With the help of Amazon Prime Video and my local library, I'm going through a list of supposedly "Forgotten Christmas Movies" from Good Housekeeping (the first few are arguably forgotten. The last few, are definitely not forgotten). After I watch them, I do a brief write-up on my Facebook account. But I'll post round-ups of them right here on Universes Beckon! Perhaps you'll find one you'd like to check out!
Let's begin . . .
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| Bachelor Mother (1939) |
Starting with Bachelor Mother, because I'm a sucker for stories of unexpected families coming together. It's a comedy about an unexpected shopgirl who unexpectedly gets "gifted" a baby for Christmas when she spots a baby being left on the door step of a foundlings home. Spotted by the people inside as she picks the child up, everyone now thinks she's the mother of the child, which leads to unexpected responsibility but also unexpected sympathy for the "poor unwed mother". I enjoyed it. Though it was an odd movie because at one point the female lead just decided it's easier to live the lie everyone's forced on her. She does warm up to the child, but it's hard to pinpoint when. David Niven also plays the fabulously wealthy love interest.
In The Shop Around the Corner, James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan play bickering Budapest shop workers who can't seem to get off of each other's nerves. But secretly they're pen pals who are falling for each other.
Also, a strange amount of Donald Duck in the shop scenes.
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| The Shop Around the Corner (1940) |
So . . . it's You've Got Mail. Or rather, You've Got Mail is a remake of this movie. It's just this one is far more Stewart and Sullavan screwball comedy and less Hanks and Ryan romcom. Regarding its status as a Christmas movie, it just seems to be that some of it takes place around that time. But that's often the case with Golden Age Hollywood movies aimed at adults. They're really not trying to deliver a message about "the magic of Christmas".
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| Christmas in Connecticut (1945) |
Barbara Stanwyck plays a writer for a housekeeping magazine who writes a column where she shares recipes and tells stories of her farm in Connecticut where she lives with her husband and baby. One day, her publisher gets wind of a request to host a recently returned sailor (Dennis Morgan) for Christmas at her home in Connecticut. There's only one problem: it's all fiction. She's not married, she has no baby, she doesn't live on a farm in Connecticut and she can't even cook. She's just good at leveraging the experiences of her cooperative friends into the form of an article. But her overbearing boss (played by Sydney Greenstreet) won't take no for an answer.
A screwball comedy as expected. But this one feels a bit less charming than the others. And the female lead seems a bit less than sympathetic. The best part in it is probably Greenstreet as the blowhard boss. This is another one that's been remade. This time as a TV movie in 1992.
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| Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) |
Meet Me in St. Louis. Not really forgotten and not really a Christmas movie. Though, it was nice to watch a big roadshow musical instead of a screwball comedy for a change. It's really a musical about a year in the life of a family in St. Louis in the turn of the century. Featuring some of the most recognizable music in the American musical canon, including "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" (which is probably what got it listed as a Christmas movie on the list I found online). The copy I got from the library was scratched all to hell and my blu-ray player wouldn't play it. But I found it on Tubi which is free. It was my audio accompaniment as I wrote out this year's Christmas cards (I'm getting them out a bit early this year).
A decent enough film, but I don't think I'd watch it as a Christmas movie every year.
There will be more to come.
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