Since Christmas and Hollywood seem to rely so much on nostalgia, why not double your money and revel in some exceptional classic films that present those two institutions in their most flattering light? Granted, each of these was made while World War II put considerable pressure on studios to elevate morale.

Remember the Night
Fred McMurray is as tweedy as ever, young Barbara Stanwyck is as tempting as ever, and Beulah Bondi perseveres as the matron forever minding the home fires. McMurray plays a no-nonsense prosecutor who can’t bear to leave shoplifter Stanwyck in the clink over Christmas, so he bails her out and takes her to his family’s home. What follows won’t surprise you, but the details are cleverly managed and your intelligence is never offended.

The Man Who Came to Dinner
Knox County Public Library has many linear feet of shelf space dedicated to readers who might suffer from low self-esteem. In this film, nearly every character suffers from the high self-esteem of arrogant radio commentator Sheridan Whiteside, played with exquisite bombast and universal disregard for others by Monty Woolley. After slipping on the ice during a winter speaking tour through Ohio, Whiteside imposes himself upon an innocent family where he commandeers the kitchen, manipulates numerous budding romances, and generally imports his own chaotic life and lifestyle into a disarmingly quaint and cozy community. It’s based on the play of the same name (in which Woolley also stole the show as Whiteside), which was inspired by the pugnacious personality of real-life critic Alexander Woollcott. It’s a terrific film and a great story. How nice to be reminded that madness and sweetness are not mutually exclusive in a person.

It Happened on 5th Avenue and Christmas in July
Both of these movies subscribe to the unwritten rules of any good Christmas flick: Relationships are strained but strengthened; hard hearts are softened; commitments are made to be better and do better. But the shared subject of these two films is, in fact, the redistribution of wealth. It’s likely that they could not have been released even a decade later, with Hollywood spooked as it was by the Red Menace.

Christmas in July is consummate Preston Sturges, and he nails the advertising business. A prank leads clerk Jimmy MacDonald (Dick Powell) to believe that a pun he submitted to a slogan contest won the $25,000 prize—even though nobody gets it. That misunderstanding proves contagious, and Jimmy and his gal Betty (Ellen Drew) blow the wad on gifts for their working-class neighbors. William Demerest plays the type he perfected for Sturges. Perhaps like someone you know, he seems to think that saying the same thing but louder every time is an effective tool of persuasion.

Prescient of the recent Occupy movement, It Happened on 5th Avenue employs squatters, disenfranchised veterans, millionaires incognito, and the simple notion that it is wrong to have insulated shelter go unused “off-season” while people freeze on the streets. Brilliant.

Chris Barrett

Chris Barrett's Shelf Life alerts readers to new arrivals at the Lawson McGhee Library's stellar Sights and Sounds collection, along with recommendations and reminders of staples worthy of revisiting. He is a former Metro Pulse staff writer who’s now a senior assistant at the Knox County Public Library.