Christmas Holiday (1944)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Robert Siodmak

Writers:

W. Somerset Maugham (novel)
Herman J. Mankiewicz (written for the screen by)

Release Date:

30 June 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Drama

Tagline:

DURBIN in the screen's greatest woman's role!

Plot:

A young femme fatale-type woman realizes that the wealthy man she married is an incorrigible wastrel. |

Plot Keywords:

Husband Wife Relationship | Christmas | Murder | Based On Novel

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Deanna Durbin	...	Jackie Lamont / Abigail Martin
Gene Kelly	...	Robert Manette
Richard Whorf	...	Simon Fenimore
Dean Harens	...	Lt. Charles Mason
Gladys George	...	Valerie de Merode
Gale Sondergaard	...	Mrs. Monette
David Bruce	...	Gerald Tyler

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Universal Pictures

Soundtrack:

Always

A perfumed but poisoned Christmas card from Siodmak, Durbin

Christmas Holiday, one of Robert Siodmak's early cluster of what would later be called film noir, is based on a W. Somerset Maugham story and a Herman J. Mankiewicz script. It's a triumph of casting against type. Gene Kelly is a scheming charmer prone to violence; his doting mom is Gale Sondergaard, for once not splaying her usual dragon-lady claws (at least not through most of her role). Most startling is the diminutive thrush Deanna Durbin, a pert presence and teen star in a number of 30s and 40s hits. Here she delivers a natural, nuanced performance that cleaves nicely between the exuberant ingenue of her early romance with Kelly (told in flashback) and the hardened torch-carrier she becomes. Her singing reflects these shadings, too: the winsome songbird warbles an early snatch of "Always;" a swacked, Chet-Bakerish chanteuse phones in "Spring will be a little late this year," while the reprise of "Always" turns into a heavy, torchy number. The plot's about a soldier stranded in New Orleans on Christmas Eve, after getting a Dear John wire from his fiancee; he ends up meeting Durbin in a roadhouse, and they swap stories after midnight Mass. Alas, Kelly has escaped from the pen at Angola with a mind to settle some scores. Maugham's chum Noel Coward once marvelled at how potent cheap music could be; this movie, like Jean Negulesco's Humoresque, ends with the strains of Wagner's Liebestod -- transcendent music cheaply used -- and, against your better instincts, you get sucked right in.