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 or maybe not. Many of these actors worked for many different studios.
As a Golden Age movie trivia buff, this proved 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.
So many actors worked in so many films but never achieved much screen credit. Sometimes all you need to hear is the voice and you know you have heard and seen this actor before. At Christmas, Charles Lane can be seen in It's a Wonderful Life (RKO, 1946) as Mr. Potter's rent collector who warns him about George Bailey.
Child actor Bobby Anderson played the Young George Bailey who saves his brother's life in the pond one winter day--but loses his hearing in one ear in the process in It's a Wonderful Life (RKO, 1946).
Just one year later, Bobby Anderson appears in The Bishop's Wife (RKO, 1947) as the kid in charge of a snowball fight that will not let the Bishop's daughter contribute to until Cary Grant as the angel intervenes.
In The Bishop's Wife (RKO, 1947) Sara Haden played the Bishop's secretary Mildred Cassaway, charmed by the angel Cary Grant.
Seven years earlier, In Shop Around the Corner (MGM, 1940), Sara Haden had played the store clerk Flora at Matuscheks.
Store owner Hugo Matuschek in The Shop Around the Corner (MGM, 1940) 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 in The Shop Around the Corner (MGM, 1940), he hires a private detective who is played by Charles Halton.
Later Halton played Carter, the bank examiner, who helps Mr. Potter get a warrant for George Bailey's arrest in It's a Wonderful Life (RKO, 1946).
Even the most uncredited actor can find themselves acting in immortal Christmas movies. In The Shop Around the Corner (MGM, 1940), Charles Arnt had an uncredited role as a policeman. Five years later he got got one line as Homer Higgenbottom in Christmas in Connecticut (Warner, 1945). Don't feel too bad for Arnt; he appeared in 133 films or television shows in a career that stretched from 1933 to 1962,
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). Uncle Felix, played by the great S. Z. Sakall, gets credit for the greatest line in a Christmas movie, "Cook your own kidneys!"
Beulah Bondi made a career out of playing Moms including Fred MacMurray's Indiana mom in Remember the Night (Paramount, 1940).
She is also George Bailey's mom in It's A Wonderful Life (RKO, 1946) 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 (Warner, 1945) .
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 (RKO, 1946).
H. B. Warner played the pharmacist Mr. Gower who is saved from causing a death by the young George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (RKO, 1946).
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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 as one of their daughters 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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