When Santa comes calling

As Christmas approaches, it is but natural to think of the number of films set during that festival period. True, Christmas figures in a number of films, at least one in say five, but that’s not counted. We shall deal with pure Christmas stories

May be because of the popularity of the song, but my pet film is ‘White Christmas’ and I was hardly 12 when I saw it in my pre-film critic days of course, and it still rings a gong. Imagine feeling nostalgic over ‘White Christmas’ when we haven’t seen one in real life. Funny, isn’t it? But true nonetheless.

It is about two entertainers who boost the popularity of a winter resort run by an old army buddy. And pray, who are these two? Well, none other than Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby, both in their prime in the early 1950s. Kaye also visited India a little later and played ‘Hans Christian Andersen’ around that time. He was an entertainer par excellence while Bing Crosby’s voice was constantly on the radio, silky smooth, though those words were used to describe a latter day singer Nat King Cole.

Along with them were two renowned actresses and singers, Vera Ellen and Rosemary Clooney. Ellen was known for her war-time songs and Clooney for an old favourite, which went like this – “Never mind the noise in the market, only mind the price of the fish” and if you venture further “remove your nose from the grindstone, just do the things that you wish.” She was a latter-day Carmen Miranda, vibrant, effusive. Hollywood’s hunk George Clooney is her nephew.

With such a celebrated foursome, ‘White Christmas’ could only be a great film, though critics called it “humdrum” probably because they were drooling over ‘Holiday Inn’, which was the inspiration for this remake. What do they say “comparisons are odious” but never mind, let’s not get into all that. This is a nostalgic piece and as for ‘White Christmas’, I thoroughly enjoyed it, having seen Bing Crosby earlier in ‘The Bells of St. Mary’s’.

The ambience still haunts me, everything white, sledges sliding by and songs galore, after all, it was a musical and couldn’t but be that with that star cast. But it also had feeling and bonhomie – all that one required for the yuletide season. In those days they also released films appropriately, not the marketing mish-mash we have today.

Then there’s ‘Santa Claus’, the story of an old woodcutter is given immortality by elves and turned into Santa Claus – in modern times he goes to New York to rescue an elf from a monster toymaker. Good fairytale stuff with thorough gags and humour to keep one going at least for most of the time. David Huddlestone is at best fair but Dudley Moore is his usual hilarious self with John Lithgow in a good cameo. Not the warmest, funniest of films ever made, but guess it served its purpose.

Another film that comes to mind is ‘The Christmas Tree’ and not because it is anywhere brilliant. It is in fact melodramatic and weepy… and naturally depressing. Sadly, it has William Holden in the lead role as the dad of a young lad infected by radioactivity. The boy is played by Broke Fuller, comparatively unknown. The Italian beauty Virna Lisi played the mother. It was a seaside story but oh so depressing and anything but Christmas fare, but guess that’s how it goes and one does not have total control of what we see or have to see.

Of course there’s also Nagisa Oshima’s ‘Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence’, which I saw at the 1984 IFFI in Bombay (Mumbai), where I also met and interviewed Oshima, who was very much in demand during the festival over three decades ago. The title is incidental and it deals with a British army officer and his relationship with a Japanese military man. Serious stuff this, which showed Oshima at his profound best. British singer David Bowie played the lead and did it well.

There’s “The Santa Claus” with Tim Allen in the lead and it is about Santa falling off the roof due to which an advertising executive takes over but realises he’s stuck with the job. Well, and so are the viewers, because it is a clear let down. Allen cannot hide his latter-day Bob Hope persona and the film is unlikely to please either adults or children.

But let’s come to one of the most elevating scenes on celluloid and that’s in Richard Attenborough’s ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’, an anti-war film set in World War I. No, the film is not about Christmas but about a Christmas truce during the war, to see the rival soldiers put away their arms and fraternise because of Xmas, is simply out of this world.

But more recently, there was ‘Arthur Christmas’ about Arthur, the clumsy son of Santa Claus, who goes out of his way to save Xmas for a little boy. Another one, ‘Barbie in a Christmas Carol’, an adaptation of Christmas carols, starring Barbie Doll. And of course, the latest ‘Rise of the Guardians’, all guaranteed to bring in Xmas cheer and bon homie.

Pondering over these Christmassy movies, ‘White Christmas’ is one that evokes the greatest nostalgia because going back to our roots is simply unbeatable. But for the single most touching scene, is the one of the enemy soldiers fraternising during a Christmas truce in Richard Attenborough’s ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’.

By: Ervell E Menezes