Great Christmas Movies to Watch This Holiday Season
To help you get into the Christmas spirit, we’ve rounded up four heart-warming holiday films worth watching in our second-to-last blog post. Apparently, snuggling up and watching Christmas films is the best way to get in the holiday spirit and most of us surely like films such as Love Actually (2003), Home Alone (1990) or The Holiday (2006). We always endeavour to come up with new ideas in our posts, we will therefore not recommend conventional Christmas films or animated movies but rather older yet enchanting holiday-themed films to you.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
The 1940 film is based on a play by Hungarian playwright Miklós László. Miklós László was a Jewish man feeling unsafe in Hungary, emigrating to the USA in 1938 when he was already considered a successful playwright in his home country. His play Parfumerie debuted at the Pest Theatre in 1937. After he settled in the USA, MGM turned the play into the motion picture The Shop Around the Corner starring the greatest stars such as James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.
The film takes place at a leather goods shop, which is very crowded as Christmas approaches. The main lead, Mr. Kralik has been corresponding with a lady as a secret pen pal and is hoping to spend the holidays with her, as he has fallen deeply in love with her through writing. Later that day, a young woman named Clara Novak comes to the shop asking for a job. She is hired for the busy holiday season, arousing Mr. Kralik’s dislike and concern, as he can’t help worrying that she sets her sights on his job. The romantic comedy also has a love triangle, weaving together dismissal, disappointment, loneliness and... But don’t take our word for it—check out the film.
Holiday Inn (1942)
The plot of the film with great cast is an endearing story. The 1942 film teamed up Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, while Irving Berlin wrote the songs for the film, who won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1943 (the film score has previously been discussed in another article).
The hero, played by Bing Crosby, is retiring from performing to start a new life in the countryside with his love interest. They plan to run a “Holiday Inn” open only on holidays, but his love interest tells him she has fallen in love with someone else. This is where things get complicated, as another woman appears and complicates the love triangle further. Irving Berlin was assigned to write a song about each holiday but writing a song for Christmas (“White Christmas”) proved to be the most challenging for him. It was particularly difficult for him to write a Christmas song because he, as a Jew, did not celebrate Christmas and had lost his weeks-old son decades ago during the festive season. The song savours strongly of sorrow.
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
The 1944 American film starring Judy Garland was directed by Vincente Minnelli. Set in St. Louis in the early 20th century, the Smith family with five children plans to move from St. Louis to New York, but Christmas Eve brings further complications and entanglements.
The film is based on the novel by Sally Benson about her childhood in St. Louis. The story is told from the point of view of the children, which makes it a perfect family film. Hungarian-born George Cukor was first hired to direct the picture but was called to service, so Vincent Minnelli took over for Cukor. It was thus only by chance that the director and the female lead fell in love and got married the year after the release of the film. Wonderful actress and singer Liza Minnelli was born of the marriage.
The most memorable song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, from the film was written by Hugh Martin, and it sounded so bad to him that he threw it in the wastebasket. The story behind the song has been mentioned in another post. The song, however, makes the film scene perfect, in which Judy Garland’s character sings the song to cheer up her seven-year-old sister played by Margaret O’Brien, who is concerned that Santa Claus, the Christmas gift bringer, will not find them in New York. The film focuses on the importance of the family, family unity and waiting for a Christmas miracle.
White Christmas (1954)
The 1954 film starring Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney features the songs of Irving Berlin. The film tells the story of two soldiers fighting in the war together who, after the war, perform and sing at nightclubs to make money. They head to a nightclub to view a sister act; the girls also make a living as performers, singing at nightclubs. The film weaves a tale of love, intrigue, disappointment and success, filled with holiday cheer.
Much has been written about the title song of the film in another post. What we can tell you is that the theme song is the same as that of Irving Berlin featured in Holiday Inn years earlier.