Christmas Special: It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Synopsis
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving of himself to the people of Bedford Falls. He has always longed to travel but never had the opportunity, because he has to prevent rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town. All that prevents him from traveling is his modest building and loan company, which was founded by his generous father. On Christmas Eve, George's scatter-brained Uncle Billy loses the company's $8,000. Potter finds the misplaced money but hides it from them. When the bank examiner discovers the shortage, George realizes that he will be sent to jail and the company will collapse, allowing Potter to take the last holdout in the town. Thinking of his wife, their young children, and others he loves will be better off with him dead, he contemplates suicide. But the prayers of his loved ones result in a gentle angel named Clarence coming to earth to help George and show him what life would be like if he had never existed.


"No man is a failure who has friends."

My Thoughts
I know It's a Wonderful Life is one of those timeless classics that everyone has seen, but to be honest I don't think I've seen any more than the clips of it they show of other people watching it in other Christmas movies. So I guess this is my first time through this movie...we'll see if it holds up to its praise in my opinion. :-)

I'm not a huge fan of how Joseph and God and Clarence are shown talking to each other, but I do like the idea that our prayers are heard and answered, maybe not as clearly as they are for George Bailey, but still answered somehow. And poor Clarence, without his wings yet, needs help from the older winged angel, Joseph (another thing that confuses me...why not Gabriel or Peter? Were they busy?).

The scene between George and Mr. Gower when George is still a kid is a very touching scene. George is full of life-saving when he's young. I like watching George's life with Clarence, like it's a TV show. I'm curious what happens to him between being twelve and being twenty, but I guess it's just the highlight reel.




I can totally identify with George and how he has to get away from there or he'll just bust. It's hard to explain that to the parents, but hopefully they understand that it's not them you're running from...At least not completely. :-P But sometimes you have to learn to appreciate what you've got and stop spending your entire life trying to get something else. (Not to say give up on your dreams, but enjoy the journey, too).

He's over a foot taller than everyone at his little brother's graduation party! We need to have dances like that now. I wanna have a Charleston contest! ...If I knew how to do the Charleston...










And wouldn't it be nice if we could still all just jump into a pool without caring about the cell phones and iPods in our pockets?!?

The scene where George promises Mary the moon is the best! It's one of the scenes that I've seen before, but I think it's one of the best scenes, which is probably why I've scene it before. :-)









And I love the old house across the street that she wants to live in someday. Those houses are definitely a lot of effort, but I think they're worth it.








George turns into his dad, thinking of everyone else but himself. That's all fine and good, but it leads to a very unhappy person if they never do anything for themselves. I know George had to stay to keep the business open, but paying for his little brother to go to school and then have his brother move on with his own life while he's stuck taking care of everything is what happens when you don't do anything for yourself!







Poor guy, when he wants Violet to walk barefoot in the grass and they all just laugh at him, it sounds like a great date to me. Walking in the grass and swimming in a pool and climbing a mountain and watching the sun rise...sounds perfect! I'd go in a heartbeat...silly Violet just needs to grow up. And then he goes to talk to Mary and proves how boys can be so clueless and rude sometimes...Geesh Georgie...Get a grip. Being a jerk one minute and getting married the next...They're crazy. Should've listened to your wife and just gone on your honeymoon, George...





When a whole town pulls together like theirs did, it just warms your heart. :-) Bank runs are the scariest things an economy can go through, especially when there's a crow sitting on the counter...(Do they every explain the random pets? Is that just another special quality of Uncle Billy's?)






When a town can pull together like they do to avert the bank run and still work out a way to give George and Mary their honeymoon around the world, it's inspiring. Do towns like that still exist??







Why's there always have to be someone around trying to ruin everything. If Mr. Potter would stop being such a Scrooge and be happy with what he's got, George wouldn't have half as many problems as he does! He makes a couple of good points when he's trying to talk George into getting out of the trap that is his life, but he's doing it for the wrong reasons...He's just a selfish old man trying to get the competition out of the way by buying it.

Even during the war, George was stuck in Bedford Falls. He had a family now, and his brother became a hero and George did rubber and paper drives at home. And then Uncle Billy goes and forgets his head cuz it wasn't screwed on...You can tie a string to each finger and it doesn't do a thing if you can't remember what they're for! If only Mr. Potter had a soul...








Watching George spiral out of control is heart-breaking. Thank goodness for Clarence and showing George what the world would be like without him. Sometimes I wish we could all see what the world would be like without us...it might make us appreciate ourselves a little more.





Haha, Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver. When he said Bert and Ernie, it made me laugh for a second. I wasn't expecting a Sesame Street reference, especially since It's a Wonderful Life came first. And apparently it's just a coincidence...I Googled it, and that means it's official, right?

I've never seen someone so excited to have a bleeding mouth, rose petals in his pocket, and a ruined car. But Clarence definitely came through and deserves TWO sets of wings! :-) I'm definitely very disappointed in myself for not having seen this movie before tonight.

"Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings!"

Random Facts
James Stewart learned to fly in 1935 and was drafted into the Army as a private in 1940 (after twice failing the medical for being underweight) and rose to the rank of Colonel during WWII. He remained involved with the US AF Reserve after the war and retired in 1959 as a Brigadier General. Lionel Barrymore convinced Stewart to take the role of George, despite his feeling that he wasn't up to it so soon after WWII.

It's a Wonderful life originally ended with "Ode to Joy", not "Auld Lang Syne".

Films made prior to this used cornflakes painted white for the snow effect. Because this was so loud, dialogue had to be dubbed in later. Frank Capra wanted to record the sound live, so a new snow effect was developed using foamite (a fire-fighting chemical) and soap and water. This mixture was pumped at high pressure through a wind machine to create the silent, falling snow. 6,000 gallons of this snow were used in the film. The RKO Effects Department received a Class III Scientific or Technical Award from the Motion Picture Academy for the development of the new film snow.

As Uncle Billy is leaving George's house drunk, it sounds as if he stumbles over some trash cans on the sidewalk. In fact, a crew member dropped some equipment right after Uncle Billy left the screen. Both actors continued with the scene ("I'm all right, I'm all right!") and director Capra decided to use it in the final cut. He gave the clumsy stagehand a $10 bonus for "improving the sound."

For the scene that required Donna Reed to throw a rock into the window of the Granville House, Capra hired a marksman to shoot it out for her on cue. To everyone's amazement, Reed broke the window with true aim and heft without the assistance of the hired marksman. Reed had played baseball in high school and had a strong throwing arm.

After the war Capra set up Liberty Films with George Stevens and William Wyler to make more serious, soul-searching films. This and State of the Union were Liberty's only productions.

350,000 feet of film were used for this film.

While filming the scene where George prays in the bar, James Stewart has said that he was so overcome that he began to sob right then and there. Later, Capra reframed the shot so it looked like a much closer shot than was actually filmed because he wanted to catch that expression on Stewart's face.

Actor and producer Sheldon Leonard said in an interview that the only reason he agreed to play Nick the bartender in this film was so that he would have money to buy Dodger baseball tickets.

The scene on the bridge where Clarence saves George was filmed on a back lot on a day where the temperature was 90 degrees Fahrenheit. This is why Stewart is visibly sweating in a few scenes.

When Officer Bert shoots at George, the "s", the "v" and the "i" in the electric "Pottersville" sign far away in the distance, go out.

This film is one of 5 times Beulah Bondi portrayed James Stewart's mother. The others are: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Of Human Hearts, Vivacious Lady, and once on his television series The Jimmy Stewart Show.

The film was a flop when it played theatres in 1946.

The year that Potter offers George a $20,000 annual salary is unclear, but assuming that this scene takes place in 1939, that amount is equivalent to $310,567 in 2010 dollars.

Christmas Special: Prancer and Prancer Returns

Prancer (1989)

Synopsis
Jessica Riggs (Rebecca Harrell), a precocious eight-year-old girl, still believes in Santa Claus. So when she finds an wounded reindeer, it makes sense to her to assume that's Prancer, who had fallen from a Christmas display in town. She plays an angel in her school play and becomes a real guardian angel when she vows to nurse Prancer back to health and return him home to Santa. She hides him in her barn and feeds him Christmas cookies, but before she can carry out her plan, Jessica discovers that her father (Sam Elliott) has made another - very different - plan of his own. Will she be able to help her antlered friend find his way home in time for Christmas?




My Thoughts
This was one of my all-time favorites when I was younger. I haven't seen it in a really long time, though, so I guess we'll see if it holds up to time. I love the idea behind it, focusing on a kid and one of Santa's reindeer instead of one of the more "mainstream" ideas and characters that we always see. It's still a little cliche, but it was made in 1989, so who's surprised?

Somehow my TV got stuck with French subtitles, so we might see if I can learn some French as we go!

Jessica's got a gruff dad and stinky older brother and people who make fun her for not being able to sing beautifully like everyone else. Christmas carols don't have to be beautiful, especially when you're eight! I'm just happy to see eight-year-olds who still believe in a little bit of magic. I still believed in Santa until I was almost ten and I'm not ashamed of it! I love that my parents still tried to keep the magic going, even if I did get made fun of a little at school for it...

I need to move to a place that gets snow like that and live that close to a nice, big sledding hill. I haven't been sledding in years, and I haven't seen snow like in years, either! I know I've said it before, but if I say it again maybe it'll happen...I hope that we get one of those snow blizzards like we used to this year. A good two or three feet in a day would be nice.

I think if I met a reindeer that looked like Prancer who wasn't afraid of people, I'd probably assume it was one of Santa's, too. Totally makes sense.

For being an eight-year-old, Jessica sure spends a lot of time walking around the woods by herself. I guess she's gonna be a very independent kid. She did get yelled at for it, at least. Sam Elliott was definitely the right choice for the rough and gruff dad character. He scares me a little bit.

Prancer is such a beautiful reindeer. I wonder how many little kids added a reindeer to their Christmas wishlists after this movie came out. I probably did, right under pony and above puppy.

Why does there always have to be a scary old lady character? You do always find the coolest stuff cleaning out an old lady's house, though. But then the snooping starts and then you're really in trouble...





I love when the little boy gives scary Mrs. McFarland his candle during church. It's such a simple, kind gesture for a little kid to make. It made me really happy and shows the Christmas spirit, and she did look so very out of place there, so it probably helped her out quite a bit, too. And then the big brother shows his true stripes. Big siblings are always annoying, but when the rest really need 'em you can't break brother/sister loyalties.




It always breaks my heart when the kids in movies give up on Santa and Christmas. I'm always glad when they get their magic back (because they always do in the movies). I just wish kids could hold on to that magic in real life a little longer. You might disagree, but I don't think there's anything wrong with believing in some magic in the world. The ending of this movie is full of that magic; it even makes Sam Elliott cry!




Joyeux Noel! (That's Merry Christmas in French. I guess I learned a little...)

Random Facts
The reindeer who played Prancer's real name was Boo. Boo is female, even though she is referred to as "he" in the film. Both male and female reindeer have antlers, though a female's are smaller and daintier than a male's. (And male antlers apparently fall off in the winter months, so Santa's reindeer were probably female, anyway.)

Rebecca Harrel, who plays Jessica, gave up acting to pursue her dream of environmental activism, and she is now married to director Joshua Tickell, and they drive the world's first algae gasoline powered car.

The passage that Jesse loves to read so much from her "Christmas Book" is taken from "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus". It is a famous editorial that was written by Francis Pharcellus Church in response to a young girl's question about the existence of Santa. The young girl's name was Virginia O'Hanlon. The editorial first appeared in New York's "Sun" newspaper in 1897. (The movie also references it in the newspaper article feature Jesse.)


Prancer Returns (2001)
Synopsis
Eight-year-old Charlie Holton's (Gavin Fink) life is about to change. He and his older brother Ryan (Robert Clark) live with their mother, Denise (Stacy Edwards), in a small rural town, while their father still lives in Chicago. Deep in the mountain woods, Charlie discovers two reindeer on his way home from school, which he believes to be Santa's reindeer called Prancer and his son and heir, also called Prancer. He takes the gentle baby reindeer home to care for until Christmas and his brother's help bonds the brothers again. Charlie sends Santa an email telling him to pick Prancer up on nearby Antler Ridge on Christmas Eve (sound familiar?). When Prancer gets out, evil vice principal Klock is bitten and wants the 'public danger' put down. Handyman Tom Sullivan (John Corbett) comes to the rescue and one boy's faith brings hope and happiness to a family, a town, and himself. (And the vice principal ends up in reindeer jail...always a bonus.)

My Thoughts
I didn't even know there was a second Prancer, but I figured I might as well watch them both. It starts very similarly to the first one. The same missing Prancer in the town decoration, and an eight-year-old kid hoping to return Prancer to Santa. It's a single mom with two boys, instead of a single dad with a boy and a girl, and it's made in 2001, so it's a little more current than the first one. I think the common-held idea that sequels aren't as good may hold. However, the first one has been a favorite of mine forever, so I might be slightly biased...






I guess it's the same town about 10 years later and Charlie wants to know the local legend about Prancer. Tom Sullivan is the local expert, but he tells Charlie the story and passes on the expertism to Charlie. He's this adorable, shy 8-year-old who really pulls off the elf outfit he has to wear in the parade. He seems to enjoy the small-town life much better than his older brother, Ryan, who just wants to go back to Chicago (to where I'm assuming their dad is and they used to live...).

The vice principal, Mr. Klock (Michael O'Keefe), seemed a little extreme at their recess. One thrown snowball from a kid who's never done anything before, and he gets detention?? Geesh.






It has similar eight-year-old trekking through the woods scenes, though they're quite a bit scarier than the first movie. Then he finds the gangly baby reindeer and a grown one that he's convinced is the original Prancer. Charlie runs through the woods, gets chased by a cow and shot at by an old man just to get some help...That's a lot of effort for some old deer in the woods. Gotta love eight-year-olds...




Another similarity with the eight-year-old working for the scary, old person down the street to feed the reindeer. Little kids can always give the magic back to the people who have lost it :-)







Ugh. Enter the obnoxious ex-boyfriend (who just happens to be the evil vice principal...) from the home town trying to get back with the mom. I hate that story line. Competing with the irresponsible, fun-loving 'brother's best friend from high school'. I'm definitely rooting for Tom. A fun-loving, motorcycle-driving, handy man seems much more fun than the son's horrible vice principal.




This vice principal just gets worse and worse. Taking advantage of his power and using it against a defenseless baby deer! (Well, maybe not quite defenseless...). And lying to his mom to try and get on her good side. He's the worst. But Charlie's on the case. I'm not worried :-)

Another similarity with the first Prancer: getting the media involved. I guess if you want to get some support and get your story out there, the media is the way to go. Be adorable and get get everyone to hate the annoying vice principal. :-) The town and Charlie's family comes together to save Prancer and to prove the true meaning of Christmas.

I'm still kind of wondering where all characters from the first movie went. It's only 10 years later, supposedly (maybe 20?), but they even talk about people moving home and how it's a small town. Being from a small town, myself, I can attest to the fact that 20 years from now, there will still be the same people here (plus and minus a few...). It would've been nice to carry over a couple, since it's supposed to be the same town...

I've read some very negative reviews about these movies, but I haven't decided for myself if I'd retract my previous statement about sequels being worse than the original. This movie is pretty cute, and Charlie's adorable. I like baby Prancer, too. He's pretty cute, in an ugly reindeer kinda way. It's another Christmas cornfest, but I liked it a lot more than I thought I was going to. Tom Sullivan (John Corbett) isn't the greatest actor in this movie, but I don't think it pulls the movie down much. I think, overall, it's worth a watch. A pretty good family movie, if you have kids or liked the first one.

Random Facts
Gavin Fink (Charlie) has been working since the age of four, when he was signed by the Ford Modeling Agency and hired for the first job he ever tried out for, a Pepsi commercial.

*Not a lot of random facts for these movies...Sorry!*

I also found out that I can set a schedule for posting! I don't know if I've shared this or not, but I'm not the most technologically advanced individual. Hopefully, my blog will be more of a scheduled thing now instead of 3 posts one day and none the next...We'll see :-)

Christmas Special: A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

Synopsis
Repelled by the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find the true meaning of Christmas.


My Thoughts
My first attempt at watching a Christmas movie on TV. I'm already fairly disappointed, because the commercials are very distracting, and I feel like I'm missing a very important part of the experience.






Charlie Brown is quite the classic, though, even if he is pretty depressing for the first half. I wonder if January snow flakes really taste better than December snow flakes. I've never done an in-depth study of snow flake flavor. I'll get on it, if we ever actually get some snow.

I'm always very impressed by Lucy's psychiatric knowledge. I wonder if she ever got her doctorate. She's wise beyond her years...







I totally understand where Charlie Brown is coming from, though. The poor kid. The world is totally taken over by commercialism. I don't want to go on a rant, but I hate when the only thing people can talk about around Christmastime is what they want and what they're buying other people and what deals they're getting on their stuff. Let's see what Charlie Brown thinks is the true meaning of Christmas! :-)

Schroeder's piano outbursts always make me happy. So talented and, even though he seems to refuse to play Christmas music, I'm still always impressed. It always gets that song stuck in my head for days, though. Oh well...

Why is Lucy always so angry and violent? She's always scared me a little. And she always makes me want to get a Charlie Brown tree, because I feel bad for them after she talks about how you need a "pretty" tree. All those Charlie Brown trees are just left to rot...so sad.






And these kids are always so mean to Charlie Brown. That's one of the few things I really dislike about these specials. I understand having realistic kid drama, but they're just outright mean sometimes...The poor kid probably has no self-esteem whatsoever. Why does he put up with so much nonsense? I wanna see the Charlie Brown movie where he stands up for himself and punches Lucy, since she threatens to punish him so much.



Then Linus explains what Christmas is all about, and Charlie Brown is satisfied. I hope the rest of those kids feel horrible for being so mean and for laughing at his poor tree. But I guess they make up for it at the end.




Don't worry about what other people are doing for Christmas. Show your own good will and celebrate however you want! Exchange gifts, serve at a shelter, donate clothes/gifts, travel to be with your families and friends, sing carols at a nursing, do whatever you want. Just make sure you enjoy it. If you can't enjoy yourselves for Christmas, when can you?!?

Random Facts
This was the first animated Peanuts special.

When viewing the rough cut of the snow, both Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson were convinced that they had a flop on their hands. After it premiered, they were happily surprised and shocked at the high ratings and excellent reviews that the show received. Today, the show remains the second longest-running Christmas special on US network television (the 1964 Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer premiered one year earlier and is still broadcast every year on US network television.

Kathy Steinberg, who did the voice of Sally Brown, had not yet learned to read at the time of production, so she had to be fed her lines, often a word or syllable at a time, which explains the rather choppy delivery of the line "All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share."

Linus' speech about the true meaning of Christmas is actually Luke 2:8-14 from the King James translation of the Bible.

The version of the show broadcast on CBS-TV until 1997 and older video releases are edited: they leave out a scene where the gang throws snowballs at a can on a fence. The Paramount and Warner video releases are complete and unedited.

During his famed speech, Linus, who is well known to be dependent on his security blanket, actually lets go of it when he recites these words: "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy," which is from Luke 2:10.

Broke many of the rules prevalent for animated holiday specials during the 1960s: it didn't make use of a laugh track; real children were used for the character voices instead of adult actors imitating children's voices; and Biblical references were used to illustrate the true meaning of Christmas.

Just before her remarks about Christmas being a big commercial racket, Lucy refers to Charlie Brown simply as Charlie. This is the only time she does this in any of the TV specials: every other time it's Charlie Brown.

Bill Melendez tried to talk Charles M. Schulz out of using Biblical references (especially Linus' speech) in the special. Schulz reportedly won him over by saying, "If we don't do it, who will?" As it turned out, Linus' recitation was hailed as one of the most powerful moments in the highly acclaimed special.

While at her psychiatry stand and naming Charlie Brown's possible phobias, Lucy says, "How about cats? If you're afraid of cats, you have ailuroPHASIA." If Charlie Brown were indeed afraid of cats he would have ailuroPHOBIA. Ailurophasia is, literally, "Speaking cat".

Christmas Special: A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story (1983)

Synopsis
Humorist Jean Shepard's nostalgic view of Christmastime in Indiana during the 1940s is a holiday classic. Nine-year-old Ralphie desperately wants a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas and wages an all-out campaign to convince his reluctant parents (Darren McGavin and Melinda Dillon) that the toy is safe. Meanwhile, as Ralphie prepares for the big day, his brother has a strange relationship with food, and his dad fights the never-ending furnace battle.

Based on the novel: In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepard

My Thoughts

We can all identify with this poor boy's obsession. Every kid has that one thing that they wanted more than anything for Christmas. Often times, we have to embark on very similar campaigns to convince our parents that we were good enough and that it's safe enough to get it for us. Poor Ralphie just chose a BB gun, which is often one of those 'too dangerous' toys.

And the first, classic "You'll shoot your eye out" is heard. And we will hear it many a time before this film is through. Ralphie's internal struggles are heard through Jean Shepard's voice, so I suppose the entire movie is a flashback/memory as he explains everything to us.

Ralphie's 'Old Man''s fight with the furnace seems a little forced, but it's a long-running gag through the entire film.






I never understood the mother's obsession with having Randy wear every piece of clothing that he owns, while Ralphie just throws on a coat and some gloves and a hat and he's set. I mean, Randy has always annoyed me with his incomprehensible mumblings and grumblings, but I do feel sorry for him as he waddles to school and roles around like an upended beetle in the snow.








Then there's the ever-famous dare, double-dog dare, triple-dog dare tongue to the pole monologue. Poor Flick...How many of you out there have ever gotten your tongue stuck to a popsicle or something? I can definitely feel the poor kid's panic. And his friends all just abandon him...ouch. And then they finally get him off and make him go back to class with icicles sticking out of his mouth? That just seems cruel...

Enter the bullies...Any movie about kids in grade school has to have the infamous bully with his cronies. The bully's always bigger than everyone, and his tiny little toadie (who's really only scary because he's with the bigger bully).








I wonder if that little Randy kid still has potatoes up his nose from 'showing mommy how the piggies eat'. That would be an entertaining dinner table, I suppose, though I would be a little grossed out I think.







The delivery men show up with the ever-famous 'prize' and it's actually with the right end up! "Fra-jeeel-aay". I had a Finding Nemo moment there. Then he uncovers the leg lamp, and everyone on the planet wonders why he is so excited about it. I mean, I guess it's creative, but I don't think I'd want it in the front room window.

6:45! Time for the kids to curl up in front of the radio and listen to 'Little Orphan Annie'. Sometimes I wish we still had some radio shows to listen to, but how would they be popular enough to survive. Now we curl up in front of our big-screen, flat-screen, HD, 3-D TVs. I do enjoy my movies and shows, I'm not gonna lie, but the occasional radio program would be nice, too, I think.





And the wonderful family sing-a-long Christmas carols on the trip home from getting the Christmas tree. How many of us have lived through those wonderful times of screaming Jingle Bells at the top of our lungs? And then the helping dad change the flat tire moment...and Ralphie says the F dash dash dash word! Where did the soap-in-the-mouth punishment ever go to? Is that abuse these days? I'm sure they've invented non-toxic soap that doesn't strike you blind...Much better than what the Schwartz kid got...



Then they leave Flick along to the bullies...These kids are just loyal to the core. Poor, Flick gets left stuck to a flag pole and then with bullies to get his black eye all on his own. And we continue with the 'you'll shoot your eye out' theme from the teacher as well as the parents.

And Ralphie loses it. Beats the stuffing out of the bully and everyone just leaves him laying there. I guess nobody loves a bully. And Ralphie just has to go take a nap? That's my kind of punishment...And the relationship with Mother and son is changed forever. Randy hiding under the counter reminds me of every kid I've ever known...such a cozy place to hang out. :-)







Ralphie gives up on his parents and teacher and decies that Santa is his only hope. The line to see Santa is just ridiculous. How many parents would wait for their kids to get through that line?? And Santa and the elves are just so happy to be there. I do like the slide-exit, though. And even Santa says he'll shoot his eye out! What's a boy to do?
















Christmas Morning! The wrapping paper flood begins and Aunt Clara's pink bunny footie pajamas rise from the chaos. Always love those wonderful obligatory reactions to ridiculous familial gifts. How his mom can't see how ridiculous those pajamas are is beyond me. Thank goodness for his dad! :-)

Christmas ends and poor Ralphie is left with no BB gun...Oh wait! What's that? His Old Man saves the day again. And Ralphie has the best Christmas ever...before he shoots his eye out...totally worth it, though! Except they left the door open...and those darn dogs from the neighbor's house ruined the turkey...the turkey that the Old Man had been looking forward to for days. Whoops...so to the Chop Suey Palace for Chinese turkey for Christmas. At least they got some Christmas carols...



Always on the Christmas Classic list, this movie is pretty good. My sister apparently hates it, but I liked it well enough. I'm not usually a big fan of voice overs, but I think it works okay here. There's plenty of comedy and a lot of holiday family stereotypes so everyone can connect to the characters in one way or another. A pretty good view for the holidays.

Random Facts
Ralphie says he wants the Red Ryder BB Gun 28 times throughout the course of the movie.

Jack Nicholson was very interested in playing Ralphie's dad. But casting (and paying) Jack would have been too expensive. Director Bob Clark has said Darrin McGavin was the perfect choice.

Mythbusters tested whether it was possible to get your tongue truly stuck on a piece of cold metal. It is. So don't triple dog dare your best friend to try it.

In the late 1960s, director Bob Clark heard Jean Shepherd's recollections of growing up over the radio on the way to a date's how. He drove around for almost an hours until the program was over and knew right away he wanted to make a movie out of the stories, which were collected in Shepherd's 1966 book, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. His date wasn't happy, but it gave us a classic Christmas movie.

Jean Shepherd's book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories that Shepherd wrote for Playboy magazine during the 1960s.

In addition to providing the voice-over narration, writer Jean Shepherd had a cameo appearance in the movie as a grouchy department store customer who tells Ralphie to go to the back of the Santa line.

Director Bob Clark has a brief cameo, also, as Swede, the Parker family's dim-witted neighbor with a southern-accent who stops to marvel at the leg lamp from across the street.

For the scene in which Flick's tongue sticks to the flagpole, a hidden suction tube was used to safely create the illusion that his tongue had frozen to the metal.

The Radio Orphan Annie decoder pin that Ralphie receives is the 1940 "Speedomatic" model, indicating that the movie takes place in December 1940. Different decoder badges were made each year from 1935-1940. By 1941, the decoders were made of paper due to WWII metal shortages.

A Christmas Story inspired the creation of The Wonder Years television show.







Prior to A Christmas Story, Peter Billingsley (Ralphie) gained fame as a correspondent for the variety show Real People. Peter is now a producer often working with his close friends Vince Vaughn and John Favreau. His credits as a producer include: Iron Man and The Break Up. He often appears in cameo roles in the movies he produces. He's also seen as Ming Ming, the elf from the beginning of the movie Elf.






Cleveland car buffs donated the use of a number of vintage vehicles for the film, which helped to enhance the authenticity of the production despite a limited budget. During filming in downtown Cleveland, members of a local antique automobile club, following a preset route, repeatedly circled the square. The Parker family car was a 1937 Oldsmobile Model F-37 four-door trunkback sedan.

The Red Ryder BB gun was available beginning in 1938 and for many years after (and indeed, still is), but never in the exact configuration mentioned in the film. The Daisy "Buck Jones" model did have a compass and a sundial in the stock, but these features were not included in the Red Ryder model. The compass and sundial were placed on Ralphie's BB gun but on the opposite side of the stock due to Peter Billingsley being left-handed.

Mrs. Parker's memory is correct. The Lone Ranger's nephew, Dan Reid, rode a horse named Victor. He was the son of the Lone Ranger's horse, Silver.

According to Peter Billingsley (young Ralphie) in the DVD commentary, the nonsensical ramblings that Ralphie exclaims while beating up Scut Farkas were scripted, word for word.

In 2012, a staged musical adaptation of the movie opened on Broadway. One of the co-producers was Peter Billingsley. A Christmas Story: The Musical! was the first stage play or musical he produced.

Christmas Special: Lucky Christmas

Lucky Christmas (2011)

Synopsis
Holly Ceroni, a single mom trying to get back on her feet, is crushed when she learns her winning lottery ticket is in the glove compartment of her recently stolen car. Mike Ronowski, the construction worker who took her vehicle, goes along with a plan to befriend Holly and coerce her into giving him half her winnings. Mike unexpectedly falls for Holly and learns there are more important things than money just in time for the holidays.




My Thoughts
Haven't started watching it, yet, but it sounds like a Hallmark movie to me...I guess we'll find out if that's a good thing or not.

I recognized Holly, the mom, from Saved by the Bell if any of you watched the best of the 90s. I guess she is getting old enough for the switch over to single mom. She looks really different, but you can still see some Jessie in there.








Max (Mitchell Kummen), Holly's son, will be in Daniel Radcliffe's new Horns movie in 2013. He'll be playing young Daniel Radcliffe. He plays the hopeful son, waiting for his dad to come back pretty well. It's hard to see a young Daniel Radcliffe in there, but I guess it depends on his acting skills outside of Hallmark movies. I suppose, if you think the first Harry Potter, you might be able to see it.







A lot of people can really identify with people having a hard time around Christmastime. It'd be nice if we could all win the lottery and have the winnings come with a new dad, too...but a new book or some fuzzy socks would be nice, too, I suppose. :-)

It's slightly annoying watching made-for-TV movies on DVD. The commercial break moments always confuse my brain a little. I go to do something because I assume commercials are coming, but then they don't!

I was all proud of the Mike guy for wanting to give her the ticket back, but he keeps letting his crazy, law-breaking friend get him into trouble. He just needs to cut ties with that guy and move on with his life (which he may very well do...haven't finished the movie, yet).





Mike (Jason Gray-Stanford) might actually have some hockey skills, like he shows here. He is Canadian...soooo...Of course, he'd be a hockey player, right? :-)






The movie reminds me a little of The Princess and the Frog. I honestly couldn't tell you why, besides the fact that she wants to open her own cafe and she has her dream spot and everything. And the couple does the "love you"/"hate you" dance, like they do in The Princess and the Frog.

Coming from someone with an Eagle scout brother, I can attest to the big deal-ness of "The Derby". He never did his until the night before or close to it, but it was always a pretty fun event.

I love how the first thing Max wants with $1 million is the Batmobile. That's a kid after my own heart. We don't need our own place to live or anything besides the Batmobile! I completely agree.



It's definitely a Hallmark film, but I actually enjoyed this one. The acting was more realistic, the story wasn't horrible, there was enough comedy thrown in. I could have done with the retarded best friend. He just annoyed me, but I guess half the story revolved around his idiocy.