Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney and Vera Allen, star as two song-and-dance teams – one successful and one struggling, brought together during the season. Director Michael Curtiz took a fine song from a good film (“Holiday Inn”), and with re-casting and plot changes, made a great movie. It focuses on unhappy Rudolph and a crisis involving a blizzard, the Abominable Snowman, a prospector, an elf and St. Folk singer/actor Burl Ives narrates this yarn based on the song written for a department-story promotion and made popular by Gene Autry. Stanton is an angel Mary Steenburgen is the mom Jan Rubes does a fine job as Santa. Harry Dean Stanton was cast against type in this affectionate tale about a mother struggling with the burdens a commercialized Christmas can be. Voices are from Chris Sarandon and Catherine O’Hara.
ADVENT HORIZON MOVIE MOVIE
Made as stop-motion animation, the ambitious movie is more sophisticated than the familiar Clay-mation.
Tim Burton directed this offbeat fantasy about the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown and his envy of Christmastown. Critical of organized religion, “Nazarin” is earnest and thoughtful. The award-winning, black-and-white Luis Bunuel melodrama follows a priest who’s so innocent that he starts to annoy police and church leaders. The acclaimed movie is remarkably faithful to scripture. The six-hour epic stars Anne Bancroft, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Anthony Quinn and Peter Ustinov. An all-star cast helps filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli’s version of the Gospel overcome its length. Filmmaker Frank Capra’s cast included Donna Reed and Henry Travers, Lionel Barrymore and Thomas Mitchell. Jimmy Stewart still draws tears in the climax, and Ward Bond and Frank Faylen as Bert and Ernie still put smiles on viewers’ faces. When he considers suicide, an angel appears and helps him see what the world would’ve been like without him. A regular guy and his family run into hard times by accident. Anthony Hopkins narrates it features Christine Baranski and Molly Shannon. With Jim Carrey in the title role, the film provides some back-story to the tale of the magical land of Whoville.
ADVENT HORIZON MOVIE TV
Seuss’s memorable book (and the popular animated TV special starring Boris Karloff). Filmmaker Ron Howard succeeds in a live-action film based on Dr.
Peter Billingsley stars as a boy in the Midwest, daydreaming about a BB gun while his parents (Melinda Dillon and Darren McGavin) cope with America in the 1940s. This warm and loving family picture movie version based on two Jean Shepherd stories is a repeat families anticipate each Christmastime. The cast includes Sydney Greenstreet and S.K. Dennis Morgan co-stars as a Navy hero who’s introduced as a publicity stunt. Barbara Stanwyck stars in this comedy about a columnist who writes about housekeeping and cooking from her rural home – except she knows little and lives in the city. Featuring Alastair Sim as Scrooge, this is ghostly, sentimental and profound. Of the many versions of Charles Dickens’ wonderful story, this alternates as a favorite with the 1938 version starring Reginald Owen. Vince Guaraldi’s jazz score debuted here.
This first “Peanuts” TV special is just 23 minutes long, but its message endures. A tiny tree becomes a reminder of priorities the ending is simple and heartfelt. He’s picked to direct a holiday play, but the “true meaning” of Christmas escapes the gang, even Snoopy. It’s tough to be a “loser” during the holidays, and Chuck hangs tough. Out of many Christmas film – “Come to the Stable” and “Elf,” “Meet John Doe” and “The Bishop’s Wife,” “The Holly & The Ivy” and “The Nutcracker,” even lousy pictures like “Jingle All The Way” and quirky hits like “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” – here’s a dozen gems: “Media culture works on forming a short attention span while the Bible focuses on a long-term horizon – good news, hope, redemption and a loving God,” said conservative critic Michael Medved. And Hollywood doesn’t produce material just to benefit the public. For tips on boating, watching “Titanic” isn’t the best choice). Positives of Christmastime emerge in many holiday films (an unlikely way to find faith. So days remain to plan watching Christmas movies beyond Hallmark’s all-Christmas channel. The time of preparation for Christmas isn’t Black Friday, but Advent – Dec.
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