Every year when Denice and I watched our Christmas movie marathon, I am amazed at the cross pollination of actors in all these films. Some of that may be Golden Age Studio practices and others, maybe not. As a Golden Age movie trivia buff, this proves to be a ton of fun for me to investigate.
Let us start right at the top. James Stewart starred in The Shop Around the Corner (MGM, 1940) directed by Ernst Lubitsch. His character, Alfred Kralik, is a troubled man at the shop.
Stewart is troubled again as George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (RKO, 1946), the character Stewart played in his first role after returning from being a bomber pilot during World War II.
Barbara Stanwyck made her first Christmas movie Remember the Night (Paramount, 1940) when she played a repeat offender shoplifter prosecuted at Christmas by Fred MacMurray.
Her character is not really different later when she played the fake magazine columnist Elizabeth Lane in Christmas in Connecticut (Warner, 1945).
In Shop Around the Corner, the store clerk Flora is played by Sara Haden.
Seven years later in The Bishop's Wife (RKO, 1947) she played the Bishop's secretary Mildred Cassaway, charmed by the angel Cary Grant.
Store owner Hugo Matuschek in The Shop Around the Corner is played by Frank Morgan who will be The Wizard in Wizard of Oz in the same year--nothing to do with Christmas but a cool fact anyway.
When Matuschek suspects one of his employees is romancing his wife he hires a private detective who is played by Charles Halton.
Later he played Carter, the bank examiner, who helps Mr. Potter get a warrant for George Bailey's arrest in It's a Wonderful Life.
Beulah Bondi made a career out of playing Moms including Fred MacMurray's Indiana mom in Remember the Night.
She is also George Bailey's mom in It's A Wonderful Life (doing a wonderful job as the pleasant Mrs. Bailey and the witch like rooming house owner when George doesn't exist).
Dick Elliott played Judge Crowthers, the man incapable of getting Barbara Stanwyck married, in Christmas in Connecticut.
Later he would yell, "Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death?" at George Bailey and Mary Hatch when they were young kids in Its A Wonderful Life.
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The whole ball gets rolling in Miracle on 34th Street (20th Century Fox, 1947) when in an uncredited role, Percy Helton plays the drunk Santa on the Macy's float.
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In White Christmas (Paramount, 1954), in another uncredited role, he is the train conductor who sells Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye their $97.24 ticket that lets them sit up all night in the club car.
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Leo G. Carroll haunts Scrooge as his old business partner Marley in Christmas Carol (MGM, 1938).
Much later he plays the terrible business owner Felix Ducotel aided by three murderers in We're No Angels (Paramount, 1955).
Gene Lockhart and his wife Kathleen got cast in Christmas Carol (MGM, 1938) as Bob and Mrs. Cratchett. (A non-Christmas bit of trivia: their daughter, who was uncredited in Christmas Carol, is June Lockhart of Lassie fame).
Much later, as Judge Henry X. Harper in Miracle on 34th Street, he would declare "Uh, since the United States Government declares this man to be Santa Claus, this court will not dispute it. Case dismissed."
I believe.
Thanks to all these actors and these great movies for a Happy Holiday season.
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