Beyond Christmas (1940)
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Movie Reviews of Beyond Christmas (1940)
Movie Review: Touchingly just what you'd expect from the 40's
Summary: 4 Stars
If you like old-timey Christmas movies, this is a sweet one. The three old gents are as endearing as can be. Since Amazon's sight lacks a synopsis, I'll include one here:
A holiday gem released in 1940, this is a classic tale of three elderly gentlemen who foster the love of a young couple. Without families of their own to celebrate with on Christmas Eve, three rich businessmen (Harry Carrey, C. Aubrey Smith, and Charles Winninger) invite a kindergarten teacher (Jean Parker) and a rodeo performer (Richard Carlson) to share the holiday meal with them. Both of the young people had approached the men in an attempt to return a wallet they found, and they develop a friendship with their hosts while beginning to fall in love with each other. The three gentlemen are tragically killed in a plane crash, however, but return to their home in order to help the young people through the rough spots of their love. Becoming the couple's guardian angels, the ghosts guide their love to ensure that it will last forever in this charming and romantic holiday fantasy.
FYI, this was originally entitled "Beyond Tomorrow."
Movie Review: Beyond Christmas
Summary: 4 Stars
I really enjoyed the movie. I thought that it was light, entertaining and shows the true meaning of Christmas.Movie Review: Great movie, disappointing format
Summary: 3 Stars
I was looking forward to this movie, as I am a fan of Christmas movies. As there are two versions on this DVD, I opted to watch the B&W first. The movie was heartwarming and charming, but there were obvious parts that the editing seemed somewhat off. Since this movie is in the public domain, I watched the original version at archive.org. What a difference!!! I'm sorry that Legend Films decided to edit this the way they did. They actually cut out 5 minutes of the film and added it to the DVD marked as "deleted scenes". How disappointing, since the "deleted scenes" really established some important points and made the ending more plausible. In addition, there is a point in the film where they messed up the editing and actually put a couple of seconds of a scene in twice, thus making one part of the film very confusing. How disappointing! My feeling is if you're going to colorize and otherwise tamper with these films, at least keep the editing in the original order that it was in! What's the point of cutting up a film and presenting it in this manner? Also, the color on this particular film wasn't very well done. It had that "pastel smear" type of effect applied and it was mostly distracting and not very appealing, like in some of their other efforts.
My recommendation would be to purchase another version of this movie. I have several other Legend Film DVDs that have been "colorized" just to see the various techniques used. This is certainly not one of their high points. I am glad they include the B&W with the color version, but tampering with the editing is where I draw the line. Purchase the 84 minute version. The colorization isn't worth it, as this movie plays better in B&W anyway. 4 stars for the movie, 2 stars for the format, average 3 stars.
Movie Review: Story 5 stars + Release 2 Stars = 3 1/2 Stars
Summary: 3 Stars
This is one of my favourite Christmas movies, originally released as "Beyond Tomorrow". I love having this film in colour and I think they did a very good job of the colourization. The B & W version is also available on the same disk. My concern is that they took out parts of the movie, that were intact in the previous video release (probably so they could add more features), and included them as "deleted scenes". The only problem is, that those scenes are in my opinion integral to the story line, particularly the set up for the climax. The features are really good though and I especially enjoyed the commerical with Bob Hope.
Although I think this release could have been handled better by including the whole movie in one piece and a 2-sided disk instead, it is a wonderful story. Three elderly gentlemen decide to throw their wallets out the window in hopes that they will find an honest soul to share their Christmas Eve dinner. A young man and woman each return one of the wallets and become friends with the older gentlemen. They fall in love only to find out that tragedy strikes. The young couple have major problems of their own and Jimmy lets fame go to his head. It takes the supernatural and Divine intervention to bring things back to a happy ending. This story is also about the 3 gentlemen and their different approaches to life and how this effects their eternity. It's a fairly complicated storyline with a good message. It's really a good story for all year and especially at Christmas time.
Movie Review: ...but one star for the format
Summary: 3 Stars
I think this movie (story wise) is worth watching. However, I wish I had purchased a version with all scenes intact. This version is 79 minutes and the deleted scenes only about 5 minutes. I can't imagine why they felt it necessary to take out 5 minutes, especially because as I watched, it was obvious that scenes were being skipped. After watching the deleted scenes, things made more sense and I felt the movie would have flowed better had they been left in.
If you are prone to cry at sad movies this one will probably get to you. It's about three older well-to-do gentlemen that toss 3 wallets out their window on Christmas Eve to see if anyone is honest enough to bring them back. Two come back, one via a young woman; the other a young man and romance ensues. Sadly the trio that brought them together meet with a tragic death. However, they then become guardian angels of sorts to the young couple. I recommend this to those who like vintage movies but do also recommend watching the black and white version before the colorized. I found myself distracted by the added fake color. Make sure you get the 84 minute version though.