10 MERRY MOVIES

Teacher says, every time a bell rings...

Happy holidays! Wherever you are, whatever you worship (or don’t), I hope you’re enjoying a festive week filled with fun and friends. But if you should happen to be on your own—or spending the holidays with other nostalgic cineastes—here’s my list of my favorite Christmas films. I first complied this list during the pandemic, when we were all a bit lonely earlier than usual.

No shocker, I guess, it but all the best holiday movies are older than I am. Yes, Fanny and Alexander and The Muppet Christmas Carol and Carol are wonderful in their different ways. But older Christmas movies come to us bearing a mysterious magic—like “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and Santa Claus and Charles Dickens and the Three Wise Men. Also, they’re just better movies. Here you go, in chronological order:

THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER

1940, Dir. Ernst Lubitsch

Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are co-workers who hate each other—and secret pen pals who love each other. Set mostly at the leather goods store of Mr. Matuschek (Frank Morgan, aka the Wizard of Oz) in the middle of the holiday shopping rush, it’s a perfect jewel of a movie, and maybe the best opposites-attract rom-com ever. Inspired the ho-hum You’ve Got Mail and the marvelous musical She Loves Me.

REMEMBER THE NIGHT

1940, Dir. Mitchell Liesen

Preston Sturges wrote this funny and touching Christmas story, which stars Barbara Stanwyck as a shoplifter prosecutor Fred McMurray is trying to lock up. What with one thing and another, he ends up driving her home to Indiana instead to spend the holidays with his sweet mother (Beulah Bondi, who played Jimmy Stewart’s mother much more often) and aunt (Elizabeth Patterson). A sought-after production designer before he turned to directing, Liesen makes a sensitive, gorgeous film, but Sturges nonetheless decided he’d direct his own movies henceforth. Struck by Stanwyck’s comedic flair, he promised to write her a doozy of a funny part. And boy did he—next year’s The Lady Eve.

THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER

1942, Dir. William Keighley

Bette Davis, craving a respite from heavy drama, convinced Jack Warner to buy the rights to this hit Broadway play, which starred Monty Woolley as Sheridan Whitehouse, a boorish intellectual snob who holds a mild-mannered Ohio family hostage during the holidays after slipping on their front steps. Davis wanted John Barrymore for Whitehouse, but sadly by the early ’40s he was perpetually drunk and flubbed his screentest. The part went to Woolley—and thank God: His Sheldon Whitehouse, gunning down everyone in sight with witty, 200-decibel putdowns, is exquisite. Davis was disappointed not to get Barrymore (or Charles Laughton or Orson Welles, who both campaigned for the part), but most likely she was just jealous. She’s perfectly sweet as Whitehouse’s secretary, who falls in love with a small-town newspaperman, but it’s Woolley’s movie from start to finish. (He may sound familiar: Stewie from The Family Guy is modeled on him, right down to the bored transatlantic intonations.) Along for the ride: Billie Burke, Jimmy Durante, Ann Sheridan, Reginald Gardiner, and Mary Wickes in her screen debut.

MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS

1944, Dir. Vincente Minelli

Judy Garland, all grown-up, falls in love in this two-hour-long Technicolor orgasm. It’s so overstyled and saturated, you may wonder if you’re on an acid trip, but somehow it’s totally moving. Strictly speaking, the movie carries us through the whole calendar, but the holidays are the heart. The sadder-than-sad “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” will flay you—and it was even darker before Garland insisted on a rewrite, saying she couldn’t possibly sing to a child, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas, it may be your last.”

CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT

1945, Dir. Peter Godfrey

Barbara Stanwyck stars as the Martha Stewart of the 1940s, with a twist: She’s not a happily married mother living on a bucolic farm—she can’t even cook! When her publisher (Sydney Greenstreet) ropes her into a publicity stunt at her mythical Connecticut farm—with one of her fans (Dennis Morgan, playing a war hero who’s just come home)—all holiday hell breaks loose. Nobody beats Stanwyck at light comedy: Her scenes meeting a cow, attempting to flip pancakes, and tending to “her baby” are delightful. As her best friend—and the chef who secretly feeds her kitchen intel—human teddy bear S.Z. Sakall gets the best role of his career.

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

1946, Dir. Frank Capra

So hokey! So silly! So amazing! Jimmy Stewart in his most comfortable role as the all-American, lovable guy, up against the best (worst) villain ever: Lionel Barrymore. This film is Christmas, but it’s also a timeless portrait of small-town life—one of those movies, like Oz, that’s knitted itself into our mythology of home. Setting aside the sentiment (if you can), watch this for its craft, and you’ll be astonished. Stewart was never better—his performance is by turns charming and shattering. And the supporting cast of dozens is stupendous. Donna Reed! Thomas Mitchell! Beaulah Bondi! Gloria Grahame! Henry Travers! Joseph Walker’s cinematography is exquisite, matching Capra tone for tone. Fun fact: Thought it lost best picture, actor, director, and editing to another masterpiece, The Best Years of Our Lives, IAWL did earn a special Oscar for “simulating falling snow.”

IT HAPPENED ON 5TH AVENUE

1947, Dir. Roy Del Ruth

Every December, hobo Aloysius McKeever (the great Victor Moore, in a rare leading role) quietly moves into the empty 5th Ave. mansion of Charles O’Connor (Charles Ruggles, another great comedian), who winters in Virginia. This year, Aloysius takes in a few strays—some ex-GIs who’ve been evicted from one of O’Connor’s buildings, and a runaway girl (Gale Storm), who’s pretending not to be O’Connor’s daughter. The best bit is Ruggles coming back, disguised as a hobo, to stop his daughter from running off with one of the GIs, which sets Moore up to boss him around in his own house. The film merges two of Hollywood’s favorite feel-good conceits, hidden identities and reformed millionaires, all suffused with the spirit of the season. The script was nominated for an Oscar for best story, but it lost to the year’s other Christmas flick, the similarly titled Miracle on 34th Street.

MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET

1947, Dir. George Seaton

Maureen O’Hara stars as Doris Walker, an event director who hires the real Santa Claus (or is he?) to sub for a drunken Macy’s St. Nick. It’s all business to Doris—she’s even raised her daughter (Natalie Wood) not to believe in Santa! You can see where this is going. The movie won three Oscars, for best story, best screenplay, and best supporting actor for Edmund Gwynn. Always marvelous, from Lassie movies to 60s sci-fi, Gwynn simply is Santa Claus.

THE HOLLY AND THE IVY

1952, Dir. Anatole de Grunwald

Alcoholic Londoner Margaret (Margaret Leighton) and her serviceman brother (a very young Denholm Elliot), come up for Christmas to see their father (Ralph Richardson), a parson in Norfolk. Meanwhile, oldest sister Jenny (Celia Johnson, so brilliant in Brief Encounter), his caretaker since Mum died, has news: She’s engaged, and it’s their turn to take care of Dad. The most realistic holiday movie, for sure—full of drunken benders, bitter recriminations, uncomfortable revelations, and even catharsis.

NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

1955, Dir. Charles Laughton

Horror thriller? Film noir? Bible story? Expressionistic fairy tale? It’s all of that and more—including, yes, a holiday movie. Robert Mitchum plays a false preacher who seduces Shelly Winters and then terrorizes her two small children. A magnificent Lillian Gish saves the day, just in time for Christmas. One of the weirdest, most memorable films ever to come out of Hollywood.

THE APARTMENT

1960, Dir. Billy Wilder

Only Wilder could pull off this off, swinging from hilarious social satire to achingly realist tragedy to heart-melting romance. Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine are at their young best, and Fred MacMurray is terrific against type as the sleazy villain in the corner suite. As an indictment of big office, big city life, the movie still feels fresh. Lemmon’s drunken trek home on Christmas Eve, by way of the office party bacchanale and a hilarious late-night lovematch in a crowded bar, is glittering cinematic gold.

THE LION IN WINTER

1968, Dir. Anthony Harvey

This oddity is sort of like a Shakespearean history as retold by Noel Coward. Part historical drama, part family comedy, it’s set on the crankiest night of the year: Christmas eve. The kids (Nigel Terry, John Castle, and a young Anthony Hopkins) are home for the holidays to see Dad, King Henry II, who lovingly lets mom out of jail every Christmas. Peter O’Toole is great as the king, erupting with boisterous cheer and bombastic rage. But Katharine Hepburn—at her wittiest and grandest as mom, Eleanor of Aquitaine—owns the movie.