1. The Thin Man (1934): Wealthy Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) check into their favorite Manhattan hotel for the Christmas holidays, only to have a murder mystery interrupt their drinking. Based on a story by the great Dashiell Hammett.
2. The Shop Around the Corner (1940): A sweet and gentle movie starring Jimmy Stewart and fragile Margaret Sullavan, it takes place in a world that never was of magical Budapest before World War II. A love story in which all is revealed on Christmas Eve.
3. Beyond Tomorrow (1940): Sometimes called Beyond Christmas. Three lonely, rich, old men toss three wallets full of money out the window of their Park Avenue brownstone on Christmas Eve, betting nobody will be honest enough to return them. Instead they bring together two impoverished young people who fall in love. Little seen and lots of fun. Starring Richard Carlson and Jean Parker with C. Aubrey Smith as one of the gents.
4. O. Henry's Full House (1952): John Steinbeck introduces five O. Henry short stories. The best is the last, based on the "Gift of the Magi," in which Jeanne Craine and Farley Granger play a young couple, each of whom gives up his most valuable possession to buy a gift for the other.
5. The Apartment (1960): An ambitious junior executive (Jack Lemmon) loans out his apartment to his philandering bosses, only to discover that one of them is after a girl he really likes (a gorgeous young Shirley MacLaine). He cares for her at his apartment over Christmas weekend as she is recovering from what she thinks is a broken heart. Love triumphs by New Years' Eve.
6. The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941): During the Christmas holidays a small town family is forced to host obnoxious New Yorker Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Wolley) and his secretary (Bette Davis) when he comes to town on a speaking tour and breaks his leg. This is a very funny movie and if you are sad this Christmas you'll feel better knowing Whiteside didn't come to stay with you.
7. Battleground (1949): The mostly true story of what Christmas was like for Americans soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. Van Johnson stars in a movie that showcases the humor, boredom and confusion of war as well as its dangers. Directed by Oscar winner William Wellman, himself a decorated veteran.
8. Stalag 17 (1953): Not exactly a Christmas weepy, but the story does hinge on a load of ping pong balls mistakenly sent by the Red Cross to some hungry Americans in a World War II German prison camp at Christmas time. William Holden won an Oscar for his performance as the cynical American prisoner with the heart of gold.
9.Three Godfathers (1948): John Wayne leads three bandits as they flee across the desert. Crafty old Irishman, director John Ford, has the men redeemed by a baby as they follow a star to a town called New Jerusalem. All that thirst in the desert is bound to make the eggnog look especially good.
10. White Christmas (1954): Not offbeat, I know but so incredibly 1950s. Worth seeing for songstress Rosemary Clooney in her prime (aunt of George), not to mention Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye (who doesn't completely overact, for once) and Vera Ellen, the woman with the smallest waist ever seen on film. It is corny but irresistible.
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