7 classic Christmas movies where business is the bad guy

IT’S ONE OF the great clichés in Christmas films – just as a happy family is about to tuck into its turkey dinner, a phone rings.

In these types of movies, particularly of a certain vintage, it’s usually the father’s phone. He answers, and as he listens to the voice on the other end of the line his face goes a little grey. He hangs up and looks across the room.

The children look on in horror as the mother, her voice trembling, asks, “Who was that dear?”. The father looks grim. “It was the office”.

‘The office’ – two words that bring a cold chill to the core of any warm-hearted Christmas flick.

Many of the best Christmas films focus on the ‘spirit of the holiday’, which logically often puts business, and characters who prioritise it, in the role of the bad guy.

Here we take a look at some of the most famous examples.

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) – Mr Potter

Mr Potter

Perhaps the most famous – and in this author’s humble opinion, probably the best – Christmas film of all time, the 1939 classic features one of cinema’s most iconic villains in the form of the mean Mr Potter.

The miserly magnate drives much of the plot, finding, and selfishly keeping, a package with thousands of dollars in it that nearly drives the protagonist, George Bailey, to bankruptcy and suicide.

When his friends and family come to his rescue, George is freed from the influence and greed of Potter, just in time for Christmas.

The Apartment (1960) – Bosses and the corporate ladder

A still of the famous office party scene

The Apartment probably isn’t an out-and-out Christmas movie, but its setting during the festive season is pretty vital to the plot and atmosphere, so we’re going to give ourselves a pass.

Critically acclaimed and the winner of five Oscars, the film stars Jack Lemmon as Calvin Baxter, an office drone who lets his bosses use his apartment as the go-to spot for an extramarital affair.

Business sets the conflict of the story in motion, as Baxter allows the executives at his company to use him in order to try and climb the greasy corporate ladder.

Elf (2003) - Fulton Greenway

Buddy the Elf is one of Ferrell's most famous roles

Will Ferrell gives one of the best performances of his career as Buddy, a man who stowed away in Santa’s sack as a young boy leading to him growing up in the North Pole thinking he is an elf.

For most of the film, Buddy’s biological father, Walter, is torn between his relationship with his son and the wishes of his impatient boss, Greenway. The head of a book publishing firm, Greenway sparks most of the conflict in the film as he demands that Walter find a successful book the firm can publish by Christmas eve.

Trading Places (1983) - Randolph and Mortimer Duke

The Duke brothers

The ideologies of nature and nurture square off against each other in the form of a bet between Randolph and Mortimer Duke.

The duo, who own a successful commodities brokerage, are initially presented as eccentric, rather than malicious, as they wager whether a street hustler played by Eddie Murphy can successfully switch roles with their managing director, played by Dan Aykroyd.

A turning point in the film is the office Christmas party, when Aykroyd’s character hits a low point, and it is revealed that the pair intend to return Murphy’s character to squalor while trying to make themselves even wealthier. The Dukes represent capitalism at its worst.

Christmas Vacation (1989) – Frank Shirley

Shirley arrives gift-wrapped for Griswold to berate

Poor Clark Griswold. Played by Chevy Chase, Griswold is an optimistic family man relying on his Christmas bonus to get through the holidays.

The only thing standing in his way is his stern boss, Frank Shirley, who fails to deliver, instead initially sending Clark a Jelly of the Month Club.

Shirley is forced into a schmaltzy climbdown later on, proclaiming that a healthy bottom line doesn’t mean much if it hurts “the little people”, but his tightness almost spoils the show.

The Family Man (2000) – Work

Nicholas Cage in the Family Man

While Christmas Vacation is a bit cheesy, it has a bit of an edge and features a superb rant from Chase. The Family Man, on the other hand, is pure sentimental gush. Jack Campbell is Wall St exec in the middle of putting together an enormous merger when he hears his estranged girlfriend has called him out of the blue.

Borrowing heavily from It’s a Wonderful Life, a guardian angel shows Jack how he could have had a happy, but modest, existence if he had decided to stick with his girlfriend. When Jack ditches his mega-deal for a shot at love, the film gets so sickly sweet just watching it will make your teeth ache.

A Christmas Carol (1992) – Ebenezer Scrooge

Michael Caine as Scrooge

A man so famous for his meanness that his name has become a synonym for the term, there is little to be written about one of the most famous characters in all of cinema and literature.

Scrooge is one of the best examples of a man almost consumed by his own wealth, one too cheap to even properly heat his workers’ office. It is only when he truly understands how others view his obsession with material wealth that Scrooge renounces his ways and becomes a more complete person.

There have been many film portrayals of Scrooge, but Michael Caine’s in the Muppet Christmas Carol is surely one of the best.