COLEMAN, I HAD THE MOST ABSURD NIGHTMARE. I WAS POOR AND NO ONE LIKED ME. I LOST MY JOB. I LOST MY HOUSE. PENELOPE HATED ME. AND IT WAS ALL BECAUSE OF THIS TERRIBLE AWFUL ... The Guardian (UK)'s Peter Bradshaw argues that Trading Places is the greatest Christmas movie ever because "It has all the elements in place: a Christmas setting, a fable about money not being important (the story is Dickensian in sentiment, Shavian in form), a rich vein of comedy, and some sharp black comedy that doesn't overbalance the essential heartfelt hokiness."
Your favorites are, of course, welcome.
<span>Yes,</span><span> </span><span>I tried to crash the Duke and Duke Christmas party</span><span> </span><span>this week.</span>
ReplyDeleteAdditional Trading Places trivia, while I'm at it. The room they used for the Heritage Club's meeting at which Winthorpe was framed is the upstairs hall at the College of Physicians where my wedding reception was. And the exterior of Winthorpe's house is on the same block of Delancey also used for Bruce Willis' house in The Sixth Sense (just a few doors down) and Jimmy Smits' home in the pilot of the must-missed Shit My Ghost Dad Lawyer Said (a/k/a Outlaw).<span> </span>
ReplyDeleteFurther TP location trivia: the exterior of the police station is the Spring Garden side of Philadelphia Community College.
ReplyDeleteWe just watched The Nightmare Before Christmas, so I'll add that to the list.
Philadelphians who hosted a Trading Places costume party for Merry New Year.
ReplyDeleteI don't have trivia. I just love the movie.
ReplyDeleteCan I get a Die Hard?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/v/OR07r0ZMFb8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="170" height="140
Also, I just saw It's A Wonderful Life for the first time -- my first visit to Bedford Falls was as perfect as it can get! I saw it at the IFC Center, proceeded by an amusing, if occasionally awkward factoid-laden talk by Donna Reed's daughter. I can definitely say I'll want to do THAT every year.
And the exterior of the club is the Curtis Institute of Music, just off Rittenhouse Square. I love the fact that you can see the Rittenhouse Claridge, my old apartment building, in many of the shots filmed in the square.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it always bugs me that they show traffic going the wrong way on Locust St.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed a distinct lack of Scrooged this year, which bums me out.
ReplyDeleteEcho the love for Die Hard and Scrooged. Scrooged was on in the Ben & Jerry's in Old San Juan last week (we were there on a cruise). I hung out there for about a half hour too long just to watch.
ReplyDeleteAs well as my old apartment, the Dorchester, well in the background while Billy Ray is leglessly panhandling.
ReplyDeleteThere's a Scrooged marathon on AMC today. :)
ReplyDeleteBad Santa.
ReplyDeleteFor a lot of reasons, but mostly for the good-hearted, all-but-orphaned, continuously picked-on little kid who so desperately needs to believe in something that he allows Billy Bob and "Mrs. Santa's Sister" to move into his home even though he more or less sees right through the whole thing. Together with Billy Bob's cynical Santa he provides a perfect duet of hearts that, in different ways, are in dire need of warming.
(But also for the little things, like the single best use of Old Grandad bourbon, scatalogical remarks, and Santa suit, in a pick-up scene, ever, followed quickly by the funniest sex scene involving a Santa suit and the front seat of a late model American automobile, ever.)
I love "Trading Places," I love "Die Hard," I love "It's A Wonderful Life." But my favorite Christmas movie is "A Christmas Story." Just wonderfully warm and understated, funny and sentimental without being cloying.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen Trading Places. Must add to the Netflix queue.
ReplyDeleteAm currently watching It's a Wonderful Life which is at the top of my Christmas movies list along with White Christmas, The Bishop's Wife (the one with Cary Grant), and Muppet Christmas Carol. I usually find time to watch Meet Me in St. Louis and Bells of St. Mary's although neither is strictly Christmas-y. A Christmas Story makes me laugh every time. It just gets funnier and funnier.
Adam, you'll be happy to know that my TiVo picked up Trading Places tonight. It was on ABC Family, so at least one network understands Christmas movies.
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