Six Non-Holiday Movies Set During Christmas

By Matt Prigge
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Dec. 22, 2009

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The Thin Man (1934): There are plenty of movies to watch during the capitalism-tastic holidays; others are smart enough to put the season in the background, allowing viewers to watch it any time of year. In the first (and best) movie about high-functioning alcoholic sleuths Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy), Dashiell Hammett’s witty marrieds solve their case over Christmas. Not that they exude holiday cheer. In between cocktails, Loy’s Nora exclaims, “The next person who says ‘Merry Christmas’ to me, I’ll kill ‘em.”

The Lion in Winter (1968): It’s Christmas 1183, and Peter O’Toole’s King Henry II and Katharine Hepburn’s Queen Eleanor are battling, primarily over who can fume the most. In the film it’s a draw. In reality Hepburn nabbed her third Oscar (albeit tied with Barbra Streisand).

Trading Places (1983): Behold! Gloomy, overcast, Mayor Green-era Philadelphia over Christmas, complete with Dan Aykroyd as an off-his-tits, suicide- threatening Santa and Eddie Murphy rolling around in a box.

Lethal Weapon (1987): Die Hard gets all the love for action movies set over Christmas, but the previous year also saw Mel Gibson and Danny Glover battling baddies over ironically used Christmas songs—and in inappropriately sunny L.A.

Metropolitan (1990): Though set vaguely “not so long ago” (later revealed to be the late ’60s) Whit Stillman’s first bout among the “Urban Haute Bourgeoisie” is definitely set during Christmas, with its characters holed up in rooms, deploying witty, wise one-liners away from the freezing Manhattan cold.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005): Shane Black strikes again! Having previously set Lethal Weapon during Christmas, he did it again with his welcome comeback, with ’80s vets RDJ and Val Kilmer doing their foul-mouthed Raymond Chandler routine with the occasional Santa hat.

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