From the 1940s: Christmas in Connecticut

1945 Romantic Comedy

From Warner Bros.

Directed by Peter Godfrey

Starring

Barbara Stanwyck

Dennis Morgan

Sydney Greenstreet

S. Z. Sakall

Reginald Gardiner

Una O'Connor

Robert Shayne

The fact that the lady could go from her Oscar-nominated performance as a sociopathic tigress in Double Indemnity a year prior to her comical, klutzy kitten in this film shows her gargantuan talent and her not unexpected versatility.  

Clearly one associates this actress with dramas (let me count the number) and while one knows, it's assumed, that she made comedies, superior ones in fact, it's always a treat to see her do something lighter.  Although my favorite Stanwyck comedy is The Lady Eve, this one is entertaining fun, a comedy so light and her role perhaps more gentle than usually encountered.     

Of course she didn't do it alone.  WB heartthrob Dennis Morgan is a welcome addition in all his handsomeness and even gets to sing a couple of songs at the piano.  Movie villain Sydney Greenstreet is here, too, more delightful than I would have anticipated, and he made fewer comedies than his leading lady.   Comic genius S. Z. (Cuddles) Sakall, a staple around the studio, and the always amusingly fussy Reginald Gardiner certainly generate their share of laughs.

In a film that has fun upsetting conventional gender roles, it opens with Morgan as a soldier adrift at sea and all he can think about is food.  While he is recovering in the hospital he consistently reads a food column and speaks of the delicious foods the lady columnist gushes over.  His nurse then writes to the publisher (Greenstreet) of the newspaper that runs the column. The pair cook up a Christmastime event whereby the war hero will visit the lady columnist who will cook one of her fabulous meals at her Connecticut farmhouse.  Her husband and baby will be there as well and the publisher has invited himself.  

There's just one problem... oops, correction... there are several problems. It seems she has been hoodwinking her adoring public with her folksy musings.  She doesn't have a Connecticut farmhouse (she lives in a dingy Manhattan apartment), she doesn't have a husband, she doesn't have a baby and most egregious, she can't cook... at all.  What she writes are recipes provided by her uncle (Sakall) who runs a New York restaurant.

Since Greenstreet doesn't know of the ruse she's been orchestrating and she is well aware of how embarrassing this whole thing could be, she declines the offer, saying the baby has some disease.  But 

Greenstreet will have none of it, accuses her of being unpatriotic and threatens to fire her.

She decides to go along with it when her friend (Gardiner), who is pestering her to marry him, reminds her that he lives in a Connecticut farmhouse.  He also advises his housekeeper (O'Connor) watches a few babies while their mothers work for the war effort and they will be able to borrow one of them.  Sakall will join in by staying in the farmhouse kitchen and cooking so Stanwyck can entertain her war hero.  Simple, eh?  Oh, you know not.

Then comes a knock at the door and there stands Morgan in his uniform and she turns to jelly and it seems he does, too.  It looks like love at first sight for both of them which brings up another problem.  Since she is grateful that Gardiner is loaning out his farmhouse for her scheme, Stanwyck agrees to marry him (they tell others they'll be renewing their vows since she claims to already be married) while

making sure he knows she doesn't love him.  What she comes to find is that he has asked a minister-friend to join the proceedings and marry them that very day.

What else could go wrong?  Ha.  In typical screwball fashion, people are asked to hide in rooms to avoid others, a dark-haired baby boy suddenly becomes a blonde baby girl, a mother comes for her child and takes her home as Greenstreet observes and sets a kidnapping scenario into play.  There's a giggle-promoting scene with Sakall trying to teach Stanwyck how to flip pancakes.  Morgan doesn't understand Stanwyck's attentions to him... you don't act as if you are married, he exclaims.  And then there's Stanwyck doing everything she can to avoid the marriage ceremony.

Much of the humor comes out of Stanwyck's incompetence at doing much of anything.  (Stanwyck incompetent?  Now that's acting!)  It seems the men can all do things better than she can... Sakall with his cooking, Morgan with the baby, Gardiner with design and decor, even Greenstreet on taking charge.

Of course, it all works out.  Truth is told, forgiveness is bestowed and true love flourishes.  The end.  

Greenstreet, Gardiner & Sakall eavesdropping

English-born Peter Godfrey came to the states and became an actor but it didn't work out so well so he turned to directing.  He landed at WB and became one of their contract directors doing mainly B movies.  This was his first of three films in which he directed Stanwyck.  The other two were The Two Mrs. Carrolls and Cry Wolf, both dramas in 1947.  Actress and director (and his acting wife Renee) would become good friends.  Godfrey and Greenstreet also became fast friends and kept the cast and crew in stitches with their zany antics, making this a happy experience for all.

Bette Davis was originally signed for the lead and after her usual fussing and feuding with the brass, she dropped out.  Morgan, who had not gotten on with her when they made In This Our Life in 1942, was pleased with her departure.  Davis always got the first crack at the lead in A pictures so she was always someone to contend with.  Stanwyck was not a WB star although she made plenty of films there and she was delighted to be doing this one.

She was happy to be working with Morgan, as most of the actresses on the lot were.  With talent at WB like Davis, Crawford, Lupino, Flynn, Bogart, Cagney, De Havilland, Robinson and others, it's surprising that Morgan was the highest paid of WB contract stars for about six years in the 40s.

Trivia buffs may be interested to know that the farmhouse is the same one that was featured in Bringing Up Baby as Katharine Hepburn's home.

It seems odd that WB released the film in August and despite some mixed reviews, it became a big hit, filling WB's coffers just as they had hoped.  Nearly every year since it appears on television during the holiday season, even though it is only marginally a Christmas movie.  I don't know what does and doesn't qualify as such a movie but surely one with Christmas in the title does.

Few things at the movies have ever brought me more joy than watching a film with Barbara Stanwyck.  This may not stand as one of her best films but it is one of her very charming performances and well worth a gander.

Here's the trailer:

Next posting:

January 5

Taking a holiday hiatus

Warm wishes to y'all