After riffing on Christmas movies with Santa Claus, the Real Housewives of Rifftrax (Mary Jo Pehl and Bridget Nelson) decide to take on a fantasy movie about three rich guys who help a young couple during Christmas....even after death.
The movie was made by RKO in 1940, and was more or less a "B" movie with people that movie fans may know. It does include Richard Carlson, aka the murderous jazz pianist from "Tormented".
Anyway, the movie is about three rich guys who toss out wallets with $10 in them, and whoever returns them can have a drink with them for Christmas. They also throw in a maid who apparently was an exiled member of Russian royalty or something.
A guy from Texas named Jimmy who can sing, and a teacher named Jean, pick up the wallets,and it's not long before they become a family.
When the old guys die in a plane crash, their ghosts reunite at their house. Jimmy and Jean learn the guys left them some bonds to secure their future.
Problem is, Jimmy meets a girl named Arlene who assists in Jimmy's singing career. He starts to ignore Jean, and it looks like Arlene will get her hooks on him.
As for the old ghosts, they're not able to find a miser to teach him the importance of Christmas or at least Mankind should be his business. They're called to Heaven, and one of them, Michael, tries to stay on Earth to help Jimmy.
Then we get the ending where Jimmy's shot by Arlene's ex-husband, and apparently dies at the operating table. He's able to talk to Michael, who convinces his to go back to Jean. After some "divine intervention", Jimmy lives and Michael heads up the Stairway to Heaven.
The movie is really sentimental but they should have moved the scene where Jimmy and Jean get the bonds to the end, as a divine reward. Anyway, Rifftrax got this because the movie was originally colorized for Legend Films, the company's old name, more than a decade ago.
As usual, Bridget and Mary Jo have a relaxed approach to bad movies, as if they were two Midwestern moms amused by what they see. We will see if they have the same attitude towards Batman v. Superman this week.
Riff time:
Jimmy enters the old guys' apartment returning the wallet
Run! It's a fancy cannibal trap.
The ghosts of the rich guys reunite
Thanks for not turning the phone to airport mode, Steve
Something is about to happen, and Michael looks worried
When you realize you look like Porky Pig
Jean begs Jimmy to come back to her
Tom Stewart killed me, emotionally
There are also riffs on Clue, Patrick Swayze, how telegrams were old-fashioned texts, Seinfeld and TV's Frank.
Beyond Christmas is currently available on the Rifftrax website, along with other holiday shorts including new ones on an off-brand version of Frosty the Snowman and holiday traditions around the world.
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