12.22.09 | Gary Cahall | Staff NotesPrint this Post
It's okay, there's no one looking. You can admit it. You're no Grinch, but you find the unending store and media bombardment of holiday tunes and images over the last couple of months more than a little wearying. And as much as you've enjoyed them over the years, is it really necessary to sit through those cartoon kids decorating and brightening up that forlorn little tree, or watch that reindeer with the mutated schnoz and the dwarf who wants to learn dentistry find their place in the world, yet again? And, now that you think about it, didn't Ebeneezer Scrooge have a pretty successful and comfortable set-up before all those ghosts started pestering him in the middle of the night? Why is it, you ask yourself, that all the Christmas stuff on TV and in movies has to be so darned...merry?
Well, filmmakers for decades have used the festive backdrop of the Yuletide season as a counterpoint for some rather acerbic, antagonistic and downright depressing scenes...and no, I'm not talking about those movies that start out with anti-holiday attitude and get sentimental towards the end, as in Jingle All the Way or Deck the Halls, or Santa-themed slasher flicks the likes of Black Christmas or Silent Night, Deadly Night. Movie buffs looking for something a little feistier than Tiny Tim saying "God bless us, every one" might want to check out these titles on a cold December night:
The Man Who Came to Dinner- Anyone who ever had a relative or friend overstay their Christmas visit will sympathize with Ohio businessman Grant Mitchell and his family, who get an unwanted house guest after a visiting lecturer--noted radio wit and all-around curmudgeon Monty Woolley--injures himself on their icy front step and turns their first floor into his recovery room in this 1942 comedy, based on a popular Broadway play. Demanding and condescending to the nth degree, Woolley manages to insert himself into everyone's lives while marking the holidays with an array of visitors, from ex-cons and Asian tourists to loud-mouthed comic Jimmy Durante (whose role was inspired by his polar opposite, Harpo Marx), and letting four penguins (a gift from Admiral Byrd at the South Pole) roam around the house.
The Apartment- What could possibly be worse than having an overbearing Monty Woolley in your home on Christmas Eve? How about a suicidal Shirley MacLaine? That's what happens to go-getting young insurance worker Jack Lemmon, who makes his way up the corporate ladder by loaning his Manhattan bachelor pad out to married company bigwigs for their clandestine trysts, in director/co-writer Billy Wilder's Oscar-winning 1960 comedy. The arrangement is mutually beneficial, until Lemmon comeshome to find the girl he's had a crush on, elevator operator MacLaine, overdosed on pills after being dumped by executive Fred MacMurray. It's up to Lemmon, with help from doctor neighbor Jack Kruschen, to revive her and keep her alive over a less-than-cheery Christmas.
Female Trouble- Ever get upset when you didn't get the Christmas gift you were hoping for? Sure, we all have. Ever throw a temper tantrum over it and call your parents nasty names? Okay, not as common, but it happens. Ever smash everyone's presents and topple the tree on your distraught mother, cursing all the way? Well, that's what high school hellcat Dawn Davenport, played by the one and only Divine, does in John Waters' 1974 story of how a good girl goes bad...because, remember, "nice girl don't wear cha cha heels!"
Tommy - "Did you ever see the faces of the children? They get so excited, waking up on Christmas morning." All except young Tommy Walker (Barry Winch)--left blind, deaf and speechless after watching his long-missing father's murder by his mother (Ann-Margret) and stepfather (Oliver Reed)--in the haunting "Christmas" sequence of the Who's groundbreaking rock musical, brought to the screen with his trademark visual flourish by director Ken Russell in 1975. Poor Tommy, you see, "doesn't know what day it is. He doesn't know who Jesus was, or what praying is."
Trading Places- He's lost his job, his money, his girlfriend, his townhouse, and even his butler. It's little wonder, then, that Philadelphia blueblood Dan Aykroyd--disgraced and tossed to the gutter as part of businessmen brothers Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy's "social experiment"--winds up spending Christmas Eve riding a city bus in a ratty Santa Claus suit, eating salmon stolen from an office party through his grimy beard, and finally attempting to kill himself before fellow experiment subject Eddie Murphy and gold-hearted hooker Jamie Lee Curtis come to the rescue.
Gremlins- Director Joe Dante and screenwriter Chris Columbus offer up a delightfully satirical send-up of small-town Americana, under attack during the holidays the malevolent and strangely endearing little title creatures, in this 1984 horror-comedy. Great use of the song "Do You Hear What I Hear," but the icing on the filmmmakers' subversive gingerbread house is the monologue by Phoebe Cates about what happened to her family one December and why she now hates Christmas (a speech that was itself marvellously lampooned in the film's underrated 1990 sequel).
Lethal Weapon- Hard as it may be to remember now, there was a time that outbursts and erratic behavior by Mel Gibson were solely on-screen occurrences. Perhaps the most memorable example of same was back in 1987 and the first Lethal Weapon actioner (which, many of you will recall, did have "Jingle Bell Rock" playing during the opening credits), where a distraught and emotionally raw Sergeant Riggs (Gibson), sitting in his trailer and missing his late wife, watches Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol on TV while contemplating putting a bullet through his brain.
Roger & Me- It's easy to make jokes about the first seven Yuletides on this list--dark as some of them are--because, after all, they're just fictional movies and no one's really getting hurt. For an emotional and timely real-life reminder of what is still going on in some parts of the country, however, one need only go back to documentarian/muckraker Michael Moore's 1989 debut feature on the economic devastation visited upon his Flint, Michigan hometown when General Motors closed its factories there. One of the film's final sequences shows Moore attempting to question his long-elusive prey, then-GM chairman Roger Smith, during the company's Christmas Eve festivities, while at the same time Flint families unable to pay on their homes are being evicted by the sheriff.
The Ref - Imagine being forced to act as mediator for a constantly squabbling married couple you don't even know on Christmas Eve. Then add their troubled son and dysfunctional relatives to the mix, and top it all off with the knowledge that the police are looking for you. That's the kind of holiday that cat burglar-turned-hostage taker-turned marriage counselor Denis Leary gets to have in this wonderfully sardonic 1994 comedy that also starred Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis as the sparring spouses.
And, last but certainly not least...
It's a Wonderful Life- What's that, you say? What on Earth is director Frank Capra's classic 1946 tearjerker, perhaps the quintessential holiday film, doing on this list? Well, Kris Kringle, did you ever sit down and really think about the story? Poor George Bailey (James Stewart) endures nearly 90 minutes of screen time in which his dreams are deferred and then abandoned one by one, leaving him with a barely liquid savings and loan (and we all know how well they've done in the past 60 years or so) staffed by a less-than-responsible relative who misplaces $8,000, and frustrating him to the point that he vents on his family and tries to drown his sorrow in alcohol. Only then--with the prospect of jail staring him in the face--does celestial intervention arrive to show Bailey that hey, this is your life, so man up and get on with it. Sure, the lost $8,000 is replaced, but you can bet the Bedford Falls folk were wondering what George really did with that money. And, meanwhile, nasty old Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) never does get his comeuppance. "Wonderful," indeed!
Scrooge got a bad rap. Maybe if Cratchit had been able to keep it in his pants instead of having 5 or 6 kids, he could have lived quite comfortably on his salary. Is it Scrooge's responsibility to make up for Cratchit's lack of knowledge of birth control?
Ah, but 'Gremlins' always put a nice 'spin' on the Holiday!
Steve, your comment certainly is in tune with this article - very downbeat! I'll take Bob Cratchit over old Ebeneezer any day!
Bah,humbug!!
what about the movie: Mixed Nuts about the suicide hotline on the holiday Eve? In spite of the line up of stellar actors, the best part was that great Christmas soundtrack!
You missed the most downbeat Christmas scene ever filmed! In "The Victors," a film about a company of US troops fighting the Germans in Europe during WWII. There's a scene where several companies of US soldiers stack their weapons and stand in formation in the falling snow as a couple of prisoners (as I remember it) in US uniforms are led out of a building, given last sanctions by a priest, tied to poles, blindfolded, and then shot by a US firing squad--all to the tune of Frank Sinatra crooning "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas." The song is a major part of the scene--all the orders being given by officers and NCOs are muted in the background.
I remember the details of the execution being period correct in historic detail. But as far as I remember, no one ever says who is being executed or why. The US Army offically executed only one American, Pvt Slovak, in Europe for desertion during the whole war. And in fact, several companies of solders who were back in an R&R area after being in the front lines were formed up to witness the execution--as sort of a moral lesson for the troops.
However, because I remember 2 or more prisoners in the film, that would take it out of that category, and make it more likely these were Germans who had lived in the US before the war and who were sent out in US uniforms (which automatically made them spies) to sabotage and otherwise disrupt operations behind American lines during the battle of the Bulge--a true incident that occurred in an extended period around Christmas.
However, the execution of spies was not deliberately witnessed by companies of soldiers--what would be the point? The fact that the film has a great many soldiers formed up to witness the execution indicates the authroities wanted the troops to see it and talk about it and get everyone thinking "better not run away or I'll be shot."
Another downer is "Silent Night" where isolated units of Americans and Germans in WWII play a stupid little charade that ends up getting most of them killed. Nothing is very accurate in that film, including the motivation of characters.
Another downer Christmas scene--in "Stalag 17," where captured American bomber crews are using their dogtags as the only decoration for their small Christmas tree in the cold baracks of a POW camp run by the Germans.
Wasn'there also some sort of bummer Christmas scene in "Slaughterhouse 5?" Can't remember what it was, however.
Christmas Story! The poor guy has to eat Chinese food for his Xmas dinner!!
Sorry, the second film I mentioned about the American and German soldiers getting killed in a mix-up was "A Midnight Clear," not "Silent Night."
Got my carols confused.
"Silent Night" was hardly a downer. A group of American soldiers take refuge in a hunting cabin lived in a by a German woman and her son, trying to escape the war, but ending up right in the middle of it. As she does not want the weapons in her home, the boy secretly hides them while the Americans are tending one of their wounded companions. Things get complicated when a group of German soldiers come upon the site looking for shelter. A good flick, Linda Hamilton stars.
Bruce Willis in "Die Hard". I can think of a lot of better ways to spend the holiday.
"Meet Me in St. Louis" -- the scene where Margaret O'Brian and Judy Garland sing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" still brings tears. It is not a happy song, nor is it a joyful scene, and as I recall Margaret O'Brian ends up crying too.
I can't get through the Christmas season without THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER. I think it's a hoot and just love it. Also, I understand that in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, as the celebration for Harry's homecoming was taking place and the money being counted, there was indeed a scene where Clarence visits Mr. Potter and settles with h-i-m, but was cut do to time. The film was almost 2 1/4 hrs. long and it was let go. A great loss, I say. I'd have loved to see t-h-a-t happen!
One Christmas movie I thought was really a downer was Disney's "One Magic Christmas". The family is out of work, not getting along and ready to give up. Then an angel - Harry Dean Stanton, believe it or not - comes to help them. Even the happy ending isn't really all that happy. I would rate this over - or under - some movies mentioned because this film was about Christmas.
What about "Christmas Holiday," with Gene Kelly as a psychopathic killer and Deanna Durbin as a saloon singer in New Orleans at Christmas time? (They couldn't call her character a prostitute in 1944, but it was pretty obvious). Heartwarming!
So many great Christmas films...where do I start ?
Its a shame there aren't writers or story tellers like yesteryear. Films like: Scrooge, Miracle on 34th St.,Its a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story? I don't see great ones being made regarding Christmas movies anymore....and I'm only 46. Where are all the great writers & producers ? Not that many great epics being made either these days. The studio greats are gone...so are the films. Thank God for TCM !!
I say, for all around depression, go with "Hamlet". The scene that mentions Christmas it is cut from most movie versions, but the Kenneth Branaugh version has it. It's the scene at the beginning, where the guards and Horatio are discussing the ghost of Hamlet's father walking around at night. Jack Lemmon, as one of the guards, mentions it could be likely because of it being Christmas time.
The ghost of your murdered father and king crying for revenge? Happy Christmas!
Perhaps the best example of non Christmas cheer is found in The Lion in Winter (1968) starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn. If you are one who dreads family get togethers during the holidays see this one for a lesson on just how bad it can get.
What about "Remember the Night"? What is more perfect than Sterling Holloway singing "The End of a Perfect Day". I have to replay it several times.
You bring up some good war titles that I was unfamiliar with, Rufnek, particularly The Victors, which sadly isn't on home video. Apparently director/scripter Carl Foreman and Sinatra had considered doing a drama about Pvt. Slovik's execution, but the filmmaker's blacklisting gave Sinatra second thoughts. The soundtrack music in The Victors was Foreman's way of giving a little dig to Frank.
Nothing wrong with Chinese food on Christmas,especially after a matinee movie...and you don't to be Asian or Jewish to enjoy it.
Don't forget the execution scene in The Victors(1963) in which they play "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" as the convicted deserter is paraded out and executed by firing squad.
Steve, your comment is spoken like a real Republican.
All this doom and gloom is ok but what about Christmas movies with a happy note? Like White Christmas, Holiday Inn or A Christmas Story? I don't like sad movies around the holidays.
Real life is hard enough....please give me some feel good movies at Christmas!
Gang, I like Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol and Alastair Sim's Scrooge as much as the next person, but after a while watching too many cheery Christmas movies feels like eating too many candy canes...your teeth start to hurt.
Talk about anger management problems? How about
Billy Bob Thornton in "Bad Santa".
I really like the movie, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," with James Dunne and Peggy Ann Garner and Dorothy McGuire. However, its Christmas scene is a real downer for those of us who have experienced the loss of loved ones during or right before the holiday season. The extended family tries to make a Christmas Eve celebration for the two kids, and after they go to bed, the alcoholic father goes out in the cold to find a good-paying job as a sandhog he heard about. But the family never hears from him again in the days following Christmas, until a policeman knocks on the door to advise he was found dead from exposure while seeking work in Manhattan! He's buried right after New Year's I think, and it's not until June graduation time for the two kids, that things turn around for the family, when the policeman, a recent widower himself before the holidays, played by Lloyd Nolan, proposes to the widow, who had just had another baby in the spring. He will finally lift them all out of poverty. I can watch this film at other times of the year, but at Christmastime, it's a pretty grim reminder of your own family losses.
We need to all harken back to the real meaning of Christmas - without doing that brings depression and the need to down the efforts of others.
For a delightful Christmas movie from 1944, please watch "Christmas in Connecticut" starring Barbara Stanwyck and a great cast of character actors you will recognize. Love this film...
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