REEL LIFE / FILMS & VIDEOS : Horror and Violence Top List of Rentals : Christmas classics take a back seat to the more popular ‘Die Hard’ and ‘The Shining.’

We submit this as evidence that sentimentality--even holiday sentimentality--is dead.

Billboard magazine’s list of the most popular Christmas video rentals includes not one clip of classic schmaltz. Not “White Christmas.” Not “Miracle on 34th Street.” Not “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

What do you figure made the top 20, instead? “The Shining,” “Die Hard” (versions one and two), and even the horror film “Silent Night, Deadly Night.”

Video store owner Jim Salzer said the list consists of the 20 most popular video rentals that use the Christmas season as a backdrop to underline the central message of the film or provide a dramatic counterpoint.

Salzer said the climax of “The Shining,” which takes place during Christmas, plants the notion in viewers’ minds that it is a holiday film. Others on the list--like “Meet Me in St. Louis”--stand out because of a tender moment, such as Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

A few of the classics do show up on a list of movies that best embody the Christmas spirit, but even that catalogue indicates a changing attitude that Americans have toward Christmas. Rentals show the movie that best represents the Yuletide spirit is “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”

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Santa Paula’s Main Street earned yet another film credit--this time in the movie “A Dangerous Woman,” starring Debra Winger and Barbara Hershey.

This adaptation of the 1991 Mary McGarry Morris novel is about an emotionally disturbed woman whose honesty shakes up her small town. The film also includes scenes shot behind the Citizens State Bank building, also in Santa Paula.

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Here’s a warm, fuzzy Christmas gift idea: Learning Tree University is offering an afternoon with lions, wolves, tarantulas and poisonous snakes.

The occasion is a class with Cheryl Shawver, the general manager of Animal Actors of Hollywood. She is the general manager of a Thousand Oaks compound that is home to about 100 creatures that do tricks for movies, television and music videos.

Among the four-legged stars is Sudan, a lion whose credits include the Oscar-winning “Out of Africa.” The lion’s parts were filmed at the farm, where high grasses served as the savanna highlands of Kenya.

Class participants will also meet animal actors from “Doctor Doolittle,” “Born Free” and “Dracula.”

The daylong course to be held Jan. 22 tells you everything you ever wanted to know about working with exotic animals--including training techniques, job opportunities and behind-the-scenes Hollywood anecdotes.

Pancho Doll compiles Reel Life each week for Ventura County Life. If you have information on local film, television or video events or personalities, write to him at 5200 Valentine Road, Suite 140, Ventura 93003, or send faxes to 658-5576.