Greetings! It’s that time of year again (again): time for us to round up crime movies which also happen to be set during the Christmas season but are not really, technically “Christmas movies.” As I explain EVERY year, when I make another one of these lists, these aren’t movies like Die Hard or Home Alone: famously, obviously seasonal for a “Christmasy” backdrop. No, no, no… these are the movies you don’t always remember are even set at Christmas. In December 2018, our editor Dwyer Murphy assembled ten thrillers that might surprise you with their holiday settings, and in December of 2019, I added ten more. And then last year, I added another ten more. And this year, we’re back at it again for the FOURTH time! Can you believe it? I can’t! I really can’t.
Here are yet another ten more crime movies you might have forgotten take place at Christmas.
Goodfellas (1990)
You know the one! Yes, a big part of Goodfellas takes place at Christmas. There are multiple Christmassy sets, from Henry Hill’s home with its furry white plastic Christmas tree, to the decked-out, tinsel-clad bar. So, it counts, you wiseguys.
Blast of Silence (1961)
This excellent, underrated noir tells the tale of a deranged hitman from Cleveland who arrives in New York City to kill a second-tier mobster, but gets distracted when he encounters people from his past and discovers that they have lead very different lives than his own. There no time of year better for reflection than Christmas, folks. Fa la la la la la la la la.
The Ice Harvest (2005)
John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton light up this obscure, darkly comic thriller set in Wichita Falls, Texas. It’s Christmas Eve. Cusack plays Charlie, a shady lawyer who caters to various local criminals. He and his pal Vic (Billy Bob) have just embezzled $2 million from a local mob boss. Charlie wants to get out of town with Renata (Connie Nielsen) before anyone gets wise to what he’s done, but his Christmas wish might not come true. The moral of the story is, deck the halls before the halls deck you.
Mixed Nuts (1994)
I’m glad we have a Nora Ephron movie on this list to go with the aforementioned Nick Pileggi movie. (They were married.) Mixed Nuts, co-written by Nora and her sister Delia, is one of those fascinating, obscure post-When Harry Met Sally movies that no one has ever seen. Starring Steve Martin and Madeline Kahn, its events concern a suicide hotline office on Christmas Eve. There IS a serial killer (“THE SEASIDE STRANGLER!!!!”), so it definitely counts.
Donnie Brasco (1997)
I know ALL of Donnie Brasco doesn’t take place at Christmas, but a REALLY big, important part of it does. I dare you to find a sadder, more pathetic Christmas scene in any movie than the lonely Italian-American Christmas dinner at Al Pacino’s apartment. God, this movie absolutely wrings my heart out.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)
Cusack again! Here, he plays a journalist come to Savannah, Georgia to write a feature on a local bigwig’s famous Christmas shindig (it’s Kevin Spacey, so, as usual, I’m not TELLING you to go watch this movie). But when someone ends up dead, and Kevin Spacey ends up on trial, secrets start to spin out of control.
Go (1999)
Go is one of those interesting, youthful, hyper-kinetic millennium crime movies, like Run Lola Run or Snatch, where everyone is in brightly-colored leather jackets and all the men have spiky hair. Directed by Doug Liman (of Swingers fame), it is story of a heist told from three perspectives.
Stalag 17 (1953)
Yes, Stalag 17 is a war movie, so should it really be on this list? Maybe not. But it’s also kind of a prison escape movie, so that definitely does qualify it to be featured on this website. Anyway, Stalag 17 does for Christmas what The Great Escape did for the Fourth of July.
We’re No Angels (1955)
Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, and Aldo Ray are three escapees from Devil’s Island prison who hide out with a family in the French countryside on Christmas Eve, and help out around the house while they’re there. MORE films about home invasion should feature interlopers who actually just want to wash your windows and help you make dinner.
Better Watch Out (2016)
Better Watch Out is a clever Home Alone pastiche, so of course it’s set during Christmas! One evening, a teenage girl babysitting a young boy must defend his suburban home from invaders… but nothing is as it seems. Simon Abrams, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave it ONE STAR. Merry Christmas, you filthy animals!
