Some people like parkas, but others like pookas -- spirits from Celtic mythology who show up in a very large animal form. In 1950, the world got Harvey, the cinematic adaptation of Mary Chase's Pulitzer Prize-winning play -- a film that won co-star Josephine Hull an Oscar. James Stewart starred as Elwood P. Dowd, a strange, but thoughtful man whose best friend is a 6-foot, three and one-half inch tall pooka rabbit named Harvey.

Oh, Harvey. When Easter comes, some people think of the bwok-ing Cadbury bunny, others think of fluffy little lops, but I think of the super-tall, white friend of Elwood's. There's all sorts of strange premises these days, but modern times definitely don't have a complete hold on strange stories -- like a sweet-natured man who might get committed for his seemingly imaginary friend. And, there's not many men who could pull off a friendship with a rabbit, without having it be animated. Oh, Jimmy Stewart.

Otto Preminger is in the midst of reappraisal. Foster Hirsch just published a new bio about the bald and fulminating showman (here's my review), the New Yorker's David Denby recently discussed the director/producer on the occasion of Hirsch's book and Chris Fujiwara's more analytical book The World and its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger, and there was also a retrospective of Preminger at NYC's Film Forum. There are times when it seems like there's very few big rediscoveries to make in Hollywood cinema. The longing that maybe there's someone out there who has been overlooked strengthens the idea that Preminger needs new viewers and new understanding. Skidoo, for instance, which I'll be writing about shortly, is an astonishingly strange film, strange in that mind-roasting way that makes it really distinguished. Preminger's less-seen films deserve a revival, but his best work hardly needs a defense. The 1959 Anatomy of a Murder is a juicy, involving court-room drama with a splendid Duke Ellington soundtrack. It's about the wolf-like ardor for the law, a legal duel over a pair of wasted lives, held in a small town that sits right on the line between "picturesque" and "squalid."

People celebrate the holiday season in many different ways, for many different reasons. If you, like me, choose the remembrance of the birth of Christ as the primary reason to observe Dec. 25th, or if you are simply interested in hearing from that perspective, you might find this interesting. Of course, you might not. By the time you're done reading, you may want to beat me upside the head, because frankly, I'm not sure there's a lot of coherence to my thought process here. Nonetheless, let's give it a go. Today, on the day many of us choose to recall the birth of our Savior, the 12 Days of Cinematicalmas Presents: Christmas Movies To Remember Jesus By.

You know, readers, this is one bugger of an article to write, for two reasons. First, because I don't typically discuss my faith in this forum -- it just doesn't come up much when you spend most of your time writing about comic books -- and second, because upon examination I realize that most of the Christmas specials I watch when I really want to feel the "spirit of the season" are not directly about Jesus. Typically, when I want that story, I go straight to the Book. Movies aren't ever as good as the books anyway, right?

So initially, I sat in front of a blank notepad (the computer notepad, of course, not that paper stuff that I hear some people still use) and thought "I'm not going to be able to write this article, because the movies I want to write about really hold no unique appeal to Christians. They're loved by really just about everyone." I was all set to jet off an apologetic email to the editorial team here at Cine, ex planing why I couldn't write what seems like it should be a very easy article on a subject I'm intimately involved with. But before the email was composed, a weird thought hit me. I examined it, and sure enough, it was accurate. Keep in mind, I'm just your average layperson, and am in no way specially qualified to make observations about scripture or people's relationship with their God, so this is just a simple observation from a humble follower. ...

It's a Wonderful Life has an odd place in the American canon: Well-known but half-remembered; dismissed as mawkish but revered as moving. It may be one of those dream-films we only recall as images -- the haunted stumble into Pottersville, the exultant return to Bedford Falls, a small, ringing bell -- but it's worth watching with your mind as well as your heart. Here are seven things you may not know about the Frank Capra / Jimmy Stewart classic, from where it began to its reverberations in the here and now.

1) Familiarity Breeds Content

Contrary to popular belief, It's a Wonderful Life didn't enter the public domain in 1974; rather, it fell out of copyright -- a subtle distinction, but regardless, it certainly wasn't expensive to show on TV for a span of several years -- during which it attained cultural ubiquity. (In fact, the legal status of It's a Wonderful Life meant that at one point, a po-mo variation on What's Up Tiger Lilly was planned by The Upright Citizen's Brigade.) A mix of re-asserted copyrights and a weird kind of veneration mean that these days it's only shown on network TV on a limited basis -- but it's made it's way into the Christmastime zeitgeist nonetheless, thanks to years of the kinds of repeat airing where, as a pre-semi-stardom Woody Harrelson put it on Cheers, "From now until Christmas, It's a Wonderful month. ..."

2) The Premise Works

And does it ever -- you can click yourself stupid doing on-line research on pop-culture re-iterations of George's guided tour of a George-less universe. (And researching how George Bailey and Mr. Potter both owe a debt to a Mr. Crachit and a Mr. Scrooge can take the same amount of time.) There's an entire essay in parsing whether the easier question would be 'What bad sitcoms have done It's a Wonderful Life episodes?' or 'What bad sitcoms haven't?" When a movie influences high and low art, that's a kind of eternity in and of itself -- even if one of your standard-bearers is MST3K.