Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Director:

Peter Godfrey

Writers:

Lionel Houser (screenplay) and
Adele Comandini (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

11 August 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

Journalist Elizabeth Lane is one of the country's most famous food writers. In her columns, she describes herself as a hard working farm woman...

Plot Keywords:

Christmas | Food | Connecticut | War Hero | Cooking

US TV Schedule:

Sun. Dec. 6

12:00 PM

TCM

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Elizabeth Lane
Dennis Morgan	...	Jefferson Jones
Sydney Greenstreet	...	Alexander Yardley
Reginald Gardiner	...	John Sloan
S.Z. Sakall	...	Felix Bassenak
Robert Shayne	...	Dudley Beecham
Una O'Connor	...	Norah
Frank Jenks	...	Sinkewicz
Joyce Compton	...	Mary Lee
Dick Elliott	...	Judge Crothers

Also Known As:

Indiscretion (UK)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #10197) | Canada:G (video rating) | Finland:S

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

The Connecticut home is the same set used in Bringing Up Baby (1938),

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Felix walks into the bedroom and as he reaches for the door knob the stage lighting cast two prominent shadows of him.

Quotes:

John Sloan: Having babies to boost your circulation takes time.

Movie Connections:

Featured in A Hollywood Christmas (1996) (V)

Soundtrack:

For You

Lightweight But Pleasant Holiday Feature

This lightweight but pleasant holiday feature makes the most out of a pretty slim premise, thanks to a solid cast and some resourceful writing. Not meant to be taken very seriously, it provides easygoing entertainment with some simple but upbeat themes.

Barbara Stanwyck was an interesting choice as the lead, and she makes it work well enough. The premise of Stanwyck's writer character trying to fool everyone and maintain her image is more suited to screwball comedy than to a holiday feature, but the tone is kept light and funny while having just enough of the holiday atmosphere to be believable. The supporting cast helps out, with the likes of "Cuddles" Sakall and Sydney Greenstreet getting some good moments.

This kind of light but worthwhile feature is not as easy as it looks - as witness the string of crass, barely watchable holiday features of recent years. While hardly anything deep or brilliant, "Christmas in Connecticut" holds up well enough to be among the more enjoyable movies of its kind.