Scrooge at TCM

Well, not yet another version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, although as I mentioned earlier this month, there are lots of movie versions of that story. It seems as though somebody involved with programming the schedule at TCM has a vicious sense of humor. Tonight's Christmas lineup includes the decidedly un-Christmassy Make Way For Tomorrow, at 10:15 PM. To be fair, it's part of a lineup of movies directed by Leo McCarey, which includes the hideously treacly (but suitable for Christmas) Going My Way at 8:00 PM. If they had really wanted to stray from the Christmas spirit, they would have gotten the rights to My Son John again.

That having been said, I was looking for the post that I did previously on Make Way For Tomorrow, and was a bit surprised to see that the movie had been aired last year on December 24, which means somebody at TCM deliberately has this movie in mind for Christmas.

What other movies would be good for a dysfunctional family Christmas? For starters, I might pick Night of the Hunter. Stepfather Robert Mitchum's relationship with his stepchildren clearly fits the definition of dysfunctional, and the film does have a Christmas scene.

The Apartment would be another excellent choice, as Shirley MacLaine's character attempts to commit suicide in Jack Lemmon's apartment over the Christmas season, having been jilted by boss Fred MacMurray, whose thought in buying a gift amounts to giving her a $100 bill. That would have been a nice amount of money back in 1960, but somebody was looking for love, not money.

Sandra Dee has a rather bad Christmas with her mother in A Summer Place, a scene which if I remember correctly comes complete with one of those cold aluminum trees that were the rage in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Merry Christmas, and I hope you have a better Christmas than some of the people in the movies.