Tag Archives: Christmas

Holiday Inn (1942)

When lazy Bing Crosby decides to leave show business for the easy life of running a Connecticut farm, things take a left turn when he decides that’s even more work. His solution is to open a special supper nightclub open only 15 days a year: on holidays.

That’s the set up…that’s Holiday Inn.

Some of you might question if this is truly an Universal film. Well, sort of. Paramount original produced the film, but they sold it to MCA/Universal for television distribution…so it counts. So there.

This musical benefits from one of the best selections of musical tunes ever assembled for a movie musical. Irving Berlin was on fire when he put together these films. While today it seems like tame stuff, it really popped at the time and the catchy melodies and rhythms are sure to intoxicate even the most sober viewer.

In short, I think this movie is pure magic.

Cheesecake Bing caught disrobing

Now, let’s dispense with the unpleasantness. The song “Abraham” does include performers in blackface and the character of “Mamie” is a stereotype commonly presented at the time. Minstrel shows were slowly dying out at this time, but still greatly influenced entertainment in Irving Berlin’s era. “Mamie” characters with all their politically incorrect costumes ala Aunt Jemima certainly can trigger feelings today, but let’s face it. Hollywood musicals didn’t have many realistic characters to begin with. These scenes are unfortunate, but if one can look past them, a wondrous musical entertainment shall unfold before you.

What people always remember about the film is the fantastic rendition of White Christmas at the fireplace in the open act of the film. What people tend to forget is the wonderfully comic performance Fred Astaire, possibly the best performance of his career.

This is the White Christmas you only dream of

This is a lighter performance from Bing Crosby than his other great Christmas film, Going My Way. (I’ll get to that other film in a minute.) Though Bing barely sings in Going My Way, it has a much stronger emotional punch than his other two Christmas films. If you haven’t had the opportunity to see his less seen film, I urge you to give it a look.

As for White Christmas, many prefer that film due to…well, frankly it is in color and not black and white. I always point to this, Danny Kaye is not Fred Astaire and was actually the third pick for the role (Fred Astaire and Donald O’Connor were looked at first. Astaire passed and O’Connor was injured.) Many state that White Christmas avoids the racism of Holiday Inn, but I rebutt this notion. While “Abraham” is done in black face, the song itself solemnly celebrates Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. In White Christmas, they have a sequence that is NOT in black face, but outwardly embraces minstrel musical tradition. So now, they are celebrating this racist art form but they didn’t dress up exactly, so they get a pass? I don’t know. I think you have to take each as an entertainment reflecting the Hollywood standards during its production.

A love triangle is in the center of Holiday Inn

Songs like “Easter Parade” and “White Christmas” have certainly entered the great American songbook. Each tune is readily heard on the holiday they were meant to represent. Oddly, the makers of the film thought the more forgettable “Be Careful, It’s My Heart” was going to be the hit. What were they thinking?

Sing it or Bing it!

Many of the tunes had memorable themes beyond the holiday…the staging themselves had “hooks.” We all remember the fireplace for “White Christmas,” but viewers of the film will also remember moments like Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds jumping through a paper heart on Valentine’s Day, the aforementioned blackface sketch for Lincoln’s Birthday, the minuet played for Washington’s Birthday breaks into a jazz number every time Fred tries to plant a smooch on Marjorie, a drunken New Years tap number (that was apparently the seventh take with Fred doing shots between each take…he lit up the screen and was lit all in one), and my personal favorite: the Fourth of July fireworks dance. Originally, Labor Day was to get a tune, which was cut, when they added a patriotic number….much in the public’s thoughts after the attack on Pearl Harbor that preceded the release of the film and happened during production.

So settle into your comfy PJs. Stoke up the fireplace. Put your feet up. Enjoy one of the great entertainments produced in the 20th century.

Grade: A

Holiday Inn (1942)

Tim’s Advent Calendar brings holiday joy

Our Facebook page, Tim’s Advent Calendar, is taking off! This Christmas, our founder, Tim Kretschmann, launched a Facebook page offering new content each day in December leading up to THE BIG DAY. There are trailers for some of your favorite Christmas movies, there are music videos from classic and new Christmas carols, and there is original content as well.

Christmas
Christmas

Leading the original content is our friend, Bartholomew, Santa’s Second Elf. Bartholomew visits Tim every year starting the day before Thanksgiving. His recorded skits with Tim have been highlights throughout Tim’s broadcasting times on the radio and podcasting. He’s made appearances on his German radio show, Stimmung Stunde, first but migrated to appearances on the podcasts: PageantCast, Police on the Scene with a Crime Prevention Lean, The Christmas Stocking, and the TKPN Podcast.

Re-emerging from the vault are Tim’s “traditions” series. He recorded these traditions back for the Stimmung Stunde and they were extremely popular on that program. He is letting them back out of the vault this year for your enjoyment, so you can all learn the secret of the bullfinch.

Join us and Merry Christmas!

https://www.facebook.com/AdventTim

Tim's Advent Calendar
Tim’s Advent Calendar

Tim’s Advent Calendar brings holiday joy

Last Christmas (2019)

Emelia Clark is probably best known by audiences as the Dragon Queen on Game of Thrones. It might seem odd to place her in the lead of a romantic comedy set at Christmas to some, but Last Christmas isn’t your average Christmas movie and Emelia Clark isn’t your average young actress. Anyone seeing her personal appearances know she is NOTHING like her GOT character, yet this character she plays here is far bleaker than one would expect in a holiday based romp.

If this wasn’t a studio set, this would be chilly.

Last Christmas was helmed by Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters (2016) director, Paul Feig, who really didn’t want to take the position based on a past Christmas based failure on his resume (Unaccompanied Minors). He was directing from a script by Emma Thompson, who cowrote with her husband over the course of many years, and is a literal translation of the famous Wham! song. Wham! songs pepper the soundtrack throughout, so don’t worry about them just playing the one song over and over…like every mall in the country is playing this time of year.

Emilia Clarke as Kate in “Last Christmas,” directed by Paul Feig.

In front of the lens, Henry Golding from Crazy, Rich Asians feels much more at home in a rom-com. Also playing parts was movie scribe Emma Thompson and Michelle Yeoh in a role as a “crazy” boss. Crazy, because she doesn’t fire Emelia’s character within the first five minutes of the movie.

Watching the last season of Game of Thrones is a sobering experience.

Emelia’s character had a disease (I won’t spoil any of this, since I heard the trailer does and I’m glad I didn’t see it) and she has been a mess since beating it. She’s drinking too much. She’s always late. And her legs just won’t stay together.

If that dragon comes down here, I got you.

This is what I mean about steering clear of Christmas conventions. Her character is a mess…more on the street with Nightmare Alley than Miracle on 34th Street. Frankly, if it was shot in black and white, it resembles a film noir more than any Christmas movie ever should. It is also light on the mirth. It’s just a little cold and aloof…much like the characters Emma Thompson typically plays.This all leads to either a shocking reveal or a ridiculous plot twist in the final 30 minutes of the film that either makes or breaks the movie for many. I liked it and it brought out a sweetness in the performance that had been missing during the early going of the film. It’s worth catching Last Christmas this Christmas but expect, at least a little, heartbreak. It could have been something special.

Grade: B

Last Christmas (2019)

Tim’s Advent Calendar brings holiday joy

Our Facebook page, Tim’s Advent Calendar, is taking off! This Christmas, our founder, Tim Kretschmann, launched a Facebook page offering new content each day in December leading up to THE BIG DAY. There are trailers for some of your favorite Christmas movies, there are music videos from classic and new Christmas carols, and there is original content as well.

Christmas
Christmas

Leading the original content is our friend, Bartholomew, Santa’s Second Elf. Bartholomew visits Tim every year starting the day before Thanksgiving. His recorded skits with Tim have been highlights throughout Tim’s broadcasting times on the radio and podcasting. He’s made appearances on his German radio show, Stimmung Stunde, first but migrated to appearances on the podcasts: PageantCast, Police on the Scene with a Crime Prevention Lean, The Christmas Stocking, and the TKPN Podcast.

Re-emerging from the vault are Tim’s “traditions” series. He recorded these traditions back for the Stimmung Stunde and they were extremely popular on that program. He is letting them back out of the vault this year for your enjoyment, so you can all learn the secret of the bullfinch.

Join us and Merry Christmas!

https://www.facebook.com/AdventTim

Tim's Advent Calendar
Tim’s Advent Calendar

Tim’s Advent Calendar brings holiday joy

Hallmark Christmas Movie Universe Bingo

I doubt Hallmark Channel knew this would go this far, but when they started making Christmas movies each year, they have become a big part of the holidays. Almost the equivalent of the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials of my childhood. 

black woman giving gift to kid
Photo by Any Lane on Pexels.com

The movies seem interrelated. Many appear to be in the same town (in Canada). As the meme goes: “The plot of every Hallmark is about a career woman who is too busy for love but has to move to a small town where a handsome local bachelor teaches her about the true spirit of the holiday. It begins to snow and they kiss. There is also a dog.”

As you know HCMU films are fairly cookie cutter (pun intended) so making a BINGO board for your next viewing party is fairly straight forward. I came up with 75, just as many numbers as on a BINGO card. Pull out any BINGO card and a copy of this list and play along! 

Fire up the chestnuts, chill the egg nog, put on the comfy PJs and play along with the OMC HCMU BINGO.

OMC HCMU BINGO

  1. Single Mom
  2. Single Father
  3. Christmas Cookies
  4. Christmas Decorating
  5. Christmas competition of some kind
  6. Decorations discovered in the attic or a barn
  7. All the lights work (no reference to knotted up lights or dead lights)
  8. Product placement of coffee
  9. A main romance and a secondary romance from the main couples best friends, coworker, etc.
  10. Meddling parents
  11. Elderly Couple finding love
  12. Widow/Widower
  13. Carolers (dressed in matching Victorian garb)
  14. Use of public domain song Jingle Bells
  15. Use of public domain poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
  16. Awkward realization by the main couple that everyone they know has been plotting to get them together
  17. An elusive, small, thoughtful gift being more appreciated than a big exciting gift
  18. Background actors dressed as elves (because doesn’t everyone?)
  19. Trees are lit but have no ornaments or garland (easier to move around the set from one room to the next)
  20. Picking a Christmas tree at an outdoor lot
  21. Hot Cocoa
  22. Interrupted Kiss
  23. Spontaneous Snow
  24. Snow Angels
  25. First Full Kiss occurs in the last five minutes of the film
  26. Some awful generic title (It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas could have been named: Christmas in the Rivertons, A Dual Mayor Christmas, Love and Holly in East and West Riverton, etc.)
  27. Lead leaves their current significant other
  28. Lead is dumped just before the holidays
  29. Carrying around a hot chocolate
  30. Christmas program
  31. Tree lighting ceremony
  32. Christmas Winter Wonderland festival
  33. Always a misunderstanding. Only hearing one side of a conversation and the main character leaves abruptly (This is called the “Three’s Company complication.”)
  34. Scene dressing up formally
  35. The man’s jaw drops after seeing the woman dressed up
  36. “I’m only home for a few weeks…”
  37. “I inherited a small town inn but I have to be there right away?! But I have a big corporate deadline looming in the city…”
  38. Big city gal or guy who never has time ends up having to visit or “deal” with something in a small town.
  39. Dog or a cat
  40. Always a favorite diner or coffee shop everyone goes to.
  41. It’s supposedly cold and/or a snowstorm is imminent. Yet the main characters don’t have their coats closed and you can’t see their breath.
  42. They make Christmas cookies with hardly any cookies on a pan.
  43. Any scene of a character exiting or entering a taxi
  44. Airport
  45. Any running of one character after another character
  46. An unusually wise speaking child
  47. Shopping on a little town main street instead of a mall
  48. An elderly man resembling Santa Claus IS Santa Claus
  49. An old home or hotel that needs to be fixed up in time for the holidays
  50. Putting ornaments on a tree
  51. A shot of a fireplace with a roaring fire
  52. Someone casually picking up a baked good to eat
  53. Any visual of a candy cane
  54. If anyone in your viewing party tears up, you get this square
  55. A missing relative arrives just in time for Christmas
  56. A missing relative is actually one of the main characters that didn’t reveal themselves until Christmas night
  57. The word “Believe” anywhere in writing on screen
  58. Lacey Chabert
  59. Patrick Muldoon
  60. Jonathan Bennett
  61. Out of focus colorful Christmas lights in the background of a shot
  62. Colin Ferguson
  63. Cameron Mathison
  64. Any reference to Dolly Parton
  65. Any has-been actor in a senior character role
  66. Big city shots from the sky during credits
  67. Any recognizable Christmas carol during the opening credits
  68. The sound of a Jingle Bell in the soundtrack
  69. Corporate big shot is closing a local business (factory, lodge, tree lot)
  70. Kids play matchmaker for the couple
  71. Parents/Older characters play matchmaker for the couple
  72. Lead couple actively do not like each other at first meeting
  73. Lead woman’s boyfriend is all work and no romance
  74. Lead woman has to choose between family and career
  75. Secret identity of character (he’s a prince! The caretaker owns the lodge!)

Hallmark Christmas Movie Universe Bingo