The Art of Manliness - Season’s Screenings — A Tour of Classic Christmas Movies

00:00:00.000 brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast

00:00:11.140 watching a holiday movie is a great way to get into the spirit of the season has become an annual

00:00:16.360 tradition for many families but what exactly makes a christmas movie a christmas movie

00:00:20.760 what are some of the best ones ever made and what makes these gems so classic here to answer

00:00:25.840 these questions and take us on a tour of the highlights of the holiday movie canon is jeremy

00:00:29.580 arnold a film historian and the author of christmas in the movies 35 classics to celebrate

00:00:35.120 the season today on the show we talk about what defines a christmas movie why we enjoy them so

00:00:40.200 much and why so many classics in the genre were released during the 1940s jeremy offers his take

00:00:45.560 on the best version of a christmas carol whether holiday inn or white christmas is a better movie

00:00:49.640 why he thinks die hard is in fact a christmas movie what accounts for the staying power of elf and

00:00:55.220 much more at the end of the show jeremy offers several suggestions for lesser known christmas

00:00:59.880 movies to check out when you're tired of watching a christmas story for the 50th time

00:01:03.520 after the show's over check out our show notes at awim.is slash christmas movies

00:01:07.760 all right jeremy arnold welcome to the show thanks so much for having me brett so you are a film

00:01:25.300 historian a commentator an author uh you've done a lot of work with turner classic movies tcm i'm

00:01:31.200 curious what led to your interest in film well i guess i would have to give credit to my father

00:01:37.560 for that at a very young age he introduced me to classic movies of the 30s and 40s he had been born

00:01:45.140 in the 30s and grew up in brooklyn and his favorite movies were always warner brothers movies of the

00:01:51.020 1940s so at a very young age i was becoming very familiar with uh you know humphrey bogart barbara

00:01:58.060 stanwick james cagney those are the earliest classic film stars that i was aware of and i still love that

00:02:04.900 period more than any other and i just sort of became obsessed with classic cinema and i started

00:02:11.700 to notice that when i saw certain names in the credits you know especially the directors you know

00:02:17.740 like alfred hitchcock or john ford or lubich or anthony mann i just i i started to figure out that

00:02:24.600 those names usually meant some special quality or just excellence in general and that's sort of how

00:02:32.060 my film education started and then i went to college at wesleyan university which has a really

00:02:37.160 great film department and i just became fascinated with how the creative choices a filmmaker makes can

00:02:43.320 dictate audience response and i made some short films and came to la started working in the industry

00:02:49.320 all kinds of jobs and just eventually fell into writing and working in the world of classic movies

00:02:54.020 that's great so you got a new book out in time for the holiday season it's christmas in the movies

00:02:59.320 35 classics to celebrate the season so watching christmas movies has become a tradition

00:03:04.540 for i think most people here in the united states we're going to talk about some of our favorite

00:03:09.420 classics but let's talk about the history of christmas in cinema do we know when the first

00:03:14.840 christmas movie was ever made well the earliest one that i'm aware of is from 1898 and it's a little

00:03:23.500 it's a film called santa claus and it's a little over one minute long it was made by a british

00:03:30.780 filmmaker and it's been preserved by the british film institute you can find it on youtube it's you

00:03:36.840 know in its own way it's quite charming and then in in 1901 is what is considered the first version

00:03:43.300 on film of a christmas carol and that one's about i think three or four minutes long also available

00:03:49.120 on youtube and also pretty good given the context although it's it is hard to screw up a christmas

00:03:55.240 carol because it's such a rock solid story right we're going to talk about a christmas carol so hey

00:03:59.140 christmas has been a theme in cinema over 120 years that's a long time and something you point out in

00:04:04.900 the book though is that a lot of the christmas movies we consider classics were made in the like

00:04:11.380 1940s what was going on why there were so many christmas movies that are timeless made in that time

00:04:17.400 well i think the short answer is world war ii that that's the defining event of the 1940s

00:04:24.260 and this isn't to say there weren't christmas movies made in the 30s the first full decade of

00:04:29.820 the sound era there were but there are just not that many of them there's a british version of a

00:04:34.120 christmas carol in 1935 there's a little b movie called miracle on main street which i do write about

00:04:40.180 in the book came out in 1939 but the 40s you know the first half of the decade was defined societally

00:04:48.920 by families breaking apart as millions of americans went off to war so families were fracturing and

00:04:55.380 breaking and after the war in the middle of the decade families were reuniting and sometimes they

00:05:03.260 weren't because their loved ones had perished so the whole idea of family the unity of family the

00:05:11.640 growth of family and the breaking apart of family this was happening on an enormous scale you know

00:05:18.600 everyone was affected by it to some degree so what i've noticed is that christmas starts to pop up

00:05:25.900 much more frequently in 1940s movies including in movies that i wouldn't even characterize as christmas

00:05:33.420 movies you know where the season maybe plays a small role in representing the family unit in some way for

00:05:40.380 that film in the full-fledged christmas movies it injects real meaning into the storytelling so meaning

00:05:49.120 to the character's journeys the story's concerns the the the takeaway that the audience takes from

00:05:55.860 from the film and i just think that because the whole idea of family was was so widespread and

00:06:04.340 you know top of mind for so many people christmas just became a really smart sort of shorthand for

00:06:11.440 representing family on screen and you see it used in so many different ways yeah so a few examples of

00:06:16.840 that meet me in st louis comes to comes to mind it's all about families breaking apart and having

00:06:22.520 a change that was done 1944 and then shortly after that well you have i'll be seeing you another one

00:06:28.820 1944 same sort of theme and then i mean kind of after the war you had the same you saw the same thing

00:06:35.100 people having this longing for home and family i mean it's a wonderful life that's that's what it's

00:06:40.020 all about and you know especially i talk about how the year in 1947 is sort of the peak christmas

00:06:46.560 movie year of the peak christmas movie decade you have it happened on fifth avenue miracle on 34th

00:06:52.500 street and the bishop's wife all opening that year and lots of other movies with christmas in them

00:06:57.580 opening throughout the year i mean i did some research and i found that from january through

00:07:03.340 december 1947 there was pretty much a consistent presence of christmas on movie screens you know through

00:07:10.920 the entire year that speaks to a couple things first the war had ended two years earlier and it

00:07:16.760 takes a year or two for a movie to get made and released so if the end of the war had had this

00:07:22.840 effect even unconsciously on filmmakers it would have taken a couple years to start manifesting in

00:07:28.820 cinemas the other thing it speaks to is and this has to do with the fact that the movies open throughout

00:07:34.660 the year a lot of christmas movies in the 40s opened at odd times of the year of spring summer

00:07:39.880 and i think that speaks to the whole notion of using christmas as a meaningful storytelling

00:07:48.120 device and not just as an excuse to open a movie at christmas time which is usually the case today

00:07:54.640 what makes christmas such a great narrative device well i think because we all experience christmas

00:08:01.760 every year whether we you know observe it to some degree or or another we all live through it we at

00:08:07.900 least observe it if not experience it and so it comes with a built-in audience recognition and

00:08:16.000 understanding and you know if you have a story about a fractured family and the story gets to the

00:08:23.460 christmas season you just know that this is a time where the family should be together where you want

00:08:28.640 them to be together maybe the story isn't allowing them to be for whatever reason and it's using christmas

00:08:34.020 to sort of point that out to make a contrast or to highlight that idea so you know it's there there

00:08:41.900 are so many recognizable rituals of the season visual oral that we all experience and so it's very

00:08:49.380 relatable yeah and i guess that date december 25th it gives the writer of the film like in the audience

00:08:55.940 too that there's a there's a tension we all know it's leading up to the 25th something has to happen

00:09:00.080 by then and that anticipation that we all experience ourselves in the holiday season leading up to 25th

00:09:05.960 that can drive a storyline really powerful oh absolutely absolutely there's so many christmas

00:09:11.160 movies that culminate on christmas eve or christmas day and you know some go a little beyond to new

00:09:17.920 years but you know the idea that christmas is a time of healing of rebirth of love being formed of

00:09:26.800 being able to open up and tell them that you love them that that sort of thing is so linked to christmas

00:09:31.800 okay so uh the real life longing for family togetherness during world war ii added a longing

00:09:38.460 and a sincerity it added an earnestness to these movies made in the 40s that i think i think still

00:09:44.860 resonates today and has made helped make these movies classics how did christmas movies change in the

00:09:51.020 post-war period well i think you start seeing a shift from wistfulness and the idea of a complete

00:09:58.280 family unit from that to one of nostalgia which is most exemplified by the movie white christmas i think

00:10:06.480 which is really driven by nostalgia and driven by these characters desire to do something for their

00:10:11.880 their former army commander you also start seeing christmas used in more subversive ways

00:10:18.480 black comedies like we're no angels you get it i know we'll talk about a christmas carol later but

00:10:23.740 the you know the 1951 a christmas carol is quite darker than the hollywood version made in the 30s

00:10:29.960 and i think that's more appropriate to this time than the other one would have been and you start

00:10:34.740 getting variations in the 60s like cash on demand which is a variation on a christmas carol but it's

00:10:39.660 really a bank heist movie so i think christmas starts being used in different types of genres and this

00:10:46.900 actually speaks to something else really important which is christmas movies were never a genre back

00:10:52.900 in the 30s 40s 50s no one ever said no filmmaker ever said i'm making a christmas movie on stage 12

00:11:00.040 the term didn't exist the term came later with hindsight and we have since retroactively labeled

00:11:07.320 these movies christmas movies and people define the term christmas movie in different ways because there is

00:11:15.860 no accepted generic definition and so this is why when when we love to debate whether die hard or any

00:11:23.240 other film is or isn't a christmas movie what's really being debated are competing definitions of

00:11:29.480 the term for one you know someone's definition may not allow for die hard and someone else's does and

00:11:36.340 that's just the way it is both are valid because the christmas movie the the definition of it is very

00:11:42.140 subjective i mean you it's really whatever you like to watch every year christmas time and that

00:11:47.500 may be a movie that doesn't even mention christmas and it's just some pure escapism and that that could

00:11:53.180 be arguably defined as a christmas movie as well it's just not the definition that i went with yeah

00:11:57.840 it's speaking of a christmas movie that's not even really about christmas i know in england

00:12:02.100 the great escape is a christmas tradition there for some reason and so people watch the great escape every

00:12:08.460 year yes and and and so are james bond movies there are marathons of bond movies on uh british

00:12:14.780 television every holiday season i think because they're so purely escapist yeah so how do you define

00:12:20.140 a christmas movie for yourself so i define it as any movie of any genre in which some aspect of the

00:12:29.300 holiday season uh plays a meaningful role in the storytelling so you know as i said before meaningful to

00:12:36.480 the story the character arcs the audience takeaway and the thing is is that this christmas season can

00:12:43.360 mean many different things it can mean on one end of the spectrum joy family togetherness love positive

00:12:50.680 transformation but it can also mean loneliness and despair and alienation cynicism the feeling that

00:12:57.900 christmas is insufferable and overly saccharine you know is too commercial all these things are

00:13:06.160 aspects of the season that i think we all feel at one time or another in our lives or even at one

00:13:12.160 time or or another in a specific day during the season and so it it really allows for a very wide

00:13:19.900 spectrum of movies that we could call christmas movies you know from dark tragedies to you know

00:13:27.340 cheerful cartoonish fantasies okay so let's dig into some of the movies you highlight in the book

00:13:31.860 and let's start off talking about movies based on the charles dickens classic a christmas carol so

00:13:37.500 you mentioned the first adaptation of that on film was in 19 like early 1900s 1901 how many film

00:13:44.420 adaptations have been made of this story uh i have no idea okay it's probably a lot there are too many

00:13:52.280 there are there are too many to count because i'm sure there are lots of versions that i'm not even

00:13:57.500 aware of which were made in other countries for other you know like animation puppetry movies while

00:14:04.700 there is one the muppet christmas carol there are variations in almost every genre probably except

00:14:10.220 sci-fi which doesn't really mix with christmas very well but yeah it is probably the most adapted

00:14:16.540 novel or story in the history of cinema it's a great story do you have a favorite version of the

00:14:22.380 christmas carol in film my favorite version is really the 1951 british version starring alistair sim

00:14:29.340 which was released in england as scrooge and in america as a christmas carol but a close number two

00:14:35.980 is the muppet christmas carol yeah what makes that 1951 version like what sets it apart well first of all

00:14:43.320 the casting alistair sim was a very controversial choice to play scrooge he'd been known as a comic

00:14:50.360 actor really just for comedy and when he was announced in the lead for that this is months

00:14:58.520 before the film even started production there were letters written to newspapers and movie magazines

00:15:06.080 decrying the whole idea of casting sim how could you do this how could you you know taint the charles

00:15:11.960 dickens classic with you know a comic actor like alistair sim kind of amazing that people would go to the

00:15:18.120 trouble of doing that before the movie even opened or was made and the the producer of the film wrote

00:15:23.600 a response called why i chose sim in which he defended his choice and you know the bottom line

00:15:31.100 is the movie came out and he was brilliant it didn't matter that he was only known for comedy he was just a

00:15:37.520 really good actor and was able to to play the tragedy and the joy everything in between in that

00:15:43.220 character another thing that sets it apart is um what i would call the horror element you know christmas

00:15:49.720 carol gets really dark in parts especially when we're with the ghost of christmas future and the

00:15:56.340 darkness is necessary because scrooge is so dark and he must confront that and it also makes the joy of 0.90

00:16:03.160 the ending all the more powerful like it's wonderful life does the same thing so it captures the loneliness

00:16:08.380 and despair of the season as well as the joys the lows and the highs and just like it's wonderful life

00:16:16.200 which has a lot a lot to thank dickens for i just think it embraces the season in a more complete way

00:16:23.980 than some of the other versions which are almost all good by the way because like you know it's such

00:16:29.060 a rock solid story it's really hard to mess it up oh and also the sense of period london is really strong

00:16:35.200 uh in the 1951 version the director brian desmond hurst really worked hard to do that and he drew

00:16:42.720 inspiration from the illustrations by john leach in the original publication of the dickens novel

00:16:49.360 which were very plentiful it was an illustrated novel that way this film was planned for a big

00:16:54.660 premiere at radio city music hall but once the organizers saw the film and saw how dark it was

00:17:01.080 and bleak they canceled it so it's kind of amazing to think but the movie did not do well commercially

00:17:07.580 or critically in the united states not till much later when i wanted to become a critical and

00:17:12.500 commercial success i think more in the 1970s and 80s when it started saturating television screens

00:17:19.840 you know just like it's wonderful life and a couple other titles were doing it was sort of

00:17:24.040 rediscovered then i think well that's another interesting point about the christmas film genre

00:17:28.520 television plays a big role in their success they typically don't do well at the holidays

00:17:34.960 they're not box office bangers but once they get on tv that's when they become part of the our culture

00:17:43.180 yeah you know television has a really interesting push and pull relationship with christmas movies

00:17:49.440 you could argue it helped create the very concept of the term christmas movie simply by virtue of the

00:17:56.160 fact that it's a wonderful life and a christmas carol and then christmas in connecticut miracle

00:18:00.100 on 34th street they started playing on television all the time in the 60s and 70s and 80s and i think

00:18:06.920 that cemented in a lot of the public's mind the idea of watching a movie at christmas time that

00:18:13.420 really has christmas in it at the same time oh but the same thing happened with a christmas story

00:18:18.940 by the way that was not a big success when it opened but then it found new life on cable television

00:18:24.360 but another thing about television is that it it sort of took over the production of what might have

00:18:32.520 been christmas movies in the 60s and 70s there are very few movies in those decades that i think

00:18:37.440 really are christmas movies so what was happening in television all the all the christmas specials

00:18:42.420 that we still love from the rank and bass how the grinch stole christmas charlie brown all of those

00:18:47.380 they kind of took over the christmas market i think in those years yeah the muppets christmas special

00:18:53.360 with john denver like i still yeah i still watch that one it's it's or emid otter's jug band christmas

00:18:59.040 yeah so you mentioned christmas carol another favorite of yours is the muppet christmas carol and i that's

00:19:04.680 my favorite because i just i loved how michael cain played screwed like he's surrounded by these

00:19:10.840 these puppets and he could have been kind of goofy with it but he played screwed straight he was like

00:19:15.940 i'm gonna be scrooge and he did it like a professional yeah he did he said he was gonna

00:19:21.420 he said i'm gonna play it like i'm doing this with the royal shakespeare company uh and that's a great

00:19:27.520 contrast when you have muppets all around you you know being the muppets i just i love that movie

00:19:32.840 because it is such a faithful adaptation of the story but it also gives us what we want from the

00:19:39.580 muppets you know the sense of irreverence and the crazy comedy i mean it it's just a perfect blend

00:19:48.080 all right so we can't talk christmas movies without talking about it's a wonderful life we've already

00:19:52.560 sort of mentioned it but what's the backstory on that film i know it originally wasn't it wasn't

00:19:57.140 made as a christmas movie i don't think even it didn't even release around christmas time is that

00:20:01.360 right well it actually did get a limited release in december of 1946 although it didn't open widely

00:20:09.560 until january 1947 it was sort of a last minute addition to the christmas release schedule because

00:20:16.160 another movie by the studio uh sinbad the sailor wasn't ready for release so they needed to slot

00:20:22.000 something else into that slot was it a hit when it first came out no it was not a hit it lost money

00:20:28.880 but it was not a bomb it wasn't a huge box office bomb as sometimes is reported it just didn't do very

00:20:34.760 well and you know the the way it came about was after world war ii frank capra had he'd been changed

00:20:42.640 by the war he'd he'd made war documentaries and propaganda films and he'd been really affected by

00:20:48.100 the imagery of of war and combat that he saw and so he was interested in making something darker than

00:20:54.960 the films he'd been known for and so he returned and formed a company called liberty films with william

00:21:00.420 weiler and george stevens and around this time the story the short story that it's wonderful life was

00:21:07.480 based on found its way to him rko had owned it and had been failing miserably in trying to adapt it into

00:21:16.000 a screenplay and so they sold it to capra and you know this was the problem it was a mix of tones and it

00:21:22.200 was hard to capture the balancing act of the tragedy and the darkness with the lightness and the warmth and

00:21:28.040 comedy in the film capra liked it because of that mix especially the darker aspects and so he adapted

00:21:35.940 it with three other writers into the screenplay that we know and brought back jimmy stewart who he

00:21:40.220 directed several times before and it just really came out of all all of those elements well speaking of

00:21:46.740 the war's influence on this movie so this is made after the war we did a podcast interview several years

00:21:51.840 ago with an author who did a history of jimmy stewart's service as a bomber pilot during world war

00:21:57.520 ii and one thing he noted was that famous scene where george bailey is basically hit rocks bottom he's

00:22:05.000 at martinis and he says that prayer and starts crying apparently jimmy stewart kind of used his experience

00:22:13.520 in war to summon those emotions that he he conveyed in the film yes he he did say that later on and

00:22:22.900 it's a really powerful moment i mean this is george bailey at his lowest point it's just before he goes

00:22:31.260 to the bridge to you know commit suicide to to plan to commit suicide and the camera moves in we have

00:22:40.740 this intense close-up and he's praying and you know praying for any kind of heavenly help that he can

00:22:47.440 get you know in that line i'm at the end of my rope i don't know what to do very powerful what do

00:22:53.120 you think is the most christmassy scene in that film were you watching you're like oh man merry

00:22:57.240 christmas it's here i love i love the holidays well i mean i would have to say the ending the finale in

00:23:03.080 the bailey home where everyone is together and people are coming in and giving money to save everything

00:23:08.360 and you know he realizes that he's the richest man in town and he's with his family framed in front of

00:23:14.540 the christmas tree and it's it's joyful i mean it's probably the most joyful finale of any movie ever

00:23:21.020 made because you know we really earn that joy not just george bailey but the audience because the movie

00:23:27.540 puts us through the ringer it's a really traumatic film at times with some real darkness in it so it's a

00:23:35.580 very cathartic release at the end we're gonna take a quick break for your word from our sponsors

00:23:40.500 and now back to the show okay so another oft overlooked jimmy stewart christmas film is the

00:23:49.560 shop around the corner and i watched this one katie and i my wife we were at a bed and breakfast around

00:23:55.680 christmas time and we were just watching films and the shop around the corner was on it was on

00:24:01.440 turner classic movies and we're like oh what's this and we started watching it and we really

00:24:06.560 enjoyed it so what's the basic plot of this movie and what makes it a great christmas movie

00:24:10.820 well this is one of the great romantic comedies produced and directed by the great ernst lubich

00:24:16.240 and it is a story set in a shop and the employees of the shop are the characters in the film

00:24:23.040 and jimmy stewart and margaret sullivan play two co-workers who really can't stand each other

00:24:30.400 they bicker they argue they get on each other's nerves all the time but at the same time they

00:24:36.080 don't know this yet but they're each engaging in anonymous pen pal letter writing with someone else

00:24:44.460 and they're falling in love with this anonymous person that they're each writing letters to and

00:24:48.500 it turns out that they're writing letters to each other anonymously and at a certain point in the story

00:24:54.240 stewart figures this out and it's a great moment where he just suddenly sees margaret sullivan in a

00:25:01.040 completely different light and realizes that the person that he's been bickering with on her surface

00:25:08.340 is not who she really is and the same is true of him and in time she comes to realize that too

00:25:14.600 you know it's no spoiler to say they end up together at the end i mean of course they do but the way they

00:25:20.280 get there is by you know scratching beneath the surface of things and being vulnerable and really

00:25:27.120 seeing the inner core of the other person and so it's a really beautiful way that they fall in love

00:25:34.520 and what makes it a great christmas movie is how the season becomes more and more present in the story

00:25:42.020 in the frame on the soundtrack as the movie goes on and as these two characters fall in love and you

00:25:48.760 sort of get the sense that christmas the season is like a force that's pushing these characters

00:25:53.920 together sort of nudging them to each other but it also allows for a great mix of tones not to the

00:26:00.640 same degree as it's wonderful life but in the same vein you know the there are subplots that deal with

00:26:05.600 marital infidelity and the great pain that that causes there's a suicide attempt like it's wonderful

00:26:11.540 life doesn't shy away from the the darkness and the loneliness of life and of the season and so it's

00:26:18.700 that mix of tone that i think makes it feel like a really complete movie and if people are listening

00:26:23.340 they're thinking that plot sounds familiar you got mel the tom hanks movie is basically a reboot of

00:26:30.320 this film it is it is very consciously a remake yeah yeah so one thing about christmas movies is some of

00:26:37.680 our most cherished christmas songs that we sing today around pianos and listen on the radio they came

00:26:44.260 from christmas movies and one of those songs is white christmas written by irving berlin and sung

00:26:50.700 particularly by bing crosby what movie did white christmas debut in it debuted in the movie holiday

00:26:58.560 inn in 1942 but it debuted as a song even before that on christmas day 1941 bing crosby performed it on the

00:27:07.880 radio on christmas day and it became quite popular quite quickly he made a commercial recording in

00:27:15.400 the spring of 1942 just before holiday inn opened then the movie opened in the summer early summer i

00:27:22.340 believe and it was a big hit played all summer long it was shown to troops abroad the song became a really

00:27:29.960 big hit around the world with the armed forces and then the following year it won the academy award

00:27:34.880 and for almost every year of the rest of the decade it reached number one or close to it on the pop

00:27:41.940 charts every holiday season so i mean it is still by some measures the single best-selling song in in

00:27:50.240 music history what what i find really interesting is the way that the song has sort of evolved in its

00:27:56.780 meaning over the years when it's in holiday inn it's used purely romantically it's used to represent

00:28:04.740 love between bing crosby and marjorie reynolds he sings it to her and it's a very romantic setting

00:28:10.260 and it's a cozy christmas time you know living room with a fireplace that kind of thing snowing outside

00:28:16.160 and he sings it really intimately and then she sings and they sing together so it's literally bringing

00:28:23.980 them together in song and love by the time of white christmas the movie in 1954 in that film the song

00:28:32.920 is not presented romantically at all it's presented purely on the basis of nostalgia you know we we

00:28:40.520 first hear it in the opening sequence when bing crosby is in a war zone and he's singing it to troops

00:28:46.460 who are all sort of sitting with their heads hanging clearly thinking about their families and homes

00:28:52.420 thousands of miles away and the song isn't about love it it's about home and remembering home and wanting

00:28:58.480 to be with family and at the end of the movie it's performed again in a huge musical number

00:29:04.060 with a lot of characters on the stage and it's presented in a stage setting performed in front of

00:29:11.060 an audience in the film of veterans of their army friends and and others um and so it has this great

00:29:19.920 meta effect where you really get the sense that the people in the audience in the film are not just

00:29:25.860 thinking of home when they're hearing the song this time they're thinking of their time together

00:29:30.280 during the war when they became a family you know a band of brothers themselves so it's it's sort of

00:29:36.680 layered that way really interesting and i i just think it's fascinating how the how one song can take on

00:29:42.820 such clearly different meanings and what's interesting about holiday inn and white christmas is white

00:29:49.200 christmas is it's kind of a reboot of holiday inn they play a lot of the same songs you have being

00:29:55.120 crosby in it and holiday inn it's being crosby and fred astaire phenomenal right they're great they

00:30:01.420 wanted to bring back both of them for white christmas and fred astaire is like i don't want

00:30:05.940 to do that that's how danny k got in there which one do you like better do you like holiday inn or

00:30:10.800 white christmas better i prefer holiday inn it um it has a stronger story it moves really quickly it's

00:30:17.980 full of energy white christmas is has a less strong plot it's a more much more leisurely film and

00:30:26.260 you know it's long it feels long it's two full hours yes now i i you know i don't dislike white

00:30:32.360 christmas at least not that much and it has grown on me over the years but it's just more about

00:30:38.100 nostalgia than it is about love and you get a stronger sense of human relationships forming in

00:30:45.740 holiday inn i think holiday inn is also so funny and it's such great dancing a lot of people i think

00:30:51.500 today know white christmas more than they really know or see holiday inn so i would encourage people

00:30:56.540 to seek it out yeah i'm with you i think holiday inn is the better film i think holiday inn has a plot

00:31:01.240 there's a story to it the dancing is great the chemistry between crosby and fred astaire is phenomenal

00:31:06.640 white christmas i think like you said it's more vignettes there's like just it's like scenes

00:31:12.100 and it kind of plods along and so for me when i watch white christmas i love the beginning of

00:31:17.620 white christmas where they sing white christmas at the war and then i like it at the end where they

00:31:25.340 you know give the honors to their their general and it's fantastic the in-between stuff i fast forward

00:31:31.800 through that because i just felt like they're just putting that in there to fill a movie yeah no it

00:31:36.260 definitely that has that feeling to it i agree it's like that weird like 1950s avant-garde

00:31:42.100 you know kind of modern dance yeah it's just yeah i don't care for it another christmas song

00:31:47.520 that we sing and cherish is have yourself a merry little christmas sung by judy garland and meet me

00:31:54.660 in st louis meet me in st louis is an interesting christmas movie because it's a movie about a family

00:32:00.280 that goes through the seasons of a year and christmas plays one part in that but the song like that season

00:32:07.780 is just uh it's a big part of the story what's interesting about have yourself a merry little

00:32:13.420 christmas is the original version that was written wasn't the one that ended up in the movie what's

00:32:21.020 the backstory on that song yeah the the original version of the song began with the lines have

00:32:28.880 yourself a merry little christmas it may be your last so that's uh quite a bit darker quite a bit more

00:32:36.700 downbeat what happened was that the composer hugh martin he was trying to write a song for this scene

00:32:44.160 where judy garland is trying to console margaret o'brien who's distraught at having to move from st

00:32:52.140 louis to new york and in that moment she's distraught over the fact that she can't bring her snowmen with

00:32:57.420 her that she just made and so she's crying and they're out the window and judy garland starts singing

00:33:02.700 this song to her and so hugh martin was having a really hard time coming up with something that would

00:33:09.320 work his songwriting partner ralph blaine heard what he'd written so far and said no you're really

00:33:14.920 onto something this is a really good melody you need to keep working on it so martin went back and he

00:33:20.540 read the script again and he thought about the melancholy of that moment and the rest of the song and

00:33:27.320 the words now just sort of came to him and it was a beautiful melody but everyone agreed it was like

00:33:33.140 way too sad and downbeat judy garland said you know i can't sing this if i sing this to margaret o'brien

00:33:40.240 the audience is going to think i'm a monster so she asked him to change it and blaine said no and

00:33:46.660 so this impasse went on for a couple of weeks and everyone was trying to convince ralph blaine to change

00:33:51.880 the lyrics finally another actor in the film tom drake the story goes sat down with martin and said 0.97

00:33:58.440 stop being a stubborn idiot and just change the lyrics and for whatever reason that made him 0.90

00:34:04.300 finally acquiesce and so he changed it to the version that we hear in the film and the great 0.99

00:34:10.820 irony is that even the version in the film is notable for how melancholy and downbeat it is in

00:34:17.060 addition to being really beautiful so it's it's enough of uh of being downbeat in order to get

00:34:23.640 the point across and it injects honesty into the season because sadness and melancholy is part of

00:34:32.100 the season and so i i think that's the way this film speaks to the full spectrum of of emotions that

00:34:40.420 we link to the season and also i just want to say as you say most of the movie is not set at christmas

00:34:46.700 time it season by season and christmas is the well it's not technically the last season of the movie

00:34:52.420 there's a brief epilogue where it's spring again but it's really the culmination of the story and it

00:34:57.480 is on christmas eve that the family finally gets together and resolves this central problem which is

00:35:05.440 will they move to new york and you know i leon ames says i've changed my mind i'm not going to take

00:35:12.280 the job we'll stay in st louis until we rot my favorite line and it's a big moment of triumph

00:35:18.660 and you know the the family will stay together in st louis and that's what we wanted all along and it

00:35:24.080 took christmas which is the ultimate family day arguably to finally make it happen yeah meet me in

00:35:33.040 st louis if you haven't seen it it is a fantastic film i really enjoyed it judy garland's phenomenal in

00:35:38.280 the trolley song can't beat that it's great so we mentioned earlier that a lot of christmas movies

00:35:43.360 they're not box office hits because basically if they're released around christmas time they have

00:35:48.740 maybe two months around that period to make money in theaters there's one exception to this trend

00:35:56.860 and that's home alone everyone watches home alone every christmas season i think a lot of people forget

00:36:03.020 how big of a phenomenon home alone was when it came out so how big of a box office success was this

00:36:11.020 movie oh it was enormous it is still considered or it still is the highest grossing live action comedy

00:36:18.980 in the united states when when adjusted for inflation and that really says something i mean it opened

00:36:25.260 in late november 1990 and it played into the summer of 1991 that's crazy like that that that never happens

00:36:34.360 anymore you know it's really astonishing how well it played i was actually looking at the weekly box office

00:36:40.640 tally on that not too long ago and even like five or six months later it was grossing over a million

00:36:46.940 dollars every weekend which is quite amazing so you know i think the fact that diehard is not diehard that

00:36:54.620 that home alone is still so popular it shows another thing about what's an important ingredient to making

00:37:01.200 christmas movies that endure and that is to make a movie that appeals to all audiences young and old

00:37:07.360 you know back in the 40s most movies were made for all audiences and kids and grown-ups could all enjoy

00:37:14.620 a lot of the same movies and that changed at some point and you know usually now it's quite segmented

00:37:21.700 but the ones that really catch on home alone elf is a great example too the young and old we all love

00:37:29.680 them and love going back to them as we grow older too yeah and home alone almost didn't get made i think

00:37:35.420 warner brothers was doing it and then they're making the movie they wanted a budget increase and they're

00:37:41.400 like no we're not going to do that and then fox picked up the film and that that was a good move

00:37:46.580 yeah i think the the budget increase was like two million dollars or something like that i think the

00:37:52.780 the budget was somewhere around 20 or a little less than 20 so you know it's relatively minor and

00:38:00.360 it's one of the great misjudgments in the entirety of hollywood history because you know fox came in swooped

00:38:08.920 it up and released it and made a mint you know they just minted money with it but you know in

00:38:13.740 fairness i don't think anyone could have foreseen just how popular home alone would be what do you

00:38:18.620 think is the most christmassy scene in that movie like what's the scene where you're like boy i'm

00:38:23.020 really i'm feeling the holiday spirit i i'm almost reluctant to say this because it's the same thing i

00:38:29.460 said for it's a wonderful life but i would say the ending when when the mother comes home and she's

00:38:35.100 quickly followed by the rest of the family because that's what christmas is all about it's about

00:38:39.720 families coming back together although i will say that i also love the sequence where macaulay

00:38:45.940 colkin is decorating the house you know putting up the holly and the tree and all that it's uh

00:38:51.180 it's quite poignant because he's all alone what's your take on home alone too

00:38:55.080 not really a christmas movie in in the same way i don't think it really uses the season as

00:39:03.020 meaningfully it's been a little while since i've seen it but that's that's my take and then we're

00:39:07.720 not going to talk about home alone three because that doesn't exist no that's better left unsaid

00:39:12.060 by the way i will add that home alone and die hard are very close to the same movie very similar

00:39:19.200 stories man i never thought about that and yeah i mean the die hard thing you included that in the

00:39:25.240 the book you think it's a christmas movie oh absolutely yeah i mean it starts as

00:39:31.880 the most common type of christmas movie which is a family trying to get together again to rectify

00:39:37.240 their differences over the holidays and john and holly mclean are in the process of doing that when

00:39:43.900 the terrorists take over and he has to spring into action but you know a lot of his motivation is

00:39:49.760 driven by his desire to fix things with his wife but that's not the only way it's a christmas movie

00:39:54.420 it also you know in the music and lots of dialogue references opening the vault is like opening a big

00:40:01.140 christmas present in a way the way it's presented ode to joy is playing on the soundtrack which

00:40:05.720 is linked to the season but the most vital thing i think is that die hard is violent but it's not

00:40:13.640 unpleasant it's very joyful and cheerful and that is probably linked to the season more than anything

00:40:21.100 else about it home alone of course you know has a lot of violence in it but it's cartoonishly joyful

00:40:27.020 so all right so yeah kevin mcallister is john mclean i never thought that's a great i like that

00:40:32.620 john mclean is a kid yeah yeah so you mentioned elf that is our family's favorite christmas movie

00:40:38.620 in fact we're watching it right now watching little bits of it each night elf's got an interesting

00:40:43.780 backstory because it came out in 2003 but the idea of elf had been shopped around for a long time

00:40:50.080 before that so tell us the the backstory of this movie yeah it had been written in the early 1990s

00:40:55.700 so about 10 years before the movie opened and it was written by david barrenbaum and i i've not ever

00:41:02.660 read the original script but what john favreau has said was that it was much darker much darker than the

00:41:09.700 final movie and you know why didn't it get made until later i mean i don't know this is just the way of

00:41:17.680 things in hollywood it's not uncommon for scripts to take years to sort of work their way through

00:41:22.420 town until someone finally decides to make it but favreau got the original screenplay and read it and

00:41:30.900 he thought you know if i could soften this up if i could warm this story up a bit and make it

00:41:36.120 a pg movie rather than a pg-13 movie you know that's something i'd like to do he he was really

00:41:42.260 driven he said by the fact that we just gone through 9 11 and he wanted to reclaim new york he wanted new

00:41:49.080 york to not just be thought of as the site of these horrible attacks but to reclaim it for new

00:41:56.440 yorkers and for americans um you know in a more romantic beautiful way and so it's sort of a love

00:42:04.800 letter to the city as much as anything else you know it was filmed a lot on location although a lot

00:42:10.720 in vancouver as well to be honest but uh that's you know that's the way he he approached it and

00:42:17.640 you know it's actually there are other christmas movies that also started out as much darker scripts

00:42:22.200 that were softened and those are diehard and gremlins which are much lighter and more joyful

00:42:28.040 than their original screenplays were yeah and you mentioned in the book originally elf was written

00:42:33.660 with jim carrey in mind but that's hard to imagine i mean i could never see anyone else playing buddy

00:42:40.820 the elf except for will ferrell it's like he was made for that part yeah and you know i could also

00:42:47.400 see though that if the script were darker and edgier and more cynical i could see i could see jim carrey

00:42:53.480 being more appropriate to that version because he can get pretty dark in those days it also it was

00:43:00.720 first offered to well not first but just before favreau came on it was offered to terry zweigoff

00:43:07.140 to direct and he turned it down and decided to do bad santa instead which came out a couple weeks after

00:43:13.280 elf what do you think the appeal is of this movie you know like why are people still watching it 20 years

00:43:19.160 later i just think it's it's timeless it's it's timeless in the way that it was made more than

00:43:27.040 anything you know favreau has spoken much of his conscious decision to make it in a sort of analog

00:43:34.540 way so you know no computer animation but practical special effects you know traditional stop motion

00:43:42.200 for some scenes the use of forced perspective to create the illusion of a you know a grown-up human

00:43:48.680 at the north pole with little elves i think that you know it's interesting if you compare it to the

00:43:53.480 polar express which came out a year or two later that is so dated today because it uses this motion

00:44:00.940 capture computer animation that has greatly been improved since then i mean even when it came out

00:44:07.640 it didn't really look that good so when you go back to the tried and true practical technologies

00:44:12.420 there's a charm and timelessness to them that really endures i think and he he was influenced by the

00:44:19.280 rudolph the red-nosed reindeer tv special in the 60s all of those 60s rank and bass films he wanted

00:44:26.260 to capture the the spirit of those in elf i also think that elf as we talked about with home alone

00:44:31.980 it appeals to all audiences young and old james khan is a very scrooge-like adult character he

00:44:38.960 transforms like scrooge himself almost every movie has some kind of almost every christmas movie has

00:44:44.180 some kind of scrooge-like transformation happening and zoe deschanel also i would say undergoes a

00:44:50.920 christmas transformation you know she doesn't like christmas at first and by the end she most certainly 0.96

00:44:55.740 does so elf and you cannot maybe say uh love actually they seem like they were the last classic

00:45:02.960 christmas movies made and that was 20 years ago both these movies were made in 2003 do you think

00:45:08.620 another christmas classic could be made in the age of streaming um i do but it'll be a lot harder

00:45:16.420 you know our viewing habits are so segmented now you know we're so used to watching things alone at

00:45:22.940 home on a tv or our computers going to the cinema is still you know it may have shifted permanently

00:45:30.120 because of the pandemic uh i hope not i mean a lot of things have threatened theatrical movie going over

00:45:37.260 the decades and it always endures so there's hope there from history but you know nonetheless there

00:45:44.940 are so many outlets to watch content on now watch christmas movies i think the the streaming christmas

00:45:50.680 movies they're their own genre they're they're i don't really see them in the same way as i see

00:45:55.860 these theatrical christmas movies they're not my cup of tea but they do show that there's still a great

00:46:02.860 hunger for some kind of seasonal you know content story to see during the holiday season and i think

00:46:11.180 the success of this year of barbie and oppenheimer that proves that it is still possible for a

00:46:17.420 theatrical movie to garner huge audiences so if barbie could do it the right kind of christmas movie 0.93

00:46:25.020 could as well let's say someone wants to watch a christmas movie but they're tired of the popular

00:46:30.020 standards you know christmas stories you know tbs is airing that 24 7 the wonderful life elf home

00:46:35.500 alone is there a lesser known christmas film you would recommend watching so i think we mentioned

00:46:40.580 a few a holiday inn if you haven't seen holiday inn but you've seen white christmas i'd recommend

00:46:44.280 checking out holiday inn two or three that you would recommend people checking out sure my number one

00:46:50.200 recommendation would be remember the night which is a 1940 release starring barbara stanwick and fred

00:46:56.900 mcmurray this is the first of four movies they made together their second would be double indemnity

00:47:02.020 a few years later which is hard cynical film noir this is warm poignant romantic comedy drama it's a

00:47:10.680 mixture written by the great preston sturges and it's about an assistant da in new york played by

00:47:15.980 mcmurray who's prosecuting barbara stanwick for shoplifting and the trial gets postponed until

00:47:23.540 after the holiday until the new year and when mcmurray realizes that stanwick is going to have to spend

00:47:29.500 that time in prison he bails her out and ends up driving her to her childhood home in indiana because

00:47:39.160 he's going to his own childhood home elsewhere in indiana and so decides to give her a lift

00:47:43.260 and when they get to her childhood home the house is unforgettably presented it's dark it's cold it's

00:47:53.100 the least inviting house in the history of movies and her mother is one of the iciest mothers in the 1.00

00:48:00.500 history of movies and she treats stanwick terribly and cruelly and mcmurray sees this and immediately

00:48:08.720 decides to take her to his own home for christmas which is a warm light-filled loving house with his

00:48:15.180 mother and aunt and a cousin i think and so stanwick starts to see what a positive family christmas can

00:48:24.740 really be like and it this all helps them start to of course fall in love so you know this is what

00:48:30.440 makes it a great christmas movie it's using the season to literally define the characters and create

00:48:36.000 the story it this film could not really work as well if it were not set during the holiday season

00:48:41.980 and it's also just so funny and romantic i people who see it fall in love with it so i'd recommend

00:48:47.700 that one more you'd recommend yeah so i'm gonna give one on the more curmudgeonly end of the spectrum

00:48:55.480 for people who like that and i'm one of them i can't decide which one to say i'm gonna mention both

00:49:01.360 the man who came to dinner is uh 1942 satire monty woolly based on a great broadway hit and it's

00:49:10.120 about a a literary critic who breaks his leg in a small midwestern town and is confined to the home

00:49:17.200 of a couple in this midwestern town over the christmas season which he you know he thinks it's

00:49:22.440 it's uncivilized and horrible and he just wants to get back to sophisticated new york so he takes over

00:49:27.880 the house invites all his eccentric friends to come and visit and it's just a crazy farce but it really

00:49:33.580 speaks to something true about the season which is the idea of a house guest who never leaves you know

00:49:41.180 i think we have all had guests who overstayed their welcome and we have all been guests who overstayed

00:49:47.440 their welcome at some point in our lives and so that creates a lot of the comedy and uh it's just full

00:49:53.380 of witty acerbic verbal barbs every five seconds and the other curmudgeonly one which really is

00:50:01.260 under known is we're no angels starring humphrey bogart which was made in 1955 and this is a black comedy

00:50:07.500 about three escapees from uh on devil's island who plan to to murder and rob a shopkeeper but then when

00:50:17.920 when they realize his sort of plight that his his brother is ruining his life and his business isn't going

00:50:24.040 well they soften and they sort of uh undergo a scrooge-like transformation and then decide to help the family

00:50:30.360 instead of killing them and it's all set during the season and it's it's very farcical and but also dark

00:50:36.480 beneath the humor which uh is very refreshing when we're watching movies like um you know elf yeah we want

00:50:43.900 something to sort of relieve that well jeremy this has been a great conversation where can people go

00:50:48.840 to learn more about your work in the book they can find the book on amazon and on the hachette book

00:50:55.180 website that's the publisher hachettebookgroup.com fantastic well jeremy arnold thanks for your time

00:51:00.420 it's been a pleasure and uh merry christmas merry christmas to you brett it was great talking to you

00:51:04.960 my guest today was jeremy arnold he's the author of the book christmas in the movies it's available on

00:51:09.740 amazon.com check out our show notes at aom.is slash christmas movies where you find links to

00:51:14.240 resources where you delve deeper into this topic

00:51:16.260 well that wraps up another edition of the aom podcast make sure to check out our website at

00:51:27.960 artofmanliness.com where you find our podcast archives as well as thousands of articles that

00:51:31.920 we've written over the years about pretty much anything you think of and if you haven't done so

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00:51:50.500 what you've heard into action

The Art of Manliness - December 18, 2023

Season’s Screenings — A Tour of Classic Christmas Movies

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