Films to Love: The Christmas Spirit Displayed

Every year, as the days tick down to Christmas, our family pulls out the tried and true Christmas movie favorites. We love the oldies but goodies in this household. Christmas Eve’s movie is always the 1941 A Christmas Carol starring Alistair Sim. Christmas day is always It’s a Wonderful Life. But, the days leading up to the Eve and Day Of are filled with the assortment of movies we’ve collected over the years.

This year, while we were watching one of our regulars, I realized that the movie wasn’t actually a Christmas movie at all. However, even though it doesn’t take place during the Christmas season specifically, it’s a film that embodies the Christmas spirit so entirely, I will forever keep it on our Christmas movie list.

I’m talking about Frank Capra’s Pocketful of Miracles starring Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, Hope Lange, and a tour de force cavalry of character actors the likes of Peter Falk, Thomas Mitchell, and Edward Everett Horton.

Pocketful of Miracles was Frank Capra’s last major motion picture before his death. And, if you have to have a swan song, I don’t think you can beat this one. Frank Capra was known for making movies that spoke to the human condition. The everyday man was his hero. I’ve written about this more extensively in this post, The Honest Man: Frank Capra.

What makes Pocketful of Miracles so unique to Capra is who the characters are. They are the least of these, the down trodden, the sinful, the seemingly unredemptive- at least by society’s unforgiving standards.

Set during the Jazz Age, with Prohibition in full swing, Pocketful of Miracles revolves around Apple Annie, a panhandler and gin guzzler whose stomping ground is Broadway. Most decent people would overlook her. Dressed shabbily and with a brash personality, Apple Annie is definitely a diamond in the rough. However, there’s an ineffable appeal that she has that’s undeniable.

Enter Dave the Dude, the chief bootlegger on Manhattan island. While his almost godfather status might make you think he’s a brutal person, Dave the Dude is a study in anomalies. The first time you meet him, he’s just paid for the funeral of a man who owed him over $20,000. And before you assume that the Dude has anything to do with that death, let me correct that misconception. He didn’t. He’s just a shady guy with a big heart.

Dave the Dude believes Apple Annie’s apples bring him good luck. And when we meet him, he’s in need of some luck, what with being out $20,000 dollars and the cost of a funeral. Annie gives him his apple with her lovely explanation as to why it brings him luck, and enter in the Dude’s good luck charm- Queenie Martin, newly orphaned daughter of man who owed Dave the Dude 20,000 clams.

Not only does Queenie help Dave the Dude manage a thriving club where she stars as the talent, she also insists on paying her father’s debts off, not to mention that Dave the Dude ends up falling in love with her.

But Queenie wants Dave the Dude to retire, and when Prohibition ends, she sees his opportunity. However, Dave’s a man of action, and retiring from the scene just doesn’t jive for him. Queenie’s about to quit just as Dave the Dude makes contact with the head honcho of a criminal syndicate that has their hooks in the most influential people in the nation.

In fact, the day Dave’s about to meet with this mucky-muck, Apple Annie’s nowhere to be found. Sending his goons out, he finally finds her, heartbroken and drunk in her home, yammering on about how she’ll never be able to explain it to her baby.

Too consumed with his imminent business deal, Dave pays Annie little mind other than to buy himself his apple. But Queenie, whose heart is 14 carat gold, listens, and what she learns pierces her to the core.

Apple Annie has a daughter. No one knew this because when she was a baby, Annie sent her away to Spain to be raised in a convent school. All her hustling and panhandling money goes to make sure her daughter has the best of everything. Annie writes to her faithfully, on letterhead she pilfers from the Marbury Hotel (a Plaza hotel style hotel in New York City). Annie has passed herself off as a wealthy woman whose failing health prevents her from traveling. Her lies have gotten rather elaborate over the years to include all the high society friends she has and even a husband, a step-father for her daughter.

Now, Annie’s daughter, aged eighteen, has met a man, the son of a Spanish count, and she’s bringing both of them to to New York to meet her mother.

All of Annie’s underhandedness seems to be coming to bite her in the apple bottom. She’s desperate to not be a disappointment to her daughter, the only thing of any importance in her life. But she can’t figure her way out of this mess.

And that’s when this movie explodes with all the Capra magic we have come to expect from Frank. The stage is set. An impossibility presents itself. But, the generous and loving nature of mankind is on full display across every class and creed in the movie. And what you’re left with is the heartwarming feeling we all strive for during this time of year.

If you’ve not seen this movie, I cannot recommend it highly enough. There’s still time to stick it on your Christmas queue. You’ll be glad you did. It’s a non-Christmas movie that embodies the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of hope and love that can transform the impossible into the possible.

What’s your favorite Christmas movie?