By RM
wednesday, december 24, 2025 at 10:59:00 p.m. est
Meet John Doe (1941) is my favorite Xmas movie. Stanwyck is devastating in the final scene. Interesting that Riskin wrote two movies for Capra in which the hero intends to commit suicide on Xmas Eve, and both were failures when first released (understandably, given moviegoers' taste at that time). It's a Wonderful Life only became a "beloved classic" after many years of TV showings.
Don't know if anyone's interested, but here's something offbeat for Xmas:
https://archive.org/details/s-01-e-26-papa-benjamin/Thriller+(1960)+-+COMPLETE/S01E21+-+The+Merriweather+File.mp4
Thriller, season 1, ep. 21- "The Merriweather File": Excellent mystery-type episode with the sight-for-sore-eyes Bethel Leslie, and Ross Elliott outstanding as an innocent man condemned to death. Not giving anything anyway, but Christmas is the punchline to this story.
Merry Xmas,
-RM
N.S.: Thanks, RM. Merry Christmas to you and yours, too.
Actually, Bob Riskin (1897-1955) didn't write It's a Wonderful Life. By then, he'd gotten tired of living In Capra's Shadow, and had split from him. Plus, in 1945, he suffered a massive stroke from which he never recovered. Goodrich & Hackett wrote the script to Life, with contributions from Capra.
However, Capra was notorious for re-cycling script ideas and even entire pictures.
After Riskin's stroke, his heroic wife, Fay Wray (yes, that Fay Wray!) stuck by him, and went through old scripts of his, plucking out great passages of dialogue, typing them up, and rehearsing them with him. Then, when company came a-calling, the couple would would perform. The visitors would come away, thinking Bob had completely recovered!
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3 comments:
Should have remembered that it was Goodrich and Hackett!! Thanks for the correction. Maybe that's a prompt to finally read the book by Fay's daughter.
This site has beautiful Xmas "glamor shots" of Hollywood stars of the early years, including one of Fay Wray circa late 1920s.
https://www.ifitshipitshere.com/vintage-hollywood-christmas-pics/
Color photos 50s-60s:
https://www.ifitshipitshere.com/vintage-color-christmas-celebrity-photos/
These make great Xmas cards- download and print 'em, get an early start for next year!
-RM
"Not giving anything anyway" -should be "not giving anything away"! Hopefully this isn't the onset of dementia!
-RM
If that's the symptom,I'm stage 3 1/2 out of 4.
--GRA
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