Cast: Bill Murray, Karen Allen, David Johansen, Bobcat Goldthwait, John Glover, Carol Kane
Credits: Producers: Richard Donner, Art Linson and Ray Hartwick; Director: Richard Donner; Writers: Michael O’Donoghue and Mitch Glazer; Paramount; 1988
This updated version of A Christmas Carol is neither funny nor heartwarming. Murray portrays television executive Frank Cross who is staging a historic live Christmas Eve broadcast of the Dickens classic complete with half-naked dancing girls and tiny mice with antlers stapled to their heads (at least that is what Cross orders a technician to do). Cross is visited by four spirits who try to remind him of the joy of Christmas. Johansen portrays a frighteningly grim ghost of Christmas Past who shows Cross his boyhood Christmases when their father returned home to an undecorated house to give him a package of meat for Christmas. If this doesn’t sound funny, you’re right. Kane is the ghost of Christmas Present and, while knocking the crap out of Cross, shows him his secretary’s home on Christmas Eve (her son doesn’t speak since experiencing a trauma) and the home of his brother. The spirit of Christmas Yet to Be is a fierce special effect who shows Cross his pathetic funeral that only his brother and sister-in-law attend. Also hovering in the background is fired employee Goldthwait who hits the skids and decides to seek his revenge on Cross. Karen Allen is the love interest, and we are shown their romance as they live in a small apartment and smoke dope. The film may be hip and may display a cynicism common today, but it’s not my idea of a Christmas film.
Secret Santa
Cast: D.L. Green, Debra Rich, Harrison Myers, Richard Gabai, Tena Fanning, Robert Connell
Credits: Producers: Ashok Amritraj and Andrew Stevens; Director: Fred Olen Ray; Writer: Hamilton Underwood; Royal Oaks; 1998
Used car salesman (Green) caves in to his slimy boss (Connell) and agrees to work 12-hour days until Christmas, breaking a promise of a Christmas vacation to his family. An elf appears telling Green he has been selected one of Santa’s Secret Santas and he better get in the Christmas mood or else. Green turns into Santa and when his boss tries to evict a children’s recreation center, he cannot sign. His boss kidnaps him, but Green is soon popped to the North Pole and proceeds to help Santa deliver gifts. On Christmas day he convinces his wife he that has changed and the family reunites.
Shaking the Tree
Cast: Arye Gross, Gale Hansen, Doug Savant, Courteney Cox
Credits: Director: Duane Clark; Writers: Duane Clark, Steven Wilde; Castle Hill, 1992
Four high school friends gather over the holidays, 10 years after graduating. Each one must come to terms with changes in their life.
The Shop Around the Corner
Cast: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, Felix Bressart
Credits: Producer/Director: Ernst Lubitsch; Writer: Samson Raphaelson (Based on the Play “Parfumerie” by Nikolaus Laszlo); MGM; 1940
Budapest, Hungary
Box 237
Modern girl wishes to correspond on cultural subjects anonymously with intelligently sympathetic young man.
Address Dear Friend.
In direct contrast to the lavishly well-to-do characters of Depression-era films of the 1930s and the film noirs soon to become a mainstay of 1940s Hollywood, comes Ernst Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner, a film filled with simple working-class folks who, like the rest of us, are neither all good nor all bad.
Released by MGM in 1940, the film boasted a cast list that was virtually a who’s who in Hollywood. Directed by the highly respected Ernst Lubitsch and starring Jimmy Stewart (an Academy Award nominee the previous year for his performance in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), Margaret Sullavan (Academy Award nominee in 1938 for her performance in Three Comrades) and the Wizard of Oz himself, Frank Morgan, The Shop Around the Corner was bound to do a brisk business.
The story centers on Mr. Matuschek (Frank Morgan) and his happily middle-class group of employees who work in his leather goods shop. Times are tough in Budapest, and the workers live in constant fear of rocking their safe little boat. As the film begins we see the employees arrive for work and indulge in harmless chatter while awaiting the owner. As in any workplace, there is the office snitch, in this case Mr. Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut), who overhears everything and immediately changes the context to fit his own little nefarious schemes. The employees are aware of his intentions and comically stress each point they make as being extremely benign, frantically gaining agreement from their co-workers as to the harmless intent of their words-be it the quality of Mrs. Matuschek’s goose liver on which Kralik (Jimmy Stewart) dined the prior evening or whether Matuschek’s wife had a face lift.
Later that day, when Mr. Matuschek asks for their honest opinion on an annoying cigarette box he has selected for the shop, the conniving Ferencz Vadas cloyingly agrees it is a wonderful box as Mr. Pirovitch (Felix Bressart) overhears those frightening words and slips away. Only Alfred Kralik, the oldest employee in the store, tells Mr. Matuschek the truth, whether he wants to hear it or not. Into this little mix comes Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) looking for a job. Kralik informs her he knows everything Mr. Matuschek thinks and he would never hire her. Matuschek hears this and, thinking the lady is a customer, asks her the problem. He is extremely miffed Kralik didn’t save him from the situation, but Kralik stands his ground and tells him it was his own fault. Meanwhile, Klara still hasn’t left and, managing to sell a lady the cigarette box at a higher price than Matuschek was going to charge. Matuschek is so happy, he gives Klara a job as clerk.
At work Klara and Kralik are like oil and water-no matter how hard they try to get along they always manage to take each other’s words the wrong way. But, after work, well, that’s another story. They both have a secret. Box 237. The two have been unknowingly corresponding as “Dear Friend” and each has grown to love the other through their letters-although they don’t even know their correspondent’s name.
As Christmas approaches Mr. Matuschek becomes increasingly cantankerous, usually taking his wrath out on Kralik. Kralik has problems of his own. He keeps putting off meeting his “Dear Friend” for fear of disappointing her or of being disappointed himself. They finally arrange that all-important first meeting, and both begin their day eagerly awaiting closing time and the long-awaited rendezvous with their unseen lover.
Matuschek arrives at the store in a fouler mood than ever and decides to redo the store windows, ordering everyone to stay late. Klara decides to beguile Kralik into helping her get the evening off. Margaret Sullavan sparkles in this scene as she sits atop a ladder helping Kralik stack boxes while charmingly whittling down his defenses. But Kralik is no dummy and soon realizes the reason she is being nice to him. Klara rushes to Mr. Matuschek and tells him she cannot work that night. He asks Kralik if he can do without Klara but, when Kralik tries to tell him he too needs the evening off, Matuschek flies into a rage and they exchange bitter words.
At closing time the shop curtains are lowered and the staff proceed to redecorate the windows. Kralik and Klara are hanging 
ornaments on a small Christmas tree when Matuschek calls Kralik into his office. The employees smile encouragement as he walks to the office, thinking he is going to get the raise he had been planning to request. However Matuschek dismisses him, sadly handing him severance pay and a letter of recommendation. Jimmy Stewart brings a tear to the eye as he cleans out his locker and tosses the red carnation he was going to wear to his rendezvous onto the floor. With no position he can’t ask his “Dear Friend” to marry him. As Kralik leaves, he places his salesbook onto a cloth-covered counter. Director Lubitsch has the camera focus on that book as two small pencils and the shop key are placed with it. The hopes and dreams of poor Kralik are left behind in that little book.
Meanwhile, Matuschek receives a phone call and sends the rest of the employees home. A visitor arrives, a detective (Charles Halton) who has been following Matuschek’s wife. Matuschek had received an anonymous letter informing him his wife was having an affair with one of his employees. Since Kralik was the only employee he ever took home, he naturally assumed he was the villain. But the detective tells him it is Vadas who has been dallying with Matuschek’s wife. Frank Morgan turns in a fine performance in this scene as the bitterly disappointed husband. He tells the detective to send him a bill and slowly goes into his office. Fortunately Pepi (William Tracy) the delivery boy opens the office door and stops Matuschek’s suicide attempt.
Kralik has asked Pirovitch to deliver a letter to his friend. Outside the restaurant, his curiosity gets the better of him and he asks Pirovitch what she looks like. “She’s very pretty,” Pirovitch answers. “She looks a little like Klara.” Well, this day just keeps getting worse and worse for Kralik when his friend tells him, “it is Klara.”
Kralik decides not to send the note and just leave Klara waiting. But his conscience gets the best of him, and he returns to the restaurant where they do verbal battle-he knowing she is “Dear Friend,” and she anxiously trying to be rid of the pesky Mr. Kralik so she can finally meet the man of her dreams. He states Klara will turn into an old maid while she meanly replies, “I have to laugh when I think of you calling me an old maid. You, you little insignificant little clerk.” A pitiful look of sadness crosses Kralik’s face before he slowly departs, leaving Klara alone.
Matuschek has Pepi call Kralik to the hospital where he apologizes for believing Kralik could have had an affair with his wife. He gives him the key to the shop and promotes him to manager. The next morning the employees happily welcome him back, Vadas trying to worm his way into Kralik’s good graces. Kralik works himself into an anger and fires the “two-timing back-stabber.” Klara has called in sick, but after checking her post office box and finding no letter, she goes to work and asks Kralik if she could see Mr. Matuschek; she refuses to believe him when he tells her he is now in charge and falls into a faint when a phone call confirms Kralik’s story.
He visits her at home that evening inquiring about her health. She condescendingly tells him that her problem is psychological but perks up when her aunt brings in a letter, which she anxiously reads. Jimmy Stewart is at his most endearing in this scene as he twitches and rolls his eyes as Klara reads portions of the letter (which, of course, he wrote) to him. She tells him that she will be back to work tomorrow and to save one of the musical cigar boxes. The look of panic that crosses Stewart’s face is priceless as he tries to talk her out of the odious box and instead convince her to buy a nice wallet. “A wallet is quite romantic. You see, on one side he has your last letter, on the other side a picture of you, and when he opens it, there you are. And that’s all the music he wants.”
The next morning, Christmas Eve, the staff is pleased to learn Mr. Matuschek is doing better and they send him a Christmas tree for his hospital room. Kralik encourages them to make this the best Christmas ever for the store. Pirovitch asks Klara if he could have the music box for his wife’s uncle, whom he doesn’t like; he can’t think of a more annoying gift. He says to Kralik, “You’ll get the wallet.”
The shop is bursting with customers and the day passes quickly. A heavy snow is falling as Mr. Matuschek pushes through the crowd and glances into the shop window with a smile. He and the staff await Flora’s total for the day, “the best since ’28!” he enthuses. Matuschek thanks them for the thoughtful gift they sent and then proceeds to hand out Christmas bonuses, Flora shyly taking hers, staring with adoration at Matuschek. (They’ll get together eventually, the audience hopes.) He even remembers the new delivery boy Rudy (since Pepi has been promoted to clerk). In this scene with his distinct voice, Frank Morgan as Matuschek reminds us of the Wizard of Oz when he admits to Dorothy and her friends that he is a fraud. Sad and alone, Mr. Matuschek leaves but stands outside in the falling snow with nowhere to go this Christmas Eve. He speaks to each employee leaving and asks their plans. We hope each will invite him home with them but none do, all excited to get home to their families. Rudy leaves and stops to thank him quietly for the gift. When asked about his holiday plans, he tells Mr. Matuschek that he has no people in Budapest and the two depart for a lavish dinner with strudel for dessert at an expensive restaurant.
Still in the shop, Klara is wrapping her precious wallet and, since it is Christmas Eve, she buries the hatchet with Kralik, even telling him that when she first started working there she was falling for him! She is flustered but remembers her important date with “Dear Friend” and announces they both may be engaged when they come back to work. Kralik replies that he knows they will. When she asks how he knows, he proclaims that her fiancé came to see him. “Popkin... A very nice fellow.” He begins to turn out the lights in the shop. “Don’t put him on a diet... a good solid mature citizen... out of a job... he feels both of you can live very nicely on your salary. Let me tell you, mentioning that bonus didn’t do you any harm.”
Klara is crushed. Her idolized knight-in-shining-armor is a fat, bald, unemployed bum. Kralik tells her it’s a shame he didn’t know how she felt at the beginning, because then he would say, “Klara, darling, so dearest, sweetest Klara. I can’t stand it any longer. Please take your key and open post office box 237 and take me out of my envelope and kiss me.”
Kralik puts a carnation in his buttonhole. “Dear Friend,” he says. It takes a few moments for this to sink in for Klara who replies, “Psychologically I’m very confused but personally I don’t feel bad at all.”
The Shop Around the Corner was based on the play Parfumerie by Nikolaus Laszlo. The screenplay was adapted by Samson Raphaelson, author of the play The Jazz Singer and long-time Lubitsch collaborator on films such as the Academy Award–nominated Heaven Can Wait, as well as The Merry Widow, One Hour with You and That Lady in Ermine.
Ernst Lubitsch was born and began his acting career in Berlin, where he slowly evolved into directing. He arrived in Hollywood in the 1920s bringing with him a European sense of class and style and a lighthearted approach toward sex that was missing from many American directors. His style, which nobody has ever been quite able to imitate or even describe, became known as the Lubitsch touch. He directed Love Parade with Maurice Chevalier in 1929, winning his second Academy Award for directing-the first had been for The Patriot, 1928, and followed those films up with merry musicals and cheery love stories, including the highly acclaimed Trouble in Paradise and Ninotchka. In his biography, Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise, author Scott Eyman asks Lubitsch’s niece which of his movies was most like him. “The Shop Around the Corner. It’s so European; it contains the most of what he was, all the types, the people that were his friends, the people he loved.”
Margaret Sullavan was said to be the great love of Jimmy Stewart’s life, although they never managed to get together. They, along with her future husband, Henry Fonda, appeared together with the University Players in Falmouth, Massachusetts. She was at home in comedies but spent most of her film career in melodramas. She quickly grew tired of the Hollywood hubbub and returned to the stage. Margaret Sullavan died at the age of 49. She had also been married to director William Wyler and famed agent Leland Hayward.
Jimmy Stewart needs no introduction to the American public. His charm, endearingly boyish good looks and easygoing manner won him the love of the adoring public. He was a real-life war hero and all-around nice guy. When he passed away in 1997 we felt as though we had lost one of our best friends. Before Jimmy Stewart fell ill, fans would write him requesting he do a drawing of Harvey, his invisible rabbit friend from the film of the same name. He always complied.
The cast was ably supported by Frank Morgan, a Broadway actor who found his rainbow in Hollywood. Morgan began his film career in the silent pictures and would find his niche as an always befuddled but unceasingly friendly gentleman as an MGM contractee. He appeared in over 75 films including Boom Town, Summer Holiday, Green Dolphin Street, Naughty Marietta and Thousands Cheer. Felix Bressart as Pirovitch fled his homeland when the Nazis came to power. He would work with Ernst Lubitsch in one of his most famous films, To Be or Not To Be (1942), a Nazi satire starring Jack Benny at his best in his role of ham actor and Carole Lombard as his flirtatious wife.
In their January 10, 1940 review of The Shop Around the Corner, Variety noted, “It’s smart and clever, but still packaged with easily understandable situations and problems of middle-class folks.”
For delightful holiday fare, a visit to The Shop Around the Corner could be just what Santa ordered.
In 1963 The Shop Around the Corner was made into a highly acclaimed Broadway musical, She Loves Me, by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick.
Silent Night
Cast: Linda Hamilton, Matthew Harbour, Romano Orzari, Alain Goulem
Credits: Director: Rodney Gibbons, Writer: Roger Aylward; TV, 2002
This Christmas film is based on the true story of a German woman and her son who find shelter in a cabin Christmas Eve, 1944. Three American soldiers and three German soldiers also seek shelter in the cabin. She convinces them to put aside the war for Christmas and share a holiday meal.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Cast: Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick, Toni Nero, Robert Brian Wilson
Credits: Producer: Ira Richard Barmak; Director: Charles E. Sellier; Writer: Michael Hickey; TriStar; 1984
How original, another killer Santa film.
Silent Night, Deadly Night 2
Cast: Eric Freeman, James L. Newman, Elizabeth Clayton, Jean Miller
Credits: Producer: Lawrence Applebaum; Director/Writer: Lee Harry; Ascot; 1987
Oh joy, a sequel to the first killer Santa film.
Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out
Cast: Richard Beymer, Bill Moseley, Samatha Scully, Elizabeth Hoffman
Credits: Producer: Arthur H. Gorson; Director: Monte Hellman; Writer: Carlos Laszlo; Quiet; 1989
And they’re back.
Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: the Toymaker
Cast: Mickey Rooney, William Thorne, Brian Bremer, Tracy Faun
Credits: Producers: Brian Yuzna and Richard N. Gladstein; Director: Martin Kitrosser; Writers: Martin Kitrosser and Brian Yuzna; Silent Films; 1991
Mickey Rooney slums in this holiday slashfest as a toymaker who creates killer toys, or is it his son or a robot or something...I’m not really sure what’s going on.
Sleepless in Seattle
Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Rosie O’Donnell, Rita Wilson
Credits: Director: Nora Ephron; Writers: Jeff Arch, David S. Ward, Gary Foster; Tri-Star; 1993
Not really a Christmas film but a sigh-filled love story that begins on Christmas Eve. Hanks plays a widower whose young son has called into a national radio talk show on Christmas Eve because he’s worried about his dad. He calls Hanks to the phone, who begins to talk about his love for his deceased wife. Ryan, a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, hears and becomes obsessed with “Sleepless in Seattle.” A wonderful love story filled with classic love songs and a devotion to An Affair to Remember, what else could you ask for, except maybe chocolate ice cream, which along with this film would pretty much make the perfect evening.
The Small One
Cast: Voices of Sean Marshall, William Woodson, Olan Sovle, Hal Smith, Joe Higgins, Gordon Jump
Credits: Producer/Director: Don Bluth; Music: Robert F. Brunner; Disney; 1978
The animated story of a young boy who must sell his beloved donkey Small One because he is too old and can no longer carry a large load. The boy takes the donkey to the nearest town and has all sorts of adventures as he tries to find a kind person to buy Small One. He finally finds that person, a kindly man who buys the donkey to carry his wife to Bethlehem. A sweet film that will capture your heart.
A Smokey Mountain Christmas
Cast: Dolly Parton, Lee Majors, John Ritter, Bo Hopkins, Dan Hedaya
Credits: Director: Henry Winkler; Television, 1986
Dolly Parton stars as a celebrity who goes to a mountain cabin to get away from everything and everybody over Christmas. She finds a group of orphans have taken over the cabin. Dolly and the children manage to have a merry Christmas and she even finds the time to fall in love with Majors. Nice little Christmas story.
The Snow Queen
Cast: (voices) Sandra Dee, Tommy Kirk, Patty McCormack, Paul Frees
Credits: Producer: Robert Faber; Directors: Alan Lipscott, Bob Fisher and Phil Patton; Universal; 1959
This Russian animated film was dubbed with a U.S. cast of voices for its release. The story is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the Snow Queen.
Some Girls
Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Jennifer Connelly, Sheila Kelley, Lila Kedrova
Credits: Director: Michael Hoffman; Writer: Rupert Walters; MGM-UA, 1989
A immature college student travels to Quebec to spend the holiday with his girlfriend’s family. He is determined to seduce his girlfriend or one of her beautiful sisters. But he finally learns about love from their grandmother.
Some of My Best Friends Are...
Cast: Alan Dellay, Nick Denoia, Tom Bade, David Baker, Paul Blake
Credits: Director: Mervyn Nelson; Writer: Mervyn Nelson; AIP, 1971
A drama focusing on gay men who meet at a New York bar on Christmas Eve.
Star Trek: Generations
Cast: Patrick Stewart, William Shatner, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Malcolm McDowell
Credits: Producer: Rick Berman; Director: David Carson; Writers: Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore (Based on characters created by Gene Roddenberry); Paramount; 1994
When Captain Picard (Stewart) follows villain Soran (McDowell) to a planet surface, he is swept up in the Nexus, a phenomenon that gives everyone trapped there their dearest wish. Picard finds himself happily settled into a cozy home complete with loving wife and adorable children who are preparing to celebrate the traditional Victorian Christmas. Beautifully filmed Christmas scenes make this essential viewing for Christmas fanatics.
Static
Cast: Keith Gordon, Amanda Plummer, Bob Gunton
Credits: Producer: Amy Ness; Director: Mark Romanek; Writers: Mark Romanek and Keith Gordon; Necessity; 1985
This independent film follows the adventures of Gordon as he tries to invent a television set that will show heaven. His parents were killed in an auto accident and he hopes to see them. On Christmas Eve he unveils his invention, but he is the only one who can see anything; everyone else sees static.
Stowaway
Cast: Shirley Temple, Robert Young, Alice Faye
Credits: Producer: B.G. DeSylva; Director: William A. Seiter; Writers: William Conselman, Arthur Sheekman and Nat Perrin (Based on a Story by Samuel Engel); Fox; 1936
Temple stars as orphan Ching-Ching who stows away on a ship to be with Young. In the end Faye and Young marry and adopt Ching-Ching. The final sequence has the happy family around the Christmas tree opening gifts. Temple also sings “That’s What I Want for Christmas.”
A Summer Place
Cast: Sandra Dee, Troy Donahue, Dorothy McGuire, Richard Egan, Constance Ford
Credits: Producer/Director/Writer: Delmer Daves; Warner Bros.; 1959
Soap opera of two forbidden pairs of lovers. Dee is the daughter of Constance Ford, a frigid, bitchy woman who worries constantly over the state of her daughter’s virginity. They have a fight and Ford throws Dee into a Christmas tree, taking dysfunctional families to a new film height.
Sunshine Christmas
Cast: Cliff De Young, Elizabeth Cheshire, Bill Mumy, Meg Foster, Barbara Hershey
Credits: Director: Glenn Jordan; Writer: Carol Sobieski; TV, 1977
A musician decides to take his daughter back to his home in Texas to spend the holidays. He meets his childhood sweetheart and romance is in the air.
Susan Slept Here
Cast: Dick Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Anne Francis, Alvy Moore, Glenda FarrellCredits: Producer: Harriet Parsons; Director: Frank Tashlin; Writer: Alex Gottlieb (based on “Susan” by Alex Gottlieb and Steve Fisher); RKO; 1954
Before watching Susan Slept Here, take a deep breath and clear your head of any traces of political correctness lingering there because if you get mired in reality, this movie plays like a particularly sleazy tabloid television show. The 1954 film follows the courtship of a 35-year-old Academy Award–winning writer (Dick Powell) and a 17-year-old juvenile delinquent (Debbie Reynolds) put in his charge by two policemen trying to give the kid a nice Christmas while giving the writer material for his next screenplay.
Of course writer Mark would never take advantage of a young girl; he prefers the mature charms of vamp Isabella (Anne Francis) and is rushing to keep a Christmas Eve date with her when the cops drop off the wayward kid.
You see, Mark has become discouraged writing fluff for the studio system and has quit to write something serious. The problem is, he can’t find any material. The cops (Horace McMahon and Herbert Vigran) advised him on a previous film and, remembering his quest for new material, drop off Susan for Mark to use as research. Susan is none too happy with this arrangement, making it known she is a good girl and won’t put up with any hanky panky. Mark isn’t pleased either and tries to put the kid in a hotel for the night, but all give him a you’re-a-dirty-old-man stare and won’t rent him a room. He ends up taking Susan back to his apartment, and they play cards to see who gets the bedroom. She wins and he spends an uncomfortable night on the couch. Susan explains she convinced her mother to marry and move to South America with her new husband. Susan told her mother she was going marry her high school boyfriend. Of course Susan wasn’t going to do any such thing, but she wanted her mother to be happy. Mark feels sorry for Susan and tries to think of a way to keep her out of juvenile hall. The only thing he can think of is to marry her (she has a letter with her mother’s permission). Against the wishes of his lawyer Harvey (Les Tremayne) and wiseacre assistant Virgil (Alvy Moore), Mark and Susan drive to Las Vegas to tie the knot. Mark, not wanting to spend the night with the teenager, keeps her dancing through the wee hours of the morning until she falls asleep. They drive back to California and Mark carries the new Mrs. into the bedroom, places her on the bed and promptly takes off for his cabin in the mountains, with secretary Maude (Glenda Farrell) in tow to write the dramatic screenplay. Virgil is left in charge of Susan until Harvey can arrange an annulment. But Susan fell in love-at-first-sight with the writer and, when asked to sign the papers, implies she spent the night with Mark and they must be divorced.
Meanwhile, in a perverted little scenario in the mountains, Isabella sneaks into Mark’s bed dressed as the teenaged Susan was on that Christmas Eve. She cries crocodile tears and begins to worm her way back into Mark’s affections when Mark receives a panic-stricken call from Harvey informing him Susan is at a lunch counter eating strawberries and pickles! Harvey thinks she’s pregnant and Mark is the father, Mark thinks Virgil has been taking advantage of Susan and Susan is oblivious to everything, happily munching away on the disgusting combination.
Mark discovers he really loves Susan and punches Virgil for taking advantage of her. He learns Susan has always eaten pickles and strawberries and the movie ends happily as the blissfully married couple heads for the bedroom and their belated honeymoon.
The film, too blatant to be a bedroom farce and too offensive to be a comedic love story, is really only for die-hard Dick Powell and Debbie Reynolds fans. Fans of Dick Powell will be happy to see him trip the light fantastic in a musical number with Reynolds. Powell left his dancing shoes at Warner Bros. and moved on to playing hard-boiled detectives in the 1940s in films such as Murder, My Sweet and Cornered. In the 1950s he would graduate to producing and directing. Two years after Susan Slept Here, Powell produced and directed The Conqueror, which was shot on location in Utah about 130 miles from an atomic test site. The cast included John Wayne, Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead who, along with Powell and over 90 other crew members, all succumbed to cancer. Powell was 49 when he played Mark, his last starring film role. He died in 1963 at the age of 58. Powell was married to musical star June Allyson at the time of his death. Debbie Reynolds was 22 when she played Susan. In 1964 she earned an Academy Award nomination for her role as Molly Brown in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
A welcome addition to the cast of Susan Slept Here was Glenda Farrell as Maude. Farrell had a successful career in 1930s and 1940s Hollywood as a wise-cracking blonde most typified by her Torchy Blane series. In 1933’s Mystery of the Wax Museum, Farrell practically stole the film from the always delightfully evil Lionel Atwill.
The Suspect
Cast: Charles Laughton, Ella Raines, Dick Harens, Henry Daniell
Credits: Producer: Islin Auster; Director: Robert Siodmak; Writers: Bertram Millhauser and Arthur T. Horman (Based on This Way Out by James Ronald); Universal; 1944
Charles Laughton murders his shrewish wife on Christmas Eve when she threatens to expose his mistress.