Sleigh Bell Cinema

Merry Christmas! Mike Westfall (Advent Calendar House) joins Michael May to wrap up this season of the podcast with a discussion of the classic Miracle on 34th Street starring Maureen O'Hara, Natalie Wood, Edmund Gwenn, and John Payne. It's a beautiful movie and a great way to finish the year. 

Michael is joined by his wife Diane to talk about the modern Christmas classic Elf, why it hasn't been a part of their annual Christmas watching, and how it maybe should be.

Dan Taylor joins Michael for a Christmas turkey of a movie featuring young Pia Zadora, a killer robot, and more stock footage than you can shake a fake polar bear at. But is Santa Claus Conquers the Martians as bad as its reputation? What would it take to fix it? Dan and Michael figure it out in the most serious discussion ever of the silliest Christmas film.

Michael spends some holiday time with his brother Mark May talking about Bill Murray getting whacked in the head by Carol Kane in Richard Donner's irreverent riff on A Christmas Carol.

Last year on the show, Michaels DiGiovanni and May talked about Christmas Vacation and discovered that there was a TV movie sequel focused on Cousin Eddie and his family. With some encouragement from Paxton Holley, the three friends decided to watch it and talk about it this year... and then re-evaluate their life choices.

Rob Graham visits to talk about Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum's Holiday Affair, also starring Wendell Corey and (ever so briefly) Harry Morgan. Find out who's #TeamCarl and who's #TeamSteve in this complicated Christmas courtship.

Noel Thingvall drops by the farmhouse to talk about Arnold Schwarzenegger's directorial debut, the 1992 remake of Christmas in Connecticut starring Dyan Cannon, Kris Kristofferson, Tony Curtis, Richard Roundtree, and Jimmy Workman.

If you're most familiar with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray from their film noir classic Double Indemnity, you may be surprised by their falling in love over Christmastime in Remember the Night. Michael and Siskoid (Siskoid's Blog of Geekery, The Fire and Water Podcast Network) talk about the romance and how deftly it avoids both melodrama and romcom tropes. It's a movie worth seeing and a discussion worth listening to.

Nerd Lunch's Jeeg joins Michael for a heartwarming movie about getting along with family during the holidays, healing relationships, complicated burglar traps, drunk Santas, fruitcakes, and above all... hilarious rants. It's The Ref starring Denis Leary, Judy Davis, Kevin Spacey, Glynis Johns, and Christine Baranski.

Michael May is joined by Carlin Trammel of the Nerd Lunch and Pod James Pod podcasts to talk about that most Christmasy of James Bond movies, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, starring George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, and Telly Savalas.