Cast: John Schneider, Tom Wopat, Kim Delaney, Hoyt Axton
Credits: Producers: Billie Andre, Jeffrey Fischgrunk and Margaret Murphy; Director: Richard Lang; Writers: Michael Norell and Andy Siegel; Television, 1987
Two truckers (Wopat and Schneider) are feuding brothers who drive a rig to Willow Creek, Alaska for Axton. He wants to deliver a special Christmas to his old hometown whose residents are jobless since the local cannery closed down.
Christmas Eve
Cast: George Raft, George Brent, Randolph Scott, Joan Blondell, Reginald Denny
Credits: Producer: Benedict Bogeaus; Director: Edwin L. Marin; Writer: Laurence Stallings (Based on a Story by Laurence Stallings and Richard H. Landau); UA; 1947
“Christmas Eve, that’s the time when families are together!” declares matriarch Aunt Matilda (Ann Harding) near the beginning of Christmas Eve, an anthology movie that is both heart-warming and eccentric, dramatic and humorous, traditional and outlandish.
The story involves an eccentric older woman, Aunt Matilda, whose despicable nephew Phillip (Reginald Denny) claims that she squanders her fortune on unnecessary things such as charities and helping the poor. Calling Judge Alston (Clarence Kolb) and psychiatrist Dr. Doremus (Carl Harbord) to the family home, Phillip wants to have his spinster aunt name him as the manager of her estate (which she will have no part of). “She’s such a lovely old heirloom, despite her eccentricities,” Phillip declares.
Suddenly a loud gong sounds, a door opens, and the family butler announces Aunt Matilda: “I always ring that gong to warn people to stop talking about me-behind my back.” After she opens the windows and invites the outdoor birds inside for a good feeding, she summons her human companions in to her dining room for tea. Matilda uses her sons’ toy train set, now placed atop the magnificent dining room table, as a means to transport lemon and cream for tea. “The trains belonged to my sons... too much of an effort to play with them on my hands and knees. It’s fun pretending my boys are with me at the big table-is that crazy?”
Whether she is crazy or not becomes the dominant theme of this warm-spirited movie, a theme very popular in the 1940s and 1950s. The aunt’s eccentricities keep piling up: She spent $1,675,000 paying for half a million dead rats, according to Phillip.
The entire truth, revealed by Matilda, is that she paid half a million poor children a dollar apiece for capturing rats. “Who would you trust... to handle the estate?” she asks. Phillip, the human leech who connives and schemes to wrestle the family fortune away from Matilda, or one of her three sons, the boys she adopted at birth and raised as her own?
Phillip informs the Judge that the sons left as soon as they were grown, but Matilda corrects him: “They decided to go out in the world and make their own way-I loved them for it.” Unfortunately, none of the children has been in touch since. However, Aunt Matilda declares, “They refused to sponge off me.” She remembers them saying that if you ever need us, we’ll be there!
Aunt Matilda declares that all three of her sons will be present at her house on Christmas Eve so the Judge can meet them himself. Of course, doubting that this reunion will ever occur, the Judge declares he won’t follow through with Phillip’s demands if the sons show up for the holiday. Thus, in order to hold onto her birthright, the spunky old aunt must use all her resources to round up all three of her strays and get them together for Christmas. Using the power of the press, Matilda invites a slew of reporters to her home (hoping her late father will forgive her) and announces her predicament. Soon headlines are flashed across the screen: “Matilda Reed Fortune in Jeopardy”; “Old Maid’s Millions Under Court Fire”; “Spending it Foolishly, says Nephew.” One common citizen reading the newspaper declares, “Imagine that, saying the old lady’s crazy! The whole world’s crazy!!!”
From this point on, intercut with Matilda hiring detectives and household servants to track down her three boys, the movie divides into three segments, each one focusing upon the current whereabouts of her three sons: Michael, Mario and Jonathan.
First we meet the dandy, irresponsible playboy Michael Brooks (George Brent), a man trying to maintain his wealthy persona even though he is deeply in debt and resorting to writing bad checks. The woman who loves him, Ann Nelson (Joan Blondell), is getting the kiss-off as Michael has plans to marry the wealthy Harriett (Molly Lamont), hoping to help his financial status. “I told you yesterday we were through,” Michael rants, but the deeply-in-love Ann responds enthusiastically, “I love you! What’s she got that I haven’t got?” In this comedy of errors, enacted very much in the screwball vein, Michael is trying to get Ann out of the apartment before fiancée Harriett comes up. In fact, Harriett sends up a small gift announcing her imminent appearance, which Ann grabs and throws off the balcony. When Harriett does enter, Michael announces that Ann is his sister, but when the two women spend several moments alone, Harriett gets suspicious. The bellhop appears, returning the discarded gift (which he complains hit a bellman in the head), and Harriett realizes the truth.
Michael’s frivolous personality softens slightly when he admits the marriage of two wealthy families has been his goal, but that he still loves Ann. However, Phillip finds Michael and tightens his grip by stating he paid off $75,000 in rubber checks Michael wrote and advises him to blow town. “Aunt Matilda is getting along, but she can’t stand another shock,” referring to Matilda’s obvious disappointment in her son Michael if she found out the truth. Phillip stresses Michael mustn’t go to his aunt. He soon realizes the “stranglehold” that Phillip has over him. Michael wants to pay off the debt immediately. “The further away I am, the better it would be for Aunt Matilda,” Michael says, but hints he doesn’t have the money to stay away. So he hits up Phillip for $10,000 in cash, to which the disappointed Ann Nelson disgustedly yells, “Been nice knowing you Michael.” The news of Michael’s dire straits gets back to Aunt Matilda, and she is disappointed that he would allow himself to try to marry for money. The word is that Michael has gotten out of town, and Matilda hires people to locate him.
Second son Mario (George Raft) lives in South America and runs the Yank’s Club. He fled the United States over an indiscretion that remains a secret from the audience. A 20-year prison sentence awaits him if he ever returns to the States. He meets a beautiful woman at the train station who tells Mario, “I’ll never go away again... it’s no fun without you!” But FBI agents are hounding him again. “I didn’t fly down here to nail you,” they assure him, but Mario yells back chisel-faced, “I’m no stooge for the cops.”
It seems the beautiful woman from the train station, Claire (Virginia Field), is involved with an important Nazi fugitive, Reichman (Konstantin Shayne), who escaped from Europe and is now assumed to be hiding in South America. In the midst of all this Mario is made aware of Aunt Matilda’s problems back home; while the dutiful son seems concerned, his more pressing problems occupy his attention at the moment. Soon Claire has disappeared and Mario feels jilted, but the story is not this simple. It seems that Claire has in her possession 10 million dollars in cash and jewels that belongs to Reichman. Reichman, thinking the romantic duo are in cahoots, kidnaps Mario and takes him aboard his yacht and tortures him: “You can work me over, but how can I tell you something I don’t know?”
Claire appears on the boat, looking guilty and declaring, “Darling, I was a fool. I never realized just how rotten they were.” She claims she wanted to protect her lover Mario by running off and letting him think she dumped him, while in fact the truth is she loves Mario very much. She makes a deal with Reichman: She will tell him where his money is if he agrees to let Mario go. Reichman agrees immediately. Of course, the evil Nazi has no intentions of freeing the witnesses. “Promises are the counterfeit currency that inferior people exact from each other when unsure of their own strength.” This on-the-lam Nazi is filled to the brim with metaphors. But the repentant Claire states she wanted “to get right with myself, to settle my own score” without involving the safety of Mario. “I wanted you to hate me, that’s why I left the office.”
Soon Mario fights his way free from the Nazi henchman as sparks from the bullets set the boat on fire. Mario uses the fire extinguisher to put the flames out, then sneaks into a small room that is above the area where Reichman is still holding Claire. Mario lifts the metal grate and carefully aims his pistol. He fires the gun and the Nazi falls to the floor but Reichman manages to get off one shot that mortally wounds Claire. “Darling, have I made myself right with you... hold me close... I love you!”
What a plot. Christmas Eve segues from a story of a conniving playboy to a refugee American who gets involved with a dangerous dame and Nazis. Then we find an American drunken cowboy, a rodeo cowboy to boot, who gets involved with a baby-snatching outfit. Ho, Ho, Ho... Merry Christmas!
Jonathan (Randolph Scott) is remembered by the family as always hiding alcohol on his breath before kissing Aunt Matilda, and forever making rest stops at punchbowls, saloons, etc. However, he is also the shy and always happily polite guy with the heart of gold. As Matilda’s servant Williams meets Jonathan at Grand Central Station on Christmas Eve (he’s the only son officially located and sure to attend the party with Aunt Matilda and the Judge), the cowboy immediately wants to head to the nearest saloon for a drink or two. Soon Jonathan is approached by an attractive young woman (next to booze, Jonathan’s other weakness is that he is a constant flirt who is a sucker for the ladies), Jean (Dolores Moran), who insists he accompany her to 128 W. Meredith Street so she can pick up her new baby! Jonathan thinks the woman must be pregnant even though she is dressed to the nines in a form-flattering dress that must have come straight from the film noir wardrobe department store. Even Williams warns him, “Be careful, she’ll pin more things on you than on the baby!”
It seems Jean is taking Jonathan to a clandestine apartment building where a doctor sells babies for adoption. She realizes that if the good-hearted Jonathan pretends to be her husband, her chances of getting a baby are improved. To further complicate the plot, Jean is an undercover policewoman out to expose the baby-selling operation. However, the amorous Jonathan has his hands and lips all over her while suggesting a more common way of having children. “Don’t let being a prospective father go to your head,” Jean warns him. When the doctor tells Jean he doesn’t like her looks, Jonathan comes to her rescue by pulling out his gun and demanding a child. Soon the pair are led to a small nursery area where three babies are cribbed, and both take an immediate liking to the kids.
But the doctor smells a rat and Jonathan is taken upstairs and clubbed over the head while Jean is bound and thrown into the closet. Waking up and hearing police sirens, Jonathan grabs the three kids and escapes through the back window. Williams is instinctively waiting for him there. “I know three other kids who got out of a joint like this,” the cowboy mutters as he carries the children to safety.
Meanwhile, back in the living room of Aunt Matilda, the Judge and Phillip are impatiently waiting, pacing back and forth. Finally the Judge declares, “It’s been an hour and a half. My grandchildren will kill me if I don’t decorate the tree.” However, all is well when Jonathan arrives with the three children, hands them over to Aunt Matilda, who, delightfully finding herself back in the saddle, so to speak, sends out for formula and bottles. Jonathan excuses himself and heads for the punch bowl. Jean, arriving on the scene, is worried about the children. After finding out that they are safe and in good hands, she settles down. Jonathan puts the make on her by smiling and saying, “If you’re that interested in babies, it’s time we got acquainted.”
Next, unexpectedly, Michael and reunited fiancée Ann Nelson are approaching Aunt Matilda’s. Ann is concerned that Michael’s presence will cause great trepidation within the household, but Aunt Matilda matter-of-factly declares she is aware of what Phillip has been doing for a long time and Michael is welcomed with open arms. Outside, Matilda hears a Christmas carol and declares it is Mario’s favorite and that Mario must be nearby. However, as soon as Mario does in fact knock on the door, FBI agent Joe Bland is two steps behind him. But since it is Christmas Eve, he decides to allow Mario to enjoy the holiday with Matilda-as long as he is allowed to accompany the fugitive. Mario and the agent have to leave for Washington that night. In the midst of the frivolity, Mario takes Phillip aside and tells him, “We’re both leaving town, but you’re leaving first!” reminding Matilda’s nephew that to spare Aunt Matilda pain Mario took the rap for Phillip’s crime 10 years ago in New Orleans. But once again the intuitive Matilda 
announces, “I know you covered for Phillip in New Orleans. But I know everything is going to turn out right.”
The family then retires to the dining room, heads bowed in silence. Christmas music reaches a crescendo, and a toast, “A Merry Christmas to All,” ends the film, with the entire family united in peace and harmony.
What an interesting Christmas film: Nazis, stolen money, baby-snatchers, a refugee American lying low in South America, an eccentric old lady who runs trains around her elegant dining room table. But somehow, in this wonderful little piece of holiday cheer directed by Edwin L. Marin, it all comes together. The three separate little stories are well-interconnected, the characters are all distinct and interestingly portrayed. They are flawed, but each individual overcomes his/her small failings to restore the faith placed in them by Aunt Matilda. Ann Harding, portraying the wonderful quirky aunt, becomes the glue that holds all these components together. It is her stern determination that her sons will return for Christmas Eve dinner and everything will work out okay that becomes so involving for the audience. Since she believes, we believe. And when she is pressured to turn her estate over to nephew Phillip, she steadfastly declares she might have considered it had he left home to find his way in the world, but in reality she is aware of his criminal escapades and tainted ethics. However, she never reveals everything she knows, not even when she is threatened with losing all she cherishes, because she maintains that faith that her boys will come to her rescue and, together, as families usually manage to do, they work things out themselves, without outside intervention.
It is Aunt Matilda’s unwavering faith in family and the bond that is created (not by blood, because her children are adopted) within the family that firmly anchors this movie. Using Christmas as its chief metaphor, that time of year when the family is at its strongest, Christmas Eve is a tribute to the power of the family to overcome all obstacles. Wayward son Mario is detached and cut off, living alone in South America, but once he returns to the States, a 20-year jail term staring him square in the face, the family fixes all the wrongs committed against him. The alcoholic and lonely Jonathan, once he returns to his family, is immediately reminded of how he was one of three orphaned children who were raised and supported by an “old maid” aunt, and returning the favor, he himself looks out for three infant orphans. Realizing the power of family, he bonds with Jean and suggests that they start a family by having their own babies to go along with the three babies upstairs. And finally even poor Michael, who momentarily forsakes love for money, surrenders to love and commits to marrying his long-time fiancée Ann (which he proudly announces to the family). Separated from the family, all three sons are fragmented, scared and lost (spiritually, emotionally, physically), but once they have returned to the “nest,” they are whole and functioning healthily again. Except for Matilda’s actual blood relative Phillip, who cuts himself off from and works against the family and is the outcast at the movie’s end. Having lived for years with Aunt Matilda, he is the most fragmented, scared and wasted family member of them all.
Christmas Eve is a most positive and forceful proponent of the Yuletide essence and its story detailing how the unity of the family can heal all wounds is most specifically indicative of the holiday spirit.
Christmas Eve
Cast: Patrick Cassidy, Arthur Hill, Trevor Howard, Season Hubley
Credits: Director: Stuart Cooper; Writer: Blanche Hanalis; TV, 1986
A rich, dying woman tries to reunite her adult children with their estranged father.
Christmas Every Day
Cast: Robert Hays, Bess Armstrong, Erik von Detten, Robin Riker, Robert Curtis-Brown
Credits: Director: Larry Peerce; Writers: Stephen Alix, Nancey Silvers; TV, 1996
A grumpy teenager detests Christmas and makes everyone miserable. But his adorable little sister wishes it were Christmas Every Day and Billy must relive Christmas until he learns the true spirit of the holidays. Cute kid version of Groundhog Day.
Christmas Evil
Cast: Brandon Maggart, Dianne Hull, Scott McKay, Joe Jamrog, Peter Friedman
Credits: Producers: Burt Kleiner and Pete Kameron; Director/Writer: Lewis Jackson; Pressman; 1980
This film, originally released as You Better Watch Out, offers another psycho Santa whose problems begin with childhood trauma.
Christmas Holiday
Cast: Gene Kelly, Deanna Durbin, Richard Whorf, Gale Sondergaard
Credits: Producer: Felix Jackson; Director: Robert Siodmak; Writer: Herman J. Mankiewicz (Based on the Novel by W. Somerset Maugham); Universal; 1944
Imagine not including a film entitled Christmas Holiday for our book It’s Christmas Time at the Movies, a film starring Universal sweetheart Deanna Durbin and natural good-guy Gene Kelly. But facades are sometimes deceiving, and Christmas Holiday is perhaps the most un-Christmas-like of all the Christmas films covered in this book (added to the fact that Deanna Durbin plays a tainted lady and that future musical/dancing star Gene Kelly plays perhaps the most evil character in his entire career). Universal Pictures, in 1944, was jumping on the film noir bandwagon, and their emerging star director, Robert Siodmak (fresh from directing the noir-influenced Son of Dracula 
starring Lon Chaney in 1943), was on the rise.
Christmas Holiday begins quite innocently as a huge Christmas tree in an army barracks becomes a centerpiece for the troops eager to take their holiday leave before being shipped out to parts unknown. Lt. Charles Mason (Dean Harens), the squeaky-clean young kid, is preparing to fly out Christmas Eve to San Francisco to marry his sweetheart. “Merry Christmas, Charlie! If I don’t see you again...” one of his friends proclaims. Charlie’s friend Jerry waits as the anxious lieutenant reads a telegram just handed him, never a good sign. It seems his girl Mona went off and married a Frank Fabina, wishing the heartbroken young man a happy life. Jerry, seeing that Charlie is shattered, invites his friend to spend the holidays with him in New York, but the outraged Charlie swears he will still fly to San Francisco. Unfortunately, bad weather on the flight diverts the airplane to New Orleans where the mostly military crew are offered free hotel accommodations until the weather clears, and the flight may continue.
Depressed and sitting in the bar, the generally taciturn Mason is interrupted by the obnoxiously bantering Simon Fenimore (Richard Whorf), a reporter who notices that “Christmas is kinda getting you down,” thinking the downtrodden Mason needs a friend. Fenimore continues, “Christmas is for kids, not for us.” To help cheer the both of them up, Simon suggests they hit a “joint” on Christmas Eve that he knows very well. Of course a gigantic Christmas tree sits near the main entrance, but inside, the mood is anything but Yuletide cheer. Taking a table, Simon leaves to find Valerie, the hostess, as Charlie sits and listens to the swinging jazz combo and sultry torch singer belt out the lyrics “Spring will be a little late this year.” Finding Valerie, the hostess tells Simon, “A few drinks and you gotta play the good Samaritan,” referring to Simon’s request to help his friend get an earlier flight out, but Valerie is willing yet unable to help. Simon does request of Valerie that she ask Jackie (Deanna Durbin) to join them, a sort of escort-on-call, a young woman with a bad past and the blank expression that mirrors it all. The type of girl who will sit with a soldier and create nonstop small-talk, offer to dance, just for a few drinks. As Simon smiles, “You won’t find Jackie hard to talk to.” Jackie, as enacted by Durbin, never seems as sleazy nor as haunted as the role requires. Referring to friend Simon, Jackie blurts out, “He’s been drinking himself into the gutter for a long time-they’re running out of gutters.” Before passing out in Valerie’s office, Simon offers Charlie two tickets for midnight mass at St. Louis’ Cathedral, and strangely, Jackie implores him “to take me with you... I want to go-please!” Valerie, taking Charlie aside, tells him that Jackie’s a “good kid, she deserves a break.”
During mass, the formerly pleasant Jackie becomes solemn and sad; soon tears begin rolling down her cheeks as she sobs violently, drowning out the background music of joyous Christmas carols being sung by the church choir. Remaining after the mass, sitting within empty pews and total solitude, Jackie asks Charlie to get her something to eat before taking her “home.”
Going to a little coffee shop, Jackie begins to open up, trusting the clean-cut military man who seems so decent. “I thought if I went to mass with you, I’d become part of it, share something with all these people. Feelings, praying, forgetting. I’ve been alone as long as I can remember... You sure Simon didn’t tell you anything [about me].” She goes on to reveal that she’s not really Jackie. That’s her “bar” name, that she is really Abigail Martin, but she changed her name “after the trial.” She explains, “I’m the wife of Robert Manette” (spelled “Mannette” in a newspaper headline but “Manette” in the closing credits). Three years ago Manette murdered a bookie and was sentenced to death, his sentence only recently changed to life in prison. Abigail admits they were only married six months before the murder occurred, but these were the happiest months of her life. Not giving in to pressure to now divorce her murderous husband, she admits, “I would keep on loving him.”
Stylistically, the film noir conventions were in their formative stages in 1944, and films such as Christmas Holiday helped to shape these genre icons. For instance, by the second half of the movie the dominant character has shifted from being Charles Mason (the innocent young man) to Jackie/Abigail who soon narrates the story (in typical voice-over film noir style). Another film noir characteristic, the use of repeated flashbacks and an interrupted narrative, becomes the norm as Jackie now tells Charlie her life story for the past three years. Interestingly enough, the first flashback details the events that occurred immediately after the murder, and the second flashback details how Robert Manette (Gene Kelly) and Abigail first met. By the end of the movie, the viewer is back in the present dealing with the consequences of all these convoluted flashback sequences.
The first flashback creates an Alfred Hitchcock–style Shadow of a Doubt “should I trust him or not” suspense; however, the audience is already aware that Manette is a murderer (which Abigail does not yet realize in the flashback). Manette, keeping late hours, returns home after wife Abigail is asleep in bed. “I do keep terrible hours, don’t I... I keep taking advantage of [her] trusting nature... I’ll never ever do it again,” he playfully tells his concerned wife. The next morning, the viewer is introduced to “Mother,” Mrs. Manette (Gale Sondergaard), the over-protective mother who is more aware of her son’s nefarious activities than Abigail would ever admit. Spotting a stain on Robert’s pants, Mother grows very attentive and concerned, and when she goes through the trouser pockets and finds a roll of bills, Robert becomes very upset and screams, “You’re not to go through my pockets.” Thinking quickly, Robert puts the blame on his vice, gambling, which he promised to stop. Later, Abigail secretly oversees Mother burning Robert’s pants in the incinerator. Confronting the always cool and calculating matriarch, Abigail asks, “Mother, what’s it all about?” To which she responds, “What’s what all about?” Abigail continues, “This morning, about nothing being in the paper... and Robert’s trousers-you burned them...” To which Mother slightly smiles and rambles on, “Remember that old blue velvet dress of mine-I just couldn’t stand to look at it another minute... ooohh, Robert’s trousers [she giggles].” However, the police soon arrive at the door and politely request that Robert contact the 3rd Precinct. “Routine thing, don’t let it worry you.” But worried the young wife is.
That evening, when Robert returns home late and Abigail tells him of the events of the day, he tries to calm her down, “Please Abigail, it’s nothing.” But she pleads with him to open up and tell her everything. “Shut up,” he shouts, the rage finally revealing the monster underneath the surface, as he pulls the bed covering to the floor and storms out. The next morning Robert tries to smooth things over. “If it’s about last night, I don’t have to tell you how sorry I am, do I? You know there isn’t anybody [thinking his young wife suspects an affair]-please say you’ll forgive me.” Robert then makes up a story when confronted about the roll of money Mother found. “You know how silly Mother is about banks and all that cash she keeps in her room. Well, I got into a jam... and there was no other way to get out of it.” Abigail very solemnly states, “I don’t believe you-what about that policeman, what about those trousers.” Getting very serious and sinister, Robert slowly states, “If anybody asks, I got those trousers dirty cleaning a car for a friend. Mother gave them away to a tramp... that’s what she’s going to say. About the money, if anybody asks you, anybody, you never saw me with that money... my life might depend upon it. Abigail, if you ever loved me...” To which she honestly replies, “I’ll always love you.”
But unlike Hitchcock, the emphasis here is not on suspense because the narrative structure makes clear from the beginning that Manette is serving life in prison for the murder of a bookie. We never doubt the guilt of Manette. Instead, director Siodmak is dealing with psychological-based character studies and a woman’s commitment to love a man she slowly suspects is a murderer. The bond, the passion that connects them, her innocence, her refusal to accept or even see the obvious, his conniving evil-what keeps them together? That’s the focus of this film.
To contrast this relationship of denial and deceit, the second flashback concerns the original meeting of Abigail and Robert, at a symphonic orchestra concert, where both parties are transfixed by the magic of the music. Both sit emotionally affected by the music’s power at concert’s end; Robert states, “Unfortunately, you can’t make a living from being absorbed in music. You know, sometimes when I listen to it, I feel there’s nothing man is capable of that I can’t do. Then it stops, and it’s over.” To which Abigail contrasts, “Not for me. I feel as if something’s been added to my life that wasn’t there before.” These simple lines help to establish the character (and character flaws) of both individuals. Robert is swept away by the mysticism of the music, but when the music stops, its magic is over too. But for Abigail, the magic spell lasts even after “it’s over.” Robert later asks Abigail, “Which do you like better, the person I pretend to be or...” to which Abigail completes his sentence, not missing a beat, “The person you are.” But the truth is she constantly denies the person Robert truly is and, instead, believes in only the person he pretends to be. That complements her fantasy, as much as the concert.
For 1944 Hollywood, Robert’s relationship with Mother is most bizarre. It appears the hold she has over her son is unnatural (Mother must approve of Abigail before Robert consents to marry her), and even after the wedding, all three live together. As Mrs. Manette tells Abigail upon their first meeting, “There are certain traits in Robert, they’re nothing evil; he sometimes just forgets his sense of responsibility. Between us, we will make him strong.” Less subtle, in one curious line of narrative voice-over delivered by Abigail; she admits that she was later told “Robert’s relationship with his mother was pathological.” No fooling.
However, Mother’s approval of Abigail soon dissipates as the young bride gets even more caught up in a world of denial. “He needed your strength-that’s why I let him marry you, and all you gave him back was his weakness.” Mother continues, “I love him... I am willing to know all about him and keep on loving him... I tried to make him strong myself, but I couldn’t alone, so I relied on you-you have failed.” After both women hear the verdict of guilty, outside the courtroom, Mother tells Abigail “you killed him” and slaps Abigail hard.
Returning to the present, Charlie Mason’s flight is rescheduled for 11:30 that evening, since the stormy weather has cleared, but he heads back to the nightclub after reading the headlines that Manette has escaped from prison and probably will try to find his wife. Risking missing his flight, he reveals, “I’ve learned a hundred years worth of life in the last 24 hours. The important thing is being honest with yourself, whatever you feel, whatever you are.” He has decided not to fly on to Frisco, but to return directly to his base and face the future, not dwell on the damnable past.
Sneaking into a sideroom along with reporter Simon Fenimore, the gritty fugitive Manette is soon joined by wife Abigail, who kisses and embraces her husband. He suspects during his two-and-a-half year prison sentence that his wife has been less than faithful. To which she solemnly replies, “I love you Robert.” Registering his doubt, Robert counters with, “The way you say it I can almost believe it.” Soon Lt. Charles Mason has joined the gathering.
Next, the heart of the conflict unfolds, its complexity simply and clearly delivered. Abigail, looking haggard and spiritually drained, confesses, “I had to live like you, suffer like you. The people I met here all had nothing but contempt for me. That’s what I wanted. This is my prison, Robert, but I’m not as strong as you. I can’t break out without you. I need you... I love you! That’s why I had to live like you, to suffer like you. I wanted to die, but you were alive, so I had to live.”
The cherub-faced Durbin lacked the emotional depth and despair to truly pull off this dramatic moment, but she still does a fine, convincing job. Within seconds the police arrive, and Manette is shot dead. Before he is hit, Manette states, “Anyone who loves as much as you do is entitled to a reward, that’s what I think!” After he is mortally wounded, Manette declares, “You can let go now, Abigail.” Tears stream down her face as Abigail looks up at the night sky, the clouds quickly separating to reveal the bright stars shining.
What a wonderful role cast against type for the wholesome and goody-goody Deanna Durbin, but an adult role that allowed her character to stretch and deal with the demons that possessed her. Feeling guilty for denying her husband’s flaws and her inability to help him by forcing him to confront his problems, Abigail becomes a bar-girl without a home who spends nights sitting up at a coffee shop with the regulars-all this to punish herself for her husband’s crime and incarceration, accepting Mother’s claim that “you killed him” and now paying the price by squandering her soul. Only at the end, with Manette’s release via death, is Abigail released from her emotional hell with the symbolic parting of the clouds to reveal the shining stars. Gene Kelly, also working against type, reveals the savage villain he was capable of playing and it is unfortunate that his movie roles never allowed him to play such a scoundrel again.
Director Robert Siodmak’s film noir universe is one of internal torture and cruel, cold fate. Never has a more anti-Christmas themed movie carried the term “Christmas” in its title. However, the redemption of the damned at movie’s end might reflect the Christmas spirit that any individual who sinks to the depths of perversity may still find in his or her spiritual soul once freed from such an emotional albatross. Perhaps this is the spirit of salvation and hope which ends Christmas Holiday.
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, Reginald Gardiner, S.Z. Sakall, Una O’Connor
Credits: Producer: William Jacobs; Director: Peter Godfrey; Writers: Lionel Houser and Adele Comandini (Based on a Story by Aileen Hamilton); Warner Bros.; 1945
BARBARA STANWYCK, DENNIS MORGAN AND SYNDEY GREENSTREET WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT-Title card for Christmas in Connecticut
Long before American women were ever intimidated by Martha Stewart, there was Christmas in Connecticut’s Elizabeth Lane-super wife, adoring mother and gourmet cook whose idyllic life on a Connecticut farm was nothing less than perfect. Or so her adoring fans and kept-in-the-dark publisher believed.
However, working-girl Elizabeth (Barbara Stanwyck), as it happens, is a great writer but a very bad homemaker; she is neither mother, good cook nor wife. We first meet Elizabeth sitting in her little apartment eating canned sardines for breakfast and typing away on her next column. Her dear friend Felix (S.Z. Sakall) delivers breakfast from his restaurant-Elizabeth had helped him with his business, and now he watches over her like a mother hen. Elizabeth’s editor Dudley (Robert Shayne) arrives in a panic. Their publisher, Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet), has decided it would be good business if Elizabeth would entertain a war hero in her home over the Christmas holiday. Yardley also invites himself along to sample her fabulous Christmas duck and, as a sideline, hopes to convince Elizabeth to have another baby-so they can increase circulation, not to mention the population.
Elizabeth and Dudley commiserate over their soon-to-be-lost jobs when they are joined by Elizabeth’s slimy boyfriend John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner), who is constantly proposing marriage to the reluctant writer. This time he hits the jackpot, for although Elizabeth has told him she doesn’t love him, her defenses are at an all time low and she agrees to become his wife. When Sloan mentions his farm in Connecticut, the place that inspired many of Elizabeth’s stories, a plan is hatched-Elizabeth and John will hastily get married. Felix is convinced to come along to cook, and the trio rush to the farm to welcome the war hero and Mr. Yardley.
Arriving at the farm, they plan to be married immediately; but something keeps popping up, mostly Felix who happens to despise the boring self-absorbed John whose love of architecture and plumbing make him a terribly dull suitor for the lively Elizabeth. Although, to John’s credit, he does think of everything as he produces a baby (a child housekeeper Norah [Una O’Connor] baby-sits). Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), a sailor who had been lost at sea for 18 days, arrives early and is shocked to find Elizabeth Lane is not the matronly women he pictured but a real dish. Elizabeth is also surprised to find a handsome hero who puts the foppish John to shame.
Stanwyck shows a flair for comedy as Elizabeth tries to appear knowledgeable in the ways of motherhood, constantly calling the baby “it.” Her dislike and squeamishness around the wriggling baby is amusing, and the look of desperation that crosses her face when Jones asks to be allowed to watch her bathe the baby is priceless. Elizabeth slyly turns the tables and allows the hero the honor of washing the little child.
Ooops, she told him it was a boy named Robert. He looks up with confusion. “I mean Roberta,” Elizabeth quickly answers. 
She is definitely a fish out of water in this domestic sea of tranquility.
Jefferson and Elizabeth are soon mooning over each other, but Jefferson is not the kind of man to kiss a married woman. And Elizabeth constantly seems to forget she is married (or supposed to be). Of course, the gallant soldier is not telling everything either, as, in desperation, he became engaged to his hospital nurse so he could cajole her into providing the steak he had been dreaming of while stranded in the lifeboat.
On Christmas day the self-absorbed group attend a dance where Elizabeth and Jefferson become even friendlier and slip off for a romantic horse-drawn sleigh ride. John, oblivious to the fact that his bride-to-be is being stolen right from under his nose, is obsessed with the fact that Yardley has offered him a job as editor of a new home segment of the magazine.
However, Yardley does notice and tries to follow the couple before he comically falls down a snow-covered hill. He arrives back at the house in time to see the baby’s mother pick up the child, and, erroneously thinking it is a kidnapping, calls the police. In the meantime, Jefferson and Elizabeth have been arrested for stealing the sleigh. They arrive home at seven a.m. and confront Yardley, who is scandalized by Elizabeth’s behavior and her apparent lack of concern over the kidnapping. She explains the whole story, he fires her, Jefferson’s lovelorn nurse shows up and things just couldn’t get any worse for the lovers.
But it’s 1945, and we know there is a happy ending right around the corner. The nurse has married Jefferson’s friend Sinkewicz, Felix convinces Yardley that Elizabeth had a better offer and he hires her back at double her salary. John doesn’t seem to mind the fact that Elizabeth loves the war hero. He’s more interested in his new job, and finally Jefferson and Elizabeth get married.
There are really no moral lessons in the film. Honesty isn’t the best policy. If it were, Elizabeth would never have gotten her job in the first place, and she would never have found the man of her dreams. Christmas in Connecticut is really just pure fluff whose Christmas decorations and romantic sleigh rides only make us want to snuggle closer to the one we love. And who can argue with that? The movie is a perennial holiday favorite full of Christmas ambiance-sleighs gliding over snow-covered roads, a huge Christmas tree, cozy roaring fires, Christmas carols and a cheerful ending.
The film was blessed with a talented cast of leads and supporting players. The year prior to the release of Christmas in Connecticut Barbara Stanwyck had received an Academy Award nomination for her work as deadly ice queen Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity. As the scheming she-demon who enticed hapless Fred MacMurray into murdering her husband, she set the standard for film noir’s most dangerous dames. Stanwyck along with Hollywood’s reigning royalty Bette Davis, Greer Garson and Claudette Colbert would lose the Award to Ingrid Bergman for her performance in Gaslight. Co-star Dennis Morgan was one of Warner Bros.’ highest-paid actors who appeared in films such as Kitty Foyle with Ginger Rogers and put his singing voice to good use in My Wild Irish Rose, the story of composer Chauncey Olcott. As Jefferson Jones he is suitably charming, easily softening up the feisty Elizabeth but with just enough of a hint of scoundrel to keep her interested. “Miss Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan make a delightful team as the writer and the sailor,” Variety reported.
Sydney Greenstreet was a mainstay of theater before entering films at the age of 61. His film debut as Kasper Gutman in The Maltese Falcon would earn him an Academy Award nomination. Not a bad first effort. Greenstreet would be typecast as a villain but often appeared in other roles such as Alexander Yardley in Christmas in Connecticut.
Also helping along the farce would be S.Z. Sakall-known to one and all as Cuddles-who would also be typecast in Hollywood, usually as a lovable uncle, friend or relative. He appeared in many musicals as well as working with Greenstreet in Casablanca (as Carl the head waiter) and with Stanwyck in Ball of Fire (as one of the absent-minded professors). Una O’Connor, as housekeeper Norah, typically portrayed characters of that sort. Her most famous appearance is probably as the comical maid who meets up with the Monster in Bride of Frankenstein. Reginald Gardiner as John Sloan was usually cast as the suave sophisticate and appeared in dozens of films including Born to Dance (his American debut), Sweethearts, A Damsel in Distress and The Man Who Came to Dinner.
The film was directed by Peter Godfrey, an actor turned director whose most famous film is perhaps The Two Mrs. Carrolls.
The film was released in July of 1945. In its review Variety pronounced, “Laugh-paced farce that does an excellent job of entertaining.”
Christmas in Connecticut (1992)
Cast: Dyan Cannon, Kris Kristofferson, Tony Curtis, Richard Roundtree
Credits: Director: Arnold Schwarzenegger; Writers: Aileen Hamilton, Lionel Houser; TV, 1992
Christmas in Connecticut was remade in 1992 for television. The remake, directed by action-hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, starred Dyan Cannon as Elizabeth (now host of a television cooking show), Kris Kristofferson as Jefferson (updated in this version as a heroic park ranger) and Tony Curtis as a sleazier version of Sloan who poses as Elizabeth’s husband. When Jefferson is interviewed on TV, he remarks he would love to have a home-cooked meal for Christmas. Before you know it, Curtis has arranged a live Christmas special with Elizabeth and her adoring family and the heroic Jefferson. Things literally fall down about their ears on the live broadcast, but Elizabeth and Jefferson find true love. Dyan Cannon and Kris Kristofferson are both appealing performers and the film, although not as good as the original, is enjoyable holiday fare. The film was originally shown April 13, 1992 with Schwarzenegger making a cameo appearance à la Alfred Hitchcock.
Christmas in July
Cast: Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Raymond Walburn, Alexander Carr, William Demarest
Credits: Producer: Paul Jones; Director/Writer: Preston Sturges; Paramount; 1940
Dick Powell thinks he has won a coffee slogan contest and gleefully spends the money on family, friends and neighbors, making it a real Christmas in July! Trouble erupts when he finds he didn’t really win, he was just the victim of a joke. Wonderful Preston Sturges film that is sure to please the entire family.
A Christmas Memory
Cast: Patty Duke, Piper Laurie, Anita Gillette, Eric Lloyd, Esther Scott
Credits: Producers: John Philip Dayton and Glenn Jordan; Director: Glenn Jordan; Writer: Duane Poole (Based on a Story by Truman Capote); Hallmark; 1997
A boy (Eric Lloyd) whose parents have divorced moves in with his Southern relatives and quickly becomes attached to one special person, Sook (Patty Duke).
A Christmas Miracle in Caufield, U.S.A.
(aka The Christmas Coal Mine Miracle)
Cast: Mitchell Ryan, Kurt Russell, Andrew Prine, John Carradine, Barbara Babcock, Melissa Gilbert
Credits: Director: Judson Taylor; Writer: Darlene Young; Producer: Lin Bolen; 20th Century-Fox; 1977
1977 television movie from 20th Century-Fox featuring Ryan and Russell as coal miners trapped along with 50 other men on Christmas Eve. Gilbert plays Ryan’s feisty daughter. The film is standard TV fare but does strike a chord when the men rescue a co-worker by crawling through a small tunnel. The feeling of claustrophobia and the realization of the danger coal miners faced before unions brought new safety standards is quite powerful. The final Christmas dinner scene is also touching.
Christmas Mountain
Cast: Mark Miller, Slim Pickens, Fran Ryan
Credits: Director: Pierre De Moro; Writer: Mark Miller; Osmond International, 1980
A message film about townspeople trying to ease their guilt over the treatment of a Mexican family who lives on Christmas Mountain.
The Christmas List
Cast: Mimi Rogers, Rob Stewart, Stella Stevens, Bill Switzer, Marla Maples
Credits: Director: Charles Jarrot; Writer: Marie Weiss; TV, 1997
Mimi Rogers is delightful as a perfume salesperson who longs for a different life, better clothes, contact lenses, a sports car and her own perfume shop. Her wishes begin to come true when her friend places Rogers’ Christmas List in a department store Santa’s letter box. Sweet holiday love story.
A Christmas Reunion
Cast: James Coburn, Edward Woodward, Meredith Edwards, Gweirydd Gwyndaf
Credits: Director: David Hemmings; Cinematography: Barry Stone; Peakviewing Productions; 1993
This British television film tells the story of a young boy who runs away from his stern grandfather. He is invited into a shop with a neon light over the door that glares “Santa’s.” Santa tells the boy a story of a young lad named Tim and his difficult life in Wales. The story is interesting and finely acted but the Christmas story is merely a framing device for the main story of young Tim’s adventures. While not necessarily a Christmas film, the family should enjoy this movie throughout the rest of the year.
A Christmas to Remember
Cast: Jason Robards, Eva Marie Saint, Joanne Woodward
Credits: Director: George Englund; Writer: Stewart Stern; Television, 1978
Robards is a farmer who brings his grandson to his farm for a holiday visit.