favorite movie #120 - holiday edition: when harry met sally ...

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #120 - When Harry Met Sally ... (1989) - This movie is so much more than the famous Katz's Deli scene. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are perfectly matched as two people who wonder if men and women can ever really just be friends. Helping them find the answer are Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby. Ryan's "high-maintenance" Sally may always ask for everything "on the side," but don't we all want things the way we want them? The movie culminates in a great New York New Year's Eve scene.

Harry Burns (Billy Crystal): There are two kinds of women: high maintenance and low maintenance.

Sally Albright (Meg Ryan): Which one am I? 

Harry: You're the worst kind; you're high maintenance but you think you're low maintenance. 

Sally: I don't see that. 

Harry: You don't see that? Waiter, I'll begin with a house salad, but I don't want the regular dressing. I'll have the balsamic vinegar and oil, but on the side. And then the salmon with the mustard sauce, but I want the mustard sauce on the side. "On the side" is a very big thing for you. 

Sally: Well, I just want it the way I want it. 

Harry: I know; high maintenance.

Merry Christmas!

favorite movie #119 - holiday edition: follow the fleet

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #119 - Follow the Fleet (1936) - The New Year's holiday was always synonymous with Astaire/Rogers films on television when I was growing up in the New Jersey/New York area. All of their films are good, but this film is my favorite, because it includes the uber-romantic and melancholy dance number, "Let's Face the Music and Dance."

Fun fact: "Let's Face the Music and Dance" is filmed in one continuous take, lasting two minutes and fifty seconds.

favorite movie #118 - holiday edition: christmas in connecticut

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #118 - Christmas in Connecticut (1945) - Barbara Stanwyck makes this cornball romance about a single food writer who falls in love with one of her biggest fans a joy to watch. Nobody could mix corny and sassy like Stanwyck. Along for the ride are Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, S.Z. Sakall, and Una O'Connor.

favorite movie #117 - holiday edition: peter’s friends

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #117 - Peter’s Friends (1992) - This film, about the getting together around the New Year's holiday by a bunch of old college friends, feels mostly improvisational, and probably for good reason — most of the cast are old college friends or frequent collaborators. Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Tony Slattery, and screenwriter Martin Bergman attended Cambridge University together and were members of the Cambridge Footlights. Director Kenneth Branagh was married to Emma Thompson at the time of filming, and Bregman is married to co-writer Rita Rudner. Hugh Laurie was a former comedy partner of Stephen Fry, and Imelda Staunton has appeared in numerous projects with all of the cast. Called a British Big Chill, the film is less about a generation as it is about the nature of friendship. Some of the plotting and situations seem familiar, but the fun comes from watching this talented cast interact with one another. And I am happy for any chance to see one of my favorite British comedians, Tony Slattery, apply his zany energy to anything.

Stephen Fry

Tony Slattery

favorite movie #116 - holiday edition: meet me in st. louis

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #116 - Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) - The film covers a year in the lives of the Smith family, in turn-of-the-century St. Louis, and their contemplating moving to New York before the World's Fair coms to town in 1904. Judy Garland performs many great musical numbers in the film, including "The Trolley Song" and "The Boy Next Door", but the most touching and memorable sequence is her singing to her younger sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brien), "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", probably my favorite version of the song, which has been covered by everyone from Frank Sinatra to John Legend.

favorite movie #115 - holiday edition: rudolph the red nosed reindeer

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #115 - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964) - Stop motion is my favorite animation. I love the puppets and their sometimes herky-jerky movements. Burl Ives does most of the singing as Sam the Snowman, and his renditions have become holiday classics: "Silver and Gold", "A Holly Jolly Christmas", and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

Fun fact: It has been telecast every year since 1964, making it the longest continuously running Christmas TV special in history. — Wikipedia

holiday music - 'zat you, santa claus? - louis armstrong and the commanders

Today's favorite holiday song discovery is Louis Armstrong's "Zat you, Santa Claus?" from 1953.

There is a remix version available, too:

But I like the original best, it has a real, live, nightclub performance feel to it.

favorite movie #114 - holiday edition: while you were sleeping

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #114 - While You Were Sleeping (1995) - Sandra Bullock is at her adorable best as Lucy, a Chicago token seller who has a major crush on one of her regular riders (Peter Gallagher). On Christmas she saves him from an oncoming train after he falls on the tracks after a bunch of muggers attack him. Later at the hospital she inadvertently fibs that she is his fiancée so that she can get in to see the comatose man and see if he's O.K. She learns that his name is Peter and meets his wonderful family, who immediately fall in love with her — including his younger brother Jack (Bill Pullman). Hijinks ensue, and the lonely Lucy must find a way to tell the truth and not hurt the people who she has come to love.

favorite movie #113 - holiday edition: march of the wooden soldiers/babes in toy land

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #113 - March of the Wooden Soldiers/Babes in Toyland (1934) - Laurel and Hardy play Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee in this classic holiday movie. It's less a musical than a vehicle for the famous duo, who try to help save Bo Peep from the evil Barnaby. I grew up watching this movie, which aired every year on WPIX in New York on Thanksgiving and Christmas. It wasn't the holidays without Laurel and Hardy and that big tin soldier finale.

favorite movie #112 - holiday edition: last holiday

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #112 - Last Holiday (2006) - Queen Latifah has such charm that she can make any movie work, von this improbable but fun holiday romance. After seeing a test result that suggests she only has a few weeks to live, she decides to live it up, and sets off for a foreign holiday spa vacation. Her nothing to lose attitude endears everyone she meets. While there she finds out she isn't sick, manages to connect with her longtime crush (LL Cool J) and befriend the wacky hotel chef (Gérard Depardieu), who inspires her to pursue her dreams of opening a restaurant. It's a fun holiday fantasy film.

favorite movie #111 - holiday edition: love actually

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #111 - Love Actually (2003) - This movie is more than a bit of a mess. A strung-together bunch of inter-connected stories, it features a bunch of Londoners as they muddle through the holiday season. What makes it watchable is a wonderful cast and a fantastic performance by Emma Thompson as a wife who discovers that the romantic gift she thought her husband (Alan Rickman) was getting for her was actually intended for the floozy he works with. Also charming are Liam Neeson and Thomas Sangster as a step-father and son mourning the loss of their wife and mother, respectively. Hugh Grant can't help but be charming in the absurd casting of a British PM who has fallen for his adorable staff member, played by Martine McCutcheon. Topping it all off like the naughty angel on top of the tree is Bill Nighy as aging rock star Billy Mack, who is reluctantly coerced by his longtime manager and best friend (Gregor Fisher) into recording a Christmas single to revive his sagging career. Surrender to the movie, don't think too hard about the side plots that don't work, and enjoy yourself.

Billy Mack - Christmas is All Around (Love Actually) from Christmas is All around on Vimeo.

favorite movie #110 - holiday edition: miracle on 34th street

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #110 - Miracle on 34th Street (1947) - Maureen O'Hara os a divorced single career mom (a pretty unusual person to be portrayed in Hollywood films of the 40s), who is trying to stay strong for her little girl (Natalie Wood). Bout sometimes strong can seem tough, or even brittle. Along comes a man (Edmund Gwenn) who may or may not be Kris Kringle, but can tell that she and her daughter could use some magic in their lives. The movie is still magic and it and its Macy's New York City setting is beautiful to behold in black and white, especially in HD on a big TV screen.

favorite movie #109 - holiday edition: a charlie brown christmas

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #109 - A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) - Like many, I grew up on this "true meaning of Christmas" classic. It may also have been the first pop culture example that I saw that equated the Christmas season with depression. The animation stays close to Charles M. Schulz's signature comic strip style and the music by Vince Guaraldi was memorable and delightful.

via GIPHY

Fun fact:

"The popularity of the special practically eliminated the popularity of the aluminum Christmas tree, which was a fad from 1958 to 1965, when the special portrayed it negatively. By 1967, just two years after the special first aired, they were no longer being regularly manufactured." — courtesy of Wikipedia

favorite movie #108 - holiday edition: batman returns

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #108 - Batman Returns (1992) - This was Tim Burton's second crack at filming loner superhero Batman. He and the movie spend a lot of time with Danny Devito's Penguin and Christopher Walken's crooked millionaire Max Schreck. But really, who cares about them? What makes this movie the best Batman is Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, who seems the purrr-fect match for the rubber-encased Batman (Michael Keaton). Would someone get these two fetishists a room already?

Catwoman: You're catnip to a girl like me. Handsome, dazed, and to die for 

Batman: Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it. 

Catwoman: But a kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it. You're the second man who killed me this week, but I've got seven lives left. 

Batman: I tried to save you. 

Catwoman: Seems like every woman you try to save ends up dead... or deeply resentful. Maybe you should retire.

favorite movie #107 - holiday edition: krampus

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #107 - Krampus (2015) - Krampus is that rare film — a horror comedy that actually has a dash of Christmas spirit. It also has a fantastic cast, who commit to the proceedings with enthusiasm and wit: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, Emjay Anthony, David Koechner, Allison Tolman, Conchata Ferrell. It also looks pretty terrific, too.