Favorite Holiday Movies

Yes, it's January. I've been recovering from a severe infection and have been laying around in bed a lot - thinking about my top pics (among other things:)) So here they are, my favorite holiday movies as of 2012. Better late than never.

Ernest Saves Christmas - Starring Jim Varney - This was the first script I brought to Disney when I was working in story for the Animated Features division. It was called "Twas' the Night Before Christmas" before the live-action execs got hold of it. Bringing this in, is what cemented my career.



Tenth Avenue Angel Margaret O'Brien is a child star many of us didn't hear about growing up. She's wonderful in this timeless story of the transformative power of honesty and unconditional love.



And because the holidays are really about rebirth and second chances...there are quite a few on my list that don't necessarily take place in December or revolve around the holidays...although some of them do.

Angel A - French director Luc Besson's latest triumph (2005) is about a down-on-his-luck petty thief who gets in over his head and is about to commit suicide by jumping into the Seine. Shot entirely in Paris in black & white. This is one of my favorite sequences from the film.



A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens has, of course, seen hundreds of screen adaptations. Here's the one from 1935.



Home Alone is Christopher Columbus' bow to the holidays but most of us love it because it's about a child empowering himself and getting the best of a pair of bad guys with an ingenious string of traps.



Miracle on 34th Street - A department store Santa teaches us the real meaning of Santa Claus.



The Bishop's Wife - Carey Grant plays a handsome but slightly wayward angel who is seriously tempted to turn in his wings for David Niven's sweet wife. Remade as "The Preacher's Wife".



Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders is one of my all time favorite angel movies. It's set in post-war Berlin and for that reason alone is worth viewing. Most people recognize the story by it's American adaptation City of Angels



It's a Wonderful Life - Jimmy Stewart in director Frank Capra's 1946 Christmas classic is one of the best ever made and his angel sidekick, Clarence, is pretty wonderful too. So good no-one has tried to remake it. George Bailey's speech is remarkably relevant, even today.



Michael - Not strictly a holiday movie, although it does close on Christmas, this one, starring archangel Michael (played by a cigarette smoking, ladies man John Travolta)was written and directed by Nora Ephron who has gone on to write many more of my favorites.



Happy New Year!