Saturday Cinema

It started as a "pop" song by Irving Berlin that Bing Crosby debuted at Christmastime 1941, but didn't get much notice until late in 1943 when servicemen and women requested it to the top of the charts.

Lynne Warfel begins with the 1970 musical by Leslie Bricusse and continue with additional holiday film scores. Meanwhile, the Cube Critics share their thoughts about film trilogies.

The 1970 musical by Leslie Bricusse is a beautifully filmed version of the classic "A Christmas Carol" with Albert Finney, Alec Guiness and an all-star British cast.

Saturday Cinema begins with Flicks in Five and the 1990 holiday classic, Home Alone. The hour continues with the scores from holiday films. We've also included a DVD review from MPR's Cube Critics.

Brian Reitzell talks about the complicated process of composing scores for the NBC series Hannibal — and how he takes inspiration from sources ranging from John Cage to industrial rock bands.

Movie scores provide a huge portion of the story telling. John Barry wrote a choral score for The Lion in Winter that sets the stage for intrigue and the appropriate Plantagenet style backstabbing.

Our celebration of Pixar films continues this week as we look at Monsters, Inc., another Randy Newman-composed score.

So many Hollywood romances, so little time. But for sheer passion and a tale of (nearly) unrequited love, at least by movie's end, you can't beat Rick and Ilse in "Casablanca." Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman sizzled as the two star-crossed lovers trying to survive in war-torn North Africa. Sam plays again on Flicks in Five.

While Casablanca made Humphrey Bogart a star before he met Lauren Bacall, it was their famous off-screen love affair that fired their on-screen chemistry.

As we think about movies with a back-to-school theme, there's a beautiful and rather somber one that comes to mind. It was even filmed at a real private school in Vermont.