Book Review: Christmas in the Movies (Revised and Expanded Edition)

Half a decade ago Jeremy Arnold's beautiful CHRISTMAS IN THE MOVIES was one of my favorite film books of that year, and it's a title I've returned to on numerous occasions since I first read and reviewed it.

Jeremy has done it again with a "Revised and Expanded Edition" of CHRISTMAS IN THE MOVIES, published late last year. I enjoyed reading it almost immediately, but our Disney World trip in the middle of December, followed by celebrating Christmas, slowed posting this review. That's a bit ironic given the book's subject matter, but this is a great book to purchase and read at any time of the year!

Since readers will probably want to know first and foremost "What's new?" I recommend reading my 2018 review of the original book for context and an idea of the book's content, then continue here for information on the update.

This new book is somewhat larger and thicker than the original edition, covering 35 films instead of the previous book's 30. Including the index and bibliography, it clocks in at 270 pages, compared to the previous book's 208.

The added titles are THE CHEATERS (1945), IT HAPPENED ON FIFTH AVENUE (1947), CASH ON DEMAND (1961), THE PREACHER'S WIFE (1996), and JOYEUX NOEL (2005).

There are also entirely new chapters on topics such as "Christmas Cartoons from Mickey to Tweety," "1947: A Very Merry Movie Year," "Christmas and Film Noir," and "Little Women: 1933 and 1949," inserted to go along with his chapter on the 1994 version of the film.

The new chapters add quite a bit of interesting material to the original book. I particularly enjoyed the film noir chapter which includes mentions of personal favorites such as LADY ON A TRAIN (1945) and COVER UP (1949), to name just two examples.

The photo layouts are sometimes quite different, and along with new photographs, some of the photos carried over from the first edition have received significant quality upgrades.  A very good example of this is a photo of Fred MacMurray at the piano in REMEMBER THE NIGHT (1940). A photo of Monty Woolley and Mary Wickes in THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1942) is larger and sharper, and readers of both books will find other examples.

I'm happy to say that an excellent book is now even better. For those who purchased the original title and are wondering whether to also get the new edition, I recommend doing so, and for those who are brand-new to CHRISTMAS IN THE MOVIES, I highly recommend purchasing this title.

Thanks to TCM and Running Press for providing a review copy of this book.

The above photograph of author Jeremy Arnold was taken by me at a November 2023 book signing at Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood.

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