Favorite Christmas Movies

 Most of my fave Christmas movies were produced back in the eighties. Here are the best, starting with...

George C. Scott's Christmas Carol

The original ad for the 1984 CBS production of Carol, starring George C. Scott.

Nothing can quite top this CBS TV  movie, part of the "Read More About" program, directed by Clive Donner in 1984. There's not a lot to say about George C. Scott's version of Scrooge that I haven't already on my blog about Clive Donner movies. His was the best performance and best version I'd seen before and since. Only the much more recent Jim Carey version was very good as well, and both movies featured songs with the same title "God Bless Us Everyone." The 1984 song was written and composed by Nicolas Bicet, and his available on his website.

I also own IBM's tie-book they made the following year (I loved when they did those), A Christmas Carol Christmas book, which featured gorgeous photos from the production, a history of the English Christmas, where I learned about Cromwell's outlawing  of the holiday and the great Christmas feasts prior to that, plus Victorian recipes and games. And also Dickens' original text in its entirity. Those extras helped them rack up the price, but my folks still got it for me that year. Sadly, my own copy of  A Christmas Carol, Christmas Book still survives in rather shoddy condition. I also still have my ancient VHS tape of the George Scott Carol, complete with the IBM-sponsored commercials, with the now-primitive seeming computers. It's a very nostalgic Christmas-flavored production, in a way the more recent DVD releases of the movie cannot compare. Unfortunately, the tape has since become very hard to rewind, and needs repairing. 

The Box of Delights 

My own hardback edition of Masefield's Box, with the Wonderworks sticker on the cover

    The Box of Delights was a three-part movie produced by Wonderworks, a sort of junior version of Masterpiece Theatre, and by the BBC and shown on PBS back in 1985. I first encountered it near the end of the last chapter, sort of by accident when flipping channels. I had to wait until the following Christmas to see it again, though that was a one hour, abbreviated version. I was able to record the whole thing a year later. The story is based on a book by mid 20th century author John Masefield, who is primarily known for his poetry. The original tale was a sequel to Masefield's previous novel The Midnight Folk. That novel concerns British schoolboy Kay Harker, who is an rather Dickensian predicament, with a cruel guardian, Miss Sylvia Daisy Pouncer, who is both figuratively and literally a which. The story also involves the evil sorcerer Abner Brown, and both Abner and Sylvia also feature as major villains in The Box of Delights. Unlike its predecessor, Box takes place entirely over the Christmas holidays, with Kay arriving home by train to his aunt Caroline Louisa. Staying with them are the Jones children, Peter and Maria, the latter of whom is something of a spitfire. Anyway, Kay meets the old Punch-and-Judy man Cole Hallings, who entrusts him to protect a magical box filled with extraordinary powers like flying, "going small", and travel to other times and magical realms. It turns out the evil magician and Satanist Aber Brown and his mistress, Kay's old enemy Sylvia Pouncer, are also seeking Cole's box for personal power.

An illustration by Faith Jacques from the box, showing Kay's encounter with Cole Hawlings, and his dog Barney

   The story is split into three hour-long parts, each once starting out with a refrain "The First Noel," setting the Christmasy atmosphere that pervades the film. There is a dream-like quality also throughout the ensuing adventures, through which Kay meets characters like Herne the Hunter from ancient myth, and features rich animated sequences, as well as live action and costumed actors, as Kay visits other worlds and times, hardly giving a thought to the fantastic nature of his adventures. This is justified by the fact that the entire story turns out to be a dream at the end, with Kay waking up once more on the train, with his aunt announcing that he's home for the holidays! This feature of Masefield's story has been criticised some, as his first tale (The Midnight Folk) was also a fantasy, but did not, apparently, take place within a dream. But while the ends with Kay replying that he's had a good dream, the film ads one "or was it a dream" incident, with Chubby Joe and Foxy-Faced Charles, former employs of Abner Brown, sitting at the station, and Joe tips his hat to Kay. It's been theorized that perhaps Hawlings found a way to send Kay back in time to enjoy the holidays all over again. 

    The final scene at Tatchester Cathedral where everyone sings "Come All Ye Faithful" for the "Thousandth Christmas Ceremony," is the most atmospheric in the film, and recalled to me of yearly visits to extravagant Christmas programs held at Valparaiso Chapel, celebrating the birth of the Savior. The scene just prior to that, with the sledges of Herne and Hunter drawn by lions, and the Gray lady, drawn by unicorns, (More richly described in the book), are reminiscent of something that C. S. Lewis, a contemporary of Masefield, might have written. It's notable that Wonderworks went on to produce its own version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the three follow up Narnia books, just a few years later. They used the same combination of live-action, animation, and puppetry, was kind of gave the same atmosphere, which made sense in a way, since Masefield and Lewis had kind of the same English flavor, though some of pointed that Narnia, is an entire secondary world, and did NOT take place in a dream!

   Masefield's original novel, though, contains even more magical scenes then they were able to fit into the three-part adaptation, including one in which Kay visits a mediaeval tournament of jousting knights, and one where a shrunken Kay converses with a squirrel and other small animals within a tree, and also one in which he risks the bite of a cockatrice! The subtitle of Box is "Where the Wolves were Running," and wolves, both literal and metaphoric, feature throughout the story. At one point Kay reflects that, though wolves are supposed to be extinct in England since Arthur's time, some remote forests regions might still harbor them, and "in this deep winter, out they come!" That incident occurs, though, when the box transports Kay back to Arthurian Bretan, when ravening wolves are raiding the stock, and Kay fights alongside the knights to fend them off. The role that wolves play within the story makes it recall yet another British winter tale The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken, and her ensuing Wolves chronicles. Those occur in an alternate England in which wolves have invaded England from the Continent via a newly built underground railway between France and England. 

A couple of illustrated scenes from the Masefield novel that never made it into the PBS adaptation

    I found a copy of the dell-yearling edition of Masefield's novel, with a tie-in cover with the movie, back shortly after it was broadcast, but before I got to see the production in its entiriety. This is a treasured artifact from my childhood, and very unfortunately, just this year the cover got damaged when some sticky stuff from the Christmas feast got on it, as you can see:

                                    My own (now tragically damaged) paperback edition of Masefield's Box

  It seems also that this particular edition of the novel is a rare none, and as yet, I can find no replacement copy. It still has the small black and white illustrations  by Faith Jacques, but the hardback edition, which I discovered at a used bookstore years later, came with full-color illustrations, some of which you can see above. My own VHS taped copy of the movie has aged some, but still has that nostalgic factor, as it is unique to my collection, I almost hate to seek out the newer DVD release. of course, doing that would mean ordering from the UK, as this has never been released in the US. And while I did own a UK regional player, I might need a new one--I couldn't play my UK edition of Ghost Stories for Christmas. 

     Recently, this Christmas, I was very surprised to discover the following:

   Opening the Box of Delights is an exploration and critical analysis of Masefield's novel, as well as a biography of the author himself, and exploration of the numerous theatrical, audio and radio adaptation. It is quite a rich history, and I had no idea so many adaptations existed of this relatively obscure story. There is as much to delve into here regarding the history, inspirations, etc., as there is to be found in the books written about C. S.Lewis's Narnia Chronicles or Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. A real treasure trove of information. I was surprised to learn that the villain Abner Brown made his initial appearance in a novel that did not involve Kay Harker at all, and that The Midnight Folk, though it did not explicitly take place in a dream, nonetheless had a dream-like atmosphere, not unlike Box, shifting between other magic realms and times, and it was never quite certain if the young protagonist was dreaming or not. Speaking of  The Midnight Folk, I remember having ordered it from the library many years ago, and began reading it, though somehow I never finished it. I just remember , it wasn't a Christmas story, Kay's wicked guardian, and his friend Nibbins, the black cat. Anyway, Masefield's Kay Harker novels, and Box in particular, have a much richer history than expected, and I've only just started reading this!

The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story

   This TV movie was made sometime in the eighties, shortly following the broadcast of George Scott's Carol, as I recall. It, too, is a Christmas Ghost Story, though it is generally not thought of as such, as it contains virtually no "spooky" scenes. There is one character who is known as the Christmas Ghost, though he turns out to be an old sweetheart of the children's Aunt Minerva, who still arrives every Christmas to leave her a rose. 

Hannibal and Minerva

     The story concerns one Janet Broderick (Lee Remick), who feels herself drifting away from her husband at a time when the family business is running into hard times. When her mother unexpectedly dies of a heart attic during the Christmas season, and she is then visited by her within a dream. The grandmother and grandfather father appear to be very much alive again, when they take Janet and her two children, Dorothy and Micheal, to the house in the country where Janet grew up, and they begin making preparations for Christmas. Like Christmas Carol, the story involves spirits of the departed returning to reconcile the protagonist to their life.  Like Box of Delights, the entire main story takes place in a dream. It's a bit confusing, as everything seems very realistic within what is supposed to be a dream (reality doesn't shift, as in Kay Harker's dreamworld), and the other living characters like the two Broderick kids seem to be living their own experiences within Janet's dream. This does not seem possible, unless they, too, are sharing the same dream at the same time! Michael, we learn, is "not used to how we do things in the country" according to his grandfather, and is especially squeamish about killing of animals for Christmas dinner, something that becomes an important plot point near the story's climax

Michael Broderick and Bunhilde, my own drawing 

   When I first saw this, I was very disturbed when young Michael Broderick falls through the ice on the mill pond while saving the Christmas goose, Brunhilda. The remainder of the movie is mostly the search for Michael. I actually stopped watching at that point, fearing that Michael would be drowned and frozen stiff; I had just recently experienced other child deaths in fiction (Stephen King comes to mind), and I didn't want to repeat the experience. Yes, it was till supposed to be a dream, but it didn't come across as that, and I might not have been entirely aware. I was relieved, of course, when I later learned Michael had escaped the ice, and had curled up under a blanket in the barn. 

   It is notable that just before this, just before this Janet's mother, the grandfather, and Aunt Minerva, all confess that they are dead, and that they have come back in her dream, to set her life straight. It's seems probable then, since Minerva herself is a ghost, that her boyfriend Hannibal, the "Christmas ghost", too, truly IS a ghost, after all!

   A couple more headscratchers: A smart-alec local kid named Raymond invite Dorothy and Michael to a supposed costume, then everyone laughs, when the Broderick kids are the only ones in costume. Until fairly recently, it didn't hit me exactly why Dorothy is so upset by the incident, and keeps brooding on it through the rest of the movie until Michael's disappearance. It isn't merely that she was humiliated by the prank, as I assumed; she apparently thinks that Chance Mayfield, a new boy she has a crush on, set her up for the humiliation. It was Chance who initially invited her, but it was smart-alec Raymond who falsely told her it was a costume party. Michael's claim that his sister "has a broken heart" is what gives it away. It is obvious from the scene just following that Chance had nothing at all to do with the prank! Though, why doesn't Chance call out to warn Dorothy and Michael, instead of just admonishing Raymond? Also, when Dorothy and Michael prepare for the party, she decides to go as a clown, and Michael puts on a Paul Revere coat and four-cornered hat. Why is it then, that when they are humiliated at the party, Michael is dressed as an old lady? No wonder they laughed! This makes little sense, especially since Micheal is shown wearing the Paul Revere hat around for the rest of the movie, up until the incident where he falls in the ice.

The Tailor of Glouscester

    "The Tailor of Glouscester" is a short children's story by "Peter Rabbit" author Beatrix Potter. It was brought to gorgeously animated life as part of the series "Peter Rabbit and Friends", adaptations of the Beatrix Potter stories, which I was produced and shown on PBS. They aired back in the early 90's. 

    The plot of this is almost exactly the same as the fairy tale "the Shoemaker and the Elves," only with a tailor and mice. The tailor in question is contracted to make a coat of cherry-colored silk with yellow taffetar for the Mayor of Glouscester's wedding on Christmas day in the morning. He runs out of red twist, and falls unexpectedly ill, plus he is double-crossed by his cat Simpkin for releasing the mice he has caught. In their gratitude, the mice enter his shop via the myriad of passages between buildings, and sew the entire coat, which the tailor finds waiting for him, on Christmas morn, just in the nick of time for the wedding. 

    The animation (as with all of this series) is simply gorgeous, made resemble the original illustrations of the Beatrix Potter books sprung to vivid life. This is no mere "cartoon." Unlike the rest of the series though, which all begin and end with an actress playing the author coming home to her cottage, with shots of the rolling English countryside,  andwith the same soundtrack, Tailor has a uniquely Christmas flavor, and begins and ends with the Sussex Carol. One major highlight of the program has Simkin, the Tailor's cat wondering about London on Christmas night, listening to the other local animals singing songs and throwing parties. The best song is sung by the rats at their boisterous drunken revel. 

    There has sadly been very little like this manner of animation since,; two other PBS presentations that utilize the 'illustrations come to life' approach were The Dinosaurs! a documentary in 1992, pre-Jurassic park, and The Velvet Claw, a series on the evolution of carnivores. But I'll save those for the paleontology blog.