Another cycle of classic movies on local theater screens has kicked in, and throughout December we’ll see holiday musicals and comedies rotating with, of all things, film noir thrillers.
• “Sunset Blvd.” (1950, b/w). Billy Wilder’s justly famous inside-Hollywood film noir/satire about has-been silent-movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), the eager young screenwriter (William Holden) she takes in and the butler (Erich von Stroheim) who coddles her. (Friday, Nov. 28-Dec. 4, daily at noon and Tuesday at 7 p.m., Tower Theater, saltlakefilmsociety.org)
• “The Polar Express” (2004, PG). Tom Hanks has five roles in this motion-capture animated adaptation of the children’s book about a young boy in the 1950s Midwest who boards a train headed for the North Pole on Christmas Eve. (Friday, Nov. 28, 2 and 4 p.m., Peery’s Egyptian Theater, Ogden, egyptiantheaterogden.com; Sunday, Nov. 30, 2 p.m., and Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2 and 7 p.m., Cinemark Theaters, cinemark.com/cinemark-classic-series)
• “The Night of the Hunter” (1955, b/w). Suspenseful, artfully directed film noir with what many consider a career-best performance by Robert Mitchum as a hellfire preacher in 1930s West Virginia who’s really a raging sociopath. He tries to coerce his young stepchildren into revealing the whereabouts of stolen money but meets his match when Lillian Gish takes them in. (Monday, Dec. 1, 7 p.m., free, Tower Theater, Westminster Film Studies Screening, saltlakefilmsociety.org)
• “Christmas in Connecticut” (1945, b/w). Barbara Stanwyck shines in this frothy romp as a New York food writer whose fictional wife-and-mother persona is put to the test when she’s coerced into hosting a dinner for a war hero (Dennis Morgan). Sydney Greenstreet co-stars. (Tuesday, Dec. 2, 10 a.m., SCERA Center, Orem, scera.org; Friday, Dec. 5, 7 p.m., free, BYU, Provo, lib.byu.edu/sites/artcomm)
• “On the Waterfront” (1954, b/w). Marlon Brando heads a terrific cast in this tale of corruption among labor unions, mob-connected hubris, misplaced loyalty and family allegiance. Co-stars include Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger and many recognizable character players. (Friday, Dec. 5-Dec. 11, daily at noon and Tuesday at 7 p.m., Tower Theater, saltlakefilmsociety.org)
• TCM Double Feature: “A Christmas Carol” and “Christmas in Connecticut” (1938/1945, b/w). For “Christmas in Connecticut,” see above. This version of “A Christmas Carol” gets the lavish MGM treatment and is pretty faithful to the book, with Reginald Owen making a fine Scrooge. (Sunday, Dec. 7, 2 and 7 p.m., and Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2 and 7 p.m., Cinemark Theaters, cinemark.com/cinemark-classic-series)
• “Holiday Inn” (1942, b/w). Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire are a wonderful team in this romantic show-biz comedy filled with great Irving Berlin tunes as Crosby leaves song-and-dance partner Astaire to run an inn that’s only open on holidays. (Tuesday, Dec. 9, 10 a.m., SCERA Center, Orem, scera.org).
• “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947, b/w). Edmund Gwenn is perfect (and won an Oscar) as Kris Kringle in this classic holiday story, trying to help young Natalie Wood believe in Santa despite the misgivings of her cynical mother (Maureen O’Hara). Delightful comedy never makes a misstep. (Thursday, Dec. 11, 7 p.m., free, BYU, Provo, lib.byu.edu/sites/artcomm)
• “Roman Holiday” (1950, b/w). It’s easy to see why Audrey Hepburn won the Best Actress Oscar for her first starring role. She’s completely enchanting in this delightful romantic comedy about a cloistered princess touring Rome who runs away and is taken under the wing of a wily reporter (Gregory Peck). (Friday, Dec. 12-Dec. 18, daily at noon and Tuesday at 7 p.m., Tower Theater, saltlakefilmsociety.org)
• “White Christmas” (1954). The Bing Crosby-Danny Kaye perennial romantic musical comedy, a reworking of “Holiday Inn,” never gets old with its colorful show-biz story of two song-and-dance men who put on a show at a failing ski lodge owned by their former Army commander (Dean Jagger). Great Irving Berlin tunes help. (Sunday, Dec. 14, 2 and 7 p.m.; Monday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m.; and Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2 and 7 p.m., Cinemark Theaters, cinemark.com/cinemark-classic-series)
• “Angels Sing” (2013, PG). This one’s not an oldie, of course, but it’s a sweet little family film about a father (Harry Connick Jr.) who hates Christmas due to a childhood tragedy and who is tested when he moves his family to a neighborhood where everyone goes overboard for the holiday. (Tuesday, Dec. 16, 10 a.m., SCERA Center, Orem, scera.org).
• “It Happened One Night” (1934, b/w). Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable have chemistry to spare in Frank Capra’s witty, warm and often hilarious romantic comedy about a runaway heiress and the street-smart reporter who agrees to help her if he can have the story. The first film to win the top five Oscars (film, director, screenplay, actor, actress), a record it held for 40 years. (Friday, Dec. 19-Dec. 25, daily at noon and Tuesday at 7 p.m., Tower Theater, saltlakefilmsociety.org/category/events)
• “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946, b/w). James Stewart stars in what Frank Capra called his favorite of his own films, the story of a man contemplating suicide who gets a chance to see what the world would have been like if he’d never been born. Pretty much a perfect movie. (Sunday, Dec. 21, 2 p.m., and Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2 and 7 p.m., Cinemark Theaters, cinemark.com/cinemark-classic-series; Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 24-25, free, Tower, saltlakefilmsociety.org)
• “Touch of Evil” (1958, b/w). Charlton Heston is a Mexican drug-enforcement official on his honeymoon with wife Janet Leigh when they witness a car-bomb explosion that leads to a complex conspiracy. Co-stars include Marlene Dietrich and writer-director Orson Welles. Underappreciated at the time but now considered one of Welles’ best pictures. (Friday, Dec. 26-Jan. 1, daily at noon and Tuesday at 7 p.m., Tower Theater, saltlakefilmsociety.org)
• “Little Women” (1949). This lavish production of the oft-filmed Louisa May Alcott story of the March sisters (Janet Leigh, June Allyson, Elizabeth Taylor, Margaret O’Brien) struggling in Concord, Massachusetts, during the Civil War benefits from MGM gloss, gorgeous Technicolor and a terrific cast that includes Mary Astor and Peter Lawford. (Tuesday, Dec. 30, 10 a.m., SCERA Center, Orem, scera.org).
Chris Hicks is the author of "Has Hollywood Lost Its Mind? A Parent’s Guide to Movie Ratings." He also writes at www.hicksflicks.com and can be contacted at hicks@deseretnews.com.