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A CHRISTMAS CAROL

No, not the Alistar Sim British movie from 1951 that seems to just go through the motions of telling the Charles Dickens story of learning some of the most important meanings of Christmas, but the earlier and far more wonderful American-made 1938 version. Lionel Barrymore, who was beloved for playing Scrooge on the radio in the 1930s, was unable to portray the miser in the movie because of illness, so when studio executives asked who he recommended for the part, he said Reginald Owen, a studio stock company character actor. It was a wise choice because Owen gives not only the performance of his long and distinguished career, but gives the screen its definitive Scrooge. He is ably assisted by the Lockhart family – Gene Lockhart as Bob Cratchit; Kathleen Lockhart, Gene’s real-life wife, as Mrs. Cratchit; and their daughter June Lockhart, making her screen debut at the age of 13 as one of the Cratchit children. Terry Kilburn plays a very likeable and sympathetic Tiny Tim. It’s in black and white, as this story should be told, and the atmosphere of Victorian London is beautifully realized. Finally, the classic is now on DVD in a very excellent restored edition, for a terrific Christmas present for the whole family, from Warner Bros., although it was made by MGM. (See the picture and biographies of the Lockharts at the end of this month’s column.)

Max’s rating: the highest: two paws up and lots of tail wags.

CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT

My master’s and my favorite actress, Barbara Stanwyck, stars in this wonderful Christmas classic from 1945. She plays a housekeeping magazine columnist who claims to be a wife and mother in a rural Connecticut farm-style home. Trouble is, she’s really single, has no children, and lives the full-throttle city life from her New York apartment. Her publisher (Sydney Greenstreet), sees big holiday readership by inviting a World War II Navy hero (Dennis Morgan) to her farm home for a homemade Christmas dinner, so it can be written up for the magazine. I won’t tell what happens then, but it’s a hilarious holiday comedy for the whole family. Also just released on DVD from Warner Bros.

Max’s rating: Two paws up and lots of “Woo wooooo’s!”

THE TALES OF HOFFMANN
My master said he was in college at Michigan State University when he saw this 1956 movie based on the Jacques Offenbach opera, and it blew him away because it was so beautiful a musical and visual experience. Robert Rounseville plays the poet Hoffmann who falls in love with three disparate women, one after the other: a flirtatious ballerina (Moira Shearer), a gorgeous but deadly courtesan (Ludmilla Tcherina), and a consumptive opera singer (Ann Ayars). Made by British film geniuses Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger as a follow-up to their acclaimed “The Red Shoes,” this more than holds its own against that classic. The new DVD restoration is as fantastic as the opera’s glorious music, with the London Philharmonic conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham, and its lush sets and costumes. From The Criterian Collection.

Max’s rating: The highest: two paws up and many “Woo woooos” and tail wags.

Also Recommended This Month:

LOVE, LUDLOW

A delightful if quirky romantic comedy with talented young actress Alicia Goranson as a temp worker in Queens who is devoted to helping her eccentric younger brother, played by Brendan Sexton III. He is an aspiring finger painter confined to his apartment because of manic episodes. Problems arise between them when Alicia falls for a young man and her brother tries to keep them apart. From Polychrome Pictures, released by Warner Bros.

THE FIRST CIRCLE
In Dante’s Inferno, hell was called the first circle, a place where enlightened pagans were to spend eternity. In this 1991 television miniseries now on DVD, the first circle is the Soviet Mavrino Prison, a prison hell where Soviet scientists are kept and forced to operate a scientific research center under the close observation of Stalin guards. If the physicists, mathematicians, and electrical engineers create something useful to the Soviet government, they may be freed, but if not, they may be sent to a labor camp in Siberia. Based on the novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the DVD that runs three hours is taken from a television miniseries made shortly after the fall of the Soviet government. Heading the cast are Robert Powell, Christopher Plummer, and F. Murray Abraham as Stalin. From Koch Vision.

LADIES IN LAVENDER (Great Britain)

Two of Britain’s top actresses, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, team up in a delightful heartwarming comedy-drama written and directed by the very talented actor, Charles Dance. The ladies play sisters who find a young foreign man washed ashore at their coastal home in pre-World War II England. Nursing him back to health evokes maternal instincts in Smith, while Dench experiences a longing for a life not lived. “An unexpected joy!,” said critic Rex Reed. “Touching… a warm and literate film with charm, sweetness, and class.” Who could expect less from Dench, Smith, and Dance? From Sony Pictures.

THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED (France)
A surprise gem from France, it’s about a young Paris gangster whose life is changed because of his dream of becoming a concert pianist. It would spoil your enjoyment to tell more about this film from director Jaques Audiard starring handsome Romain Duris in a deeply moving performance. Rent it and see one of the best foreign films this year. From Wellspring.

DOCTOR FINLAY – SET 3 (Great Britain)
The third season of the hugely popular British television series starring David Rantoul as a young doctor in a post-World War II village. Ian Bannen plays the senior doctor of the medical practice in stories based on characters by beloved novelist A.J. Cronin. The seven new episodes run about six hours on 3 DVDs from Minotaur Productions and BFS Video.

CAPTAIN JACK (Great Britain)

This comedy adventure follows a sea captain (Bob Hoskins) who sets forth in a not-very-seaworthy boat with a misfit crew to retrace a 1791 voyage to the Arctic. It’s inspired lunacy all the way and a trip to remember. “Alec Guinness in his prime couldn’t have done more,” said the London Evening Standard movie critic of Hoskins’s masterful performance. With one of my favorite British actresses, Gemma Jones, as his lady fair. From Koch Vision.

KINGS AND QUEENS (France)
Some critics call this comedy melodrama a modern masterpiece, and it is very good, although I liked it mainly because Catherine Deneuve is in it, but not the star. She plays a downbeat character, a steely clinical psychiatrist at a mental hospital. It’s a complicated story of relationships and a summary of the plot won’t do it justice. You’ll find yourself totally involved with the people in this one that is at times both funny and heart-breaking. From Wellspring.

CAUSE CELEBRE  (Great Britain)

Based on a real murder case in 1935, Helen Mirren plays an upper-class wife and mother accused of murdering her husband, when the real killer may have been her 18-year-old boy-toy lover. David Suchet plays her defense attorney, without his usual Hercule Poirot mustache and spats. A British mystery in the finest tradition, from Koch Lorber.

ROALD DAHL’S TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED, SET 3 (Great Britain)

The third season of the television series of darkly humorous stories in the tradition of macabre story-teller Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Each half-hour tale is a mixture of horror and fantasy, always with a surprise ending, and casts include some of Britain’s top actors including John Mills, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Caron, Peter Cushing, and Ian Holm. Lovers of unusual story-telling will love this series from Acorn Media that it is not a stretch to say combines the best elements of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO  (France)

This 1998 television miniseries now on DVD may be the best movie based on the classic Alexandre Dumas novel of love, revenge, and intrigue. Gerard Depardieu plays a man of the Napoleonic era who has lots of counterparts today in the terrorism suspects. He is a young French sailor falsely accused of being a traitor and unjustly imprisoned for 18 years without a trial. There the contemporary similarities end, for fiction takes over and he escapes prison, finds a hidden treasure on an island, and uses the fortune to assume a new identity and seek revenge on those who betrayed him. The 2-disc set runs nearly a whopping seven hours, so it tells more of the Dumas story than any previous movie version. Highly praised, in French with English subtitles, from Koch Lorber.

ARIZONA
Back when westerns were more adventure than violence, this 1940 entry was a big hit. Jean Arthur stars as a very modern whip-cracking, rifle-toting woman of the Old West who takes on the whole crooked lot running Tucson. A very young, curly-haired, always handsome and charismatic William Holden plays a likeable drifter who comes to her aid and stays for her apple pie and a wedding that is definitely not shotgun. You can hiss the villain, played by Warren William, go on a cattle drive, and it’s lots of fun, too. From Columbia Pictures and Sony.

A FINE MESS
Blake Edwards’ 1986 comedy stars Ted Danson and Howie Mandel as part of a foursome of nitwits in a caper involving doping a race horse. It doesn’t make a bit of sense, but generates some laughs and has a hot musical soundtrack by The Temptations and others. From Columbia Pictures and Sony.

KID GALAHAD

Elvis Presley sings a bunch of lively songs and pulls no punches as an auto mechanic turned boxer in this 1962 remake of an old 1937 Wayne Morris movie. Just returned from the army, as he was in real life, Elvis gets into boxing trunks and battles his way to the big fight that pits his fight manager against some mobsters. The familiar boxing story is livened by The Pelvis, but even non-Presley fans should enjoy it. From MGM and Sony Pictures.

WORLD WAR II 60TH ANNIVERSAY COLLECTION

Sony reprises World War II classics in two handsome boxed sets featuring six film greats. One set holds “From Here to Eternity,” “The Bridge On the River Kwai,” and “The Guns of Navarone,” plus “Weapons of War,” about the Marines of World War II. The other set contains “The Caine Mutiny,” “Anzio,” and “Das Boot,” plus “Secrets of the Sea Wolves,” about the Nazi submarines. Both from Sony Pictures.

AMERICAN MOVIE MUSICAL COLLECTION
A handsome boxed 3-DVD set of three classic movie musicals:
“West Side Story,” “Guys and Dolls,” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” Each different, each great. From MGM and Sony Pictures.

THE GREAT SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE

On April 19, 1906, the great northern city of California was struck by an earthquake 30 times more powerful than the quake that decimated the same region in 1989. The 1906 quake measured a ground-breaking 8.3 on the Richter scale, causing the worst natural catastrophe ever suffered by a North American city. The disaster is chronicled on a DVD narrated by Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham and contains rare, newly-restored movie footage from the period and personal accounts of eyewitnesses. An unforgettable experience from WGBH Boston Video.

MILLIONS

Actually for the whole family, this is a very imaginative and funny movie about a boy who finds a suitcase that falls from the sky. He thinks the fortune inside came from Heaven, so he wants to give it to those less fortunate.  His brother, however, wants to spend it all. I won’t tell more of the plot, but there’s more than just that conflict, resulting in lots of laughs and joyfulness, and the boys are adorable. From Fox Searchlight.

Doggy Daycare DVD

It’s an hour-long DVD showing 60 dogs of a variety of breeds having fun indoors and out that will keep your dog relaxed and happy when you’re away from home. All profits from the sale of the DVD go to animal charities to help needy animals during the coming holiday season. This would be a great Christmas gift for your dog. For more information on how to order it, visit www.doggydaycareDVD.com.

This month to Deanna Durbin, 84 on Dec. 4, and Julie Harris, 80 on Dec. 1.

This month we feature Gene Lockhart, his wife Kathleen Lockhart, and their daughter June Lockhart, who play the Cratchits in the classic 1938 movie version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

Gene Lockhart, born in London, Ontario in 1891, was the son of a tenor who toured with a Scottish band in England. Gene danced with the show at the age of 7, and when the family returned to Canada, Gene sang in concerts. When he was 17, he came to America and appeared in Broadway plays. While appearing in a hit 1924 play called “Sun Up,” he met and married Kathleen Arthur, a British actress. Their daughter June was born the following year.

Gene’s performance in the 1933 Eugene O’Neill family stage comedy “Ah, Wilderness” starring George M. Cohan led to a contract with RKO Pictures and Gene’s first movie, “By Your Leave,” in 1934. Gene became one of the movies’ best-known character actors, but returned to the Broadway stage in 1949 to take over the lead role of Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman.” Gene Lockhart appeared in more than 125 movies, best-known for playing crooked businessmen and other villains, although in real life he was considered to be a friendly, gentle man. My master remembers him best as sympathetic Bob Cratchit in “A Christmas Carol” and also as the corrupt mayor in Frank Capra’s classic “Meet John Doe” who is part of the conniving big business bunch who drives Gary Cooper to want to jump off the roof of City Hall on Christmas Eve to protest man’s inhumanity to man. Gene’s other notable film roles were in “Going My Way,” “They Died With Their Boots On,” and another Christmas classic, 1948’s “Miracle on 34th Street,” as the judge who must rule whether Santa Claus is real or not.

Gene Lockhart, who also wrote stage plays and was a magazine writer and columnist, also wrote the words to the song “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise,” a big hit after World War I which was reprised by Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1949 and sold a million records. Gene’s final movie was “Jeanne Eagles” in 1957. He died of a heart attack that year.

Kathleen Lockhart also appeared with her husband in “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain” in 1952, but only appeared in movies occasionally and retired after his death.

June Lockhart became a lovely ingénue in many movies, probably best remembered as the girl who matched up the right couples at the big dance in “Meet Me in St. Louis.” She also starred on the Broadway stage and later in the long-running television series “Lassie” and “Lost in Space.” She is now 80 years old, retired and living in California.

My master was 15 when he wrote a fan letter to Gene Lockhart in 1945. Gene sent him the photo that appears here of a handsome and happy family. Each of the Lockharts personally autographed the 8x10 print. It is one of my master’s most prized treasures of his large collection of autographed portraits of movie stars and supporting players of the 1940s.

On Turner Classic Movies in December:

Dinner at Eight, The Red Shoes, These Three, The Major and the Minor, Roman Holiday, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, The Magnificent Ambersons, Johnny Belinda, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Queen Christina, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Lion in Winter, Black Narcissus, North By Northwest, Lust for Life, Paths of Glory, Never on Sunday, A Christmas Carol (1938), Rebecca, National Velvet, The Third Man, The Four Feathers, The Thief of Bagdad, Vacation from Marriage, Now Voyager, The Corn Is Green, Ball of Fire, Christmas in Connecticut, A Christmas Story, The Little Foxes, H.M. Pulham Esq., King Kong, Psycho, Henry V, Hamlet, Othello, Scarface, Jezebel, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, West Side Story, Gigi, Wuthering Heights, All Mine to Give, Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Adventures of Robin Hood, White Heat, Best Years of Our Lives, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Little Women (1933), Meet Me in St. Louis, 3 Godfathers, Boys’ Town, The Kid (1921), Oliver Twist, The Fugitive, Going My Way, The Bells of St. Mary’s, The White Cliffs of Dover, Father of the Bride, The Shop Around the Corner, Sabrina (1954), Invasion of the Body Snatchers, To Be or Not To Be (1942), Meet John Doe, Since You Went Away, Beyond Tomorrow, I Remember Mama, Quo Vadis, King of Kings (1961), The Greatest Story Ever Told, A Night to Remember, The Hurricane, San Francisco, Sunset Boulevard, The Philadelphia Story, It Happened One Night, Casablanca, Out of Africa, Pride and Prejudice (1940), The Incredible Shrinking Man, They Were Expendable, High Society, Red River, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Great Escape, Seven Brides for Seven Brotheres, The Band Wagon, An American in Paris, Singin’ in the Rain, Sullivan’s Travels, The Pink Panther, Jaws, Rear Window.

On Fox Movie Channel:
Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The Razor’s Edge, Gentlemen’s Agreement, Anna Karenina (1948), Breaking Away, The Longest Day, Patton, Young Mr. Lincoln, Claudia and David, The Glass Menagerie, The Lodger, The Gods Must Be Crazy, Down to the Sea in Ships, Pinky, The Man from Snowy River, Twelve O’Clock High, Lifeboat, State Fair (1945), The Purple Heart, Sons and Lovers, Suez, The Snake Pit, Phar Lap, The Rains Came, Call Northside 777, A Man Called Peter, Compulsion, Jane Eyre, Julia, The Princess Bride, Carousel, The King and I, Curly Top, Wee Willie Winkie, Heidi, The Little Princess, The Blue Bird, Sitting Pretty, Lillian Russell, In Old Chicago, Broken Lance, Cheaper By the Dozen, Last of the Mohicans (1992), House on 92nd Street, The Gunfighter, My Friend Flicka, Four Men and a Prayer, The Hustler, Cluny Brown, Gentlemen’s Agreement, Hello Dolly.

I bet you didn't know, but besides reviewing movies, I sing opera. Click here to see and hear me rehearsing the Barcarolle from "Tales of Hoffman."

Maybe you would like to visit my master's web site with highlights of his huge collection of old movie magazines, Bijou Follies
Two more web sites I recommend are: Errol Flynn and Jeffrey Hunter