Classic films capture Christmas magic
“Christmas is a good time of year
for looking backwards,” an aging
Professor Wutheridge (Monte Wooley)
says in the 1947 Christmas classic
“The Bishop’s Wife.”
Some of the biggest and best movies
of the Christmas season are more than
40 years old, and are still faithfully
watched and loved, such as “It’s a
Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 3A th
Street.” These two perfect Christmas
Michael
Stock
movies dominate television air time
from Thanksgiving to Christmas,
playing on various stations as many
as 10 times a week. But these movies
are not the only classics that effec
tively capture what Christmas was
like.
The black-and-white photography
)f films of the 1930s and ’40s seem to
)e particularly preserving, like an aged
icrapbook for reconsidering the
“Christmas Past.” “The Bishop’s
Wife,” made in 1947, weaves an
Mnotiona! tale of humor and situation
ind is set a few days before Christ
nas. Bishop Henry Brougham (David
S'ivcn) is a distraught Protestant bishop,
10 determined to have an enormous
lew cathedral built that he fails to sec
lis marriage crumble around him.
t Cary Grant serves as an omnis
cient angel named Dudley whom no
pne seems to remember, but every
one seems to know. Dudley is called
into the service of Bishop Brougham
i>y his prayers to save a failing mar
riage.
When Dudley introduces himself
®o the doubling Bishop, Brougham
believes that Dudley is to aid him in
getting his cathedral built.
Julia Brougham (played by Loretta
Young) is especially endearing in her
Sole as the powerless wife and wit
ness to her husband’s all-involving
obsession of the cathedral. She and
the angel Dudley arc the only ones
who question exactly who this in
credible cathedral is to glorify: the
wealthy self-serving benefactors to
whom Bishop Brougham will sacri
fice anything to serve himself or God.
Even in the role of an angel, Grant
manages to carry himself in his typi
cal manner, capturing the hearts of
passers-by.
“The Bishop’s Wife” carries all
the sentiment and humor that “It’s a
Wonderful Life” had a year earlier.
Some of the best scenes are created
by the on-screen electricity between
Dudley and Julia Brougham.
“The world changes, but two things
remain constant: youth and beauty.
You know, they’re really one and the
same thing,” Dudley says.
“Yes . . . “ answers Julia. “The
trouble is, people grow old.”
“Not everybody. The only people
who grow old were bom old to begin
with. You were bom young — you’ll
remain that way.”
Dudley embodies the spirit of
Christmas, challenging each person
to be ideal; to be the best that he or she
can be.
“The Bishop’s Wife” has granted
the perfect Christmas gift to audi
ences for more than 40 years — the
power of the Christmas smile.
In 1939, eight years before “The
Bishop’s Wife,” MGM studios re
leased a charming film adaptation of
“The Shop Around the Comer.”
This film isn t typically consid
ered in the group of classic Christmas
films, but it spends its time moving
toward Christmas, using all aspects
of the human spirit — representing
the Christmastime victory of the di
vine spirit of human nature over the
despicable.
“The Shop Around the Comer” is
a Hungarian talc of a middle-class
leather and gift shop. James Stewart
plays Alfred Kralik, the head clerk in
the shop. The bachelor Kralik longs
for the perfect mate, and answers a
girl’s ad for correspondence in the
paper. The letters between the two
arc signed only “Friend,” and the
relationship between them grows
strictly by correspondence.
Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan),
Kralik’s corresponding “Friend,”
unknowingly enters the Matuschck
gift shop and is hired for the Christ
mas rush.
Neither Novak nor Kralik arc aware
that the other is their pen pal, and the
two do not get along well at first.
Working together, they constantly
argue and insult each other. As corre
spondents, however, they finally decide
that they should meet.
Kralik goes to the restaurant ren
dezvous where his mysterious “Friend”
is to be waiting, marking a dog-eared
copy of Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”
with a red carnation. Kralik sees that
Novak is his mystery-pal, and de
cides not to reveal himself.
Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan)
fires Kralik because he mistakenly
thinks he is having an affair with Mrs.
Matuschek. After learning the truth,
Matuschek rehires Kralik,and fails in
his attempt to shoot himself in shame.
Kralik fills in during his absence, and
desires to further reveal himself to
Klara.
Christmas Eve finds Kralik finally
revealing himself to Novak as they
close up the shop after everyone else
has gone.
Stewart carries the movie, making
the scenes come alive as he enters the
set. He bounds about with youthful
enthusiasm — never aloof, but al
ways with a purpose — to reach the
next scene, the next line.
“She’s expecting a pretty impor
tant man. Well... I’m in no mood to
act important tonight.”
“The Shop Around the Comer”
fits and feels like a stage production,
with most scenes filmed in or just
outside of the Matuschek store. Pro
duccr/director Ernst Lubitsch, one of
the best directors of this period, inter
nalizes the script by keeping almost
all the filming in the shop and making
scene changes seamless. The seam
lcssncss maintains the mood of the
scene and makes it easier to carry the
mood from character to character.
This makes the tension and the pas
sion real.
i-- - .—■
“The Shop Around the Comer” is
the third of four films that Stewart
and Sullavan made together, and the
only one that ends happily, which
isn’t surprising, considering Ernst
Lubitsch’s fascination with amorous
whimsy.
The scenes shared by Stewart and
Sullavan are particularly endearing
and effective, whether they are the
protagonist/antagonisl scenes prior to
Stewart’s revelation of his identity,
or the closing scenes.
The film was not a big winner at j
the box office in 1939, but Lubitsch’s i
tender direction and Stewart’s youth
ful enthusiasm propel “The Shop I
Around the Comer” into the category j
of truly “classic” classic movies of |
the Christmas season, or any other ,
season.
Stock is a junior English major and a j
Daily Nebraskan staff reporter and colum- J
nist.
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Continued from Page 13
3nc of its three auditoriums open to
the public.
When the other two auditoriums
Dpcn, the total number of first-run
screens in the downtown area will
reach 14.
Armed with a list of projected movie
release dates, Livingston said he be
lieved that there would be plenty of
movies to fill the 14 screens.
“We’re confident that the product
is going to be there,” he said.
The Lincoln Theatre has many
technological advantages, such as
Spectral Recording Dolby sound and
a computerized box office and con
cession area, Livingston said.
While these features add to the
quality, the average movie-goer won’t
go to the movie for the sound or the
convcnicnceof being able to buy tick
ets in advance, Perez said. At first,
most will go out of curiosity or be
cause the movie they want to sec is
playing at that theater, she said.
With movie prices running as much
as $5, Lincoln needs a dollar theater,
said Todd Steele, a senior electrical
engineering major. Many college towns
have theaters that show movies that
have been out for a month or two for
a dollar, he said.
