If there’s one thing better than a book of 30 Christmas movies, it’s a book of 35 Christmas movies, and now — thanks to the new revised and expanded edition of Jeremy Arnold‘s Christmas in the Movies — that’s exactly what’s going to be on the market this October from Running Press. Which Christmas classics have secured a spot on Arnold’s annual watch list? Read this interview with Arnold to find out:
Rachel Bellwoar: While writing this book, did your criteria for what constitutes a Christmas movie change or become more defined?
Jeremy Arnold: I came up with my definition for the term while researching and writing the original edition of this book. For me, a Christmas movie is any movie, of any genre, in which the holiday season somehow plays a meaningful role in the storytelling. It can’t merely be a setting or backdrop. Our takeaway of a film – our understanding of its story and meaning – must have something to do with one of the myriad meanings of Christmastime. Christmas is often akin to an active force in these movies. It can act as a catalyst for characters to transform, like Ebenezer Scrooge, or for families to sort through dysfunction and cement their bonds, and it can drive home for the audience episodes of despair, loneliness, or cynicism around the season. Christmastime exacerbates the highs and the lows we all experience at that time of year, and so it’s a very useful dramatic device since it can cover the entire emotional spectrum. In writing this new edition, my definition didn’t change, but I had the welcome chance to give these ideas greater thought as I explored new additions to the book, some of which are nontraditional or unusual examples of holiday films – like The Curse of the Cat People, Cover Up, Blast of Silence, Cash on Demand, and the World War I picture Joyeux Noel.
Bellwoar: Besides Christmas in the Movies, you’ve also done the audio commentary for at least one of the movies in this book (Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray and DVD release of The Holly and the Ivy). If you could record an audio commentary for another Christmas movie, which one would you choose?
Arnold: Probably Remember the Night because it’s close to a perfect Christmas movie, has a wonderful screenplay by Preston Sturges, and stars my favorite actress, Barbara Stanwyck. She could do anything, any genre.
Bellwoar: As someone who’s very familiar with wanting to go back and tweak past articles (I would make what I was trying to say in the opening paragraph of that The Holly and the Ivy review a lot clearer, for instance), it can be easier (if not always healthy) to make edits online. What made you want to tackle the challenge of putting out a new edition of a book that’s in print?
Arnold: I actually wanted to from the time I started writing the original book! Running Press and TCM had wanted something compact; there was room for 30 titles in a smallish format, and no more. There were other films I had wanted to include but I had to drop them. So I hoped that in time I could put out a new edition with room for more. Five years seemed like a reasonable minimum amount of time to wait. I also knew the photo quality could be improved greatly. In the original book the images were not professionally retouched. For the expanded edition, Mark Vieira stepped in and restored the photographs beautifully. He had done the same on my two Essentials book. I was also able to find new photos for some titles that had been hard to find the first time around, like Miracle on Main Street. This book says “revised and expanded,” but honestly it’s much more the latter than the former! I tweaked a few existing things, but mostly added a lot of new material. I was also glad for the space to write a bit about other versions of A Christmas Carol, Little Women, and Three Godfathers, and to explore classic yuletide cartoons. And it was important to me to have an epilogue where I bring the survey of holiday films up to the present. The idea of “Christmas movie” has really evolved over the years. So I don’t know if all this was necessarily a “challenge” – maybe more of a welcome opportunity!
Bellwoar: Anyone can compare the table of contents and figure out which five films you added, but was it difficult to limit yourself to just five (not that there aren’t others mentioned elsewhere in additional, new essays)?
Arnold: The five that I added cover a wide range of era, genre, and attitude, which I thought would make the book overall more interesting. My editor and I came to conclusion that having new essays or chapters delving into many, many other holiday films — sometimes a few words, sometimes several paragraphs — would be a good way to cover most of the new additions, including some titles that are only tangentially or partially Christmas movies. Writing about Cover Up in the context of how Christmas and film noir relate to each other in the 1940s was my favorite “a-ha” moment. It just illustrated my point so beautifully. And then Blast of Silence cemented it in the way I explored how Blast is the only true film noir that is also a true Christmas movie. I find the tension between Christmas and noir to be fascinating.
I also did kind of agonize over On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. I love the film, and have even visited some of its locations, but I was really on the fence about whether it really is a full-fledged Christmas movie. So I thought of using it instead in the Author’s Note, to make a point about how we define “Christmas movie,” and I think it works well there, too. I wanted to spur readers to take a look at these films themselves and see how their own definitions of Christmas movie might change.
Bellwoar: I feel like a lot of people mix up theatrical and TV Christmas specials in their mind. Like, there are those who are going to wonder how A Charlie Brown Christmas didn’t make the cut, but that was a TV special. What made you want to make that distinction, and do you think that helped enable you to cover more older films that have been overlooked?
Arnold: First, there are simply too many TV specials and cable/streaming holiday titles to include in what is not an encyclopedia. It would be too unwieldy. And I also see the streaming Christmas movies as quite different, really their own genre. But also, while the theatrical and home viewing experiences have moved toward each other in recent years, they are still different mediums, and were especially so back in the day. Charlie Brown, the Rankin-Bass specials, and the like were made for the small screen. And in that era, it really meant a small screen. They are delightful shows, but they’re not cinema. Another factor is that this is a TCM book, and while TCM has started showing somewhat more recent films, too, its heart is studio-era titles of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. I think that logo on the book tells people that at least a major component of the book will be about that era. So that’s one factor for why most of the films in the book are pre-1960, and yes, all this did leave more room for older films like The Cheaters, It Happened on Fifth Avenue, and many more covered in the special chapters.
Bellwoar: One thing I didn’t realize is how long it took for some holiday classics (like It’s A Wonderful Life) to get their audiences. Is there a recent Christmas movie that you think is due that kind of delayed resurgence?
Arnold: Arthur Christmas (2011). It’s a computer animated film from Aardman Animation and is so clever and entertaining that I’m mystified as to why it hasn’t really seemed to catch on with families. I’m also very fond of the French production Joyeux Noel (2005). If people take a look they will find it is very accessible and compelling.
Bellwoar: For most of the films that have been remade (like the various iterations of A Christmas Carol and Little Women), you’ve declared one as the best example of a Christmas movie. What made you want to write about both The Bishop’s Wife and The Preacher’s Wife (the latter of which is one of the new additions to this release)?
Arnold: Well, they’re so different. First, there’s the music element, the gospel, in The Preacher’s Wife, and of course Whitney Houston’s sublime voice. It also is important for being set in an African American community, with a Black principal cast. In the decades that followed, there would finally be more Christmas movies that were inclusive, with Black or Latino casts and characters, and The Bishop’s Wife, despite being a commercial misfire, is a key early example.
Bellwoar: So many Christmas movies involve a Christmas song or carol. Is there a musical moment from any of these films that you’re especially fond of?
Arnold: So many! Too many come to mind to pick just one, so I’m going to mention three that are beyond the ones we all know and love, like Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” or Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” I love the dance sequence in Christmas in Connecticut, held by the town to raise war bonds. It’s such a snapshot of the war era, and the community togetherness is heartwarming. And Barbara Stanwyck seems to be having a ball. I also love the scene in Beyond Tomorrow where an international group of characters sing “Jingle Bells” in several languages at the same time. And finally, Joan Bennett at the piano singing “Sentimental Moments” in We’re No Angels… it is a really, really lovely moment in a cynical, satirical film.
Bellwoar: Do you have a favorite Christmas movie cliché or staple that crops up again and again?
Arnold: I’m really a sucker for that moment where a Scrooge- or Grinch-like character softens and transforms. If done well, it is really affecting and moving. Sometimes it’s a major character, like Scrooge himself, and sometimes it’s a supporting player, like the amazing Gladys Cooper in The Bishop’s Wife, or even a bit player, like Ed Brophy in It Happened on 5th Avenue. I also have a chapter on classic holiday cartoons, and I’m very fond of the one in which Tom the cat transforms at the end and rescues Jerry the mouse after banishing him to the freezing cold. Christmas makes Tom be nice to Jerry!
Bellwoar: Finally, which Christmas films are on your personal rotation every year?
Arnold: Remember the Night, It’s a Wonderful Life, Die Hard, and lately Cash on Demand as well. And often The Muppet Christmas Carol!
Bellwoar: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Jeremy!
Christmas in the Movies (Revised & Expanded Edition) goes on sale October 3rd from Running Press.
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