Author: Rob Williams
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Christmas First View Review – An American Christmas Carol (1979)
Here we have an attempt to prove the ubiquity and relevance of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by taking it from Victorian-era London and plonking it down in Depression-era Concord, New Hampshire. I don’t if there’s any significance in the location but the time has obviously been chosen as one of widespread poverty, debt, and hardship.…
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Vintage Christmas Film Short – Scrooge: Marley’s Ghost (1901)
Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start… Before I get going, here’s a thought for a series of articles. How about first-time viewings of wildly popular films that I haven’t seen? I say this because I’ve never actually seen The Sound Of Music, Saturday Night Fever, or Citizen Kane. Anyway,…
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Christmas Classic First Watch Review – Christmas In Connecticut (1945)
I’ll admit that this was a total surprise. As is rapidly becoming traditional, here in RunPee Towers, this time of year means that there are Christmas films to be watched. We do try and get other themes going for other holidays but, as a lot of them are unheard of outside of the USA, I…
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Christmas Classic First Watch Review – White Christmas (1954)
I’ve never been one to make any undue effort and, in a similar vein, I don’t like to waste any effort accidentally made. When I had my moment of confusion over Holiday Inn and White Christmas the obvious thing, to me, was to save the notes I’d made and use them in another review. And…
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Christmas Classic First Watch Review – Holiday Inn (1942)
I’ll admit to being a bit confused by Holiday Inn. I intended to see the film with the song White Christmas in it and, obviously went for the one called White Christmas. Now I knew that Bing Crosby sang White Christmas but I was also fairly confident that Fred Astaire was in it. Oh…I love…
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Christmas Classic Rewatch Review – Scrooge (1951)
Elsewhere I wrote about how and why A Christmas Carol was written and how it’s been adapted many times on screens both large and small. It’s the most often adapted of all of Dickens’ works, with over thirty film outings. Oliver Twist comes second with a mere eighteen. It’s been faithfully followed from the original,…
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Documentary Review – The Beatles: Get Back
The Beatles: Get Back is, quite simply, the edited highlights of The Beatles rehearsing for a new project centred on their latest album. After a disastrous tour of the Far East in 1966 and the infamous “we’re bigger than Jesus” kerfuffle they decided to give up touring and performing live. This leads to them developing…
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Christmas Documentary Review – ’Twas The Fight Before Christmas (2021)
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’Twas The Fight Before Christmas (2021) from Apple TV+ is another of those films that emphasises the difference between the USA and the UK. Over here we’re only vaguely religious in the main. By that I mean that when you go into hospital they always ask your religion. The majority will say C of E…
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You Can See My House From Here…Wirral and the UK in Film
There are times when you’re watching a film and you pause a second and think, “that place looks familiar,” and there’s usually a reason for that. The most obvious one is that it is somewhere well known and you are meant to know where the action is taking place. If we’re in Paris, the Eiffel…
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Non-Christmas Christmas Movies – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
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It seems odd, looking back on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from this side of the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — that it was touch and go whether or not Robert Downey Jr would get the lead role of Harry Lockhart. At the time, RDJ was considered to be quite toxic Robert…
