If the Grinch in you has difficulty getting past the saccharine silliness of Miracle on 34th Street, how about a Christmas film that opens with an alcoholic druggist bringing his fist so hard against his delivery boy’s head that blood flows from the lad’s ear? And for a beloved yuletide classic, the film’s ending is anything but happy. The further Clarence’s revisionist dream recedes into the background, the sooner George Bailey will once again long to kick the crummy dust of Bedford Falls off his shoes. How Frank Capra’s dark slice of Americana survived its initial box office drubbing to become a part of the annual Christmas celebration is anyone’s guess. For years in the public domain, the picture once played regularly year-round. It’s a long story, but in 1994, NBC was granted the exclusive rights to broadcast the film at Christmastime. Here’s is your chance to see it on the big screen as it was intended. (1946) — Scott Marks
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