There is “Gold in the Old”

There is “Gold in the Old”

Newer is not always better. That is what many young entertainment bloggers like Lindsey Stone are discovering as they explore the offerings in music and film from generations past. Ted Turner’s classic movie channel is so popular that an avalanche of protest was unleashed last month when Dish Network removed it for a time because of a contract dispute with the entertainment giant.

With the holidays upon us, there is a plethora of Christmas movies to watch in your down-time. There are many new “classics” like “The Nightmare before Christmas,” but if the young bloggers are right in their changing tastes, some of the best holiday movies may be in black-and-white.
• “It’s a Wonderful Life” from 1946: This tear-jerker, starring Donna Reed and James Stewart, is about a man who suffers some setbacks at Christmas at the hand of an unscrupulous competitor. He wishes that he had never been born, and a new angel trying to win his wings is assigned to change the man’s mind. How? It is simple. The angel grants his wish, sort of, and the man is shown the world as it might be if he had never existed.

• “Christmas in Connecticut” from 1945: Barbara Stanwyk plays a food writer who earns her “bread” by writing about her loving family, her wonderful country home, and the sumptuous meals she prepares there. Her publisher decides to create a special event by visiting the home for Christmas, along with a war hero. The problem? The writer is a single woman living in an apartment and there is no country home or family. Desperate to keep her job, she invents a family, borrows a home, a husband and even a baby. Things go well until the “married” Stanwyk falls in love with the soldier.

• “Miracle on 34th Street”: This movie has been redone, but the best version is the 1947 original. Maureen O’Hara stars as the event planner for Macy’s Department Store. When her store Santa shows up drunk, an irate customer confronts her. The customer, though, would make a perfect Santa and he is hired on the spot. Becoming wildly popular, the new Santa incurs the jealousy of a long-time Macy employee who retaliates by trying to prove the jolly old man is insane. Santa is represented by a lawyer, and the love interest of the movie, played by John Payne. Is he, or is he not the real Santa? That is the magic of this movie.

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• “A Midnight Clear”: This movie is one you may never have seen. Made in 1992, it tells the story of American soldiers, at the end of WWII, sent to capture a group of Germans. They meet in the snowy Ardennes Forest in France on Christmas Eve. Both sides are war weary and they come upon a plan that will allow the Germans to surrender to the Americans. They spend a warm holiday in a countryside farmhouse singing carols and being what they are—kids. Then, tragedy strikes. This film marks the debut of Gary Sinise.
There is a lot to be said for the new classics like the live version of Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Nightmare before Christmas,” but young entertainment reporters are finding that there is “gold in the old” and lots of “warm fuzzies.”