Day 3: Chicago & the Holidays in the Movies

For our 3rd Day of Christmas holiday blogging marathon, we give a nod to some of the Chicago holiday scenes on the Silver Screen, courtesy of Michael Corcoran's upcoming update of Hollywood on Lake Michigan: Chicago and the Movies.

Have you seen these?

Hustler Vince Vaughn attempts to score some holiday cash by impersonating a Salvation Army Santa in the holiday comedy Fred Claus (2007). His scheme crashes when a “real” Santa confronts him. When Vaughn tries to flee, he is chased down Michigan Avenue by a mob of enraged Santas and pummeled senseless by the crazed Kringles.

While it’s now Macy’s and no longer our treasured Marshall Field’s, the holiday traditions associated with the department store will continue to live on in many films. Judge Reinhold (inhabited with the personality of his pre-teen son, Fred Savage) worked here in Vice Versa (1988). Curly Sue (1991) and Straight Talk also shot scenes here. Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) staged a misfired fantasy sequence with the Field’s Christmas windows, having Diane Keaton imagining herself a star figure skater while gazing at the holiday display.

The picturesque ice rink of Millennium Park that faces Michigan Avenue has been the most filmed portion of the park. The Weather Man (2005) utilized the rink for a lengthy scene where Nicholas Cage’s character has an attempted bonding session with his daughter that goes horribly awry at a company celebration. In Nothing Like the Holidays (2008), Vanessa Ferlito and an old flame share a tender moment while by the rink.

Historic Humboldt Park forms the heart of the Humboldt Park neighborhood, which has been the port of call for immigrants from the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico since the early 1950s. The area has risen and fallen over the decades, but retains its Puerto Rican flavor and vibrancy. In addition to writer/director (and Columbia College grad) Marisol Torres’s big, bold, and often bawdy shoestring indie feature Boricua (2004) (a.k.a. Chicago Boricua), the neighborhood’s bodegas, restaurants, and clubs were featured in the recent film Nothing Like the Holidays, which was produced by Chicago stalwarts George Tillman, Jr. and Bob Teitel.