(Originally
published 12/3/21)
It is a
wonderful place to watch a sunset: Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan Island.
With the days growing shorter, it disappeared behind Ellis Island around 4:30
p.m. this past Saturday. I wish I had dressed warmer for the occasion. There
was a distinct chill in the air with a pesky wind blowing off New York Harbor.
It was, however, fitting weather for the start of yet another Christmas season.
Christmastime in the city—ring-a-ling: The Rockefeller Center tree is
all lit up, the Rockettes are strutting their stuff a block away, and the
belching street steampipes are working overtime.
It is hard
to believe that fifty-one years have passed since I saw
Scrooge at Radio
City Music Hall. The movie was followed by the Christmas show, which included
the Rockettes of the day, who would now be in their seventies and eighties.
It
was a long day—bang for the buck. My mother was one of many chaperones on
the trip, an annual outing in St. John’s grammar school during the 1970s.
I consider
Scrooge the all-time greatest Christmas movie and most entertaining
adaptation of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Father Maloney would disagree with
me on this, for he advised his students at Cardinal Spellman High School to
avoid all animated and musical versions—which Scrooge was—of the
Dickens’ classic. The late film critic Roger Ebert appreciated star Albert
Finney’s interpretation of Ebenezer Scrooge but dismissed the music therein as
not worthy of anybody’s time. Are you kidding, Roger, the movie is chock full
of charming, moving, and memorable tunes by Leslie Bricusse? Granted, “See the
Phantoms,” as croaked out by Sir Alec Guinness, is not in the same league as
“Sing a Christmas Carol.” Julie Andrews sung the latter in a 1972 Christmas
special, and "I'll Begin Again" was performed by, among others, the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Another
Christmas classic is
The Homecoming, Earl Hamner’s “Christmas Story,”
which inspired
The Waltons TV series. It absolutely captured a time—the
Great Depression—and was a gritty, believable period piece. Guess what? A
remake of
The Homecoming has been made and aired in 2021. Richard
Thomas, who played the original John-Boy, provides the narration. I have not
seen it but have read reviews and saw stills from the movie. The original
featured actors who looked the part, with older cast members who experienced the
hard times depicted. They were not Hollywood handsome in neatly pressed, spiffy
clean, contemporary-looking attire. And why pray tell did the current version
ditch one of the kids: Ben? I read about a scene where Grandpa, John-Boy,
and
Mary Ellen go out to cut down the family Christmas tree. In the original,
Mary Ellen wanted to accompany John-Boy and Grandpa, but was sternly rebuked by
Mama, played with austere elan by Patricia Neal, that “Cutting down trees is
men’s work. A girl’s place is in the kitchen.” You see, that would have been
the mentality in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia in Depression-era
America. Political correctness cannot even let period pieces stand on their
own. I suppose some people would be triggered if Mary Ellen were not permitted
to boldly go wherever she wanted to go in 1933. This is 2021.
When
The
Homecoming, set in 1933, first aired on CBS in December 1971, thirty-eight
years separated the two. Now, with the latest version, eighty-eight years
separate the two. That is a lot of water under the bridge. So much has changed
since I watched
The Homecoming debut in my grandmother’s and aunt’s
living room all those years ago. They had a color television set, which my
immediate family did not have upstairs from them. With all this passage of
time, I guess I should take heart that the sun also rises.
(Photos
from the personal collection of Nicholas Nigro)
