Dec 25 2008
Christmas Classics: The Villains
Christmas classics are the films that help define the holiday season, and they would not have their flavor if not for their villains. Whether the villain is that of the main character who makes a startling revelation about themselves or a nagging antagonist who helps make an ordinary story more troublesome to the viewer’s nerves, the villain drives the story forward and creates a predicament for the main character to move past.
Three such characters vary by way of the narrative structure and setting of the story, yet share the same common ground. Henry F. Potter (played by Lionell Barrymore), the rich businessman who troubles George Bailey (and just about everyone else in town) in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) is practically the same character as Silas Barnaby (who is every bit as sinister, or even worse) in March of the Wooden Soldiers (aka Babes in Toyland, 1934, starring Laurel and Hardy); they are both very rich, own many properties, and abuse their power to get what they want. Another character who is a well-off businessman is Ebinezer Scrooge in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (portrayed by Reginald Owen in A Christmas Carol, 1938). He is a miserable, lonely man who makes everyone he deals with miserable. He is, in this case, the main character; he needs to learn more about himself and how he relates to others in order to get past his own obstacles.
The main characters of these stories conquer their problems, and all ends on an upbeat note. Silas Barnaby of March of the Wooden Soldiers, who leads the “Bogey-Men” in an invasion of Toyland, is driven away by the wooden soldiers, ousted from the town where he is rich and powerful. Scrooge of A Christmas Carol becomes a generous and benevolent soul, atoning for his harsh behavior and becoming a pleasant person people want to be around. Old man Potter of It’s A Wonderful Life, on the other hand, is not punished for his actions; even though the main character overcomes a life-changing problem brought forth by Potter, Potter simply presses forward as he always has been. He continues on his path of misery, perhaps to alter another character’s life in a terrible way…..
