This lot includes a selection of Christmas-themed movies from the 1930s, 1940s, and a couple 1990s remakes. Great for getting in a nostalgic holiday mood! Here's what's included:
- Scrooge (1935) -- An early British production of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" -- rarely shown.
- A Christmas Carol (1938) -- A sentimental version from MGM, it features Reginald Owen as Scrooge and Gene Lockhart as Bob Cratchit (plus several other Lockhart family actors, including June, who later starred in "Lost in Space.").
- Holiday (1938) -- Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn star in this comedy by Philip Barry, in which two people who feel stifled by family and class expectations find each other during the winter holidays. Character actor Edward Everett Horton is priceless as usual.
- The Shop Around the Corner (1940) -- James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan in the comedy that eventually became "You've Got Mail," directed deftly by Ernst Lubitsch. Stewart and Sullivan clash at work in a gift shop, not realizing they are anonymous pen pals who are falling in love. The great cast includes Frank Morgan (the Wizard of Oz).
- Remember the Night (1940) -- Another Christmastime comedy, with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck as an assistant DA and a wisecracking shoplifter. He decides to bail her out for Christmas, and ends up bringing her home to his mother's Indiana farm for an old-fashioned holiday. Funny and at times touching. Includes character actors Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, and Sterling Holloway (who was later the voice of Disney's Winnie the Pooh!).
- Holiday Inn (1942) -- Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as a song-and-dance team who both love Marjorie Reynolds. Bing bows out to open the Holiday Inn, a sort of combination dinner theater/bed & breakfast that's only open on holidays. Features the debut of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas," as well as a bunch of lesser known songs. Do be warned: there's a cringey Lincoln's Birthday number, in which everyone's in blackface. Remade in the 1950s as "White Christmas," still with Bing Crosby.
- Christmas in Connecticut (1945) -- Another fun comedy with Barbara Stanwyck as a magazine writer who has invented a persona as a sort of 1940s-era Martha Stewart -- without really having any of the skills and without telling her straight-arrow publisher about the ruse. When the publisher invites himself and a war hero home on leave to her "farm" for Christmas, she has to come up with a farm, husband, baby, and enough cooking skills to get through the holidays with her guests. Features Sidney Greenstreet, S. Z. Sakall, and Dennis Morgan as the war hero.
- Miracle on 34th Street (1994) -- Entertaining remake of the 1940s classic, this one was produced by John Hughes and stars Elizabeth Perkins as the single Mom who hires a Santa Claus for her department store -- and whose daughter becomes convinced he is the one and only, bona fide Santa Claus. Dylan McDermott co-stars as the love interest, and Mara Wilson is the cute little girl.
- A Christmas Carol (1999) -- This remake stars Patrick Stewart (Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard) as Scrooge, and it's still new and sealed!
Finally, as a bonus, included is a recording (not pictured) of a 1990s airing of the movie Bachelor Mother from TV. This great 1939 comedy stars Ginger Rogers as a shopgirl who finds a baby on a doorstep, and David Niven as the boss who can't believe the baby isn't hers. It's set during the holidays and was later remade as "Bundle of Joy," with Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. But the original is better!
This lot of films comes from the home of a movie lover and film professor who wants to share the joy! Turn down the lights, pop some popcorn, and settle in for hours of vintage holiday entertainment.
All opened tapes have been stored properly and tested before shipping.
Thanks for shopping, and see you at the movies!