ACF Middlebrow#2 Christmas!

 

James Lileks and I are back with another set of middlebrow ruminations — this time, it’s Christmas movies, from post-war comedies like Christmas in Connecticut and varieties of A Christmas Carol to Arthur Christmas. Take a guess which is the Christmas tradition at the Lileks home.

Just to write down the films we talk about, in case you miss some:

A Christmas Carol (1938, 1951, 1999)

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

The Bishop’s Wife (1947) [I wrongly said Theresa Wright was in it–it was Loretta Young!]

Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962)

Rudy the Red-nosed Reindeer (1964)

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

A Christmas Story (1983)

Arthur Christmas (2011)

We also mentioned Hallmark movies and I brought up the recent Ricochet post. Here it is, in case you missed it. I mention my own addition to the genre on the podcast — and not that it’s a Netflix production, so apparently, there’s a future of such stuff online…

Published in Podcasts
Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 13 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Okay, I’ve got my Sunday morning listening all lined up now…

    • #1
  2. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    Karolyn Grimes the little girl in ‘The Bishop’s Wife” was the same actress who played Zsu Zsu in ‘Wonderful Life’ . Still around , and looking lovely , I met her a year or two back. Short career , stopped at 12 , but she worked with a lot of biggies so I’m one hand shake from all of them. I have a personally autographed Christmas ornament, a bell , naturally.

    • #2
  3. Richard Easton Coolidge
    Richard Easton
    @RichardEaston

    Quibble alert – Christmas in Connecticut was released on August 11th, 1945 so technically it’s not a post-war movie.  But it’s a lot of fun and I endorse your choice of it.

    • #3
  4. Peter Gøthgen Member
    Peter Gøthgen
    @PeterGothgen

    Ok, I give up.  Where is the RSS feed link for the podcast?  Because without an RSS feed this is, by definition, not a podcast.

    • #4
  5. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Richard Easton (View Comment):
    Quibble alert – Christmas in Connecticut was released on August 11th, 1945 so technically it’s not a post-war movie. But it’s a lot fun and I endorse your choice of it.

    Interesting. The new Easton generation is capable of four dimensional GPS. Sharp chronological resolution–a good catch!

    • #5
  6. Judge Mental Member
    Judge Mental
    @JudgeMental

    How could you leave out Scrooged?

    • #6
  7. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Judge Mental (View Comment):
    How could you leave out Scrooged?

    Easy: I’m meaning to do another one of these podcasts. Lots of stuff left to cover.

    • #7
  8. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Titus Techera (View Comment):

    Judge Mental (View Comment):
    How could you leave out Scrooged?

    Easy: I’m meaning to do another one of these podcasts. Lots of stuff left to cover.

    Alternately: Always leave’em wanting more!

    • #8
  9. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Rightfromthestart (View Comment):
    Karolyn Grimes the little girl in ‘The Bishop’s Wife” was the same actress who played Zsu Zsu in ‘Wonderful Life’ . Still around , and looking lovely , I met her a year or two back. Short career , stopped at 12 , but she worked with a lot of biggies so I’m one hand shake from all of them. I have a personally autographed Christmas ornament, a bell , naturally.

    That’s serendipitous! I bet you’ve stories to tell, too!

    • #9
  10. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Peter Gøthgen (View Comment):
    Ok, I give up. Where is the RSS feed link for the podcast? Because without an RSS feed this is, by definition, not a podcast.

    You gotta go on iTunes or soundcloud for that!
    youtube I don’t think has an rss, but I’m there, too.

    I’m a Ricochet contributor & @exjon very graciously publishes my podcasts here, but I am not a Ricochet podcaster, so I’m not part of the network / feed, &c.

    • #10
  11. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    Richard Easton (View Comment):
    Quibble alert – Christmas in Connecticut was released on August 11th, 1945 so technically it’s not a post-war movie. But it’s a lot of fun and I endorse your choice of it.

    Ok, I’ve a new tagline for it: It dropped like a third bomb then!

    • #11
  12. CB Toder aka Mama Toad Member
    CB Toder aka Mama Toad
    @CBToderakaMamaToad

    I watched Christmas in Connecticut some time ago at Titus’ suggestion.

    It is pretty silly, but what really slays me every time I think of it is the absurd design of the “architecturally designed” home in Connecticut. I am sure the camera loved it, but the actors found it more than a little annoying to get in and around the set.

    Speaking about movies and architecture and Connecticut, my beloved spouse is an architect and one of his favorite builders insisted we watch the movie Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House, a real howler with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. We love the scene in which the architect explains that they can certainly have everything they want, as long as they don’t mind their second floor being three times larger than the first floor…

    • #12
  13. Titus Techera Contributor
    Titus Techera
    @TitusTechera

    CB Toder aka Mama Toad (View Comment):
    I watched Christmas in Connecticut some time ago at Titus’ suggestion.

    It is pretty silly, but what really slays me every time I think of it is the absurd design of the “architecturally designed” home in Connecticut. I am sure the camera loved it, but the actors found it more than a little annoying to get in and around the set.

    Speaking about movies and architecture and Connecticut, my beloved spouse is an architect and one of his favorite builders insisted we watch the movie Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House, a real howler with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. We love the scene in which the architect explains that they can certainly have everything they want, as long as they don’t mind their second floor being three times larger than the first floor…

    Yup, that’s also very funny. Melvyn Douglas is in it, too, the lawyer-friend to the young couple, who always advises them not to do the crazy thing.

    But it’s America, people want their dreams to come true, & boy do they get what they want…

    • #13
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.