The Keating Files: Christmas movies

For about 20 years, Ray Keating wrote a weekly column - a short time with the New York City Tribune, more than 11 years with Newsday, another seven years with Long Island Business News, plus another year-and-a-half with RealClearMarkets.com. As an economist, Keating also pens an assortment of analyses each week. With the Keating Files, he decided to expand his efforts with regular commentary touching on a broad range of issues, written by himself and an assortment of talented contributors and columnists. So, here goes...

Showing posts with label Christmas movies. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Classic Christmas Films As Meant To Be

by Ray Keating

The Keating Files – December 23, 2020

(The following column is included in Behind Enemy Lines: Conservative Communiques from Left-Wing New York. It originally was published in Newsday in December 2005.)

What’s a classic film? My personal definition is that it had to be made before I was born. Of course, this is based on nothing more than growing older, but I’m sticking to it.

So, why do many of us love Christmas films produced before we were born? The Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor provides a welcome reminder this week.

Starting tonight and running through Friday, Bay Street will show five great seasonal movies. Scheduled are It’s a Wonderful Life tonight, Babes in Toyland: March of the Wooden Soldiers tomorrow, Miracle on 34th Street on Wednesday, White Christmas on Thursday, and Scrooge on Friday evening.

Michael DiSanti, Bay Street’s associate producer, said the theater started showing classic films in October 2004, but this is the first holiday movie series. As DiSanti spoke, it became clear that this is an undertaking by and for film lovers. The movie package each night will include old Mitch Miller sing-a-long, bouncing-ball Christmas carols, movie trailers, and music from the era playing in the lobby.

Best of all is how the movies will be presented. Most of us have only seen the Christmas classics at home on small television screens. DiSanti pointed out that with a few exceptions, “Nobody ever does the American classics on the big screen anymore.” He added: “This is the way they were meant to be seen, these movies, on a big screen.”

The wall-mounted, flat screen television might be nice, but it’s still not good enough. There’s something about watching movies in a public theater (as long as people are quiet and polite, which unfortunately is becoming an increasingly elusive expectation), and on a large screen.

But why is the idea of seeing Christmas films on the big screen particularly appealing? It goes back to the fact that the best holiday movies provide special links to the season. And this can be accomplished in various ways. Three of my favorites will be shown at Bay Street, but they couldn’t be more different in style, content and impact.

For example, it’s hard to imagine lighter fare than White Christmas. But who cares? This movie serves up high-energy dance numbers, corny jokes, romance, lots of singing, including Bing Crosby leading the way on “White Christmas,” and a Vermont inn with the perfect fireplace that I still long to find. It’s wonderful escapism, and thereby ranks among the simple joys and delights this time of year.

Meanwhile, Miracle on 34th Street recaptures a bit of the magic and mystery that arrived with each Christmas as a child. I almost always begin the film recognizing, with some regret, the cold logic of Doris and her young daughter Susan regarding Kris Kringle, but then unfailingly get swept away. Even the rather materialistic and calculating Doris eventually acknowledges: “Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.”

Faith carries over to my top-rated It’s a Wonderful Life. If one hasn’t watched the film for some time, it could be forgotten that this isn’t exactly warm and fuzzy fare. Most of the movie focuses on the frustrations of George Bailey – broken dreams, feeling trapped, staring into the abyss of financial ruin and possible prison, and contemplating suicide. But all of these woes give way to how each life touches others; the virtues of sacrifice and compassion; the incalculable value of life, marriage and family; and the importance of faith. After all, It’s a Wonderful Life opens with family and friends around Bedford Falls earnestly in prayer.

So, what makes a Christmas classic is not its age, but how it fits with the spirit of the holiday. I expect that seeing these films as meant to be on the big screen will only enhance their value.

Merry Christmas, and pass the popcorn.

__________

Ray Keating is a columnist, novelist, economist, podcaster and entrepreneur. His new book Vatican Shadows: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel is the 13ththriller/mystery in the Pastor Stephen Grant series. Get the paperback or Kindle edition at Amazon, or signed books at www.raykeatingonline.com.

The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right?

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Monday, December 21, 2020

Enjoy Christmas with Convicts

by Ray Keating

The Keating Files – December 21, 2020

As a classic movies fan, I love discovering gems from Hollywood’s past. This time of year, it’s especially pleasing to find an enjoyable Christmas movie from decades past. Well, on Sunday night, I settled in with the family to watch – and as it turned out enjoy – two Christmas movies that I had not previously seen, one from 1940 and the other from 1955.

Courtesy of TCM.com

The first entry in our double feature was Remember the Night (1940), which starred Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. That’s right, the duo who would four years later pull us into the film noir classic Double Indemnity. Remember the Night is a romantic comedy in which Stanwyck’s character, Lee Leander, is a shoplifter who gets arrested, and MacMurray’s John Sargent is the assistant district attorney supposed to put her away. The case gets delayed over the Christmas holidays, and Lee winds up spending that time with John, and his mother and Aunt Emma in Indiana.

Well, you can figure out where things are headed, and it’s enjoyable journey with the couple.

Since I knew MacMurray first as the father via reruns of My Three Sons, I’m always pleasantly surprised when seeing him on the silver screen. Meanwhile, Barbara Stanwyck always seems to take over the scene no matter what type of character she happens to be portraying. Here, we see Stanwyck as the criminal who was dealt a tough hand in life, but thanks to MacMurray’s John Sargent, and the love displayed by his family, she winds up as a different person in the end. And speaking of the end, without giving it away, it’s not your typical conclusion to this kind of movie. A Hallmark ending, it ain’t.

And speaking of being untypical, the second movie in our double feature was We’re No Angels, starring Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov as three escaped convicts from Devil’s Island. This ranks as one of the quirkiest, most delightfully surprising Christmas comedies I’ve seen.

Courtesy of TCM.com

There’s an underlying dark humor that seems to be ahead of its time in certain ways. The convicts weren’t wrongfully convicted, but instead, two are murderers and one a swindler. And they know who they are, who each other is. This is not about excusing or justifying their crimes, but instead, it’s a story in which their backgrounds are used to comic delight. Here are three criminals helping an innocent family facing tough times celebrate Christmas and deal with devious relatives, and the characters themselves are quite aware of how odd the entire situation is.

Bogart might seem an odd choice for this role, but he excels. While I enjoyed him in the romantic comedy Sabrina (1954), he far surpasses that performance in We’re No Angels.

But it turns out that Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov rank as the best parts of this film. The two bring unique, offbeat performances that outshine everyone else in the movie.

Director Michael Curtiz directed many fine films, but he ranks among my favorite directors for two films in particular – Casablanca and White Christmas. And if those two pictures weren’t different enough, I now discover another gem in We’re No Angels, a quirky, delicious Christmas comedy.

Yes, these two films are now on the Keating Christmas list of movies to watch each year – in particular, We’re No Angels.