rolls around, we have some truly ludicrous plot points doing heavy lifting to eke out a happy ending for all. Ashley Newbrough, a Christmas movie veteran, sleepwalks through her role, not really bringing her rote character to life. Jake Satow, as Finn, is colorless and doesn’t seem comfortable in his part. Better is Joanne Randle as Edina, being charming in a role that might have been played too broadly. Tibu Fortes steals his few scenes as Percy, the gay best friend, who gets the best line: during a Zoom call, as Lucy is adamantly denying that she has fallen for Duncan, Percy notes astutely, "Your lips may say no, but your hair flips say yes." Best of all is James Robinson (pictured) as Duncan: very handsome in an earthy way, great accent, hunky build, and a penetrating gaze. As with FINDING FATHER CHRISTMAS, I stuck with this largely because the male lead made up for other shortcomings. And the physical production is lovely, although a few of the Highland landscape shots have a slight CGI shine to them. [Acorn TV]

CONFESSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS LETTER (2024)

The town of Holly Falls has a competition every year for the best Christmas letter written by a resident. The winner is almost always Sue, a nasty woman used to getting her way. She also lays down silly rules about neighborhood decorations (absolutely no lawn ornaments!). This year, Settie Rose is determined to win the prize so she hires a novelist named Juan Sanchez (whose novel her book club is reading) to write her family letter for her. Juan, who lives in Puerto Rico, is suffering through writer's block so his abuelo and his uncle encourage him to head off to Connecticut and take the job. By coincidence, he shares an Uber from the airport with Settie's daughter Lily who is coming home for the holidays after a brief stay in Italy. Lily is a bit of a lost soul, cheery but without aim or purpose. When neighbors see the two arrive, Settie passes Juan off as Lily's Italian fiancé. Juan is game enough to go along with the charade. Lily's gay brother Jack got married during the year, but isn't crazy about being part of the letter. Also in the family are Settie's mom and dad, and Settie's long-suffering husband Paddy. Juan soon discovers as he interviews family members for research that Settie's big problem is that she wants her imperfect family to be seen as perfect in the Christmas letter, so maybe if he can get her to own up to that flaw, she can produce her own winning letter.

This Hallmark Christmas movie has a bad title and a ridiculous premise—the letter writing competition is such a dumb idea, I almost tuned out after ten minutes—but I ended up liking it. One interesting thing is that the romance story becomes a side plot with Settie's growth as the main focus of the film. Angela Kinsey, the brittle Angela on The Office, is Settie and though I didn’t like her much at first (Settie is single-minded and oblivious), I eventually did. Lillian Ducet-Roche is wonderful as Lily; maybe because she's not the primary character, she had a bit more breathing space to create a more realistic Hallmark heroine. Alec Santos is fine as Juan; it also took me a while to like him as the actor seemed uncomfortable in the somewhat ill-defined role, but like Kinsey he grew on me. I didn't immediately recognize Paddy, the husband, as Fred Ewanuick, whom I loved as the doofus Hank in the Canadian sitcom Corner Gas. He's good here, but he sort of vanishes in the last half-hour. Jake Foy is handsome as Jack, the gay son, but has little to do besides representing diversity (as does Jeff Avenue, who despite having virtually no lines, does double diversity duty as Jack's Filipino husband). Brian Baumgartner, also from The Office, has a totally needless cameo as a mailman. I liked that the grandfather (Jorge Montesi) and uncle (Javier Lacroix) speak a fair amount of Spanish (with subtitles), and the uncle gets one of the funniest moments early on when he worries that Juan is heading off to a Misery situation, as in the Stephen King movie. Recurring scenes of the family dressed in Christmas onesies as dictated by Mom are amusing. After a rocky start, this ends up being a Hallmark film I could recommend (though a better title might be Christmas with the Roses, a line that Juan actually says in the film). Pictured are Ducet-Roche, Kinsey and Santos. [Hallmark]