Black and white movies have never held much appeal to me. I think it's because the acting feels overdone; facial expressions are exaggerated, voice inflection is too. And what was with the music?
But I wonder if my failure to connect stems more from not living in a generation that is expressive when dealing with one another. We get plenty animated behind the scenes, but when somebody does something we either appreciate or fail to appreciate [read: loathe], we are stoic.
Maybe things were different when black and white movies were shot. Maybe people showed their emotions more readily. And maybe as a result, life really did feel like it had all that dramatic music as a backdrop.
With that in mind, I'm going to give a couple of black and white movies a try this Christmas season.
The original 1938 version of A Christmas Carol is going to be on in the next couple of weeks, so I set my DVR to record it. I read the book a couple of years ago and I saw the most recent version of the movie at the theater just two weeks ago. So, it'll be fun to see the original.
Christmas in Connecticut, from 1945, is also going to be on television soon too and I've set my DVR for that as well. It looks like it might be funny while also heart warming--a perfect combination in my opinion.
Years ago I saw It's a Wonderful Life. I had the colorized version of the video. I may hunt down the original black and white version on television this month and watch it again too.
How about you? What are your favorite black and white Christmas movies?
