How to Get into Old Movies...Part 7

Part 7: Start with Christmas Movies

For anybody who is not familiar with the plot of It's a Wonderful Life, there is a simple question: how?

I obviously don't know the numbers behind this, but I am safe with making the argument that most Americans have probably seen this Christmas classic. Even if they have never seen fragments of the movie, it's still a tale that is largely inescapable as it is often parodied in just about every television show imaginable; basically, if a show exists long enough, at least one of its Christmas episodes will involve a parody of It's a Wonderful Life.

The same can be said for A Christmas Carol which, in addition to being ripe for TV parody, has the added bonus of being a literary classic. Additionally, what makes the Dickens classic so unique is that it has more than a dozen movie versions (from full-length to TV movies, both live-action and animated), ranging from the first sound adaptation in 1935 to the well-known George C. Scott TV version to the family classic The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Thanks to these two classics and the national obsession America has over Christmas and its many facets - one of the larger ones being Christmas movies - it is very easy to introduce Christmas movies as an into to classic movies. What makes it so easy is that it is much more culturally appealing to a young, possibly nostalgic young person to use the phrase, "Let's watch a Christmas movie," instead of "Let's watch an old movie."

Of course, a handful of new full-length feature Christmas movies are released in theaters each year, not to mention the multiple straight-to-video and Hallmark flicks that are produced annually. However, when we think of Christmas movies, our minds don't usually run straight to recent movies (there are a few notable exceptions including Elf, Home Alone and Scrooged), such as Fred Claus or Four Christmases. They often go to the two I mentioned up top and the likes of Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, Holiday Inn, The Shop Around the Corner, Christmas in Connecticut, The Bishop's Wife and countless others (including the Rankin-Bass collection, a beast too enormous to touch in this post). And if needed, you can always use updated versions of classic movies to introduce classics, such as using the Denzel Washington-starring The Preacher's Wife to introduce The Bishop's Wife.

From there, you can jump into other movies directed by certain directors or starring certain actors. For instance, jumping from It's a Wonderful Life to another Frank Capra classic like You Can't Take it With You isn't that much of a leap.

Most importantly, though, don't underestimate the power of Christmas. You can easily coax somebody into watching a movie if you say it's about Christmas. So feel free to use it. Tell young people about a movie where a squirrel helps a poor family, they might be partially curious. Tell them it's a Christmas movie and it's called A Christmas Wish (sometimes The Great Rupert), and you've just earned yourself a viewer.

How to Get into Old Movies...Part 2

Part 2: Use Movies Still Well Known in Popular Culture

It's been more than 70 years since The Wizard of Oz was first released in theaters. Yet, just about everybody, regardless of age, can tell you the basic plot of this movie, which happens to be in the top 10 of the American Film Institute's Top 100 American movies list.

There is not always a definite pattern that can help one to determine which movies resonate and will continue to resonate 10, 20, even 50 years past their release date. However, some do. Some become synonymous with the Christmas season (It's a Wonderful Life), some are known for their quotes (Casablanca) and some represent a rite of passage of sorts for young women (Gone with the Wind).

However, to those who may not know any different, some movies become nothing more than an hour-and-forty-five-minutes block of time on the TV Guide channel or a dusty VHS tape on a grandparent's shelf. And, oddly enough, many of these movies are and were considered stellar pieces of cinema, some ever garnering Best Picture or acting Oscars.

Take Goodbye, Mr. Chips. The 1939 movie about an initially stingy schoolteacher nabbed Robert Donat the first and only Oscar win of his too brief film career. And all this despite being in a competitive category with acting names that are still considered legendary to this day, and many even easily recognizable to young people nowadays: James Stewart, Laurence Olivier, Clark Gable and Mickey Rooney. Yet Robert Donat won, which would beg the question from young moviegoers nowadays...who is Robert Donat, and (going back to the movie itself) what is Goodbye, Mr. Chips?

Basically, in order to appreciate, or even be able to identify, a Goodbye, Mr. Chips, you have to work your way through the Singin' in the Rains and the Psychos. Other than being great building blocks for cinematic appreciation, these movies do a lot of great things in helping you get into old movies.

First, they train your eyes to get used to the look and feel of old movies. Second, they introduce you to actors you will soon begin to identify more frequently as you watch more and more old movies.

One theme I will continue to reiterate as I expand this list is that many of these tips can be used simultaneously. Therefore, you can start your journey into old movie appreciation by starting with well-known classics and then get more entrenched by looking back into the filmographies of some of the actors. We will continue to see links like this as we go on. Stay tuned until then...