A Seasonal Showcase: Uncovering Overlooked Christmas Movies

One thing that irks concerning a lot of contemporary holiday movies is their overly self-consciousness – the gaudy decor, the formulaic score selections, and the canned conversations about the real spirit of the festive period. It could be because the category was not yet hardened into tradition, pictures from the 1940s often tackle the holidays from far more creative and less obsessive perspectives.

It Happened on Fifth Avenue

A cherished find from exploring 1940s Christmas comedies is It Happened on Fifth Avenue, a 1947 romantic comedy with a clever concept: a jovial hobo spends the winter in a empty posh mansion each year. One winter, he invites new acquaintances to live with him, including a ex-soldier and a young woman who is secretly the daughter of the home's affluent owner. Director Roy Del Ruth gives the movie with a surrogate family coziness that numerous modern seasonal stories strive to earn. It expertly balances a socially aware story on shelter and a charming metropolitan romance.

Godfathers in Tokyo

Satoshi Kon's 2003 feature Tokyo Godfathers is a fun, heartbreaking, and profound take on the Christmas tale. Drawing from a John Wayne movie, it centers on a group of displaced individuals – an drinker, a trans character, and a young throwaway – who come across an abandoned infant on the night before Christmas. Their mission to reunite the infant's parents unleashes a sequence of misadventures involving yakuza, newcomers, and ostensibly fateful encounters. The film doubles down on the wonder of fate typically found in seasonal tales, offering it with a cinematic visual style that sidesteps overly sweet sentiment.

Meet John Doe

While Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life justifiably earns much praise, his earlier picture Meet John Doe is a compelling seasonal film in its own right. Featuring Gary Cooper as a charismatic "forgotten man" and Barbara Stanwyck as a resourceful journalist, the film begins with a fabricated note from a man threatening to leap from a rooftop on Christmas Eve in frustration. The public's embrace leads the journalist to find a man to play the fictional "John Doe," who subsequently becomes a popular icon for kindness. The movie serves as both an inspiring story and a brutal skewering of ultra-rich publishers attempting to exploit public goodwill for personal ends.

A Silent Partner

While seasonal horror movies are now commonplace, the festive suspense film remains a relatively niche subgenre. This makes the 1978 gem The Silent Partner a unique discovery. Featuring a wonderfully vile Christopher Plummer as a bank-robbing Santa Claus and Elliott Gould as a clever bank employee, the film sets two varieties of opportunistic characters against each other in a sleek and surprising narrative. Mainly unseen upon its original debut, it merits rediscovery for those who prefer their festive entertainment with a cold edge.

Christmas Almost

For those who like their holiday get-togethers chaotic, Almost Christmas is a hoot. With a impressive ensemble that has Danny Glover, Mo'Nique, and JB Smoove, the film examines the tensions of a family forced to endure five days under one house during the holidays. Secret issues bubble to the forefront, culminating in situations of over-the-top farce, including a showdown where a weapon is pulled out. Of course, the narrative finds a satisfying conclusion, offering all the entertainment of a family mess without any of the personal consequences.

The Film Go

Doug Liman's 1999 feature Go is a Christmas-adjacent tale that serves as a teen-oriented take on crisscrossing plots. Although some of its humor may feel product of the 90s upon rewatch, the movie nonetheless contains many things to appreciate. These include a cool performance from Sarah Polley to a standout performance by Timothy Olyphant as a charming drug dealer who fittingly dons a Santa hat. It captures a specific kind of late-90s cinematic attitude set against a festive scene.

Miracle at Morgan's Creek

Preston Sturges's 1940s comedy The Miracle of Morgan's Creek forgoes traditional holiday sentimentality in return for bawdy fun. The movie is about Betty Hutton's Trudy Kockenlocker, who discovers she is with child after a drunken night but cannot remember the father responsible. The bulk of the fun comes from her predicament and the efforts of Eddie Bracken's lovestruck Norval Jones to marry her. Although not immediately a Christmas movie at the start, the plot climaxes on the holiday, showing that Sturges has refashioned a satirical take of the nativity, packed with his characteristic satirical humor.

Better Off Dead

This 1985 adolescent film featuring John Cusack, Better Off Dead, is a textbook artifact of its decade. Cusack's