Category Archives: Christmas Cinema

Movies selected for viewing during the Christmas season.

Casper’s Haunted Christmas

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Morgan R. Lewis

Christmas as it’s celebrated today is largely for the children, and so it’s only right that there be some Christmas movies just for the kids. Some of these films are well done and entertaining even for adults; others are strictly … Continue reading →

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It Happened on Fifth Avenue

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Morgan R. Lewis

It Happened on Fifth Avenue, released in 1947, was directed by Roy Del Ruth, but was nearly directed by Frank Capra, for whom it was originally optioned. Capra instead decided to direct It’s a Wonderful Life, but there are thematic … Continue reading →

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A Christmas Carol (2009)

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Morgan R. Lewis

Every few years, there’s another adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and sometimes it’s by a company that has done one before. Another animated version from Disney was put out in 2009, this time using Jim Carrey instead of … Continue reading →

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Meet John Doe

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Morgan R. Lewis

Frank Capra rather famously mixed Christmas with the concepts of depression and redemption in It’s a Wonderful Life, but it wasn’t his first film to address these concepts in that context. Several years earlier, in 1941, he directed Meet John … Continue reading →

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Beyond Tomorrow

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Morgan R. Lewis

Can you imagine, just for a moment, what A Christmas Carol might look like if it were told from the perspective of the three ghosts? That isn’t quite what’s going on in Beyond Tomorrow — released in 1940 and later … Continue reading →

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Scrooge (1935)

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Morgan R. Lewis

One of the nice things about Hollywood’s fondness for Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is that not only are there so many adaptations, but so many of them are fairly good. And though the story is essentially the same every … Continue reading →

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The Great Rupert (A Christmas Wish)

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Morgan R. Lewis

The Great Rupert is a film directed by Irving Pichel and released in 1950. Having lapsed into public domain, it was later colorized and retitled as A Christmas Wish. (Though the colorized version is the one I saw, I will … Continue reading →

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Trapped in Paradise

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Morgan R. Lewis

Even though the essential nature of film-making is that actors will team up with a variety of different co-stars, it can still be surprising sometimes to see certain actors working together. That Dana Carvey would be in a film with … Continue reading →

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Arthur Christmas

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Morgan R. Lewis

Released appropriately late in 2011, Arthur Christmas (directed by Sarah Smith and Barry Cook) is an Aardman animation production distributed through Sony. Unlike some other notable Aardman films, such as The Pirates or Wallace and Gromit, Arthur Christmas is not … Continue reading →

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Gremlins

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Morgan R. Lewis

Before I review Gremlins, let me explain how it came about that I’ve waited this long — nearly 30 years — to see such an iconic film of the 1980s, especially considering how that’s my decade of choice. In the … Continue reading →

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