Don't get me wrong, I love tradition at this time of the rolling year. I'm ready to see Ebenezer Scrooge bless Jacob Marley, Heaven and the Christmas Time, hear Gene Lockhart declare Edmund Gwenn the one-and-only Santa Claus, and realize that George Bailey is the richest man in town.

Now let me introduce you to some little-known, unusual, even offbeat Christmas movies with equally redemptive themes to share with family and friends during the Twelve Days of Christmastide. All are available on DVD.

The Fourth Wise Man (1985)
Artaban the astrologer sees a magnificent star, prepares three precious gifts, and trots off to join his brother magi in Bethlehem. He arrives too late, just ahead of Herod's soldiers. He spends the next 33 years seeking the King.

This 72-minute treat from Paulist Productions, based on Henry van Dyke's classic 1896 novelette, The Other Wise Man, stars Martin Sheen with Alan Arkin, Ralph Bellamy and Sydney Penny --- and is several notches above the usual TV movie.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
Directed by Elia Kazan from the bestselling novel by Betty Smith, this is an unsentimental, remarkably frank, coming-of-age reminiscence of a sister and brother Francie and Neely Dolan (Peggy Ann Garner, juvenile Oscar winner, and Ted Donaldson) growing up in a Brooklyn tenement. (My late father, familiar with the locale, verified the accuracy of the film's depiction of life in the 1910s: haggling with butchers, chasing the baker's wagon to buy a loaf of day-old bread with a penny, men keeping personal china shaving mugs in nooks on the barber's shelf, organ grinders playing their hurdy-gurdies.)

The mother (Dorothy McGuire), taking in laundry to make ends meet, has been beaten down by drudgery while her husband (James Dunn in an Oscar-winning performance) is a ne'er-do-well singing waiter working whenever he's not drunk. Charming and loving, he encourages his children to succeed and enjoy God's world, even after the beautiful tree in the courtyard is cut down. His Christmas Eve chat with Francie and its aftermath are both heartwarming and heartrending. Joan Blondell, James Gleason and Lloyd Nolan are all part of a perfectly cast production --- a must-see film.

We're No Angels (1955)
It's Christmas Day in tropical Cayenne, French Guyana and three amiable convicts, escaped from Devil's Island, look for easy money to book passage to Paris. They hire on to mend the roof of a failing business, hoping to loot the cashbox. Instead, they perform a few good deeds for the amiable if downtrodden shop owner, his long-suffering wife, and their beautiful, if naive, daughter.

Directed by Michael Curtiz, the film is based on a French play, La Cuisine de Anges. Peter Ustinov's drollery and Humphrey Bogart's deadpan one-liners make this film a trove of great quotations; Aldo Ray plays his standard likable lug, but with better lines than usual. It's dark humor all the way as the three murderers thwart the nefarious plans of Basil Rathbone --- with the aid of Aldo's pet viper, Adolf. Avoid the excruciatingly bad 1989 remake like the plague.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Adapted from the Davis Grubb novel set during the Great Depression, the only film directed by the great Charles Laughton was way ahead of its time. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), a psychopathic travelling preacher marries and murders widows for the "little wad of cash hid away in the sugar bowl." Serving a 30-day sentence for stealing a car Harry bunks with a reluctant bank robber (Peter Graves) about to be executed for killing two guards. He refuses to tell where $10,000 is stashed.

Released, Harry dashes off to the town of Cresap's Landing, marries the robber's widow (Shelley Winters) but is stymied by her two children, Pearl and John, who know where the money is and run away with it. Rachel Cooper (silent film legend Lillian Gish) a feisty old lady, gives shelter to the children. Virtue triumphs at Christmas but it's touch-and-go all the way.

Mitchum, with the words "love" and "hate" tattooed on his knuckles, leaves an indelible impression in this surprisingly blunt, suspenseful, very Christian cautionary fable with liturgical overtones. This is not a movie for small children, but teens and adults will be fascinated.

O Henry's Full House (1952)
Virtue continues to triumph, if unexpectedly, in this wonderful anthology. Five vignettes reflect turn-of-the-century life in New York --- Baghdad-on-the-Hudson as it was called by O. Henry, America's master of ironic humor and the twist ending. Five top-flight directors and a slew of 20th Century Fox's best actors make this movie memorable. In a fine touch John Steinbeck introduces each short story with an appreciation of O. Henry's genius.

In "The Cop and the Anthem" Soapy Throckmorton, a bum who sleeps on a park bench, prepares to have his simple needs attended to by spending Christmas and the rest of winter contentedly ensconced for 90 days in a nice, warm jail cell. Problem is, no matter what, each petty crime Soapy commits fails to get arrested. Charles Laughton is hilarious; Marilyn Monroe has a bit at the start of her career.

"The Clarion Call" with Richard Widmark is a fine drama and "The Ransom of Red Chief" featuring Fred Allen is fun but neither is set at Christmas.

"The Last Leaf" is a winter tale, a veritable poem of sacrificial love about Joanna (Anne Baxter), a poor young artist dreaming of success, living with her sister, Susan (Jean Peters), in a drafty cold water flat. Their crotchety upstairs neighbor, a Russian artist named Behrman (Gregory Ratoff), can never sell his odd, color-splashed canvases for more than $3.00.

Joanna contracts pneumonia, traumatized by a failed romance. Susan and Behrman try to help her rally but Joanna loses the will to live when, noticing the ivy vine on the wall facing their window, she counts 21 dying leaves. Since she's 21, Joanna takes it as an omen. The wind picks up, blowing a leaf off the vine. "Look, I'm getting younger," she laughs with sepulchral humor. She decides that, when the last leaf goes, she'll die. A sudden storm picks up over night. Will any leaves be found in the morning?

As many times as "The Gift of the Magi" has been adapted for the screen this is the best. Jeanne Crain and Farley Granger star as the poor newlyweds trying to find money enough for really special Christmas presents. Although it's become a well-loved Christmas cliché, this version remains fresh and affectionate even now.

Remember the Night (1940)
Written by the wildly imaginative Preston Sturges, the film tells of a worldly-wise shoplifter (Barbara Stanwyck) paroled for a week into the custody of the prosecuting attorney (Fred MacMurray), who takes her to meet his mom for the Christmas celebration in the small town where he grew up. Sturges keeps the action both hilarious and touching with something of a surprise ending.

Another Sturges bit of fun, "Christmas in July" (also from 1940), has nothing to do with the holiday but shows Dick Powell's dilemma when he thinks he's won a radio quiz show contest, buys up half the town, then realizes it was all a practical joke.

The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)
Bob Hope's second foray onto Damon Runyon turf (after 1949's "Sorrowful Jones") finds him as a hapless tout who steers gangster Moose Moran's moll away from betting on the winning horse. Having to repay Moose, the Kid thinks up a scam. He hires other colorful Broadway denizens as street-corner Santas to collect donations, ostensibly for an old folk's home. Smelling easy money, Oxford Charlie muscles in on the racket and the plot thickens. With the help of his girl, Brainy Baxter, the Kid goes straight as Marilyn Maxwell and Hope introduce the Yuletide tune "Silver Bells".

Bachelor Mother (1939)
In this sidesplitting Christmas romp written by Garson Kanin, Ginger Rogers is a soon-to-be-discharged salesgirl who comes upon an abandoned baby in a basket; everyone assumes the child is hers. Charming as ever, David Niven, son of gruff store owner Charles Coburn, takes pity on the girl, keeps Ginger employed, and falls in love with her, as often occurs in screwball comedies.

And this is one of the best, getting in a few digs at Disney saturation marketing even then. This story is also a painless homily for pro-abortion friends, with its appealing depiction of the joys of parenthood, even when unexpectedly encountered.

I'll Be Seeing You (1944)
In a slice of World War II Americana, Ginger Rogers switches gears to portray Mary Marshall, convicted of accidental manslaughter, returning home on leave from prison for Christmas. On the train she meets Zach Morgan (Joseph Cotton), a psychologically fragile veteran, furloughed from an Army psych ward so he may readjust to society. These two lonely souls respond to each other and fall deeply in love. Learning each other's misfortune creates a need for mutual forgiveness in this affectionate, sentimental romance.

Lady for a Day (1933) and Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
We're back in Damon Runyon territory with two cinematic versions of his story "Madame La Gimp," both directed by Frank Capra. Christmas nears and Apple Annie (May Robson/Bette Davis), a frowsy Broadway panhandler, gets a beauty treatment courtesy of notorious gambler, Dave the Dude (Warren William/Glenn Ford). With Annie's secret, convent-bred daughter in Spain coming to visit with her fiancé, a Spanish count, the Dude executes an all-together improbable plan to make Annie a high society doyen.

Tremendous fun, both films are cinematic parables bearing out Capra's underlying Christian philosophy which critics sneeringly called "Capracorn" --- that most men and women will respond to the difficulties of someone in trouble.

Also recommended:
As a special treat for mystery buffs, Turner Classic Movies presents 24 straight hours of Sherlock Holmes adventures, beginning Christmas Day at 5 p.m. (check local listings). The world television premiere of the long-thought-lost 1922 silent film adaptation of William Gillette's influential 1899 play, "Sherlock Holmes," stars John Barrymore Dec. 27. On New Years Eve, TCM presents five of the enjoyably freewheeling "Thin Man" mysteries starring William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Sean M. Wright conducts workshops and enrichment classes on Catholic topics at parishes throughout the archdiocese. He responds to comments sent to Locksley69@aol.com.