Everybody has their favorite list of classic Christmas movies. Well, Following is my top 10 most memorable classic Christmas movies.
1. The Wizard of Oz (Two-Disc Special Edition) (1939)
This truly is the greatest film ever made and the greatest story ever told. Because not even taking into account the perfect performances, the movie has such a message that's completely universal. Young Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), her dog, Toto, and her three companions on the yellow brick road to Oz--the Tin Man (Jack Haley), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), and the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger)--have become pop-culture icons and central figures in the legacy of fantasy for children. As the Wicked Witch who covets Dorothy's enchanted ruby slippers, Margaret Hamilton has had the singular honor of scaring the wits out of children for more than six decades. The film's still as fresh, frightening, and funny as it was when first released.
2. It's a Wonderful Life (1947)
Every home should have this Christmas movie in their DVD list and watch it every year. George Bailey (played superbly by James Stewart) grows up in the small town of Bedford Falls, dreaming dreams of adventure and travel, but circumstances conspire to keep him enslaved to his home turf. Frustrated by his life, and haunted by an impending scandal, George prepares to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. A heavenly messenger (Henry Travers) arrives to show him a vision: what the world would have been like if George had never been born.
The moral of this story is so touching to help someone realize how 'wonderful' their life is and the people in it. It will help remind you of your true gifts in your daily presence.
A must own movie!
3. Miracle on 34th Street (Special Edition) (1947)
This is a wonderful Christmas movie. If you love old movies this is a perfect one to get. In Miracle on 34th Street, Edmund Gwenn is Kris Kringle, a nice old man who is institutionalized for claiming that he really is Santa Claus. His employer Doris (Maureen O'Hara) and her daughter Susan (Natalie Wood) don't believe that he is who he claims to be. But Doris's friend Fred (John Payne) does believe the old man, and, as Fred happens to be a lawyer, he's just the one who can arrange the legal hearing to let Kris prove himself. This undisputed Christmas classic was nominated for four Academy Awards and two Golden Globes in 1948.
4. White Christmas
Two talented son-and-dance men (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) team up after the war to become one of the hottest acts in show business. A light romantic comedy, the film is an excuse to show off Bing Crosby's pipes, Danny Kaye's comic chops, Rosemary Clooney's lovely voice and Vera-Ellen's dancing, along with a series of great sets and costumes. The rest of the tunes are hummable, and the whole enterprise is sweet and peppy as a candy cane.
5. Holiday Inn (Special Edition) (1942)
This is a wonderful 1940s musical, with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire doing some of their most memorable work to some of the better music of Irving Berlin, including the debut of his all-time most popular "White Christmas." The plot is clever, if somewhat silly, the writing sharp, with lots of laughs, romance, ups and downs, and a happy ending for all. If you don't already have the movie, the new Collector's Set will certainly be the nicest package. But this 2006 Special Edition may have all you really need.
6. A Christmas Carol (1984)
Christmas just isn't Christmas unless you watch at least one version of A Christmas Carol. Christmas elicits nothing more than "Bah, humbug!" from Ebenezer Scrooge (Scott), a miser whose sole pursuit of financial success has left him a bitter and lonely old man. But a Christmas Eve visit from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future ultimately teaches him to open his heart to the spirit of Christmas and to the joys of friends and family.
7. Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Christmas in Connecticut is a holiday film that plays 365 days of the year. Barbara Stanwyck as a Martha-Stewart type who writes a column about her idyllic life with her husband and baby in perfect Connecticut, always with a lip-smacking recipe. Trouble is, there's no husband, no baby, and she can't cook. Of course, circumstance requires her to mount an elaborate hoax, and romantic comedy ensues. A frothy bit of harmless holiday fun.
8. Babes in Toyland (1961)
This movie is wonderfully delightful, it shows how talented Walt Disney was before all the trash was brought into the movies. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star as Ollie Dee and Stanley Dunn in Babes in Toyland. They try to help pay the mortgage on Mother Peep's shoe, so that the wicked Barnaby (Henry Brandon) cannot foreclose and force Little Bo Peep to marry him. When they are unable to borrow the money, they trick Barnaby into marrying Stanley, and the outraged Barnaby tries to destroy Toyland with his horrible Bogeymen.
9. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1950)
This is a first rate comedy in many ways. This was one in a series of great comedies produced by the Ealing Studios in the 1940s and 1950s. Dennis Price plays Louis D'Ascoyne, the would-be Duke of Chalfont whose mother was spurned by her noble family for marrying an Italian singer for love. Louis resolves to avenge his mother by murdering the relatives ahead of him in line for the dukedom, all of whom are played by Alec Guinness. Guinness's virtuoso performances have been justly celebrated, ranging from a youthful D'Ascoyne with a priggish wife to a brace of doomed uncles and one aunt. Miles Malleson is a splendid doggerel-spouting hangman, while Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood take advantage of unusually strong female roles. But the great joy of Kind Hearts and Coronets is the way in which its appallingly black subject matter (considered beyond the pale by many critics at the time) is conveyed in such elegantly ironic turns of phrase by Price's narrator/antihero.
10. The Bishop's Wife (1948)
This classic story will always appeal to the heart and soul. In its charming and gentle way, it reveals the true road to happiness. The diverting tale of Cary Grant come to earth as an angel, to help a beleaguered bishop who's trying to build a cathedral and has lost his true vision. With lovely Loretta Young as the bishop's wife and David Niven as her harried husband, Grant makes for an urbane, well-dressed heavenly visitor who finds himself tempted by earthly joys, and the bishop's wife. Don't miss the hilarious figure skating scene where the skating doubles look nothing like the actors.
All movies above is my top list of Christmas movies that Ihave to see every Christmas no matter what.
So, what’s YOUR favorite list of classic Christmas movies?”
A Classic Christmas story that's great to watch anytime of the year!......enjoy.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)