Christmas classics from a turbulent time

    Perhaps the uncertainty of the times, or, more to the point, the outright terror, inspired Hollywood to crank out films assuring audiences of mankind's essential and undying goodness. But while the films are considered classics now, not all were universally praised at the time:

     Holiday Inn (1942; starring Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale): A showman buys a New England inn with the idea of producing holiday-themed entertainment.  
     First, some historical perspective: As the actors were filming, Pearl Harbor was attacked (Dec. 7, 1941). The producers reacted by inserting a patriotic number sung by Crosby and accompanied by rally-the-troops footage of ships, soldiers and warplanes. It's jarring, too, as the movie jumps from song-and-dance to song-and-dance and wartime message. But beyond that, Holiday Inn has much to recommend it, specifically, all of Astaire’s dance routines, music by Irving Berlin and the introduction of the song, White Christmas, sung by Crosby.
     But it also has a cringe-inducing sequence performed in black-face. (In some versions, the scene has been removed.) Ironically, the film was released 1942, and by 1945, more than 1.2 million African-Americans were in uniform on the homefront and in the European and Pacific theaters. (See article: The National World War II Museum, New Orleans.)

     The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945; starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman): A sequel churned out just one year after the wildly successful Going My Way, The Bells of St. Mary's was released within months after the conclusion of World War II. Crosby reprised his Going My Way role as Father Chuck O’Malley, crooning priest, this time squaring off with Bergman, portraying the nun/principal of a troubled Catholic school.  While not, strictly speaking, a Christmas story, it includes a holiday pageant and was released in December 1945, just in time for the holidays.
    The film enjoys a following today and is considered a classic, but critics of the time clearly saw it as a pale shadow of Going My Way. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times recalled that Going My Way ended with Crosby’s character walking off alone into the night. “If anyone had any wonder as to where Father Chuck O'Malley went when he walked off into the night-time at the end of 'Going My Way,' they need not wonder any longer," he wrote in a review published Dec. 7, 1945. "He went on to Project No. 2 in his series career of spreading sunshine which has been recorded for all the world to see.”    
    The movie’s comforting, if simplistic, goodness-will-prevail message made it a huge hit.

     It’s a Wonderful Life:  (1947; starring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell): When we hear the words Christmas classic, this film comes to mind. We know it scene-by-scene, minute-by-minute. We know how Stewart, portraying a failed businessman contemplating suicide, realizes his worth after an angel named Clarence shows him what his little town would have looked like without him. We know the town too -- Bedford Falls. We know the humble dinner tables and the quirky town characters. It is at once familiar and comforting -- a celebration of The Good Man. But not everyone was impressed by the movie, directed by the legendary Frank Capra.
      The Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) lists its release date as January 1947 – a time in which memories of the war were fresh and roughly 16 months after the U.S. dropped the atom bomb on Japan.
    Perhaps this underlies reservations voiced by some critics of the time. James Agee of The Nation wrote that at its best, "which is usually inextricable with its worst, this movie is a very taking sermon about the feasibility of a kind of Christian semi-socialism, a society founded on affection, kindliness, and trust. Its chief mistake or sin—an enormous one—is its refusal to face the fact that evil is intrinsic in each individual." (See the review in The Nation, Feb. 15, 1947.)
     Manny Farber of The New Republic called the movie, “the latest example of Capracorn” and accused the director of trying to convince moviegoers “that American life is exactly like the Saturday Evening Post covers of Norman Rockwell.” (See the review in The New Republic, January 6, 1947.)

      The Bishop’s Wife (1948; starring Cary Grant, David Niven, Loretta Young): This movie focuses on obsession with work at the price of family. Grant portrays an angel named Dudley sent to answer the prayers of a bishop (Niven), who has become obsessed with raising money for a new cathedral and, in the process, neglected his family.
     Based on a book by Robert Nathan, it opened to rave -- if begrudging -- reviews. “Emissaries from heaven are not conspicuously exceptional on the screen, the movies having coyly incarnated any number of these supernatural types, ordained by their fanciful creators to right the wrongs of this world,” wrote Crowther in a Times review published Dec. 10, 1947. He added, “So there is nothing especially surprising about the miracle that occurs in Samuel Goldwyn's The Bishop's Wife, which opened last night at the Astor—except that it is superb.”

     Related:

     7 DVDs for the history-lover's stocking

     Fall movies put history on screen

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