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(More customer reviews)Warner's TCM GREATEST CLASSIC FILMS COLLECTION is a series of over two dozen twin packs. The four titles in each set are dubbed one per side on two flip discs. Only some movies include bonus features. Transfer quality of these well-preserved ever-popular films is top-notch. All titles in TCM's "Holiday" set are rated in the 7s and 8s at imdb.Trivia on movies---
Each version of Dickens' famous yule story has its fans, and the '38 A CHRISTMAS CAROL is no exception. This 69 minute Loew's release features an interesting company behind Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge. Gene and Kathleen Lockhart are Bob and Mrs. Cratchit and their daughter June plays a Cratchit child. Leo G. Carroll is Marley's ghost and Ann Rutherford portrays "Christmas Past." Silent-era clown Billy Bevan, who also lent his raspy basso voice to early Looney Tunes shorts, appears as "Leader of Street Watch."
In the romantic comedy CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945), Sydney Greenstreet is third billed behind Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan. Miss Stanwyck's character was based on Gladys Taber, a ladies magazine columnist who lived on a Connecticut farm. John Dehner cameos as a state trooper. Dehner began as a Disney animator, then appeared often on radio-- he was Paladin on HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL. Other cast members: Reginald Gardiner, Una O'Conner and Frank Jenks. Also here is "ditzy blonde" specialist Joyce Compton. (To see Miss Compton at her nuttiest, check out Eddie Cline's 1940 turn-of-the-century farce, THE VILLAIN STILL PURSUED HER, with Alan Mowbray as the baddie and Buster Keaton playing his opposite.)
IT HAPPENED ON FIFTH AVENUE (1947) was the very first ALLIED ARTISTS release. This company was formed when MONOGRAM Pictures and two smaller outfits merged. Frank Capra was slated to direct until producer-director Roy Del Ruth purchased screen rights to this story of a homeless man and his friends who take advantage of a manson left empty while the owners are away for the holidays. The fine cast includes Don DeFore, Ann Harding, Charles Ruggles, Victor Mature, Gale Storm, Grant Mitchell, Edward Brophy and Alan Hale Jr.
Ernst Lubitsch's holiday romance THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940) was a first screen adaptation of Hungarian playwright Miklós László's "Perfumerie" (aka "Illatszertár"). This storyline was later used for the 1949 musical, IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME and in 1998 for YOU'VE GOT MAIL. Director Lubitsch, who also worked in a Budapest shop as a boy, called this his favorite movie. Unlike most productions, all scenes were filmed sequentially. Cast includes Margaret Sullavan, Jimmy Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut and in a walk-on, Sarah Edwards.
Click Here to see more reviews about: TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Holiday (Christmas in Connecticut 1945 / A Christmas Carol 1938 / The Shop Around the Corner / It Happened on 5th Avenue)
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938) Reginald Owen portrays Charles Dickens\' holiday humbug Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser\'s miser who has a huge change of heart after spirits whisk him into the past, present and future. From sets to stars to story, this triumphant adaptation adds a glow to the season. Like Tiny Tim\'s benediction, it blesses us – every one.CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945) A magazine columnist totally devoid of the homemaking skills espoused in her column had better get some fast: her boss has invited himself and a recently returned war hero to her home for Christmas. Laughs, romance, holiday cheer: that\'s the recipe Barbara Stanwyck and a stellar company follow in this perennial favorite.IT HAPPENED ON 5TH AVENUE Home for the holidays! GI families hit by the post-World War II housing crunch take over an abandoned New York City mansion.THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER In the third of their four screen pairings, Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart engage in retail romance wrapped in the ribbon of director Ernst Lubitsch\'s trademark touch of wit and charm. They play bickering store clerks who are unknowingly secret pen pals. Your patronage will be cheerfully rewarded when you watch this enchanting tale.
