Underrated/lesser known Christmas movies

Cafe Society
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Minor spoilers, no endings revealed

This isn’t the first time we had this discussion, but at this time of year, I think it’s appropriate. There are plenty of good Christmas movies out there, but not all of them are well-known. Can you think of any?
Like I have mentioned a few times before, one of my favorite underrated Christmas movies is 2011 Canadian coming-of-age drama “Faith, Fraud & Minimum Wage”. The movie, taking place in Nova Scotia around Christmas time, centers around Casey McMullen, a troubled teenage girl who works at the local garden mall. Casey is raised by a single father, while her sister has been in a coma for a year, following a car accident. One day, in frustration, Casey throws her cup of coffee at the back wall of the mall, and leaves without cleaning it up. Some people see the stain the next morning, and decide that it looks like the face of Jesus. The word gets out, and many people soon start seeing it the same way, and claim that it is a miracle. Casey’s accidental hoax even makes the news, and attracts the tourists to Nova Scotia. Casey wants to tell the truth, but she can’t bring herself to do it, not only due to a fear of punishment, but also because she feels that the “miracle” gives people hope and makes them feel better.

The movie is pretty well acted, especially for a low-budget film, with Martha MacIsaac’s and Callum Keith Rennie’s performances standing out especially. The setting is beautiful. I also really liked the character of local priest; Andrew Bush’s performance was spot-on. The ending is quite tense and may even come off as shocking to some, but it works really well. I think the movie was really hurt by being marketed as teen/family Christmas comedy, even though it is clearly not. I definitely recommend watching it.

But I also really liked “Morvern Callar”. That one is also a pretty serious and even gloomy movie, especially for a Christmas movie, much more so than my previous pick, but it’s got great acting and beautiful cinematography, and it delivers a powerful message.

The movie centers around a young Scottish woman, named Morvern. She wakes up on Christmas morning and finds out that her boyfriend has committed suicide. He did leave a suicide note, as well as few gifts for her, including a mix tape titled “Music For You” (the soundtrack of the movie).

Instead of reporting her boyfriend’s death, Morvern buries his body in the mountains (like he requested in his suicide note), and then goes on a road trip with her best friend, contemplating suicide the whole time. Morvern seems to make a decision to commit suicide at the end of the trip, but then starts having second thoughts about it.

Samantha Morton’s performance is masterful and deeply moving. The ending is both unexpected yet fitting, the kind that makes you wonder. There are lots of beautiful locations and landscapes throughout the movie too, so there is an impressive visual beauty there as well.

Would you agree? What are some other underrated Christmas movies that you may like?

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I keep mentioning Arthur Christmas. Like all Aardman animations, it’s funny and very smart.

Arthur is the younger son of Santa Claus, which is basically a hereditary position: each Santa delivers gifts until they retire. Santa is expected to retire and hand the reins* to his son Steve (Hugh Laurie), since Arthur is enthusiastic but inept. But due to a mistake, one child doesn’t get her Christmas present, and Arthur won’t let that happen. So Grandsanta finds his old sled and goes out to deliver it. But things start to go horribly wrong…

The movie is very funny with a lot of great Christmas spirit.

*pun alert

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Another great choice is “How Murray Saved Christmas.” Also very funny (and told in verse), it the story of the year Santa become incapacitated and Murray – who lives in the town of Stinky Cigars, where all the symbols of the holidays live (e.g., Santa, Easter Bunny, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Cupid, etc). Lots of clever songs and a Simpsons-like attitude (the producer worked on the Simpsons.

It’s so good that even Jason Alexander can’t ruin it.

It seemed to vanish after it was broadcast. It’s not designed for kids, so there was a lot of negative feedback who thought it should (It’s a cartoon! It has to be for kids!). It doesn’t seem to be broadcast anywhere these days, though I did find it this year on DailyMotion.

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In the Bleak Midwinter
Best for theatre geeks and Branagh fans.

Joyuex Noel
Middling film, but a fascinating event.

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Does Shop Around the Corner count as lesser known? It is a great little movie from 1940. Stars Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullavan & The wizard himself, Frank Morgan as the Shop owner. The supporting cast is pitch perfect. The movie was remade twice but never close to as good. You’ve Got Mail (Hanks & Ryan) & In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which stars Judy Garland and Van Johnson.

I feel like the Diane Chambers character on Cheers was inspired by Margaret Sullavan as Klara Novak.
**Fitzwilly **from 1967 starring Dick Van Dyke & Barbara Feldon is my other nomination. It is a great little comedy and heist film in one. The castis outstanding with lots of faces you’ll recognize.

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The Shop Around the Corner is one of my favorite movies of all time.

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There was a made-for-TV Christmas movie CBS used to play every year called A House Without a Christmas Tree (1972) about an embittered widower played by Jason Robards and his daughter. I have fond memories of it, but I was just a kid when I last saw it. It may not have stood up very well.

Less obscure, but still not in the top tier of famous holiday films: Christmas in Connecticut (1945) starring Barbara Stanwyck. I haven’t seen that one in about 30 years, but I remember liking it. I think most people have heard of it, but I’m not sure how many have actually seen it.

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TCM fans have probably all seen it, they show it a couple of times a year I believe. I like it, though I don’t love it. But without TCM, I never would have seen it.

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14 days later, my answer remains Trapped in Paradise.

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Rare Exports

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My husband and I watched “The Christmas Bunny” last night, it was good. I enjoyed seeing Florence Henderson as an eccentric old “bunny lady”.

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More in this 14-year-old thread, which was bumped over Thanksgiving weekend.

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I’ll mention these two again:

A Christmas Memory, available on YouTube. Written and narrated by Truman Capote, this was done for TV a long time ago. There is also a more modern version with Patty Duke.

A Child’s Christmas in Wales: A charming story based on the story by the great Dylan Thomas, with Denholm Elliot as the grandfather.

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THere’s the Will Vinton studio’s A Claymation Christmas

He also did a Christmas short that’s available on The Best of the FEstival of Claymation – if you can find it.

Fleischer Studios did some CHristmas cartoons worth looking at. One ois Christmads comes but Once a Year, in which Pappy, an elderly inventor who appeared in the Betty Boop cartoons, makes a happy Cristmas for the inmates at an orphanage with some low-budget clever inventions. (made in 1936, it’s a rare color cartoon from the era)

Max Fleischer also directed the FIRST cartoon adaptation of *Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in 1948, over a decade and a half before the Rankin-Bass TV special:

(Fleischer studios had been taken over by Paramount a decade earlier).

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Another vote for this one.

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I saw this one in my local theater when it came out. Most of the cast was in TV shows just before or while this was out – Dick van Dyke from The Dick Van Dyke Shoe, Barbara Feldon from Get Smart (her first movie, I think), John McGiver from Many Happy Returns. John Fiedler and Norman Fell from many guest appearances.

Interesting premise – Butler Fitzwilliams and the staff tries to keep their mistress going in her mansion, even though she’s broke, with petty crimes to raise money.

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I never saw it until about 10 or 12 years ago. I love TCM for things like this. They dig up some lost and nearly forgotten gems.

You’re correct by the way, it was Agent 99s first movie. I never heard of Many Happy Returns was it any good?

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How about Denholm Elliot as a young man? Then you’ll want to see The Holly and the Ivy, a 1952 film with Ralph Richardson as the widowed patriarch pastor (of unspecified denomination, although he does wear a collar) and Elliot, Margaret Leighton, and the Great Sufferer, Celia Johnson, as his three grown offspring, none of whom can tell any of their problems to their father because he’s a pastor and they don’t want to disappoint or challenge him. It’s not a great plot and yet somehow it’s a very moving family story, except that it all gets resolved and the film ends too abruptly. Nevertheless, I recommend it, even though religion is the background it’s not really about that. TCM showed it a few days ago and might show it again during the season.

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Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas

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A classic in the UK that’s practically unknown here in the States is The Snowman, a fantastic animated short film.