Legal Month: Miracle on 34th Street

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

MIracle on 34th Street is not only one of my favorite Christmas films, it is also one of my favorite films, but you might wonder what it’s doing here at Movie Churches. Admittedly, there are no churches in the film, except perhaps fleetingly as the cameras pan the streets of New York circa 1947, but the film does fit right in with this month’s theme of Legal Films. It contains one of the great court cases in the movies, and the film takes on an important spiritual and theological issue that is worth investigating (even if, strictly speaking, it has no church or clergy).

The centerpiece of the film is a legal hearing to decide whether the man who calls himself Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) is in fact the one and only true Santa Claus. Kringle was hired as Macy’s department store Santa, but he also takes on the store’s director of events, Doris Walker (Maureen O’Hara), and her daughter Susan (Natalie Wood) as a project to teach them the meaning of Christmas.

But when the HR director of Macy’s tricks Kringle into being institutionalized at Bellevue, Fred Gailey, attorney at law, steps in to take Kringle’s case. The legal maneuvers and trial politics are witty, but stay within a realistic legal framework. Valentine Davies’ screenplay deservedly won an Oscar for Best Original Story and director George Seaton won an Oscar for Best Screenplay (the Academy did things differently those days).

There are so many things to commend about the film. Natalie Wood gives one of the most winning child performances in film history. It is said she really believed Edmund Gwenn was Santa Claus; when you see the film, you may believe it as well. O’Hara is a capable executive, a good mother, and, of course, beautiful. And John Payne as the lawyer is such a likable guy. I get to getting a little misty eyed at the film’s (maybe) miraculous conclusion.

Still, I have a great problem with one definition given in the film. When Fred urges Doris to have faith, he describes faith in this way: “Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to. Don’t you see? It’s not just Kris that’s on trial, it’s everything he stands for. It’s kindness and joy and love and all the other intangibles.”

This is very different than the definition given in Scripture. Hebrews 11: 1 says, “Now faith the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Faith isn’t opposed to common sense. We reasonably exercise faith all the time. We have faith a chair will be able to hold our weight. We have faith we can safely drive on the freeway and other motorists will drive safely (not always a well placed faith). It is especially important to place faith in other people, but I’d urge anyone considering marriage to also use common sense in making that choice.

As the Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 13:13, “There are three things that remain: Faith, Hope, and Love, but the greatest of these is Love.” And I do love Miracle on 34th Street.

Christmas Movie Churches: Prancer

Prancer (1989)

I love Tom Stoppard’s play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, in which two very minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet are put in center stage. There have been Santa books, films, and plays without number which make minor mention of his reindeer. And there is, of course, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But the other eight that pull the sleigh are usually lumped together as a group. This film takes one of the eight, usually interchangeable, reindeer and makes him the hero in 1989’s Prancer.

Okay, Prancer isn’t really the hero of the film. The protagonist is a little girl named Jessica Riggs (Rebecca Harrell Tickell) who lives in the small town of Three Oaks, Michigan. She lives with her widowed father and older brother, and the family is struggling to keep financially afloat. Her father, John (Sam Elliot with his famed mustache), is considering sending Jessica off to live with her Aunt Sarah (Rutanya Alda).

Jessica attends a small school -- one assumes it's a public school. Her class is practicing “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem” for the upcoming Christmas pageant. Jessica sings louder and with much more enthusiasm than the other children, and sadly, she's not always in key. Her teacher encourages her to sing more softly. (Jessica’s father mentions that Jessica, "plays Christmas records all year.”)

For reasons that are not really clear, Jessica’s father doesn’t attend the pageant, which focuses on the birth of Jesus, with a traditional nativity scene. It seems that this school is still flying under the radar of the American Civil Liberties Union. We don’t see any attempt to balance the Christmas celebration with a Hannukah celebration (we don’t hear them singing the Dreidel song). But one of the teachers does talk about the magic of the full moon and claims that a full moon on Christmas brings a magical time of peace. So I guess there is an attempt to balance Christianity with New Age nonsense.

Immediately after the pageant, Jessica and her friend are walking home through the snowy town as it's being decorated for Christmas with Santa and reindeer hanging above Main Street. When one of the reindeer (Jessica somehow recognizes it as Prancer) falls onto the street and is smashed. Before long, as the full moon waxes, an injured reindeer appears in Jessica’s barn. Clearly, a kind of sympathetic magic is at work.

Three Oaks United Methodist Church

Jessica takes care of the reindeer but decides against telling her father. She gets the town vet (Abe Vigoda) to care for the reindeer. She begins working for a grouchy hermit, Mrs. MacFarland (Cloris Leachman), to pay for reindeer food. And she asks the local department store Santa (Michael Constantine, yet another TV Land favorite) to send a message to the real Santa Claus that she has Prancer (not since Miracle on 34th Street has anyone really been able to tell the difference between reindeer that aren’t Rudolph.)

But this department store Santa, Mr. Stewart, doesn’t send the letter to Santa. Instead, he takes it to the local newspaper, which -- in an incredible act of journalistic malpractice -- publishes a story about Jessica, using her full name, without interviewing Jessica or talking to her father. It is published as an opinion piece, a spin on the famous “Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” editorial, saying there is hope because there are girls like Jessica that still believe in Santa Claus. That newspaper is opening itself up for a huge lawsuit.

I’ll give the pastor of Jessica’s church the benefit of the doubt that he assumed Jessica and her father were fully aware of the newspaper article and had given consent for the story to be written. Otherwise, his decision to read the newspaper story during a worship service, without Jessica’s consent, is almost as irresponsible.

I’m guessing from the briefly seen sign in front of the church building that it’s Methodist (the flame and cross). It seems to be a decent church. We hear the pastor deliver a quite orthodox prayer. As befits the season, the congregation sings “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” but also “How Great Thou Art.” I found it amazing that the congregation was able to sing both songs while holding lit candles with the little cardboard drip protectors. Usually, because it takes time to get all the candles lit, one song is the maximum that can be sung with those little candles. Usually that song is “Silent Night.” And I'm baffled that they use candles for a morning service. Jessica is sent to church with her aunt. (Her dad stays home to read the Sunday newspaper, but not thoroughly enough to get to the editorial about Jessica.)

The pastor concludes this pre-Christmas service by reading the newspaper story about Jessica and her belief in Santa Claus. “Town of Three Oaks is in good hands as long as we have children like Jessica Riggs with their hope and wonder,” he concludes. I’d think you’d want to conclude such a service focussed on Jesus rather than Santa, but that’s me.

But there is something that is very good about this church. Mrs. MacFarland comes to church, apparently inspired by her interaction with Jessica, and many people of the church welcome her with great warmth. This weighs heavily in the Movie Church Steeple Ratings.

So I’m going to leave some of your plot questions unanswered here. “Is that reindeer in Jessica’s barn the real Prancer?” “Does the reindeer rejoin Santa and his sleigh team?” “Is Jessica able to remain with her father?” These questions, I’m sure, will perplex anyone who has ever seen a Christmas film (that is not Bad Santa.)

But to finish up our Movie Churches business, we're giving the church and pastor in Prancer a three out of four steeple rating.

Crime Month has an Appointment with Danger

Appointment with Danger (1951)

This blog is supposed to focus on clergy and churches, but sometimes we get distracted. 

1951’s Appointment with Danger, part procedural and part salute to the Postal Service, presents an amazing piece of casting. The inciting incident of the film is the murder of a postal inspector, Harry Gruber, by two seedy criminals, Joe Regas and George Soderquist. Joe is played by Jack Webb and George is played by Harry Morgan. TV Land fans will recognize the stars of the 1967 revival of Dragnet, a show that followed two straight-laced Los Angeles police detectives. To see “Friday” and “Gannon” as thugs is rather jarring.

This bit of casting is even more interesting because Appointment with Danger's format is quite similar to the films and TV shows that Jack Webb made as a producer, writer, and director. (In addition, Dragnet's first incarnation -- as a radio drama -- also first appeared in 1951.) This film, like much of Webb’s work, provides a rather hagiographic presentation of law enforcement -- in this case, the United States Postal Inspection Service.

The film opens with a narrator lauding the glories of the United State Postal Service (“the biggest business in the world”). It is noted that Americans use the mail “for business, for pleasure, and sometimes to address that busy man at the North Pole” (Yup, it's a nod to Miracle on 34th Street, a film with a similar reverence for mail carriers) and then salutes “your mailman who visits you a dozen times a week.” And then the announcer introduces the real heroes of the film: “behind this army[of postal carriers] is a special army of trained men, the oldest police force, Postal Inspectors.”

The narrator then gets to the action. “Our story begins in Gary, Indiana.” It is there that we meet Joe and George, who -- after murdering Gruber -- together drag the body outside to their car. George notices a nun standing in an alley. She's having trouble opening her umbrella, and George (demonstrating exemplary manners for a murderer) goes to help her. He explains that he and Joe are carrying a friend who has “had too much to drink.”

Unfortunately for Joe and George, that nun, on a short layover on a train trip, lets a street cop know about the odd incident. That report eventually finds its way to the postal inspectors investigating Gruber’s murder.

The lead inspector on the case, Al Goddard (Alan Ladd), is assigned the task of finding the nun (His boss asks him, “What about the nun? How many nuns are there anyway?” Goddard  responds, "I don’t know, I’ve never counted them.”) 

Al's partner says he's a cynical guy. "You’ve been chasing hoodlums for so long you don’t like anyone.” 

Al responds, “We’re all working for ourselves, everyone’s a pitch artist.” 

His partner tells him, “You’re a good cop, Al, that’s about all you are.”

If you know movies, you know Al’s cynical view of life will be challenged by his witness, Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert). Al tracks her down and interrogates her about what she saw. She tells him,“I got off the train to get Sister Gertrude some medicine.” It was then she saw Joe and George with Gruber’s body.

Al tells her she might have to go to court to testify, but the nun balks at leaving the convent, “I don’t think so, I have classes to teach.”

Al responds, “It’s the devil’s work to let someone else do your job.” Sister Augustine acknowledges the wisdom of that statement and asks who said it first. 

Al tells her it’s from the writings of Martin Luther. 

“His early writings, I imagine,” the sister responds.

She goes to the police station and identifies George in a book of mug shots. Al tells her she will need to go to Gary, Indiana, to testify in court. 

Sister Augustine expresses sympathy for the man and asks about his likely fate. 

“He’ll get a trial and everything the law allows,” Al tells her. 

“But not a drop of charity.” 

When Al doubts George deserves charity, the sister tells him, “I don’t think you have a heart.” 

Al answers, “When a cop dies, he doesn’t die of heart failure. It’s a charlie horse to the chest.”

Eventually, Joe learns that the nun has identified George, so he kills George and makes an attempt on Sister Augustine’s life (he pushes bricks off a scaffolding down on her, but misses). Joe's boss, Earl (Paul Stewart), asks Joe how the nun survived, and Joe tells him, “She got lucky.” 

Earl tells him, “I’m glad. This murder is bad business.” He tells Joe to forget about the nun. Joe can’t.

When Al learns about the attempt on Sister Augustine’s life, he tries to get her to take a gun for protection. She tells him, “You don’t need to worry about anything happening to me. I’ve a guardian angel.” When Al tries to persuade her that a gun can be a guardian angel, she tells him, “My angel doesn’t jam.”

Al does get Sister Augustine to agree to go to a different convent where he can provide better protection. Al finds her at the new school teaching the kids baseball. He asks how she likes working with the new group of children, and she replies, “They’re lovely children, but the little boys are very badly trained in baseball. We’ve sent three boys to the major leagues, but they’ve only sent one. And it was to the Cleveland Browns.”

Al decides on a new strategy to catch the crooks which he believes will keep Sister Augustine safer. He pretends to be a crooked cop willing to help the thieves rob a postal truck carrying a million-dollar shipment.

He says goodbye to the nun. She says she’ll keep him in her prayers.

But the robbery doesn’t go smoothly, and Joe abducts Sister Augustine for protection. When the gang gathers, the sister acknowledges Al -- so the crooks know that Al isn’t crooked. 

Al pleads for the nun’s life. “Earl, I know you don’t believe in hell. It’s a bad time to bet against it.” 

Earl tells Sister Augustine that he’ll let her go if she gives her word that she won’t rat them out. She responds, “I can’t give my word about that.” She wouldn’t lie to the authorities any more than she’d lie to Earl.

To protect her, Al begins a fight with Joe, just as the police arrive at the scene. In a shootout, all the members of the gang are killed, but the cop and the nun survive.

Al asks someone to take Sister Augustine to her train so she can return to her home convent. Noticing his affection for the nun, Al’s partner says to him, “You know Al, if you work real hard, someday you may qualify for the human race.” 

And Al tells him, “I may join it at that.”

Though all the Jack Webb lore is interesting, we really need to get down to the business of giving Sister Augustine a Steeple Rating. Though there are times in the film when the good nun seems a little dim, her faith, integrity, and compassion overcome that to earn her our highest rating of Four Steeples.

How Well do you Know Christmas Movie Churches?

An Advent quiz to help you find out!

It's Advent, and as long as Movie Churches has been around (about a year now), we’ve been writing about Christmas films in December. This year is no exception. Sadly, we can’t write about some of our favorite Christmas films because they don’t have churches. John McClane doesn’t stop in the airport chapel on the way to Nakatomi Plaza, and the Whos down in Whoville sing in the great, snowy outdoors rather than in the First Community Bible Church of Whoville. Buddy doesn’t accompany his newly found family to midnight Mass at St. Patricks'.

But churches and spiritual references do come up in Christmas films, as you well know. Or do you? Let’s see how well you do with the Movie Churches quiz before we start posting Christmas Movie Churches tomorrow.

1. In Home Alone, Kevin meets his neighbor in church. The old man shares a name with which character from A Christmas Carol?

 A) Cratchit, B) Scrooge, C) Marley, D) Fezziwig

2. Which Christmas movie character “wept and prayed” on V-E Day and V-J Day? A) George Bailey, B) Buddy the Elf, C) Martin Riggs, D) Scott Calvin

3. In While You Were Sleeping, Lucy (Sandra Bullock) goes with her newly adopted family to what kind of church service? A) Catholic, B) Presbyterian, C) Quaker, D) Baptist

4. In The Bishop’sWife, Dudley the Angel indulges in which recreational activity? A) Bowling, B) Building Snow Men, C) Skiing, D) Skating

5. In the musical Scrooge, the church choir is singing A) Joy to the World, B) A Christmas Carol, C) Come All Ye Faithful, D) Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

6. In The Preacher’s Wife, the actor who plays the preacher (Courtney B. Vance) appeared on a number of episodes of ER. The actor who played the angel (Denzel Washington) was a regular on which other TV hospital drama? A) St. Elsewhere, B) Medical Center, C) Chicago Hope, D) Doogie Howser MD

7. In the TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas, Linus recites the Christmas story from A) Matthew, B) Mark, C) Luke, D) John

8. The Bells of St.Mary’s is a sequel to what film? A) Holiday Inn, B) White Christmas, C) I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, D) Going My Way

9. Joyeux Noel takes place during which war? A) The Civil War, B) World War I, C) World War II, D) The Vietnam War

10. In the movie Holiday Inn, Jim (Bing Crosby) goes to church on which holiday? A) Christmas, B) Pentecost, C) Good Friday, D) Easter

Answers – 1-C, 2-A, 3-A, 4-D, 5-B, 6-A, 7-C, 8-D, 9-B, 10-D

Score (give yourself one point for each correct answer)

0         you’re an unredeemed Scrooge

1 – 2   you’re an unredeemed Grinch

3 – 4   you’re a Doris Walker (from Miracle on 34th Street)

5 – 6   you’re a redeemed Grinch (whose heart “grew three sizes that day”.)

7 – 8   you’re a Buddy the Elf

9 – 10 you’re a redeemed Ebenezer Scrooge (“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.”)

What movie churches do you appreciate at Christmas time? Tell us in the comments!

A Very Special Post #250

Christmas Lists

Most of us have traditions related to Christmas films. We watch Miracle on 34th Street the day after Christmas to kick off the Yuletide season. TBS runs a 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story every December 25th, and they wouldn’t keep doing it if people didn’t watch. For the last several years, NBC has been running It’s a Wonderful Life just after Thanksgiving and just before Christmas.

But sometimes you want to add something new. I thought I’d revisit some Christmas films (movies that include churches and/or clergy, of course. A blog’s gotta have focus) that we’ve written about over the last couple of years. You might find something new to add to your rotation tradition.

We wanted to list films that are worthwhile, but we also warn you about films to avoid. Start with Candy Cane treats, then -- if you dare -- go on to Lumps of Coal to avoid. (Each film summary is linked to the review here at Movie Churches.)

Candy Canes:

Home Alone - Okay, this is not new to most people, but you might not remember offhand that along with the live action cartoon violence, there are sweet scenes of the church as a sanctuary.

(This was an early Movie Church review which also looked at While You Were Sleeping, not a bad film to find under the tree.)

Brooklyn - This is a wonderful film about the American immigrant experience, and though Christmas is not central to the plot, it is there.

Black Nativity - This retelling of the Christmas Story in the setting of an African American family in New York is definitely worth seeking out.

Joyeux Noel - You might have missed this touching true story about a moment of peace on the front lines during World War I.

Lumps of Coal:

The Bishop’s Wife and its remake, The Preacher’s Wife are beloved by many, but not me. Adulterous angels (even when it’s just an emotional affair) never have fit into my idea of Advent.

The Miracle of the Bells is a very corny film with the odd topic of a Hollywood death. And miracle bells.

Simon Birch  is the result of  John Irving’s classic novel, A Prayer for Owen Meany, being ruined.

A Merry Friggin’ Christmas, a foul mouthed family comedy, is not one of the prouder parts of Robin Williams’ legacy.

A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas is the film for you if you want cannabis to play a more central role in your family traditions.

Christmas with the Kranks  is evidence John Grisham should stay in the courtroom.

Midnight Clear  is just a bad Christian Christmas film.

I’m sure Hallmark has many films that would this category, but there are limits to what I’ll watch for this blog.

(As noted in the headline, this is the 250th Movie Churches post and we thank you for your faithful, or occasional, whatever, readership.)

On the Small Screen in Idaho

In every state we've been in this year, we’ve watched a film set in that state. For example, Wyoming was represented by Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven. Cary Grant represented South Dakota in North by Northwest. John Wayne was the poster child for Arkansas in True Grit. And Kevin Costner represented North Carolina, Iowa, and Illinois with Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and The Untouchables. So I feel a tad apologetic to the state of Idaho when i admit that they are being represented by Jon Heder playing one of the greatest dweebs in the history of film as the title character in 2004’s Napoleon Dynamite.

Napoleon Dynamite was a low budget comedy that became a surprise hit, inspiring catch phrases and kids wearing “Vote for Pedro” shirts. Most of the film was shot in city of Preston, Idaho. Preston High School, Napoleon and Pedro’s school, has become a favorite tourist destination. The high school is also the alma mater of the film’s director, Jared Hess. For several years after the film was made, there was a Napoleon Festival in the town.

There is no Movie Church in the film, but it was written by a married couple, Jared and Jerusha Hess, who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is rather unusual for a Hollywood film -- let alone one produced by MTV Films.

Of course, other films located and filmed in Idaho have had more conventional movie stars. 1980’s Bronco Billy was directed by Clint Eastwood and starred Clint Eastwood as a broken down rodeo star. It shares a quirky sense of humor (and a PG rating) with Napoleon Dynamite.

One of the most memorable of women stars, Marilyn Monroe, filmed 1956’s Bus Stop about a bus trip from Montana to Arizona. The bus stopped in Idaho along the way and did actually film in such locations as Ketchum and Sun Valley.

Another iconic movie star, Warren Beatty, starred in a film partially located and filmed in Idaho: 2001’s Town & Country. The film was widely known as a financial flop; it was a domestic comedy with a budget that ran to $90 million but took in only $10 million. (It fared even worse than Beatty’s previous famous flop, Ishtar, which was budgeted at $55 million but only took in $15 million.) The film had locations in New York and California -- and in Sun Valley.

Sun Valley has long been a favorite location for filmmakers. 1941’s Sun Valley Serenade, a musical featuring John Payne of Miracle on 34th Street, Glenn Miller and his orchestra, and Sonja Henie, the Olympic Skating Medalist turned movie star. The musical comedy was partially filmed in the ski resorts of Sun Valley, Idaho. Another athlete turned movie star, champion swimmer Esther Williams, starred in Duchess of Idaho, a musical comedy that also filmed on location in Sun Valley.

Some other rather unconventional films have been located and filmed in Idaho. Peter Fonda directed a 1973 science fiction film, Idaho Transfer, about scientists who try to preserve the human race from a coming apocalypse through the use of time travel. But only people under the age of 30 can travel through time, which is just as well since people at the time believed you couldn’t trust anyone over the age of 30. The film was shot primarily at Craters of the Moon National Park.

Napoleon Dynamite isn’t the only Idaho film about young nerds in love. In 2013’s The To Do List, 29 year old Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) played a high school senior pressured to experiment sexually before heading off to college. (I probably should note Jon Heder was 27 when he played high schooler Napoleon.) Most of the film was shot in California, but there was some location shooting in Boise.

Finally, one last young nerd: Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams), a Native American who lives on a reservation in 1998’s Smoke Signals. It’s an independent film made by Native Americans and featuring Native Americans that was filmed on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation in Plummer, Idaho -- but the film transitions into a road picture, filming in such Idaho locations as Worley, DeSmet, and Tensed, but also in Soap Lake, Washington.

Seen on the Small Screen in California

(Warning - the following post is about Christmas and therefore mature images are displayed) During this year, there have been times when it was difficult to find even a few films set and/or filmed in a state, let alone find a way to watch them (Delaware and West Virginia, I’m looking at you). California (like New York and Illinois) provides the opposite problem. There are so many films set in (and especially filmed in) the state, it’s difficult to limit things for one post. Because it’s Christmas Eve Eve, I decided to focus on California Christmas films.

Really, you can claim most every Christmas film (except perhaps Elf and Home Alone) for California. After all, White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, even Christmas in Connecticut and so many others, were filmed in California though they’re set somewhere else -- usually a place with snow. But in the spirit of Christmas, I’m going to let Vermont have White Christmas, Connecticut have Christmas in Connecticut, and wherever can claim Bedford Falls for It’s a Wonderful Life. And I’m not even bothering with television specials in spite of such treasures as the California Raisins Christmas Special. For our California films, we’ll confine ourselves to Christmas films set (and filmed) in California.

Every year there is a Twitter storm of argument of whether or not Die Hard (1988) is a Christmas film. Some people argue that a film must be “about Christmas,” while others say any film set at Christmas time and with Christmas elements should count. Our family decided the issue for ourselves long ago. We have a tradition on Christmas Eve Eve of gathering in the living room with plenty of snacks for a Christmas movie marathon. Films that were part of the rotation included Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life, Scrooge (the musical version of A Christmas Carol), MIracle on 34th Street, and yes, Die Hard.

If you’ve never seen this Yuletide classic, it’s the story of a NYPD officer who comes to Los Angeles at Christmas time to visit his wife, who’s taken a job with a Japanese company’s Southern California office. Unfortunately, his wife’s office Christmas Eve party is taken over by terrorists. (Have you ever noticed that no one in movies ever gets Christmas Eve off? In It’s a Wonderful Life, children are going to school on Christmas Eve day!)

Anyway, Die Hard has all the elements of Christmas. There is the music: Al of the LAPD sings “Let it Snow” and Beethoven's “Ode to Joy” (which is a Christmas tradition in Japan) is an important part of the soundtrack. There’s an appearance of Santa Claus (okay, so it’s just a dead terrorist in a Santa hat, but it’s the thought, you know). There’s even a Christmas miracle! (Which benefits the terrorists, but still…) Really, isn’t saving your wife from terrorists and punching a TV reporter what Christmas is all about? (Also, if you’d rather your Christmas didn’t include brief nudity along with not at all brief profanity and violence, this probably isn’t your Christmas film.) Of course, it was filmed entirely in California, with the Fox Plaza in the role of the Nakatomi building.

The writer (and occasional director) Shane Black has made combining violence and Christmas the mainstay of his career. He wrote and Richard Donner directed Lethal Weapon (1987), a pioneer buddy cop film starring Mel Gibson as suicidal Martin Riggs and Danny Glover as his family man partner, Roger Murtaugh. The film features a very funny, though violent and profane, confrontation in a Christmas tree lot.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Christmas Elf

In Delaware, we saw Black’s The Nice Guys (2016) in a movie theater. It’s another film that combines crime and Christmas. Probably my favorite Shane Black film is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), with Robert Downey Jr. as an actor playing a detective in the movies getting detective lessons from Val Kilmer who plays an actual detective. There’s a Christmas party in the film where the true Spirit of Christmas is not at all present.

This combination of crime and Christmas is not a new Hollywood innovation. When Robert Montgomery brought Raymond Chandler’s Lady in the Lake (1947) to the big screen, he set it at Christmas time (not a part of the novel). The opening credits are illustrated with Christmas cards and a gun -- but this is not the oddest thing about the film. Most of the movie is shot in first person, from detective Philip Marlowe’s perspective. (The experiment doesn’t work.)

Last year, I wrote about a Christmas film partially set (and entirely filmed) in California, The Miracle of the Bells (1948). Starring Frank Sinatra as a priest, it is, as I wrote at the time, one of the few films, let alone few Christmas films, all about making funeral arrangements.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas (1998) was made to try to make Jonathan Taylor Thomas, one of the kids from the TV show Home Improvement, into a movie star.  It’s the story of a college student’s journey from his school in California to his home in New York, filmed in California and Canada. Disney Studios did not manage to make Thomas a major movie star.

Four Christmases (2008) stars Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn as a couple who wants to spend Christmas in Fiji, but ends up spending time with each of their parent’s home (all of whom have divorced and remarried). The film was shot in both Southern California (LA and Santa Clarita) and Northern California (San Francisco and Oakland).

Beside the fact that this films stars Ben Affleck and Jame Gandolfini, I have no idea what  Surviving Christmas (2004) is about, but it doesn’t look very good. And it was set and filmed in California.

A true perennial Christmas classic, Holiday Inn (1942), starring Bing Crosby as a New York showman who decides to open an inn in Connecticut that will only be open on holidays. The finale of the film takes place at a Hollywood studio, and the scene in the Hollywood studio was filmed in Hollywood, as were scenes set in New York and Connecticut. The film introduced Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” and won the Oscar for Best Song.

It’s true that all the best versions of A Christmas Carol (both titled Scrooge that came out in 1951 and 1970) were filmed in England, not California. Maybe we’ll watch those films there someday.

(I'll admit that really none of these California Christmas films comes close to presenting the true meaning of Christmas. If you're looking for the REAL meaning of Christmas, you might start with this film.)