#the imdb cast list got upgraded!

[kakushimiko]

OH MY GOD OH MY GROG OH MY GOD!!!!

Do I see a ray of hope in the form of a white hair gunslinger?! Or is still to soon to celebrate?

(news are in the tags)

[realitv]

AN EXECTUTIVE, A SLEAZINESS EXPERT. A MEDIA.  cyber.punk 2077 au.

imdb synopsis: by 2077, the mass media is not only everywhere, but they are now every thing. every facet of human life is now intertwined with media; neural networks, implants, chips, holograms; recordings of recordings of recordings, recordings of memories, of people. the time of the old gods is dead. dust. a memory. this world belongs to the new gods.  cast list: the mass media as marilyn gumm-hays; simply known as ‘m’.       note: media cannot be captured by ‘cybervision’. any attempts      to bring them in to focus or take pictures of them will result in the      live feed/image becoming distorted. media does not appear in       any thermo feed cybervision produces. role: corpo; though they won’t easily tell you just what corp they represent, or what their role is. the id badge they have seems to be different each time it comes in to view. most often, they say they are either from DMS or net54. neither is a lie. stats: body - 2           reflexes - 6           technical ability - 10                focusing on: engineering.            intelligence - 10                focusing on: quickhacking.            cool - 5                focusing on: cold blood.  appearance: media seems to be more android than human; and at first glance, has more cyberlimbs than flesh. both arms, legs, and their neck are visibly cybernetic. however - they’re not implanted, traded out/in limbs. these cybernetic limbs are media’s actual body, sans a layer of teflon-silicone skin that they’ve got covering their torso and face, the latter now having many implants within their cheeks and chin. media also appears to have state of the art, led cybervision - but again, those are just their normal, actual eyes; upgraded from 1080P cameras to state of the art beyond 4K lenses. their hair is still bleached to shit, and still in an extremely immobile newscaster bob, and they’re still wearing suits.  weapons: just a handgun; nothing fancy. can’t hit what isn’t really there to begin with.  goofs and trivia: the neural network that the new gods are tied to is now the same neural network that humanity exists on. the mass media is no longer an entity that exists with and outside of humanity’s peripheral; but is now inside of mankind. 

media is able to hack and hijack cybernetic eyes. they are, after all, cameras; and before they were humanity’s new eyes, they were always the mass media’s eyes. what humans see, media now sees as well; and is able to digitally alter sight to suit their needs.

media is able to hijack braindancing and can alter digital memories as they see fit.

media can hijack the neural networks of the class of people known as ‘media’ and effectively body hop between them. 

as media class journalists have the ability to be inherently believed due to credibility stats, anything that media says - be it lie or truth - will be believed instantly. those with higher intelligence stats will be able to discern if the mass media speaks a truth or a lie.

media is able to warp cyberaudio implants and in addition to making targets see what media wishes them to see, media can also override audio processing and force listeners to hear what media wants them to hear. 

any attempts to bring up media in any databases will result in a network block, which will then prompt for admin credentials in order to view this content. the holder of said admin credentials is the oracle boy, @00111110​. :* 

[redshirtgal]

Sometimes Memory Alpha picks the worst photos to represent a character. For example, this one. Identified only as a sciences crew woman in “The Alternative Factor,”  this young lady looks like the last person in the world you would want to approach. That look would freeze winter in its tracks. But did you know this episode was not her only appearance?

But actually, she has quite a pleasant smile and seems to be on good terms with Charlene Matthews and her assistant.  One thing we can determine by both photos is that she has quite a distinctive hair style. And that makes it easy to identify her throughout the several episodes she is in.

Going by production order, this young crew woman first appeared as part of the audience in this scene of “The Conscience of the King.” Sadly, it is impossible to determine where she is because of the lighting. Even sadder, she is never given a name in any episode. So our only recourse is to either make up one or call her by her stage name, Carey Foster. And since the only made up name we could think of was Yeoman Side Flip.... well, yeah. Carey Foster is a much better choice.

Foster appears for the second time in “The Squire of Gothos” (in the upper left corner) merely as one of those crew members who blend into the background on the bridge. Although she is certainly going somewhere in a hurry. 

Her appearance in “The Alternative Factor” was her third as a science crew woman. Not only does her hair style stand out but so do her long legs. Those legs might be part of the reason the crewman is grinning while he is watching her carry her coffee starting with the moment she pulls it out of the food synthesizer slot and all the way up to the moment she joins Lt. Masters and her assistant. Btw, watch this scene on your own and see if you can identify the crewman who seems so entranced with her. One odd factoid worth noting - according to Star Trek Fact Check (http://startrekfactcheck.blogspot.com/) , it appears that Carey Foster along another extra were upgraded from background extra to performer. Which we believe means they both were paid SAG wages. The blog backs this up with notes from the production sheet. That’s a nice little bump in salary, so evidently (as the blog surmises) both Carey Foster and another extra by the name Tom Steele were part of a deleted scene in which they both had a line. We don’t even see this male extra in the final version so we can’t tell if he is the same Tom Steele who was an extra in “Bread and Circuses.” At least Ms Foster’s part was kept in the scene after the deletions were made. 

The next time we see her is in “This Side of Paradise” when she is part of the crew who beamed down to Omicron Ceti III to join Spock, McCoy, Sulu and the others who have already decided to stay there rather than serve on the Enterprise. In the first photo, you can easily identify Carey from the back of her head. But if you aren’t sure, take a look at the second photo where she turns slightly to the side and you can tell it is the same crew woman.  Also, take a good look at the hair of the young lady in front of her. We can’t be positive, but the color and style of her hair looks very much like that of the red skirt in the front of the audience at the end of “The Conscience of the King.”  How frustrating that we recognize her in that episode but cannot identify where Carey Foster appears. 

Carey exchanges her science blues for technical services red in “The Devil in the Dark.” She is practically the first person the captain sees when he exits the turbolift and returns to the bridge at the end. And yes, that is definitely the same actress as the science crew woman we saw in “The Alternative Factor.” One look at that hair...

In “Errand of Mercy” Carey Foster is still in her red uniform and appears to be handing Captain Kirk a tricorder instead of a clipboard just before the Klingon attack at the start of the episode. 

We could not make a positive ID but we are almost sure this is the final appearance of Carey Foster in “Operation Annihilate.” The hair is close to the right color and there certainly is an upturn in her hair where it hits her shoulders. Production notes verify she is in this episode, according to Memory Alpha. However, we can’t promise you this is her. Still, she has had an amazing run. Carey Foster appeared in a total of seven episodes, which is pretty good for an extra. Not many of the ones who played a unnamed crewman got called back for more than two or three episodes. Why was this actress so lucky? 

(Above - two early publicity photos of Carey Foster. Note the hairstyle in the second photo)

Possibly because she first appeared in several episodes of The Lieutenant, the first television series created and produced by Gene Roddenberry. After all, Joseph D’Agosta was The Lieutenant’s assistant casting director and became the casting director for Star Trek’s entire run. This could easily be a coincidence but then many actors who appeared on Star Trek also appeared in The Lieutenant including Gary Lockwood, Don Marshall, Leslie Parrish, and Nichelle Nichols.  Actually, Carey’s first Hollywood break was through her talent as a dancer. She had always wanted to dance since she was a young girl. She was so talented, she was allowed to enter an elite dance studio at the age of eleven, where she was given a full scholarship. On the day of her audition, she encountered her role model, Leslie Caron. Two of her dance studio classmates were Annette Funicello and Liza Minelli.  At age 16, she auditioned for a part in West Side Story. She and the other girls followed the directions of both Jerome Robbins and Director Robert Wise and she was one of the lucky ones chosen for a part. However, because her young age required a tutor on set and specific work hour requirements, she and some other young ladies were let go. But even though her dance career got off to a rough start, Miss Foster still found work dancing in industrial entertainment films (which were the subject of a fascinating documentary called Bathtubs Over Broadway).

 A choreographer friend got her a stint working at the recently opened Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe. Frank Sinatra was the owner and she recounts that he took the younger dancers under his protective wing, asking them to point out anyone who bothered them. From there, she landed a spot as one of the dancers seen on The Dean Martin Show.  With more exposure, Carey was able to successfully land work as a dancer in several Hollywood movies. Above is her appearance as one of the Winter-A-Go-Go dancers in the movie of the same name.  She is the second dancer from the right (in front of the young man in the green sweater).

There was another better known actress in this movie by the name of Julie Parrish, who played DeeDee. She is the young lady dressed in purple in the promotional poster to the left. We know her as Miss Piper, the assistant of Commodore Mendez in “The Menagerie,” Part One. 

Carey Foster also appeared in similar roles in Annette Funicello’s Pajama Party and Elvis Presley’s Kissin’ Cousins. Carey is the one in the teal top above. At the bottom of the photo you can see a girl with a yellow bikini top. That is the female lead of the movie, Yvonne Craig. Carey remembers Elvis as being very personable and starved for conversation with the younger cast members. Annette Funicello, on the other hand, was stand-offish and didn’t spend much time socializing on the set. Ms Funicello’s name is probably not familiar to many people outside of us Baby Boomers who remember her as the darling of many a Walt Disney production.

Not listed in her IMDb credits, but confirmed in an interview with Carey Foster (as Emmy Lou Crawford) in the Santa Barbara Sentinel, was an appearance in the 1969 blockbuster hit, Hello Dolly! She is the lady in the yellow dress seated to Barbara Streisand’s left. This would have been one of her last appearances in Hollywood, although she was an assistant choreographer on 1969′s television special for Jack Benny’s birthday celebration. By that time, Carey was married and had a family. Her husband, John Robert Crawford, had a one film Hollywood career. Howard Hawks hired him based purely on his race car prowess to appear in Red Line 7000. The only thing noteworthy about that movie was the appearance of up and coming co-star James Caan. Together they had one daughter, Sean Crawford. Hollywood was losing its appeal and Carey Foster was now becoming more interested in making sure her daughter had the best education possible.

To achieve that, Carey Foster went back to using her real name of Emmy Lou Crawford and became a certified Montessori instructor. And of course, a dance teacher. Now she and her daughter Sean have opened their own studio, Inspire Dance. From that smile on her face, Emmy Lou seems to revel in encouraging young dancers just the way she was growing up.

[youremyonlyhope]

Spyfall

Yay more Doctor Who! I say as if I haven’t been watching Doctor Who non-stop for this entire week. God I love BBC-America’s Christmas marathon.

So are they all spies? These people being attacked?

Me: Oh I completely forgot I loved the newer opening sequence. I still love it. Dad: Because it’s all warped and psychedelic? Me: Well it’s obviously a homage to the original opening from the 60s with all the shapes - WAIT. PART ONE? WHAT DO YOU MEAN PART ONE?

Yay!  She has a RAZR phone. And it’s blue. That’s adorable. Our TV keeps cutting out words every like 10 seconds and it’s getting annoying. It did this for the whole Doctor Who marathon too, but at least I’d already seen those episodes and knew the gist of the dialogue. This is new so I’m missing everything. Me and my dad are literally going “COME ON!” every 10 seconds because we’re missing dialogue from the sound cutting. I would not have kept driving that car after all that. “I’ve read the files, the Doctor is a man.” “I’ve had an upgrade.” LOVE IT. We’ve got closed captions on now, so even if the sound cuts out we’re ok. “Yeah keep em coming” Love. Adorable. Calling it now. Vor might become a running plot point.

C: UNIT. Even Torchwood Me: They’re both gone. Doctor: All gone. Me: SEE.

I love that they brought up Torchwood though. That show was basically Chibnall’s baby for the first 2 seasons. The TARDIS can’t leave if something is partially inside...  ok it forced it back out. Who is this MI6 friend though? Do we already know them? Am I being stupid? ...This actor looks SO familiar...  “Cozy.” “You mean messy.” “You’re right, I do.” I loved that. Was he in an Adventure in Space and Time? I’m 99.9999999999% sure that’s who he is, but I haven’t seen that in about 2 years so I don’t want to assume.

My brother and dad are having an argument about student loans and whether or not they’ll be forgiven in a few years or if Trump’s gonna get re-elected. I’m glad I put on captions because I literally cannot hear this episode anymore.

93% human? Basically I only took in about half of the the “interview” with the guy because my family was talking over it. They’re going to his birthday party so I guess that’s all that matters. I meant to say it earlier, but the shapes of the aliens look so familiar to me.... I was gonna say they should back themselves against a wall, but that’s where they tend to come out of so... no. Out in the open is probably safer. OH GOD ITS LIT UP. So is it from another dimension? If physical boundaries don’t work? Ok yep it’s Sacha Dhawan. Waris in An Adventure in Space and Time. Very ominous. Obstacles. “Duck down you twits!” - My Dad. These tree things look like DNA... Does it feed off light... So it can teleport people? Sooooo is Yaz... still Yaz?  “They think that she’s Yaz... but she Yaz not.” - My Dad being dumb. Doctor. We’ve learned from Martha that you gotta tell us your sad backstory early on. Please open up. Awww O is like a Doctor fanboy. Love it. I wonder which Doctor he met since I can’t remember him... Multiple earths? So it’s dimensions! Like I said! The suits! Love it. The bowtie! And did I see a flash of red on the inside? I will cry if it’s red on the inside like Twelve and Three. ...Are we supposed to ship O and Yaz? There was a moment earlier of him looking up at her... in a way that seemed... meaningful. And now he’s saying stuff about being unlucky in love. That was very straightforward, Doctor. My dad pointed out that the car is TARDIS  blue. And I wanted to mention this earlier but didn’t think it was important, but Daniel’s blue scarf was kind of TARDISy with the white squares like windows.

...

I LITERALLY JUST SPENT 2 OR 3 MINUTES STRAIGHT JUMPING UP AND DOWN. I LITERALLY KICKED MY BLANKET OFF OF ME AND JUMPED OUT OF MY SEAT. THEN HOPPED AROUND MY LIVING ROOM. MY DAD WAS LAUGHING AT ME.

HE’S THE MASTER. HE IS THE MASTER. OH MY GOD.

I LOVE HIM ALREADY.

I can’t even be mad that he’s sending Yaz, Graham, and Ryan plummeting in a plane and transported the Doctor to the middle of nowhere. I can’t even be mad. Because HE’S THE MASTER!!!!!!!!! I AM BEYOND HAPPY.

Guys. MISSY SURVIVED! SHE LIVED! SHE REGENERATED! THE MASTER IS INDIAN! AHHHHHHHH. SO HAPPY!!!

Earlier in the episode I was like “I really like this actor, I hope this character comes back after it’s all finished.” AND HE WILL! BECAUSE HE’S THE MASTER! YAY!!

I wondered which Doctor he’d met before, and the answer was all of them.

Guys I am very happy right now.

Update: So halfway through the episode I looked up the cast of this episode to see who was playing O, but O wasn’t a character listed in the episode on IMDB. And I was like “that’s annoying, they haven’t updated the full character list yet” so I looked up An Adventure in Space and Time instead and saw his picture and was like “Yep. Same guy.” BUT I’M GLAD HIS CHARACTER WASN’T LISTED IN SPYFALL. I WOULD HAVE BEEN SPOILED HALFWAY THROUGH THE EPISODE IF IT SAID “Sacha Dhawal - O/Master”! Oh my god am I glad that IMDB didn’t update the character list until after it’s aired in America too.

[redsoapbox]

MY TOP TEN CHRISTMAS MOVIES

Now that December is finally here, the McGrath household can upgrade the nightly Christmas movie from Hallmark seasonal romance to accepted Christmas classic. (Although in admitting defeat on winning the girls over on Miracle on 34th Street - either version) - I have to acknowledge that the list of films that we can all agree on as festive classics is a little shorter than I would like.

Here is my list of top ten Christmas movies -

10. The Santa Clause (1994) - John Pasquin

John Pasquin’s cinematic debut, he had previously worked on numerous T.V. shows including Newhart and Thirtysomething, opens with the risky gambit of having Santa fall to his death from the roof of Scott Calvin’s home. Calvin (Tim Allen), believing his home is being burgled, confronts Santa and startles him into plummeting to his doom. Before you know it, and after much urging from his son Charlie (Eric Lloyd), Calvin has donned the big red suit and his transformation into Santa has begun.

The Santa Clause combines rather broad comedy - there is much fun to be had with Calvin’s overnight weight gain and Charlie’s class presentation on how his Dad is actually Santa - with the usual Christmas sentiment. In this particular case, the healing of Scott’s relationship with Charlie and ex-wife Laura (Wendy Crewson).

A pre-Buzz Lightyear Allen gives a virtuoso performance as the would-be St Nick, and that went a long way to making the film a hit at the box office, spawning two sequels The Santa Clause 2 (2002) and The Santa Clause 3 (2006).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpzB4ubEqIE

9. The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) - Bharat Nallur

I reviewed this thought-provoking film on how Charles Dickens’ saved Christmas at the time of it’s release -

https://pardontheglueman.tumblr.com/post/169301253898/the-man-who-invented-christmas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx3ctBjG6yI

8. Get Santa (2014)  - Christopher Smith

When the always over-generous Empire film magazine only gives a movie two stars, then you know that you are going out on a very thin limb indeed. Still, a lot of what I want from a Christmas movie - a story about redemption, likeable characters with likeable lead actors, a splash of humour, a touch of Christmas magic, and, finally, a guaranteed have-to-make-a-quick-exit-to-the-kitchen-to-compose-myself ending - are all present and correct here. And Get Santa really delivers - like a hard-working postman trudging through six feet of snow on Christmas Eve just to make sure that your Auntie Maureen’s card can take its proper place on your mantelpiece.

Get Santa has a best of British cast too; Rafe Spall as ex-con Steve, Jodie Whittaker as his estranged wife and Jim Broadbent as a banged up Santa. Throw in Stephen Graham, Warwick Davis and Joanna Scanlan and you have the second best cast Christmas movie ever (nothing is ever going to beat Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore and Henry Travers in IAWL).

This may be the film on the list that you are most likely to have not seen, so in an effort to shore up support for this selection, I call my star witness - Mark Kermode who had this to say in his three-star Guardian review ‘It’s sweet -natured fare, boosted with spirited comic performances (Broadbent is a particular treat) and served up with plenty of DIY sparkle’.

7. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) - Henry Selick

Tim Burton’s unique vision of Christmas/Halloween is brought to life by Henry Selick, a gifted animator who had worked for Walt Disney Studios and in a freelance capacity before making his name with this masterpiece. I simply didn’t get this on release (my admittedly old-fashioned notion of what constitutes a Christmas movie forming a great big mental road block to a full appreciation of the imagination, visual style, black humour, gothic charm and exquisite pathos on display here), and it was only through a recent viewing with my children as part of our Halloween movie get togethers that I finally saw the light. Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon) is a captivating character, brought to life by Danny Elfman’s songs and Selick’s ground breaking animation, and his desperate quest for belonging is one that we can all sympathise with, especially at Christmas. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGiYxCUAhks

6. Remember The Night (1940) - Mitchell Leisen

This is a golden-age of Hollywood classic screwball comedy, starring the legendary Barbara Stanwyck, arguably the greatest comedienne in Hollywood history, Fred MacMurray, arguably the nicest guy in film history (at least until his turn as the murderous Walter Neff in Billy Wilder’s terrific noir Double Indemnity), and penned by arguably the funniest man in film history, Preston Sturges.

James Harvey in his 700-page opus Romantic Comedy in Hollywood (From Lubitsch to Sturges), which is, arguably, the best ever book about Hollywood, reveals that it was the shabby treatment (in Sturges’ not so humble opinion) of his screenplay, and the slow pacing of Leisen’s direction, that drove the screenwriter to extraordinary lengths to gain control of his own movies - basically making a deal with Paramount that he would sell them his next screenplay for a nominal sum of ten dollars as as long as he got to direct the picture. That deal changed movie history, setting the precedent of a writer / director that Orson Welles was soon to follow with Citizen Kane (1941).

The plot is a unique one, not that it truly matters in a Sturges movie, and centres around hardboiled career criminal Lee Leander (Stanwyck) having to choose between spending jail in Christmas or being released into the custody of her prosecuting attorney John Sargant (MacMurray). Hey, I didn’t say it made any sense! Of course, the season works its magic and, hey presto, one reformed criminal later Christmas love is in the air!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKcLcT9dOFk

5. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) - Brian Henson

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is the greatest Christmas story ever written, and arguably the main reason that Christmas in Britain is celebrated in quite the way that it is today (see The Man Who Invented Christmas above). There have been all manner of adaptations down the years, and here it is re-imagined as a vehicle for Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzy and co in a way that works beyond anybody’s wildest expectations.

All the human drama, the pathos, the cry from the heart for social justice that Dickens conveyed in his peerless book survives this, the most unlikely of screen adaptations. Much of the credit must go to Michael Caine, who despite sharing top billing with a bunch of muppets, emerges as a genuine contender for the crown of greatest screen Scrooge. Throw in a script by Jerry Juhl, which has The Great Gonzo as Charles Dickens, narrating his ghostly tale with a straight face, and Paul Williams’ super sing-along songs  “Marley and Marley” “One More Sleep ‘Till Christmas” and “Thankful Heart” , and you have an all time Christmas classic that can be enjoyed by everyone from 1 to 92. Bravo!  

4. ELF -  (2003)  John Favreau

Elf is the Shawshank Redemption of Christmas Movies - no matter who, where  or when you poll an audience, this charmingly comic celebration of Christmas always punches above its weight, getting the better of some very famous films in the process. Elf finished 10th in the IMDB poll for Greatest Christmas Movie and came 2nd in both the Time Out and Radio Times polls. It’s A Wonderful Life always, always comes top, but as someone who is still reeling from Citizen Kane losing first place to Vertigo in Sight and Sound’s celebrated Greatest Movie poll, I can see a time when Elf goes one better too.

Elf has a career-best performance from Will Ferrell, a winningly elfin turn from Zooey Deschanel and a series of fine cameo’s from Bob Newhart, Ed Asner, Faizon Love and Peter Dinklage as “angry” elf Miles Finch to recommend it, but it’s the hard to beat combination of laugh-out-loud set pieces, father and son second chances, and an opposites attract love story to top them all that makes this a genuinely affecting festive treat.

3. A Christmas Carol (1999) - David Jones

Of the umpteen takes on Dickens’ grasping miser, of which Alastair Sim’s turn as Scrooge (1951) is by far the most celebrated, I just prefer Patrick Stewart in this excellent T.V. movie. This may seem a deliberately obscure choice, but that is far from the case. Firstly, there is an A-list cast featuring Richard E Grant, Saskia Reeves, Dominic West and, at the top the bill, Stewart himself. 

As Screen Rant describes it, ‘Stewart plays a far more blunt, bitter and straight forward version of the miser... without feeling maniacal’. In short, he underplays the part, keeping the mugging down to a minimum. The clincher, though, is Stewart’s handling of the scene when he awakes to find it is still Christmas morning and that the spirits have granted him a second chance at life after all. He tries to emit a happy, life-affirming laugh, but is so unused to the sensation that he almost chokes himself. Wonderful stuff! There will be all the usual Scrooges to choose from this Christmas - Sim, George C Scott and Albert Finney amongst them, but the Stewart version will be there somewhere in the middle of the night on ITV3. If you peruse the Radio Times long enough you’ll find it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vviOGFiGrHc

2. Miracle on 34th Street - George Seaton (1947)  &  Les Mayfield (1994)

Okay, a bit of false accounting going on here in grouping the two films together. The original is the better version, but I’ve always loved the re-make too. After all, who can’t bring themselves to believe in Dickie Attenborough as Kris Kringle! Both films are perfectly cast - the romantic leads John Payne and Maureen O’ Hara are convincing enough in the black and white original, but are probably just shaded on the chemistry front by Dylan McDermott and Elizabeth Perkins. The unhappy children are sensationally cast, with Natalie Woods and Mara Wilson coming out even. The unthinkable happens, though, when it comes to the playing of Kris Kringle, because although Dickie scores a fab 9 out of 10 on my Santometer, Edmund Gwenn, who picked up a best supporting actor Oscar for his Kringle, scores a perfect 10.

The Oscar-winning original story, by Valentine Davies, must be known to just about everyone by now - a perfectly nice old man, given to the belief that he is really Kris Kringle, becomes, more by accident than design, Macy’s famous department store Santa. No sooner is he in post, than Kris begins to challenge the corporatisation of Christmas, directing customers to other toy stores all over town, where hard up parents can buy their presents at discount prices. He is about to face the sack, when Macy’s realise that he is a great loss leader for them, prompting arch rivals Gimbles to try and nobble him. Kris is committed to an institution for the insane on cooked up charges, and a battle rages to secure his release by Christmas Eve, so that the children of the world won’t be disappointed on Christmas morning! Each film uses an interesting plot device to allow a judge, desperate not to be seen as the man who gives a court ruling that Santa doesn’t exist, a way out without losing face, and there is a happily romantic final scene to round things off in the accepted festive manner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibDD8Y3IJrg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCNbTAtD-jU

1. It’s a Wonderful Life - Frank Capra (1946)

I reviewed this seasonal great for Wales Arts Review last Christmas -

https://www.walesartsreview.org/rewatching-its-wonderful-life/

The next best Christmas films - The Bishop’s Wife, Arthur Christmas, A Christmas Story, Christmas in Connecticut

Merry Christmas to all.