More Christmas Movies You Might Not Know But Should

Posted on December 9, 2012 at 3:59 pm

My lists of 12 Christmas movies that don’t feature Tiny Tim, Linus, Bing Crosby, the Grinch, or Clarence the Angel, or a Leg Lamp, Twelve More Great Christmas Movies Without Santa, Tiny Tim, or a Message from Ovaltine, and Worst Christmas Movies are among my favorite and most-read. Try some neglected gems that are fun to share with family during the holidays:

“A House Without a Christmas Tree” Jason Robards stars in this story about a widower who finds Christmas memories too painful and his daughter, who wins a Christmas tree at school.

“A Song for the Season” Gerald McRaney plays a man who is not happy to be moving back in with his father (Andy Griffith) for his new job as principal of a troubled school. Things begin to change when he meets the beautiful music teacher (Naomi Judd).

Remember the Night is a bittersweet film about a prosecutor (Fred MacMurray) who brings a woman accused of shoplifting (Barbara Stanwyck) home with him for Christmas so that she won’t get an overly lenient sentence from the judge swayed by the holiday spirit, a very different mood from the stars’ other feature, “Double Indemnity” and notable, too, as the first screenplay from Preston Sturges.

“Gift of the Magi” O. Henry’s classic tale of the poor young couple who sacrifice their most precious belongings to give to each other stars Marla Sokoloff and Mark Webber.

“Merry Sitcom” This collection of 60’s sitcom Christmas classics includes episodes from “Bewitched,” “That Girl,” “The Flying Nun,” and “The Donna Reed Show.” For fans of 50’s television, “Holiday TV Classics” has episodes from “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” and many, many more.

“Blackadder’s A Christmas Carol” turns the classic story inside out with hilarious results as Rowan Atkinson plays a kind-hearted shopkeeper who is inspired by spirits to give meanness a try.

“Bells of St. Mary’s” has the return of Bing Crosby as Father O’Malley, this time at odds with Ingrid Bergman as a spirited nun. The children’s depiction of the Nativity is delightfully improvised.

“Holiday Affair” Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh star in a sweet holiday story about a widow with a young son who finds love again.

Anna Karenina on Film

Posted on November 12, 2012 at 8:00 am

Joe Wright’s “Anna Karenina,” with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard, opens in limited release this week, with Kiera Knightley in the title role as Tolstoy’s tragic heroine who loves not wisely but too well. The novel has one of the most often-quoted opening lines in literature: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Not every film adaptation of Anna Karenina is alike, and the new version should inspire audiences to take another look at the earlier films.

The best-known Anna is Greta Garbo, but Anna has also been portrayed by Vivian Leigh, Jaqueline Bisset (with a dashing Christopher Reeve as Vronsky), and Sophie Marceau (filmed on location in Russia). There’s also a BBC miniseries starring Victoria Allum. You can also see the story as a ballet or musical or opera. There is a silent film version, thought to be lost, and a Russian movie that is hard to find, and an Egyptian version called “River of Love.” I wish I could hear the radio version with Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck and see the 1961 television movie with Sean Connery and Claire Bloom.

The Best of Bond: The Women! The Theme Songs! The Cars! The Chases! The Villains!

Posted on November 8, 2012 at 3:39 pm

As “Skyfall” opens, we look back on 50 years of James Bond on screen, and that means some great assessments of the best of Bond. My favorite Bonds are Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan, but “Skyfall” may be my favorite Bond movie and I love Adele’s theme song. My favorite Bond villain is Goldfinger and my favorite Bond car is the Aston-Martin with the ejector seat.

What about you?

Fandango has a delectable gallery of the best of the Bond girls. My three favorites are:

Michel Dunaway’s definitive ranking of all the Bond themes is a pleasure to read.

1. It’s not about the best song. No list worth anything will merely rank the best songs that happen to have been Bond themes. Otherwise, the producers could just stick “Stairway to Heaven” or “Satisfaction” or “Try a Little Tenderness” into the next installment of the series and assure themselves the new No. 1 spot. No, the songs shouldn’t only (or even primarily) appeal as songs per se, but as icons of Bond. They should exude Bondness. When you hear one of them, you shouldn’t first think “What a great song!” Instead, you should immediately be plunged into visions of a Bond film, preferably with yourself as either the titular hero or as his love interest.

2. What is Bondness? Entire books have been written on the appeal of Bond, but two of the most important aspects of that appeal need to be expressed in the song. First is a sense of momentousness, of earth-shattering urgency. It can be expressed through the arrangement, through the vocal performance, or the lyrics, but we’d better get a sense that big things are at stake. Second, and seemingly paradoxically, there must be an element of offhand elegance, almost a casual air. James Bond makes it look easy. So the song should make it sound easy.

3. Bondness is forever. In the original, instrumental James Bond theme, John Barry gave the franchise a gift of inestimable worth: so many signature moments. Go on the street and ask four people to hum the James Bond theme, and you’re likely to hear four different parts of the same composition. There’s the menacing four-note opening, the wildly discordant second portion, and the full-out orchestral jazzy vamp, all of which lead to the orgasmic “BAH-BAH-bummmmm, BAH-BAH-bummmmm, BAH-BAH!” ending, which then returns to the original sequence. The best Bond songs recognize Barry’s genius by incorporating the iconic instrumental theme into themselves, however subtly.

I’m grateful to Dunaway for reminding me of Tom Jones and “Thunderball.” (And even for reminding me that A-Ha did a Bond theme.)

Critic Richard Corliss makes a list of the best Bond villains.

Here’s a compilation of Bond’s “coldest kills:”

There’s a marvelously entertaining documentary about The Cars Of The Bond Movies, one of which makes a return appearance in “Skyfall.”

And compilations of the best of the car chases:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjXhSbPUHnc

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Celebrate Presidents on Election Day

Posted on November 6, 2012 at 8:00 am

After you vote, take a break from red and blue maps to enjoy some of the portrayals of real US Presidents on screen. This week, the second 2012 movie about our 16th President opens — Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis. And we’ll see another movie about a real President later this month when Bill Murray plays Franklin Roosevelt in “Hyde Park on the Hudson.”

I’ve already written about some of the many other movie versions of Lincoln’s life. “Wilson” stars Oscar nominee Alexander Knox in a dignified tribute to the 29th President. Gary Sinese gave a powerful performance in the HBO movie, Truman. Rough Riders has Tom Berenger as Theodore Roosevelt, leading Cuban rebels against Spain.

Perhaps the most fanciful portrayal of a real US President is “The Remarkable Andrew,” with William Holden as an honorable accountant who discovers a discrepancy in the town books and is visited by the ghost of his favorite President, Andrew Jackson (Brian Donlevy), who provides guidance and support. According to TIME Magazine, Lincoln has been portrayed most frequently on screen but perhaps the President most memorable on film is Franklin Roosevelt, the only man to be elected four times, with Sunrise At Campobello, Eleanor and Franklin and its sequel, Warm Springs, and, of course, Annie! (TIME notes that the only US President never to show up as a character in a movie is Warren G. Harding.)

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List: Movies About Pilots

Posted on November 4, 2012 at 8:00 am

Denzel Washington’s magnificent performance in Flight made me think of some of my other favorite movies about airplane pilots. These are all worth a look:

The Spirit of St. Louis James Stewart was a couple of decades older than Charles Lindburgh was when he made his historic flight across the Atlantic. But he was a decorated pilot himself, and that helps lends authenticity and dedication to this moving portrayal.

The High and the Mighty John Wayne has to save a disabled plane full of passengers in this exciting drama with a haunting musical theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm6gRWbYU2k

Red Tails George Lucas produced this story of the Tuskegee Airmen. The on-earth scenes drag a bit but the airplane battles are exciting.

Top Gun This Tom Cruise classic about fighter pilots will make you feel “the need for speed.”

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines A 1910 airplane race takes us back to the days when airplanes were little more than kites with a place to sit in this very funny, exciting, and romantic story.

Always Richard Dreyfuss plays a daring Forest Service pilot in this Steven Spielberg remake of the WII classic, “A Guy Named Joe.”

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