<<< December 14 - 23, 2007 >>>

Some films in this series are at the Aero Theatre.

Join us for movies celebrating the festive holiday spirit of yuletide cheer, braced with the romance, joy, pathos and giving mood of this time of year. Many of you will remember these cinematic chestnuts from your childhood – every one of them have that wonderful quality of making you feel all aglow and good inside (even if the rest of the world is collapsing!). We’ll be screening classics such as WHITE CHRISTMAS (with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen), MIRACLE ON 34^TH STREET (with Maureen O’Hara and child-star Natalie Wood), Frank Capra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (with James Stewart and a cast of endearingly familiar character actor faces), Ernest Lubitsch’s SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, THE THIN MAN (the screwball comedy-mystery with William Powell and Myrna Loy – who can forget the image of Powell’s hungover Nick Charles shooting the ornaments off his Christmas tree on Christmas morn?) and CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (with Barbara Stanwyck). At the Aero we’ll be showing some of the same films, plus decidedly modern takes on Christmastime, from grueling DIE HARD with Bruce Willis to irreverent NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION to A CHRISTMAS STORY. Plus check out three different versions of Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL (two at the Aero, one at the Egyptian)!

Friday, December 14 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

WHITE CHRISTMAS, 1954, Paramount, 120 min. Director Michael Curtiz’ (CASABLANCA) Christmas classic features some of the most rousing production numbers from any Hollywood musical. Paramount’s first film shot in widescreen Vistavision is a love story, set in a Vermont inn. Two Army buddies, Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye turned post-war song-and-dance team, find romance with Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, while rescuing their old General (Dean Jagger) from financial ruin. With 13 songs highlighted by the snow-bound train rendition of Irving Berlin's "Snow." "Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep" was Oscar-nominated for Best Song.

MIRACLE ON 34^th STREET, 1947, 20th Century Fox, 96 min. Dir. George Seaton. Maureen O’Hara, a hard-working, successful single mother working as a special event coordinator for Macy’s department store, is beside herself when their regular store Santa is found drunk at Thanksgiving. Like a godsend, a funny old man (Edmund Gwenn) calling himself Kris Kringle just happens to be around to take his place. But trouble brews when Kringle starts claiming to really be Santa Claus. O’Hara frowns at the notion, but realizes there is something special going on when her down-in-the-dumps young daughter (Natalie Wood) takes a shine to the sweet, old man. Before long, store executives are questioning Kringle’s sanity. O’Hara’s lawyer boyfriend (John Payne) suddenly finds himself defending Kringle in court – and trying to prove that the seemingly deluded old gentleman really is Santa! Nominated for Best Picture, the film won three Oscars, including Gwenn for Best Supporting Actor and Valentine Davies and George Seaton for Best Story and Best Screenplay.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL, 1951, 86 min. Brian Desmond Hurst directs what is arguably the best and most atmospheric version of Charles Dickens’ oft-filmed Christmas fable and ghost story. Alastair Sim (STAGE FRIGHT) is the definitive Ebenezer Scrooge, visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve – the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. With Mervyn Johns and Hermione Baddeley as the Cratchits, and a host of great character actors, including Ernest Thesiger (BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN), Miles Malleson and Michael Hordern. "…what we have in this rendition of Dickens' sometimes misunderstood "Carol" is an accurate comprehension of the agony of a shabby soul. And this is presented not only in the tortured aspects of Mr. Sim but in the phantasmagoric creation of a somber and chilly atmosphere. These, set against the exhibition of conventional manifests of love and cheer, do right by the moral of Dickens and round a trenchant and inspiring Christmas show." – Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

Saturday, December 15 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, 1946, Paramount, 130 min. Director Frank Capra’s inspiring tale balances both pathos and joy. The legendary James Stewart is at his finest as the distraught George Baily, a man about to commit suicide on Christmas Eve until he runs into the helpful, elderly Angel Clarence (Henry Travers). Lionel Barrymore is at his Snidely Whiplash best as avaricious banker Mr. Potter, a man who would foreclose on the whole town if he had the chance. Featuring Donna Reed as the love of George’s life, in the role that launched her to stardom, and a young, charming Gloria Grahame. You have seen it before, now see it on the big screen.

SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, 1940, Warner Bros, 99 min. Dir. Ernst Lubitsch. Co-workers (James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan) in a quaint Budapest shop clash in person but fall in love via anonymous letters in this charming classic set at Christmas time. Under Lubitsch’s expert direction, the film becomes both an intimate love story and a heartwarming ensemble comedy, as multiple subplots following the lives of the lovers’ colleagues (including cantankerous shopowner, Frank Morgan, and egotistical ladies man, Joseph Schildkraut) are deftly woven into the narrative. A subtle and deeply romantic masterpiece.

Sunday, December 16 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

THE THIN MAN, 1934, Warner Bros., 93 min. Adapting the Dashiell Hammett novel, W.S. Van Dyke helms the first and best in what was to become one of MGM’s most successful franchises of the 1930’s. William Powell and Myrna Loy are transcendentally flighty as the carefree rich couple, Nick and Nora Charles – a wise-cracking, hard-drinking detective and his heiress wife, a gal who aspires to fight crime, too (along with their terrier, Asta). Their partying lifestyle is interrupted when a friend, Dorothy Wynant (Maureen O’Sullivan) asks them to help find her father, an inventor who has been missing for three months. Set over yuletide in New York City, the pair piece together clues while barhopping and hitting holiday cocktail parties (that always seem to be crawling with Nick’s former shady underworld acquaintances). Watch for hungover Nick shooting ornaments off the Christmas tree on Christmas morning! Nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT, 1945, Warner Bros., 102 min. Peter Godfrey directs this cozily romantic, holiday comedy. Barbara Stanwyck is the nation’s most famous food columnist (something akin to a 1940’s Martha Stewart), passing herself off as a married, hard-working New England farmer who whips up everything on her table from scratch. In reality, she’s a single New York City girl who can barely find her way around the kitchen. When the owner (Sydney Greenstreet) of the magazine she writes for invites himself and just-returning war hero (Dennis Morgan) to her Connecticut country home over Christmas to experience her cooking firsthand, Stanwyck is placed between a rock and a hard place. Reginald Gardiner is her longtime fiance who must pretend to be her husband.