Classic Movies

We are taking a break for the month of January, but will be back in February with more of our favorite Classic Movies and trivia.

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: Special effects technician Edmund E. Fellegi was killed when he fell from a 40-foot catwalk while releasing balloons for the New Year's Eve party scenes in Made for Each Other.

Classic Movies - Christmas Classics: Made For Each Other

Newlyweds, John and Jane Mason, struggle through their first year a marriage, plagued by money problems, illness and a meddlesome live-in mother-in-law. To top it all off, their baby son is dying of pneumonia, and can only be saved by a serum that must be flown from Salt Lake City to New York, when all flights have been grounded by impassable weather conditions. Through all this turmoil, their love never falters, as they were "Made for Each Other."

**Trivia Question for Today: Special effects technician, Edmund E. Fellegi, was killed when he fell from a 40-foot catwalk in Made for Each Other. In which scene did this tragedy happen?

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: Bachelor Mother was remade in 1956, starring Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. The name of the movie is Bundle of Joy.

Classic Movies - Christmas Classics: Bachelor Mother

Polly Parrish (Ginger Rogers) is a salesgirl at the department store John B. Merlin and Son in New York City who has just been told that since the Christmas season is ending she is going to be dismissed. During her lunch break, she sees a stranger leaving a baby on the steps of an orphanage. Fearing the baby is going to roll down the steps, Polly picks it up as the door is opened, and is mistakenly thought to be the mother.

David Merlin (David Niven), the playboy son of the store's owner, J.B. Merlin (Charles Coburn), is sympathetic to the "unwed mother" and arranges for her to get her job back. Mrs. Weiss (Ferike Boros), Polly's landlady, offers to take care of the boy when Polly is at work. Unable to convince anyone that she is not the mother, Polly gives up and starts raising the child.

David's involvement with Polly gradually turns into love, but he keeps the relationship a secret from his father, fearing his reaction. When he finds that New Year's Eve has arrived and he has no date, David turns to Polly. He orders clothes to be sent from the store and takes her to a party. Although David is falling for Polly he does not relish the idea of a "ready made family."

J.B. finally finds out about the child; he assumes that David is the father and no one can convince him otherwise, especially when, in a bit of bad timing, Polly and David each produce a different man whom they claim is the father. To his son's surprise, J.B. is delighted (he had been impatiently waiting for David to settle down and provide him with a grandson). In the end, David decides that he is in love with Polly and baby John. He tells his father that he is the father of the child and plans to marry Polly, all the while believing Polly is the child's mother.

**Trivia Question for Today: Bachelor Mother was remade in 1956, starring Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. What is the name of this remake?

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: For the 'drunk' dance in the New Year's Eve scene in Holiday Inn, Fred Astaire had two drinks of bourbon before the first take and one before each succeeding take. The seventh (last) take was used in the film. I would say that he was pretty 'tipsy'.

Classic Movies - Christmas Classics: Holiday Inn

Jim Hardy and Ted Hanover have been vaudeville partners for many years but when Ted announces that he and Jim's girlfriend, dancer Lila Dixon, are going to set off on their own, Jim decides the time has come to retire. He buys himself a farmhouse in New England and settles into the country life but soon realizes that he has an opportunity to do something special. He decides to open his inn to the public, but only on major holidays. Things are going well for him until his old partner Ted shows up and sets his sights on Jim's new friend, Linda Mason. The film introduced the song White Christmas.

**Trivia Question for Today: For the 'drunk' dance in the New Year's Eve scene in Holiday Inn, was Fred Astaire really drunk or was it just an act?

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: Although the word "Scrooge" means a stingy person now, in Charles Dickens's time, the word was a slang term meaning "to squeeze."

Classic Movies - Christmas Classics: Scrooge (A Christmas Carol)

Ebenezer Scrooge is a business man who thinks only of making money. For him Christmas is, in his own words, a humbug. It has been seven years since his friend and partner, Jacob Marley, died and on Christmas Eve Marley's ghost tells him he is to be visited during the night by three spirits. The first is the Ghost of Christmas Past who re-visits some of the main events in Scrooge's life to date, including his unhappy childhood, his happy apprenticeship to Mr. Fezziwig who cared for his employees, and the end of his engagement to a pretty young woman due to growing love of money. The Ghost of Christmas Present shows him how joyously is nephew Fred and his clerk Bob Cratchit celebrate Christmas with those they love. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows him what he will leave behind after he is gone. Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning, a new man intent on doing good and celebrating the season with all of those around him.

**Trivia Question for Today: Although the word "Scrooge" means a stingy person now, in Charles Dickens's time, the word had another meaning. What was the meaning?

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: Lionel Barrymore was originally set to play Scrooge in the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol, but had to back out due to illness. Barrymore instead suggested his friend Reginald Owen take over the role.

Classic Movies - Christmas Classics: A Christmas Carol

On Christmas Eve, an old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge (Reginald Owen) is visited by the spirit of his former partner, Jacob Marley (Leo G. Carroll). The deceased partner was in his lifetime as mean and miserly as Scrooge is now and he warns him to change his ways or face the consequences in the afterlife. Scrooge dismisses the apparition but the first of the three ghosts, the Ghost of Christmas Past (Ann Rutherford), visits as promised. Scrooge sees those events in his past life, both happy and sad, that forged his character. The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Lionel Braham), shows him how many currently celebrate Christmas. The Ghost of Christmas yet to Come (D'Arcy Corrigan) shows him how he will be remembered once he is gone. To his delight, the spirits complete their visits in one night giving him the opportunity to mend his ways.

**Trivia Question for Today: In the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol, who was originally set up to play the part of Ebenezer Scrooge?

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: There are 21 mail bags carried into the courtroom at the end of Kris Kringle's hearing in Miracle on 34th Street.

Classic Movies - Christmas Classics: Miracle on 34th Street

At the Macy's Department Store Thanksgiving Day parade, the actor playing Santa is discovered to be drunk by a whiskered old man (Edmund Gwenn). Doris Walker (Maureen O'Hara), the no nonsense special events director, persuades the old man to take his place. The old man proves to be a sensation and is quickly recruited to be the store Santa at the main Macy's outlet. While he is successful, Ms. Walker learns that he calls himself Kris Kringle and he claims to be the actual Santa Claus. Despite reassurances by Kringle's doctor that he is harmless, Doris still has misgivings, especially when she has cynically trained herself, and especially her daughter, Susan (Natalie Wood), to reject all notions of belief and fantasy. And yet, people, especially Susan, begin to notice there is something special about Kris and his determination to advance the true spirit of Christmas amidst the rampant commercialism around him and succeeding in improbable ways.

**Trivia Question for Today: How many mail bags are carried into the courtroom at the end of Kris Kringle's hearing in Miracle on 34th Street?

Trivia Answer for Previous Post: For the scene in It's a Wonderful Life that required Donna Reed to throw a rock into the window of the Granville House, Frank Capra hired a marksman to shoot it out for her on cue. To everyone's amazement, Donna Reed broke the window with true aim and heft without the assistance of the hired marksman!