Something different tonight: a collection of silent films originally recorded from Turner Movie Classics; here they are collected on DVD: A Christmas Past - Vintage Holiday Films. The earliest film in the collection was from 1897 (which I believe is "The Night Before Christmas" [at Amazon they have it listed as 1905]) and the latest being "Santa Claus" from 1925. Most of them are rather cute, all are fascinating, especially "Winter Straw Ride," which depicts a group of young women going on a sleigh ride and then chasing the boys through the snow; they seemed to have so much fun in a simple manner in those days! "A Trap for Santa" and "The Adventure of the Wrong Santa Claus" I found the most interesting: in the first, an abandoned wife and her two children discover a special surprise on Christmas Eve; the other is a mystery story with the great detective "Octavius," sort of a cross between Sherlock Holmes and a young Peter Wimsey--one with a very funny ending to boot. "Santa Claus" is of note because part of it was actually filmed at the North Pole, showing actual reindeer, polar bears, and walruses.
I would suggest, should you catch this again on TCM or if you buy the DVD, to do as someone on Amazon.com suggested and turn down the sound. These were probably originally scored to some wonderful theatre organ music; any original scores that went with these productions were replaced with a dissonant mix of bells and really screechy violins that occasionally sound as if they're playing a Christmas carol or two. Pity someone couldn't have resurrected the original scores and found a nice Wurlitzer to play them on!
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