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'Tis the season... for a daily thread of alternate Christmas flicks: mystery, horror, noir, dark melodrama, etc. with festive flair.
Starting with the aggressively Christmassy Mickey Spillane adaptation I, THE JURY (1953).
Starting with the aggressively Christmassy Mickey Spillane adaptation I, THE JURY (1953).
"What do you want, Christmas every day?"
CRIME WAVE (1953) captures L.A. locations dressed up in tinsel for the holiday. Beware the ghosts of criminal associates past!
CRIME WAVE (1953) captures L.A. locations dressed up in tinsel for the holiday. Beware the ghosts of criminal associates past!
Talk about a blue Christmas... PÚre Noël makes a cameo as a police informant in Jean-Pierre Melville's UN FLIC (1972).
In the Yuletide whodunit LADY ON A TRAIN, Deanna Durbin turns girl sleuth after witnessing a murderâbut still finds time to sing "Silent Night" over the phone to her father.
A startling combination of Nancy Drew-ish shenanigans and noirish peril (with bonus Dan Duryea).
A startling combination of Nancy Drew-ish shenanigans and noirish peril (with bonus Dan Duryea).
The merde hits the fan on a snowy Christmas Eve in the suspenseful last act of Clouzot's mystery/melodrama QUAI DES ORFĂVRES (1947).
Hard to imagine a bleaker Christmas scene than the ending of PANDORA'S BOX (1929). But its brief glimmers of warmth and joy are hauntingly beautiful.
Maybe my favorite made-for-TV movie, HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS is a dysfunctional family slasher film with a cast to die for: Julie Harris, Eleanor Parker, Sally Field, Jessica Walterâplus Walter Brennan as the paranoid patriarch.
Christmas Eve in a veterans' hospital provides a bittersweet setting for the visionâor was it real?âthat sends the hero of BACKFIRE (1950) down a tunnel of noir intrigue.
As the secrets of a tragic young woman unfold in a series of flashbacks, GIRL WITH HYACINTHS (Hasse Ekman, 1950) revisits a memorably nasty Christmas Eve breakup and its aftermath.
The 1925 silent and the 1930 talkie remake (pictured) of THE UNHOLY THREE wrap some bizarre skulduggery in Christmassy trappings. Both versions contain a white-knuckle suspense scene involving stolen jewels hidden in a toy elephant under the tree.
Nothing says "festive" like a double indemnity clause!
Streetwise insurance man Dennis O'Keefe investigates a suspicious death in a secretive small town over the holidays in COVER UP (1949).
Streetwise insurance man Dennis O'Keefe investigates a suspicious death in a secretive small town over the holidays in COVER UP (1949).
I've been remiss in spreading the Christmas anti-cheer, so you get a few dark holiday picks today...
In low-budget noir I WOULDN'T BE IN YOUR SHOES (1948) "Santa Claus" is a creepy stalker cop. Our heroine races against time to save her husband as the shopping days before Christmas dwindle.
Home (invasion) for the holidays! As Ida Lupino discovers in BEWARE, MY LOVELY (1952), Christmas with a psychopathic Robert Ryan character is, well, pretty uncomfortable.
'Twas the night before Christmas and DILLINGER's moll
Was considering cashing him in after all.
There were street-corner Santas and twinkling trees.
And the price on John's head was a cool 15 Gs...
Was considering cashing him in after all.
There were street-corner Santas and twinkling trees.
And the price on John's head was a cool 15 Gs...
I like to think of THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (1935) as the Universal Horror Christmas Special. Opium-induced freakouts! Dusty crypts! Forbidden passions! And a Yuletide murder!
I think MR. ARKADIN counts as a Christmas movie. It opens with "Silent Night" and snow, and it's all about an imposing bearded man who's keeping eerily close tabs on the protagonist!
L'ASSASSINAT DU PĂRE NOĂL (1941) is one of my favorite Christmas films. Paranoid, foreboding, melancholic, yet filled with glimmers of childlike joy and hope in a dark winter of the soul. Even when I saw it on a summer day, it evoked the magical hush of a snowy Christmas Eve.
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE opened in U.S. theaters on this day in 1969âan appropriate film for the Christmas season. There's snow, cozy romance... and gift-wrapped presents that could bring about the end of life on earth!
KISS OF DEATH (1947), this week's #NoirAlley pick, opens on Christmas Eve in NYC with a fittingly poignant prologue and a white-knuckle robbery sequence.
Yuletide charity turns deadly in KIND LADY when an art collector becomes a captive in her own home.
Both the 1935 version with Aline MacMahon and the 1951 remake with Ethel Barrymore are terrific. The first is more Christmassy, although I think I prefer the second.
Both the 1935 version with Aline MacMahon and the 1951 remake with Ethel Barrymore are terrific. The first is more Christmassy, although I think I prefer the second.
Christmas noir THE LADY IN THE LAKE (1947) has really grown on me over the years.
Sure, the first-person camera is awkward, but the shrill holiday choir score and Audrey Totter's dazzling array of apprehensive expressions are delightful.
Sure, the first-person camera is awkward, but the shrill holiday choir score and Audrey Totter's dazzling array of apprehensive expressions are delightful.
"As sure as the sun rises tomorrow, I'll give her a 'Merry Christmas' she'll never forget!"
A vicious threat drives a gentle soul to extremes on Christmas Eve in Robert Siodmak's period noir THE SUSPECT (1944).
A vicious threat drives a gentle soul to extremes on Christmas Eve in Robert Siodmak's period noir THE SUSPECT (1944).
With its Christmas scenes and snowy finale, THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944) is a lovely film to watch this time of year. Leave to Val Lewton to produce this fantasy about learning to honor your ghosts.
A double feature of darkly festive bank robbery movies for Christmas Eve:
CASH ON DEMAND (1961)
THE SILENT PARTNER (1978)
CASH ON DEMAND (1961)
THE SILENT PARTNER (1978)
I'd wish you all a Merry Christmas, but Nora Charles might never forgive me...
