Top 5 New Year's Eve films

December 31, 12:22 PMClassic TV ExaminerDoug Krentzlin

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                 "The Apartment"

Here are five recommendations of films involving New Year's Eve (to be presented in chronological order).

1. “After the Thin Man” Released on Christmas Day, 1936, “After the Thin Man” was the second film in the long-running comedy/mystery series, as well as the only entry in the series that matched the quality of the original. It takes up exactly where the first film left off: “The Thin Man” ended with Nick and Nora Charles taking a train home from New York where they spent the Christmas holidays, “After the Thin Man” begins with the train arriving in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve. This time around, Nick and Nora come to the aid of Nora’s cousin Selma (Elissa Landi), whose sleazy husband Robert (Alan Marshal) has become involved with some gangsters and a blackmail racket. “After the Thin Man” boasts the series’ best supporting cast: a very young James Stewart, Joseph Calleia, Jessie Ralph, Teddy Hart, George Zucco and Sam Levene.

2. “The Apartment” One of the highlights of the career of writer/director Billy Wilder was when he won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Direction and Best Screenplay (with I.A.L. Diamond) for this 1960 classic. Jack Lemmon gives perhaps his finest performance as C.C. Baxter, a white-collar drone who finds a short-cut up the ladder of success by lending his small apartment to his superior executives for their extra-marital trysts. He really hits the jackpot when the Head of Personal, Jeff Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray, successfully playing against type), avails himself to Baxter’s unique service. Unfortunately, Baxter learns, to his dismay, that Sheldrake’s mistress is elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), the woman he has long had a crush on. In a typical Wilder touch, the proceedings turn dark when Fran attempts suicide in Baxter’s apartment on Christmas Eve. The triangle resolves itself, however, in time for a New Year’s Eve climax. A perfect blend of satirical comedy, heart-wrenching drama and romantic sentiment, “The Apartment” is one of the few films that actually deserved to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

                            "The Hudsucker Proxy"

3. “The Hudsucker Proxy” The Coen Brothers’ 1994 comedy “The Hudsucker Proxy” was their biggest box office failure. Amazingly, very few of the critics or audiences realized that the film was the Coens’ satirical homage to the films of Frank Capra, borrowing plot elements from “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “Meet John Doe” and, especially, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.” (Indeed, it is almost impossible to appreciate “The Hudsucker Proxy” without some familiarity with the aforementioned Capra films.) The movie opens with Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) standing on a ledge on the top floor of the New York skyscraper headquarters of Hudsucker Industries contemplating suicide on New Year’s Eve, 1958. Via flashbacks we learn that Norville originally started out in the mail room, but was unexpectedly appointed president of the company by chairman of the board Sidney Mussburger (Paul Newman). The board wants to drive down the price of the stock so they can take control of the company and naïve country boy Norville is the patsy. Unfortunately for them, Norville proves to be a success when he invents a children’s toy called the Hoola-Hoop. In a sub-plot lifted verbatim from “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” newspaper reporter Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason Leigh) worms her way into Norville’s trust by pretending to be a small-town girl he can relate to and uses the inside info she gets from him for a series of exposés. Written (with Sam Raimi) and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, “The Hudsucker Proxy” is a sharp, hilarious comedy/fantasy with a wonderfully bizarre supernatural deus ex machina that is also a visual marvel thanks to Dennis Gassner’s production design and Roger Deakins’ cinematography.

                                   "Strange Days"

4. “Strange Days” Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by James Cameron, “Strange Days” (1995) is an intense sci-fi film noir in the tradition of “Blade Runner” and “Dark City.” Set on the last two days of 1999, the film’s premise is that technology will exist that can record people’s memories and physical sensations and download them to discs that other people can replay as a virtual reality experience (not unlike the “feelies” in Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”). Ralph Fiennes stars as Lenny Nero, an ex-LA vice cop who makes his living dealing in black market “clips” (memory discs). On New Year’s Eve, he anonymously receives a disc recording the murder of a prostitute that several thugs and corrupt cops are determined to get ahold of. With the help of his best friends, limo driver Mace (Angela Bassett) and private detective Max Peltier (Tom Sizemore), Lenny seeks redemption by solving the crime. Not a great movie, but the film’s set piece – a four block outdoor New Year’s Eve celebration in downtown LA – is pretty damn impressive and Bigelow’s direction keep things moving at a swift pace.

5. “End of Days” This 1999 supernatural thriller offers moviegoers the ultimate showdown: The Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger vs. the Devil a.k.a Satan, Lucifer, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub and the Prince of Darkness, played here by Gabriel Byrne who joined the distinguished company of others who have played the role including Walter Huston, Laird Cregar, Claude Rains, Ray Walston, Burgess Meredith, Gary Oldman and, my personal favorite, Peter Cook in “Bedazzled.” Interestingly, the climax of “End of Days” takes place on the exact same New Year’s Eve that my previous selection does, 1999 (only in New York, instead of Los Angeles). The plot has a young woman named Christine York (Robin Tunney) being stalked by Satan and his cult of followers to be his chosen bride. (It seems that if they mate between 11 p.m. and midnight on Dec. 31, the world will end.) Standing between His Satanic Majesty and his “bride” is Arnold as ex-cop turned private security guard Jericho Cane. Directed by Peter Hyams with his usual visual style, “End of Days” has a fairly unexpected surprise ending. And of course, typical with Schwarzenegger, there is lots of self-depreciating humor. Best of all is the scene where he takes various stale leftovers, puts them in a blender, purees them and, right before he drinks the mess, says: “They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”