I recently had a conversation with my editor about old movies—how even though they sometimes age poorly, and have a few cringeworthy moments, we still love them. I am really in the holiday spirit this year, so I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite old Christmas movies. I’m sure you’ll be familiar with many of them but others may be new to you. All of them are worth a view if you are looking for some holiday cheer!
Desk Set (1957 20th Century Fox) This may be the newest of these movies, but it is also my #1 favorite Christmas movie and it has that distinction without even being about Christmas. It just happens to take place over that holiday. Set in New York at the corporate offices of a television network, it’s a romantic comedy with Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, and Gig Young as three points of a love triangle. Or maybe it’s a square, because you can’t forget about EMERAC, the computer Tracy’s character, Richard Sumner, installs throughout the company which makes Hepburn’s character, Bunny Watson and her team of researchers worried about keeping their jobs. Tracy and Hepburn’s characters start out as adversaries, but sparks fly right away, and by the time EMERAC fires everyone in the company at Christmas, they are both ready to take a chance on love. After they fix the computer. Fun, charming, and you get to hear Hepburn sing Night and Day.
A Christmas Carol (1951 Turner Classic Movies) Definitely a Christmas movie and I’m sure you all know the story. This is the version with Alastair Sim. The reason I love this version the most is that the melody of the song, Barbara Allen, can be heard here and there throughout the movie, though mostly at Fred’s holiday party, and there something sweet and haunting about that music that just gets to me. I just looked it up and found that the first written mention of the song Barbara Allen was in 1665! Clearly, I’m not the only one who loves it.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) Another movie that takes place at Christmas but isn’t necessarily about the holiday. Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand each other, without realizing that they are falling in love through the post as each other’s anonymous pen pal. Yes, it’s just like the newer old movie, You’ve Got Mail, but with The Shop Around the Corner, you have Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan and a subplot that’s more heartwarming.
Christmas in Connecticut (1945 Warner Bros.) Elizabeth Lane, a homemaking columnist who gets her recipes from a friend who’s a chef and makes up everything else, is forced to host her publisher and a young military hero at her fake country home, with her fake husband and fake baby, for Christmas. What could possibly go wrong? A comedy of errors that Barbara Stanwick simply sparkles in! If you have never seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it this holiday season.
It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947 Allied Artists) Every winter, Michael J. O’Connor, the second richest man in the world, vacates his 5th Avenue mansion for his winter home in Virginia. That’s when Aloysius T. McKeever, a homeless man, and his dog moves into the vacated mansion. One day, McKeever meets Jim Bullock, an army veteran who has recently been evicted from his apartment which O’Conner owns and plans to tear down. McKeever offers to share the mansion with Jim. It’s not long before the mansion has a few more guests, including two of Jim’s army buddies and their wives and children; runaway heiress Trudy O’Connor; her mother and even Michael J. O’Connor, himself disguised as a bum. I saw this movie for the first time only a few years ago and can’t believe it’s not a Christmas staple. If you find it, watch it!
Those are my top five. I’m a sucker for a Christmas movie so I generally keep an eye out for Holiday Inn, Meet Me in St. Louis, and even The Thin Man, which is really only Christmas adjacent. If you love them too, I hope you get to watch all your favorites, and I’d love to hear about them.
