A Festive Tour de Force: Uncovering Overlooked Yuletide Movies

Something that annoys concerning many present-day holiday features is their excessive self-awareness – the ostentatious decor, the predictable music choices, and the canned conversations about the real spirit of the season. Maybe because the category was not yet ossified into formula, pictures from the 1940s often explore Yuletide from increasingly inventive and not as neurotic viewpoints.

It Happened on Fifth Avenue

One delightful gem from delving into 1940s Christmas films is It Happened on Fifth Avenue, a 1947 lighthearted farce with a clever premise: a jovial hobo takes up residence in a unoccupied Fifth Avenue estate each year. That season, he invites fellow down-on-their-luck individuals to reside with him, including a former GI and a teenager who turns out to be the daughter of the property's rich proprietor. Filmmaker Roy Del Ruth imbues the picture with a found-family heart that many newer holiday movies strive to attain. This story beautifully occupies the space between a class-conscious story on affordable living and a delightful city fairytale.

The Tokyo Godfathers

Satoshi Kon's 2003 feature Tokyo Godfathers is a entertaining, heartbreaking, and deeply moving take on the holiday narrative. Loosely based on a western film, it centers on a triumvirate of displaced individuals – an drinker, a trans woman, and a adolescent throwaway – who discover an left-behind newborn on the night before Christmas. Their journey to reunite the child's parents triggers a chain of hijinks involving gangsters, immigrants, and ostensibly serendipitous connections. The movie embraces the magic of chance typically found in Christmas flicks, presenting it with a cinematic visual style that avoids overly sweet sentiment.

Meet John Doe

While Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life deservedly gets plenty of acclaim, his other picture Meet John Doe is a powerful seasonal tale in its own right. Starring Gary Cooper as a handsome drifter and Barbara Stanwyck as a clever journalist, the story begins with a fabricated missive from a man threatening to leap from a rooftop on December 24th in protest. The public's reaction forces the journalist to hire a man to play the mythical "John Doe," who subsequently becomes a popular icon for kindness. The movie acts as both an inspiring tale and a pointed indictment of ultra-rich businessmen attempting to use grassroots feeling for political ends.

The Silent Partner

Whereas Christmas slasher films are now plentiful, the festive suspense film remains a somewhat niche subgenre. This makes the 1978 feature The Silent Partner a novel delight. Featuring a superbly sinister Christopher Plummer as a bank-robbing Santa Claus and Elliott Gould as a mild-mannered bank teller, the film pits two types of amoral individuals against each other in a well-crafted and surprising yarn. Largely overlooked upon its first release, it merits rediscovery for those who enjoy their Christmas entertainment with a dark tone.

Christmas Almost

For those who like their family gatherings dysfunctional, Almost Christmas is a riot. Boasting a impressive group that features Danny Glover, Mo'Nique, and JB Smoove, the story examines the strain of a household compelled to spend five days under one roof during the Christmas season. Private dramas come to the top, leading to situations of extreme farce, including a dinner where a shotgun is produced. Naturally, the story arrives at a touching ending, giving all the fun of a holiday disaster without any of the actual cleanup.

Go

Doug Liman's 1999 movie Go is a holiday-themed caper that serves as a young-adult take on interconnected plots. Although some of its comedy may feel dated upon revisiting, the movie nevertheless contains plenty things to appreciate. These range from a composed performance from Sarah Polley to a memorable scene by Timothy Olyphant as a charming drug dealer who appropriately sports a Santa hat. It embodies a very kind of late-90s film attitude set against a Christmas backdrop.

Miracle at Morgan's Creek

The famed director's 1940s film The Miracle of Morgan's Creek skips traditional holiday sentimentality in favor for cheeky humor. The movie is about Betty Hutton's Trudy Kockenlocker, who finds herself with child after a drunken night but cannot recall the soldier responsible. The bulk of the comedy comes from her situation and the efforts of Eddie Bracken's hapless Norval Jones to marry her. Although not immediately a Christmas movie at the outset, the story culminates on the Christmas, revealing that Sturges has refashioned a playful take of the nativity, packed with his signature sharp humor.

Better Off Dead Movie

This 1985 adolescent movie with John Cusack, Better Off Dead, is a prime artifact of its era. Cusack's