Category: 1960s

In this relatively new addition to my Christmas collection, Dick Van Dyke is wonderful as the titular butler. Van Dyke and his motley crew of servants are on a quest to keep the elderly Edith Evans from discovering that her household is bankrupt, even as she gives away every dime to any charity that appears on her doorstep. The crew performs many a scam and swindle, even running a fictitious charity, to maintain the ruse, suddenly threatened by the addition of Barbara Feldon into the home. The film is delightful, despite not having much of a Christmas feel. It remains in the Christmas collection solely for the incredible brightly-colored climax, set at the height of Christmas Eve chaos at Gimbels department store. 

Though I can’t say from experience, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film try to portray so accurately portray what life can be like for a Black man in the United States, particularly in the 1960s South. Ivan Dixon is a railroad worker who falls in love with and marries a local preacher’s daughter. His larger troubles begin when he takes a job at a local sawmill so he can settle down in family life. Unfortunately he is unable to play the rules of the game and shrug off the microaggressions and expectations that he lower himself around the local white population. Along the way, there are a couple of interactions with his alcoholic father, a man so downtrodden who can’t be helped but be seen as an older version of Dixon’s character, and his young son who is currently being cared for by another woman. The performances are incredibly good and Dixon plays his with a perfect mix of desperation, anger, hope, stubbornness, and strength.