VIDEO : SPIRIT OF SHOPPING NEEDS A BLAST FROM THE PAST.

Byline: Robert Bianco Special to the Daily News

Has Hollywood lost its shopping spirit?

Here we are at the start of the economically essential holiday shopping season, and Hollywood gives us ``Jingle All the Way,'' a big-budget comedy with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a father who faces constant obstacles and indignities in his search for the season's hottest toy. What kind of message is that for a committed capitalist like Schwarzenegger to send? If he can't deal with shopping, what hope do the rest of us have?

Clearly, something must be done to counter this stop-shopping message before the entire economy collapses. No shoppers, no stores; no stores, no ads; no ads - well, it's too hideous to contemplate.

We could respond with some holiday gift suggestions, but we'll wait until you're a little more desperate. Instead, we'll let Hollywood correct its own mistake, with 10 videos sure to put you in a shopping mood.

Just remember: If you see anyone who looks like Arnold while you're shopping, get out of the way.

``Christmas in July'' (1940, MCA-Universal; $14.98): Dick Powell stars in this early Preston Sturges gem as an overeager idea man who's mistakenly awarded first prize in a coffee company's slogan contest. (His nonsensical entry, meant to sway people who think caffeine causes insomnia, is ``It's not the coffee, it's the bunk,'' to which everyone answers, ``But it is the coffee.'') Instead of buying things for himself, he heads to his local department store and buys gifts for his family, friends and neighbors. Conspicuous consumption has never been funnier or more winning.

``Auntie Mame'' (1958, Warner; $19.95): Think how great it would be to be waited on by Rosalind Russell, even if she does have to write all her orders up c.o.d. You go in to buy some skates, and you come out with the love of your life. This is a good family shopping movie, though you may have to explain to kids what she means when she yells ``Get it at Gimbels!''

``A Christmas Story'' (1983, MGM/UA; $19.98): A low-key holiday favorite based on Jean Shepherd's autobiographical story about his obsessive desire to own a Red Ryder BB gun. Watch this movie before you take your kids to get their pictures with Santa Claus; you'll never look at the experience in quite the same way again. Plus, it will give you something to chuckle about while you wait in line.

``The Big Store'' (1941, MGM/UA; $19.95): This film features Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Margaret Dumont loose in a big department store. This later Marx Brothers movie, their last at MGM, is hardly on par with their early classics, but Marx fans will still find plenty to laugh about.

``Bachelor Mother'' (1939, Critics Choice; $19.98): Ginger Rogers stars as a single sales clerk who discovers an abandoned baby. Her department store bosses (including David Niven and Charles Coburn) assume it's hers and force her to keep it. One of the best of the '30s romantic comedies, even though Rogers didn't want to do it and never liked it.

``The Shop Around the Corner'' (1940, MGM/UA; $19.98): No wonder you can't get waited on in stores: The clerks are too busy fighting and flirting. Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan are the battling clerks, two romantics who don't realize they're secret pen pals. ``Shop'' was later remade as ``In the Good Old Summertime'' and produced on Broadway as ``She Loves Me.''

``Scenes From a Mall'' (1991, Touchstone; $19.99): Woody Allen and Bette Midler star as a seemingly happy couple whose marriage implodes during a long shopping trip. Anyone who's ever traveled with a spouse to a mall knows it can happen.

``My Name Is Barbra'' (1965, CBS; $19.99): The centerpiece of Barbra Streisand's first TV special is an extended and unprecedented medley in Bergdorf Goodman's, with Streisand roaming the store in expensive outfits singing songs about the virtues of poverty. While you're watching it, ponder this question: What was the last musical special on commercial TV you can even remember, let alone that you would want to own on video?

``Remember the Night'' (1940, MCA-Universal; $14.99): All right, this romantic comedy, written but not directed by Preston Sturges, is more about the holiday than shopping - but it does start with a shopping incident. Barbara Stanwyck gets caught shoplifting, and soft-hearted district attorney Fred MacMurray ends up taking her home for Christmas. Thanks to Sturges and Stanwyck, the story stays sweet without ever turning into a sap-fest.

``Pretty Woman'' (1990, Touchstone; $19.99): This film is a latter-day ``Cinderella'' story that says that all that stands between a prostitute and wedded bliss are the right accessories. Makes you want to get right out there and buy something. Or at least rent it.

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Photo: Conspicuous consumption has never been funnier or more winning than in ``Christmas in July,'' with Ellen Drew and Dick Powell.