January 15, 2004
As Gregor Samsa awoke one Christmas morning
Two responses to the Christmas movies piece worth noting:
- Ray Davis, your go-to inTARweb expert in American movies from the first half of the century, suggested Remember the Night as a better Christmas movie than any of my suggestions. It stars Barbara Stanwyck as a shoplifter and Fred MacMurray as the D.A. she falls for one magical Christmas, and Ray notes that it has "at least one scene more nightmarish (because there's no waking up) than anything in It's a Wonderful Life". It doesn't appear to be out on DVD, but I'll see if the good local video store has it on VHS. Ray also asserts that the director, Mitchell Leisen, is a better director than Sturges (who wrote the script), which is good, because outside of Sturges' few tip-top movies -- which are as good as any screwball ever made -- I actually don't think his movies were very good.
- Claxy, after suffering through another holiday season of fruitcake jokes, informs me that there's actually a generally praised Scottish short film called Franz Kafka's "It's a Wonderful Life". Holy cow. I never would have guessed this. I doubt that even the mighty Video Americain will have a copy, but has anyone ever seen this? If so, please let me know: steve at youknowthedomain.org.
Posted by steve at January 15, 2004 01:27 AM
I'm pretty sure I've seen FK's"IaWL" at several places, maybe even Blockbuster or Hollywood. I'd bet high-quality conterfeit money that VA has it.
%Sadly, though, I haven't watched it yet.%
I have watched it now.
*shrugs*
It's fine, and it's always fun to see Richard E. Grant overact, but the movie itself isn't terribly interesting, and the "It's a Wonderful Life" part is only in the broadest of contours.