🔗 Share this article A Seasonal Tour de Force: Uncovering Overlooked Holiday Movies One thing that bothers concerning a lot of contemporary holiday films is their overly self-awareness – the over-the-top decor, the predictable music choices, and the stilted speeches about the real spirit of the holidays. Maybe because the genre was not ossified into tradition, pictures from the 1940s often approach the holidays from more imaginative and not as neurotic angles. The Affair on Fifth Avenue An favorite gem from exploring 1940s holiday comedies is It Happened on Fifth Avenue, a 1947 lighthearted comedy with a great premise: a happy-go-lucky hobo winters in a empty Fifth Avenue townhouse each year. That season, he welcomes strangers to reside with him, among them a former GI and a young woman who is secretly the heiress of the mansion's rich owner. Filmmaker Roy Del Ruth imbues the movie with a makeshift family heart that numerous modern holiday stories struggle to earn. The film expertly balances a class-conscious story on housing and a whimsical city fairytale. Godfathers in Tokyo The acclaimed director's 2003 feature Tokyo Godfathers is a engaging, sad, and profound version on the Christmas narrative. Loosely based on a John Wayne movie, it follows a trio of homeless individuals – an drinker, a trans woman, and a young runaway – who come across an left-behind infant on a snowy December night. Their journey to locate the child's parents sets off a sequence of misadventures involving yakuza, foreigners, and ostensibly magical coincidences. The film doubles down on the wonder of coincidence frequently found in Christmas stories, offering it with a stylish animation that avoids saccharine sentiment. The John Doe Story While Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life deservedly earns much praise, his other work Meet John Doe is a compelling Christmas tale in its own right. Featuring Gary Cooper as a charismatic "forgotten man" and Barbara Stanwyck as a resourceful journalist, the story starts with a fabricated letter from a man vowing to jump from a building on December 24th in protest. The people's reaction forces the reporter to hire a man to portray the invented "John Doe," who subsequently becomes a national figure for community. The film functions as both an heartwarming fable and a brutal critique of ultra-rich media magnates seeking to manipulate public sentiment for political ends. A Silent Partner While seasonal slasher films are now plentiful, the Christmas thriller remains a relatively underpopulated category. This makes the 1978 gem The Silent Partner a novel delight. Starring a wonderfully vile Christopher Plummer as a bank-robbing Santa Claus and Elliott Gould as a mild-mannered bank clerk, the film pits two types of opportunistic individuals against each other in a well-crafted and unpredictable narrative. Mostly ignored upon its original release, it is worthy of a fresh look for those who enjoy their Christmas stories with a dark edge. Christmas Almost For those who like their Christmas reunions messy, Almost Christmas is a riot. Featuring a star-studded group that includes Danny Glover, Mo'Nique, and JB Smoove, the movie explores the tensions of a clan forced to spend five days under one home during the Christmas season. Hidden issues come to the surface, culminating in scenes of extreme farce, including a dinner where a shotgun is brandished. Of course, the story arrives at a satisfying resolution, offering all the enjoyment of a holiday catastrophe without any of the real-life cleanup. Go Movie The director's 1999 movie Go is a Christmas-adjacent story that serves as a teen-oriented interpretation on interconnected stories. Although some of its comedy may feel of its time upon rewatch, the picture nevertheless offers several things to appreciate. These include a cool performance from Sarah Polley to a standout scene by Timothy Olyphant as a laid-back pusher who appropriately dons a Santa hat. It embodies a very kind of fin-de-siècle cinematic attitude set against a Christmas backdrop. Morgan's Creek Miracle The satirist's wartime farce The Miracle of Morgan's Creek skips typical holiday sentimentality in exchange for cheeky fun. The story is about Betty Hutton's character, who ends up pregnant after a wild night but cannot recall the man involved. Much of the fun arises from her situation and the attempts of Eddie Bracken's hapless Norval Jones to rescue her. Although not obviously a holiday movie at the start, the plot culminates on the holiday, showing that Sturges has created a satirical take of the birth narrative, loaded with his characteristic witty edge. The Film Better Off Dead This 1985 teen movie starring John Cusack, Better Off Dead, is a textbook example of its decade. Cusack's
One thing that bothers concerning a lot of contemporary holiday films is their overly self-awareness – the over-the-top decor, the predictable music choices, and the stilted speeches about the real spirit of the holidays. Maybe because the genre was not ossified into tradition, pictures from the 1940s often approach the holidays from more imaginative and not as neurotic angles. The Affair on Fifth Avenue An favorite gem from exploring 1940s holiday comedies is It Happened on Fifth Avenue, a 1947 lighthearted comedy with a great premise: a happy-go-lucky hobo winters in a empty Fifth Avenue townhouse each year. That season, he welcomes strangers to reside with him, among them a former GI and a young woman who is secretly the heiress of the mansion's rich owner. Filmmaker Roy Del Ruth imbues the movie with a makeshift family heart that numerous modern holiday stories struggle to earn. The film expertly balances a class-conscious story on housing and a whimsical city fairytale. Godfathers in Tokyo The acclaimed director's 2003 feature Tokyo Godfathers is a engaging, sad, and profound version on the Christmas narrative. Loosely based on a John Wayne movie, it follows a trio of homeless individuals – an drinker, a trans woman, and a young runaway – who come across an left-behind infant on a snowy December night. Their journey to locate the child's parents sets off a sequence of misadventures involving yakuza, foreigners, and ostensibly magical coincidences. The film doubles down on the wonder of coincidence frequently found in Christmas stories, offering it with a stylish animation that avoids saccharine sentiment. The John Doe Story While Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life deservedly earns much praise, his other work Meet John Doe is a compelling Christmas tale in its own right. Featuring Gary Cooper as a charismatic "forgotten man" and Barbara Stanwyck as a resourceful journalist, the story starts with a fabricated letter from a man vowing to jump from a building on December 24th in protest. The people's reaction forces the reporter to hire a man to portray the invented "John Doe," who subsequently becomes a national figure for community. The film functions as both an heartwarming fable and a brutal critique of ultra-rich media magnates seeking to manipulate public sentiment for political ends. A Silent Partner While seasonal slasher films are now plentiful, the Christmas thriller remains a relatively underpopulated category. This makes the 1978 gem The Silent Partner a novel delight. Starring a wonderfully vile Christopher Plummer as a bank-robbing Santa Claus and Elliott Gould as a mild-mannered bank clerk, the film pits two types of opportunistic individuals against each other in a well-crafted and unpredictable narrative. Mostly ignored upon its original release, it is worthy of a fresh look for those who enjoy their Christmas stories with a dark edge. Christmas Almost For those who like their Christmas reunions messy, Almost Christmas is a riot. Featuring a star-studded group that includes Danny Glover, Mo'Nique, and JB Smoove, the movie explores the tensions of a clan forced to spend five days under one home during the Christmas season. Hidden issues come to the surface, culminating in scenes of extreme farce, including a dinner where a shotgun is brandished. Of course, the story arrives at a satisfying resolution, offering all the enjoyment of a holiday catastrophe without any of the real-life cleanup. Go Movie The director's 1999 movie Go is a Christmas-adjacent story that serves as a teen-oriented interpretation on interconnected stories. Although some of its comedy may feel of its time upon rewatch, the picture nevertheless offers several things to appreciate. These include a cool performance from Sarah Polley to a standout scene by Timothy Olyphant as a laid-back pusher who appropriately dons a Santa hat. It embodies a very kind of fin-de-siècle cinematic attitude set against a Christmas backdrop. Morgan's Creek Miracle The satirist's wartime farce The Miracle of Morgan's Creek skips typical holiday sentimentality in exchange for cheeky fun. The story is about Betty Hutton's character, who ends up pregnant after a wild night but cannot recall the man involved. Much of the fun arises from her situation and the attempts of Eddie Bracken's hapless Norval Jones to rescue her. Although not obviously a holiday movie at the start, the plot culminates on the holiday, showing that Sturges has created a satirical take of the birth narrative, loaded with his characteristic witty edge. The Film Better Off Dead This 1985 teen movie starring John Cusack, Better Off Dead, is a textbook example of its decade. Cusack's