A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas! is a tinsel-filled journey through the most iconic holiday films of all time, including perennial favorites It's A Wonderful Life (1946) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947). The special looks at variations within the genre, such as holiday romances, family movies, and even thrillers. A Night at the Movies: Merry Christmas! features behind the scenes stories and personal Hollywood Christmas memories from the likes of Chevy Chase, Margaret O'Brien, Chazz Palminteri, Deborah Raffin, Karolyn Grimes, Zack Ward, Brian Henson, Joe Dante, Trine Mitchum, authors Julie Salamon and Alonso Duralde, A Christmas Carol expert Michael Patrick Hearn, and many more.
Story of a well-to-do elderly woman, who befriends the homeless and volunteers her time with children, who learns she has an incurable illness and wants desperately to reunite her three grown grand children (who are scattered across the U.S. living their own lives), with their estranged father, her son. She hires a private detective to search for them so as to try to get everyone together on Christmas Eve.
Fritz, Walter and Andi are caught red-handed in the event of a burglary. But are the three friends in Santa Claus costume really a wanted gang of criminals? Commissioner Bremer is supposed to find that out on Christmas Eve. While her family is already waiting at home, she has to listen to more unusual confessions than she would like. But the interrogation won't go, because your intrigued colleague is just waiting to take over the prestigious case.
Theodore Hickman, a hardware salesman, makes by-yearly visits to Harry Hope's 1910-era waterfront bar for his periodical drinking binges. But on this visit he has decided to try to save the bar's patrons from their "lying pipe dreams."
A supermarket operator from Ahlbeck (Usedom) is found dead, naked, in the spa gardens of neighboring Swinemünde in Poland. Inspector Julia Thiel and her Polish colleague Marek Wozniak are investigating together. Only initially does everything look like a sexual offense. The woman wanted to meet one of her cashiers to offer her a new apartment in Poland in exchange for an old, run-down house on the German side. However, it is said that the inspection of the apartment never took place. A case that particularly challenges Julia Thiel.
Tom Acton, a devoted family man, has worked tirelessly in order to achieve success. However, his dreams are shattered when his teenage daughter Kathy engages in an affair with a married man. When Kathy is found murdered, Tom becomes the primary suspect in the case. As he sets his sights on the real killer, long buried secrets bubble to the surface and unlock the truth behind the ghastly murder.
Stefanie von Nauenstedt begins a passionate affair with David, her brother-in-law, and realizes only too late how much her husband André and her son mean to her.
Rosa Winter has a lot of experience with wedding planning. She has stood at the altar with Sam three times - and each time her groom has seen her flee at the last second! Can such a woman organize a beautiful wedding celebration for other people as an event planner? Rosa says: yes! Especially as the graphic designer has just inherited a bridal fashion store from her aunt. Since she has little idea about paperwork, she brings the patented industrial clerk Meral on board. But the very first customer order turns out to be a real test...
It's Christmas with the Chandlers but no one seems to have the Christmas spirit - except for Stephanie, that is. Marci and Blair are obsessing over being the perfect parents, Myra and Donald have retired and suddenly feel useless and Elizabeth is bending over backwards to get a promotion at work. Add to that Stephanie's blooming romance with Lawrence - who is torn between being with her and continuing his mission work - and Christmas seems to be taking a back seat. That is, until a group of kids at an orphanage helps the family to realize that there's more to Christmas than wrapping gifts and baking cookies.
In the forest near the lake house unusual events unfold. Young scientist Christopher is studying the anomalous properties of the human psyche as an example in his love of rural women.
Akira Kurosawa’s only television work—a lyrical documentary that follows a thoroughbred from birth and training to the Japan Derby—framed by a grandfather’s narration to his grandson about the fading bond between people and horses.