Christmas movies

Comfy, Cozy Christmas: The Bells of St. Mary’s

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 12 Comments

I’m making it a point to watch comfy, cozy Christmas movies this December, and last week I watched The Bells of St. Mary‘s (1945), which is considered a Christmas movie but isn’t only about Christmas. In fact, I think there are only a couple of Christmas-themed scenes in the movie.

(This post is part of the Comfy, Cozy Feature with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. Read more about it and join up to the linky here. )

I can’t believe it has taken me so long to watch this movie. I ended up loving it. The chemistry between the main stars, Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman, was outstanding. It was also nice to see Ingrid in a role with some humor because I’ve only ever seen her in more serious roles. And, of course, I love that Bing sang in this movie, even though it wasn’t a strict musical.

Bing Crosby arrives as the new priest at the St. Mary’s parish and is immediately told of how the former priest aged quickly because he had to help oversee a nun-run, school that is run-down and in the inner city.

The former priest also had to deal with Sister Superior Mary Benedict (Bergman), a woman with a strong personality who runs the school.

“I can see you don’t know what it means to be up to your neck in nuns,” the rectory housekeeper says.

Father O’Malley admits he doesn’t and the woman advises him to “sleep well tonight” as if implying it will be his last good night of sleep for a while.

Father O’Malley and Sister Benedict butt heads more than once but in passive-aggressive ways. One way they butt heads is in how to educate the children at the school. O’Malley is much softer in his approach while Sister Mary prefers levying harsher punishments.

She also doesn’t approve of fighting and instead suggests that boys turn the other cheek when they are bullied.

After witnessing a fight between two boys, Father O’Malley believes the young man who is at the receiving end of a punch should be able to fight back.

Sister Benedict disagrees and a good-natured duel between the two authority figures begins.


I enjoyed this exchange:

  • Father Chuck O’Malley : Naturally, I like to see a lad who can take care of himself. On the outside, it’s a man’s world.
  • Sister Mary Benedict : How are they doing, Father?
  • Father Chuck O’Malley : Not doing too good, but, you know what I mean. There’s sometimes a man has to fight his way through.
  • Sister Mary Benedict : Wouldn’t it be better to – to think your way through? That’s pure conjecture, of course, from someone on the – *inside*.

At the crux of the story is the need for a new school because the current one is falling down.

Sister Benedict is praying that the school’s new neighbor, Horace P. Bogardus, will be the one to provide it. Bogardus has built a huge, new, business building next to the school and Sister Benedict seems convinced that with enough prayer, Bogardus will turn the building over to the school.

There are many hilarious misunderstandings and interactions between the nuns, Father O’Malley, and Bogardus. Bogardus, by the way, is portrayed by Henry Travers, best known as the angel Clarence from It’s A Wonderful Life.

The storyline of a young girl – Patsy Gallagher – weaves into the movie and I found her storyline to be a bit of a distraction from the main story. The young girl’s mother sends her to St. Mary’s to avoid taking the same path as she did when she became a single mother and took on a dancing job to make ends meet.

I didn’t know this before I started researching the film but Bing first played Father O’Malley in a movie called Going My Way and actually won an Oscar for that role. I am not surprised because I actually thought that this performance was the best of his I’ve seen. Now I can’t wait to watch Going My Way, which I found “free” on Amazon with our Amazon Video subscription. Both movies were directed by Leo McCarey.

When The Bells of St. Mary’s First came out some critics said it was too much like Going My Way but without the charm of its predecessor.

A reviewer from Harrison Reports, however, disagreed and wrote: “As in Going My Way, which he also wrote, produced, and directed, Leo McCarey has proved again that great pictures do not require pretentious stories … The acting of the entire cast is excellent. Crosby delights one with his ease and natural charm, and Miss Bergman will undoubtedly rise to new heights of popularity because of the effective way in which she portrays her role.”

According to Wikipedia,  the was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bing Crosby), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Ingrid Bergman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Music, Song (for Jimmy Van Heusen (music) and Johnny Burke (lyrics) for “Aren’t You Glad You’re You”) and Best Picture.”

Bing’s nomination had him making history with him being the first actor in history to receive two nominations for portraying the same character in different films. “This was following the previous year’s nomination anomaly, where Barry Fitzgerald received nominations in both supporting and lead for the same film (as the same character), the prequel Going My Way. While he lost in lead to his co-star Crosby, Fitzgerald won for Best Supporting Actor.”

In the middle of the movie, there is an adorable rehearsal of the Christmas/nativity story with the cutest little kids – probably 5 to 7. It cracked me up and reminded me of a nativity program that my parents went to one time. According to my mom, a beautiful song was being sung as the little girl playing Mary reached down to the baby doll in her arms and twisted its head to face the right way in a very aggressive and unnatural move.  Mom said the audience could barely hold in the laughter.

The Wikipedia article mentioned a couple other bits of trivia, which I thought were interesting:

“The Bells of St. Mary’s has come to be associated with the Christmas season, probably because of the inclusion of a scene involving a Christmas pageant at the school, a major plot point involving an unlikely (yet prayed for) gift, and the film’s having been released in December 1945. In the 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life, in which Henry Travers, a co-star of The Bells of St. Mary’s, plays the guardian angel Clarence Odbody, the title of The Bells of St. Mary’s appears on the marquee of a movie theater in Bedford Falls, New York. In The Godfather (1972), Michael and Kay see The Bells of St. Mary’s at Radio City Music Hall.”

The Bells of St. Mary was a very sweet film with a lot of humor, touching moments, and a beautiful Christmas message of love and taking care of others. As I mentioned above, I loved the interaction between Bing and Ingrid, but I also loved the carefree feeling of the acting between the young woman who portrayed Patsy and Bing.

I watched this film for free on Tubi but yesterday I also found it for free on YouTube here:

Comfy, Cozy Christmas Movie Impressions: Holiday Affair

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments

Welcome to another post where I share my thoughts about a Christmas movie I recently watched.

(This post is part of the Comfy, Cozy Feature with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs. Read more about it and join up to the linky here. )

This movie stars Janet Leigh, Robert Mitchum, and Wendell Corey. Note: I will not be including large spoilers in this post.

Leigh plays Connie Ennis, a widower, whose husband died in World War II. She has a 6-year-old son, Timmy played by Gordon Gerbert , (ironically I worked with a man named Tim Ennis and my husband still works with him). She is dating a man named Carl (Wendell Corey) who is predictable and safe. You know, the ole’ boring boyfriend versus the dashing and bold potential boyfriend trope.

Mitchum plays Steve Mason, whom Connie meets at a department store when she’s there as a comparison shopper for another store. Steve pegs her in her role right away but doesn’t turn her in because she tells him she’s a single mom and her son’s only support.

That move gets him fired and one would think that means he is out of Connie’s life. On the contrary, they continue to have interactions when Connie goes to apologize to him and then he ends up helping her out on her next shopping trip.

That encounter leads to Steve meeting Timmy, who is enamored with Steve – much more so than Carl, who he knows wants to marry his mother.

Timmy acts out with Carl and is sent to his room and this leads to a heart-to-heart with Steve who learns Timmy wants a train for Christmas.

Steve makes this happen and yet another interaction occurs between him and Connie.

There is a lot of back and forth in this film and more than one interaction between Connie and Steve when she walks away from him angry and he just watches her walk away with a smug grin.

Steve knows he gets under Connie’s skin and he knows there is a spark between them. Connie, though, isn’t willing to admit that she could have a passion for any man other than her late husband. She doesn’t really have passion for Carl.

Part of the time I felt like both Carl and Steve wanted Connie to just get over her dead husband already and that annoyed me. Both men seemed threatened by a dead man.

Since Timmy is six, it’s probably been about five or six years since Guy, Connie’s first husband, has been dead. That is a fairly long time but I didn’t think it was fair of either man to want Connie to just forget her late husband.

Then I realized that it wasn’t that the men wanted her to forget Guy – they wanted her to be able to remember the good times of her marriage with him while not being afraid to find happiness in the future. In fact, one of them says this explicitly but I missed it so I went back and watched their interaction again.

I felt much better about the intent of the men after that and could agree with others who called it a clever and touching film, even if there were a few times I thought Steve Mason should be smacked. Ha!

This is a movie with a definite love triangle, of course, and you’ll have to watch to see how all that works out. Some of the movie is predictable but some of it isn’t. There are plenty of surprises to make this movie a unique and non-traditional Christmas watch.

There are some great lines like when Steve says to Connie at one point: “I don’t think I should stay around – I might fall in love with you.”

I also loved Connie’s in-laws. They were one of the cutest elderly couples I’ve seen in a film with all their witty banter. Mr. Ennis had a cute quote: “Mother, I’ve been married to you 35 years. You boss me, you heckle me, you hide my things and pretend I’ve lost them just so I have to depend on you. You’ve spent 35 years trying to make me admit that I couldn’t possibly get along without you; and you’re right. I couldn’t. What’s more, I wouldn’t want to. Every one of those years was good, even the bad ones because you were with me. And so I drink to your health and all the wonderful years to come.”

I also liked:

  • Steve Mason: You see, if you aim higher than your mark, then you’ve got a better chance of hitting the mark.
  • Connie Ennis: But he shouldn’t feel that he’ll always get everything he wants.
  • Steve Mason: Well, not always, no, but every now and then, so that he’ll know that these things can happen.
  • Landlady: It’s the last room at the end of the hall.
  • Connie Ennis: Oh, thank you.
  • Landlady: And leave the door open.
  • Steve Mason: [Connie rings door bell] Come in.
  • [Connie opens door and enters]
  • Steve Mason: Well, you found the place. You know, very few people come here to eat anymore. Too much atmosphere. We’ve been thinking of closing down the joint to redecorate.
  • [Closes door]
  • Connie Ennis: Uh, the landlady said to keep the door open.
  • Steve Mason: Let’s worry her, huh?
  • [Closes Murphy bed closet]
  • Steve Mason: But let’s not worry you.

According to an article on Turner Classic Movies, Holiday Affair was a box office flop that became a hit through repeated television airings, much like It’s A Wonderful Life.

It’s A Wonderful Life became the bigger classic, of course.

Mitchum’s casting was seen as a little odd at the time considering he’d just come off an arrest and prison sentence for pot possession. RKO’s owner and tycoon Howard Hughes had faith in him, though, and pushed for his casting to be kept.

According to TCM, “In fact, just before filming started on Holiday Affair, RKO paid $400,000 to acquire sole ownership of Mitchum’s contract from independent producer David O. Selznick, who had shared the contract with RKO.”

Mitchum may have had a bad boy reputation, but according to articles about the making of the movie, he was a dedicated actor and a practical joker. He made a point of using his jokes for a purpose, like when he and Corey both put their hands on Leigh’s knee in a scene to get her to make a certain face that was perfect for the final cut.

Mitchum also kissed her for real during the kiss scene to throw her off and that move also made for a realistic shocked reaction.

Leigh wasn’t as comfortable with Hughes, though, according to TCM.

“Leigh wasn’t as happy about her relationship with Hughes, who had arranged to borrow her from MGM for a series of pictures starting with Holiday Affair,” the article reads. “But that didn’t prevent a very strange encounter when he summoned her for a private meeting toward the end of production. Hughes presented her with a private eye’s report on her activities, claiming her current boyfriend, Arthur Loew, Jr., had ordered the investigation out of jealousy. Leigh saw through the ruse at once – all of the people she was linked to in the report were members of Loew’s family. Clearly Hughes had ordered the investigation himself. She informed him that their future meetings would be strictly business if he wanted her to keep making films at RKO.”

I found this movie free on Tubi and also on Max. It is available to rent on other streaming services, including Amazon Prime and AppleTV. If you know of anywhere else it is streaming, please let me know.

Have you seen this movie?

What did you think about it?

Comfy Cozy Christmas Movie Review: Beyond Tomorrow

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 15 Comments

This post is part of Comfy, Cozy Christmas, a feature that Erin with Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs suggested. You can find a link-up page at the top of the page and can link up your own holiday-related posts.

This week as I get ready for the Christmas season, I decided to look for Christmas movies from the 1930s and 1940s I’d never seen before. I scanned the list that came up after I typed “1930’s and 1940s Christmas movies” in the search bar and found one I hadn’t heard of, Beyond Tomorrow. It was also apparently called Beyond Christmas at one time.

I also found an article that listed several “forgotten Christmas movies” from that era and I plan to watch a couple more over the next three weeks.

Beyond Tomorrow was released in 1940. It was also titled Beyond Christmas. The movie is a bit quirky in some ways, but also very sweet. I’ll try not to summarize too much or give away too many spoilers so don’t fret if you haven’t seen it. I won’t tell you everything.

The movie follows the story of three old men (Michael O’Brien, George Melton, and Allan Chadwick) who served together in the army and are living in the same house and looking back on their lives with some sadness and regret. They want to help others to make up for some of their regrets, and we learn that they have given away wallets for Christmas.

There is a Russian woman living with the men named Madam Tanya. Toward the beginning of the movie, she gives the men an award that would have been an honor in her old country and says to them, “Joseph, when I had jewels and land and purses, I was often greedy and discontent. When everything was taken away, except my life, I learned that the way to be really happy is to serve others, to be needed, so don’t be sorry for me or for what was lost.”

The household is a buzz as we begin the movie because it is Christmas Eve and some special visitors are coming for dinner. They are a couple who have traveled the world extensively and two of the men are excited but George, a rather morose fellow, is not happy because he isn’t every happy it seems. In fact, when the movie opens he mumbles something about Christmas being a silly holiday.

When the couple eventually cancels, George blames himself and says it is because of some scandal he was involved in in his past.

It’s never really elaborated on what that was but the other men say they are sure it has nothing to do with that. Michael then suggests they take some of the extra wallets they handed out for charity, slide their cards inside with $10, and toss the wallets out the window onto the street and see if three honest people will pick them up and come back to the house to return them.

Whoever returns the wallets with the money in them will be invited to the dinner that is already ready for them.

George doesn’t think anyone will show up but eventually two people do.

First, we have James Houston (who I swear said John Houston when he was first introduced), a cowboy from Texas. He came to New York City for a rodeo and ended up staying around but will be heading back to Texas again soon.

Next, we have Jean Lawerence and when James Houston sees her he smiles and is clearly enchanted. Love at first sight.

The young couple agrees to stay for dinner and after dinner, James amazes everyone with his singing voice, especially Jean. As soon as he sings with that caroling group that stops by she has eyes only for him.

“I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair,” John sings right to Jean and she is mesmerized

Michael O’Brien is also mesmerized. He gets very teary in one of the sweetest breakaways I’ve seen in a movie. He sincerely looked touched.

During a scene where everyone sings Jingle Bells, we see the diversity in the house from the Russian countess and butler, a German or Swedish maid and an Italian chef.

Before the couple parts ways, Jean invites the men and countess to come to the children’s hospital the next night to sing carols. Jean is a Kindergarten teacher and teaches and entertains the children while they recover.

Jim arrives and meets up with Jean and they connect more, clearly falling in love.

Events develop from there, is all I’ll say, but tragedy strikes, and the three men must work hard to keep the couple together in a very unconventional way.

After the tragedy the movie becomes a bit of a supernatural movie with ghosts and dark clouds and voices from beyond the grave, but for very good reasons.

The movie was considered a “B-movie” at the time so it did not feature any big-name actors.

Veteran actors Harry Carey (real name), Charles Winniger, and C. Aubrey Smith star in the movie, which was directed by A. Edward Sutherland.

All three men looked vaguely familiar to me. An article on the TCM site explained why each man might look familiar to some.

Wittinger, playing an Irishman, looked especially familiar to me.

According to TCM, “Charles Winninger’s cherubic face graced many a picture in his long career from 1915 to 1960, including Nothing Sacred (1937), Destry Rides Again (1939), and State Fair (1945). His best-known role, which he created on Broadway before playing in the first film version, was as Cap’n Andy in Show Boat (1936).”

Carey was originally a silent film star and would star in a John Ford film, Three Godfathers, in 1948.

Smith was a very well-known character actor. Films he would be known for include:

From the TCM article:  “Already over 50 when he began his film career in 1915, his amazing longevity and ability to convey his specific type of stock character in a wide range of stories carried him through more than 100 pictures up to his last, at the age of 85, Little Women (1949). When he wasn’t busy standing up for the Empire in such films as Clive of India (1935) and The Four Feathers (1939), he could be seen supporting the likes of Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory (1933), Jean Harlow in Bombshell (1933) and China Seas (1935), and Irene Dunne in the war melodrama The White Cliffs of Dover (1944), his upper lip stiff for another dark time in English history.”

The movie was not well received by critics in its time, but I found the movie heartwarming with many sweet and memorable moments and quotes.

I watched the movie for free on Tubi, but it is also free on YouTube and Plex and available for rent on many other streaming services.

Here are some of the other movies that are considered “lesser known” which I plan to pick one or two from to watch.

https://discover.hubpages.com/entertainment/lesser-known-classic-christmas-movies-from-the-1940s

Get in the spirit of Christmas: Five Christmas Music Specials, Five Christmas Songs, and Three Christmas-themed programs to help you do just that.

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 7 Comments

Some years we are either too busy, too nerved up, or too down to really feel the Christmas spirit. If you need a little help this year, for whatever, reason, here are some ideas to give you a brief time of peace or joy as we remember the true gift of Christmas, our savior Jesus Christ.  

Five Christmas Music Specials

1. Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith

2. A Story of the First Christmas with The Chosen (includes the short film, The Shepherd)

https://youtu.be/T5ftnTK9-3w

3. Michael W. Smith and Friends

4. Christmas on Broadway with CeCe Winans

5. Gaither Christmas Sing-A-Long



Five Christmas Songs

  1. Mary Did You Know (Jordan Smith version)
  • O Come O Come Emmanuel with For King and Country and Needtobreathe
  • It’s Beginning to Look A Like Christmas by Michael Buble
  • Amy Grant, Breath of Heaven



Three-Christmas Themed Programs (or old specials)

1. A Walton’s Christmas

2. A Garfield Christmas

3. The Berenstain Bears Christmas

Bonus: one movie

The Bishop’s Wife. This is a heartwarming tale of a Anglican Bishop who has become so obsessed building a Cathedral that he has lost sight of what is really important in life, including his wife and daughter. Enter Cary Grant, playing an angel, who wants to get the bishop back on track again before he loses everything.

‘Tis the Season Cinema: Holiday Inn

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 17 Comments

Here we are, closing in on the end of our ‘Tis The Season Cinema and I can’t even believe it.  How is it already almost Christmas?

If this is your first time here, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, and Katja_137 From Breath of Hallelujah and I have been watching Christmas movies and sharing our impressions of them.

This week Holiday Inn was on our list and, well, I sort of regret this pick. I hadn’t watched it in years and forgot about some aspects of it that make me even more uncomfortable this time around than they did in the past.

But, well, it’s been watched and now I have to share my impressions, but before I do, I do want to mention that while I did not include any movies about the birth of Jesus in the list of movies for this feature, I do have a couple of movies along those lines I watch each year and recommend as well. I’ll try to get a list of those together for next week but for now, I will mention that The Chosen has an amazing Christmas special on their app, which you can download onto your phone and send to your TV. You can also watch it on Peacock. It is called The Messengers: Christmas with The Chosen. It features an hour and a half of music and then a Christmas short that director/writer Dallas Jenkins made for his church and depicts the birth of Christ through the view of a disabled shepherd who saw the star that night. It is beautifully done.

The short presentation is also available on YouTube, which I discovered just before I hit “schedule” on this post:



Okay. On to Holiday Inn.



We begin with three performers – two men and a woman. The men are Fred Astaire (Ted) and Bing Crosby (Jim). The woman is Virginia Dale (Lila) The woman is dating Bing but she’s fallen for Fred. Bing thinks she wants to retire with him to a farm in the country, but she breaks it to him that she no longer wants to be with him, or even retire, and instead plans to continue performing with Fred.

Ouch. Brutal start.

Well, that’s okay, because Bing wants to continue running his farm in the country and has decided to turn it into an inn.

In walks Linda (Marjorie Reynolds) who wants to break into show business and who Jim hires to sing for him at his new inn. The inn will only be open on holidays throughout the year, hence the name Holiday Inn.

Of course, it is cold and snowy at the inn and it’s getting close to Christmas in the first part of the movie, and this sets the stage for the first movie performance of White Christmas, which you might remember me mentioning when I wrote about watching the movie White Christmas a couple of weeks ago.

This movie was first, the song was sung, and 12 years later they made White Christmas, which, incidentally, was filmed on the same set as Holiday Inn. That’s why both movies have a similar feel even though they are supposed to be different characters and stories.

While there are similarities between the movies (a duo of male performers and two women love interests, who also sing or perform in some way) there are also differences, and not only in the plot. Holiday Inn was originally released in black and white and White Christmas was always in color. We own a DVD collection that features a black-and-white or color version of the movie, but I chose to stick with the original. I don’t enjoy when they colorize black and white movies, which is why I will never watch a color version of It’s A Wonderful Life either. I tried once. It just felt all kinds of wrong.

The collection we have also features a copy of the soundtrack on CD. There are 12 tracks, all written by Irving Berlin, who, of course, wrote the songs for the movie – specifically White Christmas.

As the movie continues, Fred walks back into Bing’s life and once again tries to steal his dance partner and his love interest, which creates all kinds of drama once again.

There is one regrettable scene in this movie that I wish was not there. The scene involves blackface and while I understand the purpose of it in the plot of the movie (to hide a character from another character), blackface should never be used as a plot point or anything else. It’s offensive and rude. Still, I hate to see an entire movie tossed out over one scene. The song they sing does talk about how wonderful Abraham Lincoln was for freeing the slaves, but the way they do it – grooooan.

There are African American actors in the movie, and they participate in the blackface scene, also singing praises of Abraham Lincoln. So, what does that mean? I have no idea, other than there are no black actors playing main parts. They are servants and used for humor plot points for part of the movie and while they aren’t mocked or mistreated, it still makes me uncomfortable.

If I had to pick a favorite Christmas movie, it wouldn’t be this one, probably based partially on that scene. It was so cringe and it had been years since I saw it and forgot how bad it was. Incidentally, if you have ever watched this movie on ACM, they deleted the blackface scene and don’t have it in the showing they run each year. I also wouldn’t pick this one as a favorite because it’s not really focused on Christmas, other than Bing singing White Christmas.

If I had to pick a favorite Fred Astaire dance, though, it would be the firecracker one in this movie. It is insane and one of the coolest dances I’ve seen in a classic movie.

According to IMBD, “The firecracker dance sequence was added to the movie as a patriotic number, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, which took place during filming. The dance number required three days of rehearsal and took two days to film.  Fred Astaire did 38 takes of the number before he was satisfied with it. The crew members had to wear goggles during filming, because the sand from the firecrackers flew into their faces. Also, animation was added to make the firecracker “blasts” more dramatic. Later, Astaire’s shoes for the dance were auctioned off for $116,000 worth of war bonds.”

It is such a horrible shame that the dance sequence was put in a movie with an offensive blackface scene.



I apologized to Erin for suggesting this movie, telling her I really had forgotten how bad the scene was, even though I knew it was there. If you do choose to watch this movie, please skip over the blackface scene and you’ll be better off.

Up next in our lineup of Christmas movies is It’s A Wonderful Life, which should be a lot less uncomfortable to watch.

To finish out the ‘Tis the Cinema’ feature we will be watching two children’s shows, Charlie Brown Christmas and Emmett Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. I am hoping those two will be a lot more heartwarming.

Feel free to join in with us in watching the next film and shows and blogging about them. We share our blog posts on Thursdays unless life gets in the way and we have to change the day.

To catch up on Erin’s impression of the movie check out her blog. You can also check out Katja’s on her blog.

‘Tis The Season Cinema: A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 10 Comments

Shortly after we moved to our current house, my son and I were looking for a show to watch late at night and found a show called The Goes Wrong Show on BritBox. We clicked on it and were, quite frankly, bewildered by it.

It was a group of about seven people acting out a play and completely messing up lines, tripping off props, and being all-out insanely weird.

We weren’t sure if these people were really messing up their plays or if they were pretending to mess up a play, or  . . .what was going on.

We watched the first episode and laughed so hard that our sides hurt. Obviously, we eventually caught on that the whole show was meant to be a joke and that the actors were real actors playing fake actors on a show about actors.

Later we watched the episodes with The Husband and he laughed so hard I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel.

We watched the whole season and I have to say the Christmas episode was my favorite that first season. Flash forward to last year and we discovered this group — which we had since found out was called Mischief Theatre — had been featured in a special called A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong on the BBC.

Moving us up in the timeline to a couple of weeks ago and we arrive at the moment I suggested to Erin at Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs that we include A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong in our list of Christmas movies to watch for our ‘Tis The Season Cinema.  Comedy is featuring heavily on our movie watching list over the next couple of months because Erin and I both need heartwarming and funny in our lives right now.

With A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong we are getting more than just funny but also pure ridiculousness.

For a little background on the actor troupe who takes part in this Christmas special, according to Wikipedia, “Mischief Theatre is a British theatre company founded in 2008 by a group of students from The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in West London, and directed by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. The group originally began by doing improvised comedy shows, but by 2012 they expanded into comedic theatrical performances that include choreographed routines, jokes, and stunts.

The company is best known for its performances as the fictional theatre company, The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, who attempt several amateur performances that comedically go wrong.”

If you look up Mischief Theatre online, as I did after we became hooked on their television show, you’ll see that the cast are very accomplished stage actors, some of them having won Olivier’s and other prestigious writing and acting awards. Most of their work, incidentally, is performed live and is often improv as they interact with the audience during their performances.

On the surface, the entire performance of any of their shows seems simple and fairly stupid but when you think about the talent needed to recite the lines of the original play they are putting on (in this case A Christmas Carol) while also having to pretend to mess up their lines and other aspects of the play, you realize what talent these actors actually have.

The fact they only have seven cast members playing all the parts and remembering all the lines and where the various pratfalls need to happen make it even more amazing. Then there is the focus they need to keep acting, even with the chaos going on around them.

There are also storylines going on between cast members behind the scenes that carry on throughout the various episodes and specials.

In this particular special, the comedy group has taken over the BBC’s production of A Christmas Carol by kidnapping and dragging out the main stars, including Derek Jacobi, a famous British actor.  Actress Diana Rigg plays the narrator part of the time but literally has to “phone it in” because she is stuck in traffic.

Things, of course, go completely haywire and become even crazier when one of the actors believes he should be the lead actor and tries to knock out the director (Chris) to take over the lead as Scrooge. While trying to take out Chris, though, he injures other cast members or ends up destroying various sets.

Another pair of cast members are in a romantic relationship and things may, or may not, be on the rocks throughout the entire night, making the show even more entertaining. There is also a cast member who can’t remember any of his lines for most of the shows and in this one they think of a creative way to help him with that issue.

You can watch A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong in its entirety for free on YouTube:



Don’t blame me if you end up looking up their show and their production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong.

You can read up on Erin’s impression of this silly show on her blog.

Up next for our Christmas special features (the dates are when we are sharing our specials):

Nov. 24: White Christmas

Dec. 1: Muppets Christmas Carol

Dec. 8: Holiday Inn                                                                           

Dec. 15: It’s A Wonderful Life

Dec. 22: Charlie Brown Christmas and Emmett Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas

Sunday Bookends: friend visits, warm weather, and Christmas movies

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 10 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays I ramble about what’s been going on, what I and the rest of the family have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing, and some weeks I share what I am listening to.


What I/we’ve been Reading

I have been reading a collection of Father Brown stories by G.K. Chesterton and have been enjoying them for the most part. The third one I read went off on a weird ramble for several pages that had nothing to do with the story I thought but these were written in the early 1900s so I cut Chesterton some slack.

I have also been reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain with The Boy for school and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe with Little Miss.

I’ll probably start a new fiction book this week, but I’m not sure which one yet. I have a few I’ve read the first few pages of an am liking so I just need to pick one. The Seven and a half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle has caught my attention so far.



What’s Been Occurring

This past week Little Miss and I were both surprised when her little friends who moved to Texas a year and a half ago, came back to stay.

Little Miss had a blast visiting with them during the week. We were still able to finish schoolwork but it was pushed off to the evenings to they could play together.

The friends are signed up back into school now so we won’t have our school days interrupted as much.

She was able to visit with some other friends yesterday.

We didn’t do a lot last week other than school. We had been doing game nights once a week with my parents but I had congestion and they were doing other things most days so we will have to have a game night another time.

The weather was oddly warm all week and then today it dropped into the 40s and it is literally downhill from here. It’s like we were in spring and then drastically plunged into winter. Our sinuses are definitely going to suffer even more this week. As I was writing this actual snow started to fall. Yuck.

What We watched/are Watching

This week I watched light and fluffy stuff including a couple of Hallmark movies even though I am not the biggest fan of Hallmark movies. I do like the movies based on the short-lived show Signed, Sealed, Delivered which follows a group of employees in the Dead Letter Office of the United States Postal Service. The premise – of them solving mysteries surrounding lost letters or packages — is a bit far fetched but the overall stories are uplifting and encouraging.

Earlier in the week I watched The Man Who Invented Christmas as part of the ‘Tis the Season Cinema feature Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I started this week. We are watching Christmas movies from now until the week before Christmas. Next up is A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong which you can find here on YouTube:

This special was on the BBC and is part of a series of specials and shows about a theater group who is always messing up or somehow ruining their shows with misspoken words or mishaps.

What I’m Writing

I didn’t share much on the blog this week other than the last chapters of Mercy’s Shore (Shores of Mercy).

I had to add a quick chapter to Shores of Mercy and also started a couple other stories to see which one sticks in my brain for me to continue it.

I did share a blog post about The Man Who Invented Christmas.

What I’m Listening To

I am listening to a lot of Family Life, our local Christian radio station.


Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

‘Tis The Season Cinema: The Man Who Invented Christmas

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are starting a feature today where we will share our impressions of Christmas movies, in the same way we did for Halloween movies and the summer classic movies. Yes, we are starting this early at the risk of offending all the Christmas purists who believe you can not watch Christmas movies before December 1. One of those people is my son who showed me this meme when I told him what we were doing:

Anyhow….I digress:

This week we are kicking things off with the origin of the definitive Christmas story (other than the real reason for the season, Christ’s birth) through the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas.

Off the topic (again), but while looking for the movie on Amazon, a ton of movies that started with three words, The Man Who… popped up and made me realize that’s either a very popular title or a very lazy one.

The movie starts with an elated Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) who is in America, riding the wave of success of Oliver Twist. Within minutes, though, we are tossed into the future where Charles has just had three books flop.

He’s toured Britain and America and been celebrated in the past but now he is home and has what every writer dreads: writer’s block.

He needs a hit, not only for his ego but to pay for all the renovations at his home and to support his growing family.

Did you know that Dickens had 10 children? Because before watching this movie I didn’t either. I looked it up and found some other unpleasant behaviors of his, which was sad, but he was still a fascinating man.

Okay, back to the movie.

His publishers are ready to toss him out on his ear, but his agent suggests they keep him on if he writes a new book. The publishers are excited. Of course they will keep him on if he’s going to write them a new book they tell his agent.

The problem? Charles doesn’t even have an idea for a new book.

Bring in the new housemaid who begins telling stories that ignite his imagination and inspire him to tell the story of a selfish, bitter old man who begins to — quite literally — come alive in his mind.

He decides it will be a Christmas book but it’s halfway through October. “There isn’t time to write and publish a book and market it by Christmas,” they tell him.

He’s left to pay for the book on his own. Pay for it and write it at the same time his estranged father arrives for a visit.

This is the father whose debts left 12-year-old Charles working in a shoe factory to pay off those debts.

His relationship with his manipulative father weighs heavily on his writing of this new book which he eventually titles A Christmas Carol.

This movie takes the viewer on a delightful journey and you don’t have to be a writer to relate to the many interruptions he faces as he tries to write, but being one makes it even more relatable.

The insane creativity of this movie is what drew me in. Watching the characters appear in Dickens’ world as he writes them is fascinating for someone who also writes fiction and experiences characters come alive in my brain. Dickens also draws from his own life to craft his stories, which is again something I can also relate to. The way Charles lives his life with all his characters following him along each step of the way isn’t a far-fetched concept for writers who have done the same, though probably never finding as much success as Dickens and looking even crazier than he did.

My son tells me I’m borderline insane because I have a bunch of people living in my brain and sometimes I talk to them. He is, of course, joking. I think. He’d better be since he talks to the characters in his video games like they are real.

Scrooge (Christopher Plummer) wakes Charles at one point during the night in the movie and I had to laugh because that is when all the best ideas come for writers — when they’d rather be sleeping or need to be doing something else. I often feel like a character is whispering in my ear as I try to drift off, saying things like, “Hey, about that conversation I shared earlier, I forgot to tell you part of it. Can you just get up and write that part down so it’s accurate? That would be great.”

There is a great deal of sadness in the movie as Charles uncovers his own demons at the same time he uncovers Scrooge’s, but there is also incredible hope as he works to push his past heartache and bitterness to the side and find happiness in his life.

“I’m afraid,” he tells his friend/agent.

“What have you got to be afraid of?” the friend asks.

“That if I can’t finish it, I’ll never write again,” he responds.

It was a true fear for Charles, but ultimately unwarranted as he went on to write ten more novels, other novellas and short stories, including Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and David Copperfield.

Read Erin’s impression of the movie on her blog.

If you’d like to join us in this seven-week feature at any point, you can do so. Here is our list of upcoming movies (the dates are when we plan to publish our blog posts):

Nov. 17 A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong

Nov. 24: White Christmas

Dec. 1: Muppets Christmas Carol

Dec. 8: Holiday Inn                                                                           

Dec. 15: It’s A Wonderful Life

Dec. 22: Charlie Brown Christmas and Emmett Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas

How I found out everyone hates the Christmas movies I like

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 19 Comments

Much to my horror this Christmas season I learned that half my family hates some of my favorite Christmas movies. I was crushed. Not really, but you know, we’ll pretend.

It turns out where I thought it should be tradition to watch ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ and ‘A Christmas Story’ my family (immediate and extended) didn’t feel the same and decided this year to vomit all over my Christmas movie parade.

I heard words like “schmaltz”, “cheesy,” “overplayed,” “sick of” and “not really my favorite, no” about my favorite movies. Okay, they aren’t my favorite movies really. And okay. I’ll admit it. I don’t want to see the entire movie of either movie. I mean, you can only watch one movie so many times before it’s like “Okay, okay…I get it.” And I sometimes hate the ending scene of It’s A Wonderful Life with the little girl saying “Every time a bell rings an angel gets its’ wings.” It’s sort of annoying because it’s been parodied so much.

Still, there are at least three scenes in the movie that I just adore and one of them is one of my favorite scenes in any movie I’ve seen. Whether you have seen the movie or not, I’ll set the stage: George has come to talk to Mary, at the prodding of his mother and he’s pretty down because his brother Harry has come home and it looks like he’s not going to stay and take over the Savings and Loan so George can go to college, like the original plan. Instead, George is going to be stuck at the savings and loan, no education or experience outside his little town under his belt.

He walks off to see Mary, who his mother hopes will lift his spirits (and I’m pretty sure she hopes he’ll realize he loves Mary too). Long story short, George and Mary’s old friend Sam Wainwright calls to talk to Mary but then he wants to talk to George too so they are sharing the old rotary phone – the one where the earpiece is detached from the mouthpiece.

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This necessitates George being close to Mary to hear and being close to Mary is the one thing George really doesn’t want because that’s when he starts to realize how much he really wants her. I love the acting in the scene – how you can see Jimmy Stewart’s expression change as he starts to smell her hair, feel him next to her. He wants to kiss her, hold her, not talk to Sam and it’s clear as each moment goes by and Sam continues to prattle on. Mary is starting to notice it too and her face is showing the struggle of her wanting to be close to George too.

Finally, George cracks and he’s holding Mary and she’s crying and he’s telling her he doesn’t want to get married because he doesn’t want to stay in this little town.

“I want to do what I want to do,” he tells her, grasping her shoulders and shaking her.

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He’s leaving, he’s not going to stay with her, and he wants her to know that, but he’s saying it more for himself than her because he knows he loves Mary and he knows his love for her will keep him tied down in this little town and will complicate his life even more. And all along, Mary’s mother is crying because her daughter is going to marry a poor man like George instead of the rich businessman, Sam.

I love that scene because it’s so real. It’s a man not wanting to admit he’s in love, instead of the usual schmaltzy romances where the man is going after the woman like a tenth-degree horn dog, so to speak.

According to trivia, I read about the scene, Jimmy Stewart was nervous about filming it because it was his first onscreen kiss since he had returned from World War II. Director Frank Capra guided him and the scene ended up unrehearsed and shot in one take. It worked so well that part of the embrace was too passionate and had to be cut from the movie because it couldn’t get past the censors.

In case you’re curious, my other favorite scenes are when the floor opens up and everyone falls in the pool and when George tells Mary he’ll lasso her the moon if she wants it.

As for A Christmas Story, I’ve rarely gone a Christmas season without watching the scene of him in the mall with Santa and the scene where he beats up the bully. I did not, however, see it this year, so I broke with tradition.

So truly, I wasn’t that offended (that offended) that part of my family doesn’t believe in watching the classics. Two things made me sad about it all, though. One, a lot of people seem to be annoyed with or disenchanted with some old, classic, sweet movies anymore and instead want to watch movies with what I believe often feature unnecessary smut, crudeness, and violence. Two, I miss my Christmas movie watching buddy, my aunt Dianne who I used to watch the favorite scenes of these movies with and who passed away four days after Christmas in 2017. These movies weren’t necessarily her favorite movies either, but we liked the tradition of watching them. More than missing the innocence movies used to show, I miss having that tradition with Dianne, but not as much as I miss just having her here to talk to.

How about you? Do you have favorite movies or at least favorite movie scenes? And do you have any sentimental memories attached to the scenes of movie? Let me know in the comments.

Lisa R. Howeler is a writer and photographer from the “boondocks” who writes a little bit about a lot of things on her blog Boondock Ramblings. She’s published a fiction novel ‘A Story to Tell’ on Kindle and also provides stock images for bloggers and others at Alamy.com and Lightstock.com.