The Holly and the Ivy

Until recently I had never heard of this little gem of British holiday sentiment. I heard someone call it the "Christmas movie for people who don't like Christmas movies" and the quest to find it was on.

This is the story of a Christmas in which the emotionally wounded family of a Church of England clergyman come home and attempt to have a happy holiday. What happens is not your typical happy tearjerker, nor is it a Christmas nightmare. Its a reasonably realistic, as much as films of the time could be in 75 minutes, look at a family of emotional cripples as they all try to put their lives back on track. The ending while hopeful is far from certain, so much so that I cursed the fact that it didn't go on another five or six hours, my sole complaint about the film.

A word of warning, don't abandon the film until you get to the end. I wasn't enraptured of the film for almost two thirds of its running time. I was interested in what was happening but I didn't know if I liked it, and then suddenly all of the pieces were in place and it became this charming atypical jewel of a movie.

Forget Its a Wonderful Life, watch this instead, its so much more real.

For a while there, in Canada - in the eighties and nineties, when the television landscape was forever expanding - I could be guaranteed of seeing this movie; there was always some new station looking for filler, particularly during the Christmas season. What a treat!

This movie is not just a great film about the real meaning of Christmas, it is also a relic of a period that is not so long ago in terms of years, but is eons away in terms of social convention, manners, etc.

Even better, although the film was made in a gentler, more genteel time, serious issues (illegitimacy, alcoholism, reckless self-sacrifice) are explored with depth. If this had been a lesser movie, it would have come off as something to be shown in a religion class, but the extremely talented cast runs with the story and helps create a film that is magical and meaningful.

I have a tape of this somewhere, and am always on the lookout for a DVD version. I only hope The Holly and the Ivy makes it to digital transfer soon, and is rediscovered as the Christmas classic that it is.

This is a delightful movie--truly one of the best Christmas movies. And it is now available in video in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, "The Holly and the Ivy" is still not available to those of us who live in the United States.

A fine play in a 1950s screen version, wonderfully cast - Ralph Richardson is the parson who has bred a dysfunctional family (daughters Celia Johnson and Margaret Leighton, son Denholm Elliott).

When the family comes together at Christmas, with the two maiden aunts - the holly and ivy represented in human form? - secrets tumble out, the family comes together, and peace and understanding comes to pass as it should in the festive season.

Leighton's flighty daughter with the grief of a loss in the war hanging over her; Johnson's tired and emotionally drained woman in love (with John Gregson, about to emigrate for his work); Elliott's Army private bristling against authority at all levels - all these characterisations are spot-on.

But the film belongs to Richardson - quietly watching and waiting for his moment in the sun, a long speech to his daughter - although he is saddled with a slightly odd accent.

The Holly and the Ivy is a heartwarming fable of Christmas and should be much better known than it is - can we have a television showing this season?

Another older film which is, unfortunately ,unavailable in video or DVD. This is a refreshing holiday movie in that it shys away from the blatant sweetness of most holiday pictures.It deals well with a family in post-war Britain that has survived the ordeal with several scars. Sir Ralph Richardson is excellent as a clergyman and a father trying to deal with uprisings and emotion within his family, caught between the "old" and the progressive. The english cast is as usual excellent - watch for a youthful Denholm Eliot. Too bad the film isn't shown often, especially for a needed change of pace from the usual Christmas line-up that happens every year.