A Holiday Showcase: Uncovering Underrated Christmas Movies

One thing that irks me about a lot of contemporary seasonal movies is their insistent meta-commentary – the gaudy decorations, the checklist soundtrack tunes, and the canned conversations about the essence of the festive period. Maybe because the genre was not hardened into tradition, films from the 1940s often tackle Yuletide from increasingly imaginative and not as neurotic angles.

The Fifth Avenue Happening

A delightful discovery from exploring 1940s holiday fare is It Happened on Fifth Avenue, a 1947 lighthearted comedy with a brilliant concept: a jovial vagrant winters in a vacant posh townhouse each year. One winter, he welcomes new acquaintances to stay with him, including a ex-soldier and a runaway who turns out to be the daughter of the property's wealthy owner. Director Roy Del Ruth imbues the picture with a surrogate family coziness that many modern holiday films struggle to achieve. This story expertly occupies the space between a class-conscious narrative on affordable living and a delightful city fantasy.

The Tokyo Godfathers

Satoshi Kon's 2003 animated film Tokyo Godfathers is a engaging, sad, and profound version on the holiday narrative. Loosely based on a John Wayne film, it follows a triumvirate of homeless souls – an drinker, a transgender woman, and a adolescent throwaway – who come across an discarded baby on Christmas Eve. Their quest to locate the infant's mother sets off a sequence of unexpected events involving crime lords, immigrants, and ostensibly fateful connections. The film embraces the wonder of coincidence typically found in Christmas flicks, offering it with a cool-toned aesthetic that steers clear of cloying sentiment.

Introducing John Doe

Although Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life rightly gets a lot of acclaim, his lesser-known work Meet John Doe is a powerful seasonal story in its own right. Featuring Gary Cooper as a down-on-his-luck drifter and Barbara Stanwyck as a resourceful writer, the story kicks off with a fake missive from a man threatening to fall from a building on the holiday in protest. The public's embrace compels the reporter to recruit a man to impersonate the fictional "John Doe," who subsequently becomes a popular figure for neighborliness. The movie acts as both an uplifting story and a brutal critique of ultra-rich media magnates seeking to manipulate grassroots feeling for personal ends.

Silent Partner

Whereas holiday slasher pictures are now commonplace, the Christmas thriller remains a relatively rare subgenre. This makes the 1978 feature The Silent Partner a novel delight. Featuring a superbly menacing Christopher Plummer as a bank-robbing Santa Claus and Elliott Gould as a clever bank teller, the story pits two kinds of morally ambiguous oddballs against each other in a well-crafted and surprising tale. Mostly unseen upon its first release, it deserves a fresh look for those who prefer their Christmas stories with a chilling atmosphere.

The Almost Christmas

For those who enjoy their Christmas get-togethers dysfunctional, Almost Christmas is a blast. With a impressive ensemble that features Danny Glover, Mo'Nique, and JB Smoove, the film explores the dynamics of a household compelled to share five days under one home during the festive period. Hidden dramas come to the surface, culminating in situations of over-the-top humor, including a showdown where a weapon is pulled out. Of course, the story arrives at a satisfying ending, offering all the entertainment of a family disaster without any of the actual consequences.

Go

Doug Liman's 1999 feature Go is a Christmas-set tale that is a young-adult interpretation on woven narratives. Although some of its humor may feel dated upon rewatch, the film still contains plenty aspects to savor. These are a composed turn from Sarah Polley to a captivating appearance by Timothy Olyphant as a dangerous pusher who fittingly dons a Santa hat. It represents a particular kind of 1990s movie attitude set against a Christmas setting.

Miracle at Morgan's Creek

Preston Sturges's wartime farce The Miracle of Morgan's Creek rejects conventional seasonal warmth in exchange for bawdy comedy. The movie centers on Betty Hutton's Trudy Kockenlocker, who ends up with child after a wild night but cannot recall the man involved. The bulk of the fun stems from her situation and the attempts of Eddie Bracken's lovestruck Norval Jones to marry her. While not immediately a Christmas movie at the outset, the plot climaxes on the holiday, showing that Sturges has created a clever version of the nativity, packed with his characteristic satirical style.

Better Off Dead

This 1985 adolescent film starring John Cusack, Better Off Dead, is a prime artifact of its time. Cusack's