Christmas Vacation

I know, it isn't really a classic.  But you have to admit, this Chevy Chase (b. 1943) film has some good lines, good slap-stick, and the most important thing, it has Mae Questel (1908 - 1998).

Christmas Vacation (1989) was Mae's last film, in a career that includes 382 titles starting in 1930.  Mae is best known as the voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl in cartoons.  Her Betty Boop voice is a copy of the original Boop-Boop-A-Doop girl, Helen Kane (1904 - 1966). 

I had the pleasure of meeting Mae twice, while I was a bored member in The Sons of the Desert.  The first time was at a banquet in New York City, and then she came to the Philadelphia SoD convention in 1986.  She was fun, and always ready to tell a story about the old days.

Mae entertained us on banquet night, singing with Vince Giordano's Nighthawk Orchestra.  You can see some of her performance in the Emmy award winning TV documentary "The Revenge of the Sons of the Desert" filmed by Sandy Marshall at the convention.  (You'll see me in it as well!)

Mae's later films included a voice part in Bells Are Ringing (1960), Funny Girl (1968), Zelig (1983) a Woody Allen film where she did the voice of Helen Kane, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) again as Betty Boop. 

I'd also like to recognize Doris Roberts (b. 1930) who played the lush (used as a noun) mother-in-law.  Doris is a perfect Bit Actor.  She has 127 titles listed, starting in 1952.  She was in A New Leaf in 1971 and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three in 1974, among a lot of other work.  She also made a lot of TV remakes of famous movies, like "Bell, Book and Candle," "It Happened One Christmas" a remake of It's a Wonderful Life, and "The Diary of Anne Frank."

And we can't forget William Hickey (1927 - 1997).  I have written about him in my post on The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Check out my archives. 

The rest of the cast does a great job supporting this Chevy Chase showcase.  Beverly D'Angelo (b. 1951) is charming as always.  Juliette Lewis (b. 1973) plays Chase's daughter.  She is now making quite a name for herself as an actress with 56 titles.  Johnny Galecki (b. 1975) was the son, and he now has 46 titles.

Veteran actors, E. G. Marshall (1914 - 1998), John Randolph (1915 - 2004), Miriam Flynn (b. 1952), and the ever strange Randy Quaid (b. 1950) all add their magic to the film, without interfering with Chase's antics. 

As I said, for a real classic movie fan, this will probably never be a classic.  But if you are in the mood for something lighter than A Christmas Carol, this just might be perfect.

Holiday Nightmare

After writing about Thanksgiving movies, I got to thinking about other holiday themed movies over the years.

Under the IMDb keyword 'Christmas' there are 2807 titles listed.  Not all of them really say Christmas to me, including The Godfather (1972), but IMDb is really a Wiki.  My guess is that Christmas has more movies than any other holiday, by a long margin.

Now try to think of an Easter movie.  Easter Parade (1948) starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire is the only one for my money.  There are 137 titles under that keyword, including Annie Hall (1977) and American Psycho (2000).  Not movies I think of while eating my butter cream egg.

My vote for the most ambitious holiday movie goes to...are you ready?...Nightmare Before Christmas from 1993.  Think about it.  Here is a movie you can run all the way from Halloween through Christmas, that's a three month audience, and it's not a bad movie!

Tim Burton's (b. 1958) story works very well.  The original music was written by Danny Elfman (b. 1953).  The stop-motion filming of real models give it a retro quality that is missing from computer generated animation.  And the voice cast is wonderful.

Elfman did the singing for the the main character, Jack Skellington, and Chris Sarandon (b. 1942) was his speaking voice.  Sarandon's first wife was named Susan, and I believe she is now a bigger star than he, although Chris has 90 titles on IMDb.  Chris is a Bit Actor all the way.


Catherine O'Hara (b. 1954) was the female lead, Sally.  Look for her in 80 more titles, including Beetle Juice (1988).

William Hickey (1927 - 1997) has been one of my favorite Bit Actors for years.  He has 86 titles and played the villain, Dr. Finklestein.  His early movies go back to 1957 when he was in Operation Mad Ball with Jack Lemmon (1925 - 2001), Ernie Kovacs (1919 - 1962) and Mickey Rooney.

Hickey was also in Little Big Man (1970) with Dustin Hoffman, because of his wonderful voice.  In 1986 he worked with Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose, a medieval detective story that is so moody, it earned a place in my collection.  (That's not very hard, though.  I have hundreds of DVDs and VHS tapes.)

Hickey made another Christmas movie, Christmas Vacation in 1989 with Chevy Chase (b. 1943).  He was hilarious as Arthur in Forget Paris (1995) starring Billy Crystal (b.1948) and Debra Winger (b. 1955), constantly singing, "You asked for it, you got it. Toyota." in that droll voice, until they put him in a home.

Back to Nightmare, Paul Reubens (b. 1952) also had a part.  I should have recognized his voice as Pee Wee Herman.  Reubens isn't famous for much, other than Pee Wee and a run in with the law, but he has 76 titles on IMDb, and is doing quite a bit of voice work.

I will work on a Christmas movie list.  One with some great Bit Actors.  But maybe some that are less well known.  It's a Wonderful Life is TOO EASY!