Susan Granger’s DVD UPDATE for week of Fri., Dec. 21:
With Christmas just a few days away, here are 18 perennial holiday favorites:
“It’s A Wonderful Life” (1946): Classic redemption story with Jimmy Stewart contemplating suicide, wishing he’d never been born until he discovers what would have happened if he’d never existed.
“Meet Me in St. Louis” (1944): Judy Garland sings “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
“Holiday Inn” (1942): Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire are an irresistible song-and-dance duo.
“White Christmas” (1954): Technicolor remake of “Holiday Inn,” teaming Bing Crosby with Danny Kaye.
“Miracle on 34th Street” (1947): Maureen O’Hara and Natalie Wood befriend Edmund Gwenn, a Macy’s Santa who claims to be the real Kris Kringle.
“The Shop Around the Corner” (1940): Ernst Lubitsch’s romantic pairing of Margaret Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart.
“Christmas in Connecticut” (1945): Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan and Sydney Greenstreet.
“The Bells of St. Mary’s” (1945): Priestly Bing Crosby comes to the aid of a parochial school run by a nun played by Ingrid Bergman.
“Remember the Night” (1940): Fred MacMurray is a prosecutor who befriends a shoplifter, played by Barbara Stanwyck, at Christmas and they fall in love.
“The Lemon Drop Kid” (1951): Bob Hope is a racetrack tout who runs afoul of a big-time gambler and introduces the classic tune “Silver Bells.”
“National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (1989): a comedy featuring disaster-prone Chevy Chase
“Home Alone” (1990): Macaulay Culkin gets left behind when his family goes to Paris.
“Muppet Christmas Carol” (1992): A unique version of Charles Dickens’s classic.
“Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993): Inventive stop-motion animation
“The Santa Clause” (1994): Tim Allen plays a divorced dad who’s chosen to be the next Santa Claus
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (2000): The timeless Dr. Seuss tale
“Elf” (2003): Will Ferrell believes he’s one of Santa Ed Asner’s helpers until he discovers the truth.
“Bad Santa” (2003): Terry Zwighoff’s subversive comedy mocks the commercialism of the season, as Billy Bob Thornton plays a misanthropic criminal masquerading as a shopping mall Santa to rob department stores.