Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

ridiculous rating

Just perfect...

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I greatly loved this yuletide film, with excellent performances by Barbara Stanwyck and Sydney Greenstreet, and fine direction by Peter Godfrey. Had they a stronger actor in the lead than Dennis Morgan, it would be a perfect film, but it's still a wonderful Christmas perennial and favourite to watch. The Oscar-winning short Star in the Night, directed by Don Siegel and a bonus on this DVD, is even better...Very charming film is more a straight romantic comedy than a Christmas film per se, but any chance to see cinematic greats such as Barbara Stanwyck (especially at this vintage) and, one of the finest character actors ever in Sydney Greenstreet, together is definitely not a lump of coal in a cinephile's Christmas stocking, no-siree!

Like "It Happened on 5th Avenue", I never saw this movie until TCM showed it at Christmas time! Nobody else shows black & white movies! Like 5th Ave, it revolves around an ex-serviceman and love at first sight. A "Betty Crocker-Martha Stewart" type magazine columnist writes about her lovely country home and down-home recipes. She is a complete fraud as she lives in a NYC apartment and gets all her cooking tips from her Hungarian restaurant owner "Felix", very well played by character actor S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakal. So, Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) gets caught in a lie and has to fabricate the whole thing, right down to the country ranch, husband and baby. All fake. She's single, childless, and lives in the city. Along comes a Navy hero who gets invited to her "home for the holidays". She can't even boil water, so "Felix" tries to teach her to cook, complete with flapjacks stuck on the ceiling! As mentioned, she falls in love with the Navy guy and the movie becomes even better. The sub-plots include her overpowering magazine boss (Sidney Greenstreet), a friend who she almost mistakenly marries, and a borrowed baby who changes sexes and hair colors! It's a "screwball" comedy. Great fun for all and highly recommended! The film runs a bit rough on both TCM and the DVD. Horizontal "wobble" and minor film damage for the first 20 minutes. It must have been hard to restore! There is also a 1992 TV remake with Dyan Cannon out there, but the original is far better.

Let's hear it for serendipity: In a shop specializing in Region 1 dvds I stumbled across one of those pantechnicon boxed sets, this one featuring four Christmas-themed movies. The selling point in my case was The Shop Around The Corner, which I have seen several times on TV but never owned and the set also boasted three other titles that were either new to me (It Happened on Fifth Avenue) or titles of which I'd heard of but hadn't seen, like this one. Okay the leading man was something of an acting joke, wooden as both Punch and Judy combined, but Barbara Stanwych seldom lets you down and if she was having an off-day here (she wasn't) Sydney Greenstreet, S. Z. Zackall, Regineld Gardiner and Una O'Connor were running interference and there was no way they could all be lousy at the same time. The premise was that Stanwyck plays a character based loosely upon Gladys Taber who, for several decades wrote a column in Family Circle in which she did little more than chat in a homely way - and/or dispensed 'Butternut Wisdom' about her farm in Connecticut, lacing the text with recipes, gardening tips etc. The twist in the film is that Stanwyck writes her column from Manhattan, couldn't boil water without burning it, would require an illustrated recipe to make toast and relies on the expertise of restaurateur Zackall to provide the cooking tips/recipes. She's doing all right if anybody asks you until the owner of the magazine, Greenstreet, decides not only to spend Christmas on the fictitious Stanwyck farm but also to bring war hero Morgan to supply the human interest angle. Luckily Regineld Gardiner, who has been pursuing Stanwyck unsuccessfully for years, just happens to have a farm in Connecticut which he is prepared to 'lend' Stanwyck should she agree to marry him, and naturally there is room also for Zackall to do the cooking. Now, of course, it's just a matter of waiting to see how long Stanwyck can keep the balls in the air, or how many near-misses she can survive. There's a lot of charm at work here and it's sobering to think that in 1945 this could have easily got lost in the shuffle at a time when they were churning out stuff like this at the rate of half a dozen a year whilst today it beckons like an oasis in a desert of mediocrity. Highly recommended.

I found this movie disappointing. Which surprised me, because I like most of the actors and they do a decent job here. So what's the problem? Well, it all just seems too contrived.Barbara Stanwyck is fine as the female lead, although I don't see this as one of her outstanding performances (and there were many). Dennis Morgan is pleasant, as he always was; I typically enjoy him in a film. Nice to see Sydney Greenstreet taking one of his lighter roles. Reginald Gardiner, not always one of my favorites, is fine here as the husband to be (?). S.Z. Sakall plays S.Z. Sakall (he was no actor...always played the same role...but was adorable). And, Una O'Connor was as delightful, as always. So, the problem is not the actors.The problem is the script. Sort of a screwball Christmas story...but not quite. Disappointing in terms of romance. It had its funny moments, but not that many moments strung together. The only thing that really comes together in the story are the contrived circumstances.I'm not saying it's a bad movie. It's okay. Pretty average. But as much as I love a good Christmas movie, this just didn't light my Christmas tree. Okay to watch...once.