BY JAY BOBBIN
Dean Cain counts down ‘The Top 12 Greatest Christmas Movies of All Time’ Dean Cain may be the superman of Christmas movies. The actor has made more than a dozen of them for various networks – including, this season’s “Broadcasting Christmas” for Hallmark Channel – so he’s an appropriate person to serve as host of “The Top 12 Greatest Christmas Movies of All Time,” a CW special debuting Wednesday, Dec. 14. Clips from each included film illustrate the countdown to the No. 1 pick, and while Cain won’t state outright what that choice is, he leaves no doubt which one he favors. “One of my favorite movies of all time, bar none, is ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ ” he says. “It just gets me. It may be the greatest Christmastime film I’ve ever seen ... and it has nothing to do with Christmas, but everything to do with that time of the year. It’s not a Christmas story but it is, and I just adore it.” With such other likely candidates as “White Christmas,” “Miracle on 34th Street” and “A Christmas Story,” the amiable Cain was “surprised at how easy it was” to make the special’s selection of a dozen yuletide favorites. “I didn’t know the order, but I was just hoping ... and for a countdown type of special, I thought this one was dead-on. I was really happy with the way it went. I’m very proud of that list, because it’s just so much fun. “And I had so much fun shooting it,” adds Cain. “I was as excited as anyone else to find out what the next one on the list was, because it’s something I have knowledge of. None of my movies made it, but I wouldn’t have put mine with these 12 anyway.” That’s partially because the show hits Cain where he lives, being the ardent movie-lover he is. “My brother and I don’t actually speak to each other in real terms, we just
quote movies,” he muses. “We’ll do that, then we hang up on each other, and that says all we have to say.” Absent from those chats is their father, film director Christopher Cain (“Young Guns”). “He thinks we’re idiots,” Dean notes. “And my mom’s like, ‘Don’t you speak to each other like regular people?’ And we say, ”No, Mom. We don’t do that.’ “ Dean Cain’s presence is being felt strongly on The CW this holiday season. He also was featured in the recent Hollywood Walk of Fame Honors special, and he’s a host – along with Erik Estrada, Montel Williams and travel guru Laura McKenzie – of the network’s telecast of the 85th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade on Friday, Dec. 16. Even beyond the holidays, Cain and The CW have a strong relationship. He’ll be back for his sixth season of hosting the series “Masters of Illusion” next year (“I’m so happy to be doing that again”), and due to “Supergirl’s” Year 2 move from CBS, he also has CW ties via that show now ... though it’s a question mark when and how his character, heroine Kara’s (Melissa Benoist) Earth father Jeremiah Danvers, may resurface. “I think everybody’s paying attention” to related Internet chatter among “Supergirl” fans, “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” alum Cain says, “even (executive producers) Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti and Ali Adler. I think they have fun with that, and I know they know what they’re doing. “I can’t say whether I’ve been up there (to the Vancouver set) or anything like that, but I think Jeremiah is probably alive, and that’s about as much as I can say. I love the show, and Melissa literally is the perfect casting. She’s done so well with the role.”
Bing Crosby (left) and Danny Kaye
DRINKING MOVIES
Lee Remick and Jack Lemmon from “Days of Wine and Roses”
2
Dudley Moore from “Arthur” Mickey Rourke from “Barfly”
“The Lost Weekend” (1945) One of filmdom’s first cautionary tales on the evils of alcohol overconsumption stars Ray Milland as a struggling New York writer and hardcore alcoholic who goes on a four-day bender after ducking out of a weekend in the country with his brother. Told in flashback, his adventures include getting tossed from a bar, checking in with an ex-flame, hallucinations and a stay in the drunk ward. Billy Wilder’s adaptation of Charles R. Jackson’s novel earned Oscars for best picture, director, actor (Milland) and writing. “Days of Wine and Roses” (1962) Life spirals ever downward for a San Francisco PR man and his wife in Blake Edwards’ startlingly frank – especially for the time – drama. Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) is a master at wining and
dining clients, which has led to a drinking problem for not only himself but for his formerly teetotaling young wife, Kristen (Lee Remick). He gets fired, she causes a fire, they sober up, relapse, separate and then one finally sees the light – while the other sadly sees the light of a neon bar sign. “Arthur” (1981) Not every drunk is depressed, desperate and down and out, as Manhattan heir Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore) demonstrates in this classic romantic comedy that sadly proved to be the late Steve Gordon’s only big-screen effort. While Arthur may be a happy lush, something is missing from his life: love – absent from his arranged match with a business acquaintance’s daughter (Jill Eikenberry) but present in his forbidden relationship with a
Beyond Basic TV
commoner (Liza Minnelli). The wedding scene is hilarious, but John Gielgud’s ultra-dry delivery as Arthur’s ever-loyal manservant and de facto father figure steals the movie. “Barfly” (1987) “Here’s to all my friends.” Aimless drunk and erstwhile poet Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke) never had much use for hard work, so he whiled away his hours at the local bar where he gleefully conned free drinks and fought with a bartender. When one of his works is published and he finds himself in a relationship with his literary agent, Henry realizes he’s become part of the class of people he despises: those who work for a living. He resolves to return to the only life he knows to be true – one of destitution and alcoholism.
December 10 - 16, 2016