Movie Review: Christmas In Connecticut

Last year as I was searching Netflix to create a Christmas watch list for the family, I remembered a movie that I had seen the last part of years before on the Classic Movie channel. I could not remember its title or who had stared in it. I only remembered that it was about a young woman who had created a fictional magazine character who was married and lived on a farm with her husband and their infant child. The crisis comes when the owner of the magazine she is writing for invites himself to her idyllic home for Christmas Eve and she must scramble and conjure up a husband, farm and baby in just a few days. What I had seen of it was extremely funny and I very badly wanted to try and find it again.

Somehow, I managed to stumble across the movie; Christmas in Connecticut staring Barbara Stanwyck and Denis Morgan, directed by Peter Godfrey and was produced by Warner Brothers 1945. While I more or less remembered the plot line, when we watched it as a family I discovered it was even more comical than I recalled and certainly a bit more complex.

Elizabeth Lane, (Stanwyck) is the authoress of a magazine column in Smart Housekeeping owned by tycoon Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet). Just as I recalled she had indeed invented a sham housewife, husband and infant, along with a fictional farm life in Connecticut for the magazine. However, she had also become famous for the wonderful gourmet meals she provides recipes for in her column, as well as the serene family life she has spun for her readers. In cahoots with Lane, is Dudley Beecham (Robert Shayne) her editor. When the big boss, Yardley, calls editor Beecham to demand that Mrs. Lane drop by his home and discuss the arrangements that he has made to have a homeless war hero spend Christmas with her and family on the farm in Connecticut both Lane and Beecham begin to learn the true meaning of the expression “Oh what tangle webs we weave, when first we begin to deceive!”

Rather than admit the truth to Yardley who is a stickler for honesty and integrity, they dig themselves further into the hole by conjuring up a dream farm and family and then whilst Lane struggles to play the part of the happily married wife of architect John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner), we watch her fall in love with the war hero Jefferson Jones (Denis Morgan). Adding to the comedy of the situation are the 'stand in' babies who keep changing sex as their mothers drop them off for Sloan’s housekeeper to baby-sit. Then there is the problem that Lane can not even boil water, let alone create these master pieces she has been cooking these past years in her fantasy double life. Enter the adorable Felix, (S.Z. Sakall) the chef who worships Lane as the result of some favor she did for him in the distant past, and who has been providing her with the recipes for her column. All of this adds up to a huge mix of laughs, funny lines and good fun for the family to watch.

Our whole family enjoyed this movie, bringing lots of guffaws from the older ones in the gang. Today when I watched it again on my laptop to refresh my memories, even Nathaniel, six, and Emma, four, happily sat by my side and watched it intently, often discussing together what was happening.
“That man is leaving now.”
No he’s not. See, they is still dancing!”
Perhaps it was more the treat of spending time alone with Mummy but they did appear to remain engaged the whole movie.

This movie, still available in black and white, can be found on DVD and can be purchased through Amazon or Movies Unlimited. I believe though that I bought our copy for less than you will find it for on either of these sites though half.com, including shipping. This movie, in my humble opinion, is well worth harboring in any family movie library.

Movie Review: The Great Rupert

The Great Rupert, now sold under the name of A Christmas Wish, was produced by George Pal Productions in 1950, and appears to be often listed as a class B film, sometimes not even showing in some of the actors’ bios. However, it is quite a delightful little movie, especially if you are a Jimmy Durante fan.

We came across it quite by accident when our oldest daughter was here for Thanksgiving and she grabbed some one dollar DVD’s on a rack as she checked out at a local grocery store. Looking for something different to watch Sunday while home with an ill child I stuck the DVD in the player, never thinking it would be worth reviewing, after all it was only a one dollar rack special.

Durante quite steals the show while Rupert, the creation of George Pal and one of Hollywood’s earliest attempts at animation comes in at a close second. It is Rupert’s tricks that turns the Amendola family's fortune around. When we are introduced to this out of work, vaudeville family act we learn that they are both homeless and penniless. When Mrs. Amendola (Queenie Smith) asks Mr Amendola (Durante) if he has checked their other account in Chicago, Durante pulls a letter out of a coat pocket and reads to his wife, and daughter Rosalinda;

“Dear Mr. Amendole:

This is the last monthly statement we will mail you as we believe it is hardly worth the three cents to tell you that you have two cents.”

They then run into another luckless vaudeville act, Joe Mahoney the once famous lion tamer, who now is trying to convince others that his dancing squirrel (Rupert) is box office material. Amendola, after blowing a lot of smoke and mirrors about how they have been booked in Europe where a good human pyramid act is still appreciated, he learns that Mahoney has just been evicted this last half hour and better yet, managed to live at this location for six months without paying the rent. All pretext is dropped as Mr. Amendola grills Joe for the details, and they leave poor Mahoney in the park while Amendola quickly drags his girls to the address provided by the former lion tamer before some other misfortunate should stumble upon the vacancy.

The land lord’s son, Peter Dingle (Tom Drake) is in the apartment practicing on his tuba and when he sees the beautiful Rosalinda, ( Terry More) he is smitten and easily bamboozled out of the first months rent, putting him squarely in his father’s (Frank Orth) miserly bad books. Before long we are drawn in a tale that has both an innocent romance between Peter Dingle and Rosalinda which is marred only by the foil provided by theatrical agent Phil Davis (Chick Chandler) and a touch of the story of Scrooge while we get to watch Mr. Dingle’s miserly ways slowly become his ruin and Mr. Amendala’s generous soul become his salvation . All of this is aided by the antics of Rupert who moved right back into the apartment the same day his trainer had set him free in the nearby park.

All in all, the whole family enjoyed this film, even while in black and white. The music when Durante sometimes played piano and sang in his typical style that he was so famous for caught the baby’s attention and the other children were quite amused by the simple actions of the animated squirrel. While we are tempted to laugh at this 1950’s attempt at animation, it is interesting to know that “This technique is where it all started and the same basic process is the building block of all computer CGI today from JURASSIC PARK to TOY STORY.” (To read more click here. ) As well, I was fascinated to learn through my research about this film, that Rupert's producer, George Pal, had his office directly across from Gene Roddenberry who received a lot of advice from Pal on the making of his Star Trek series.

This DVD can be rented from Netflix and is also available for sale online from various websites. If you decide that you wish to own your own copy it can be found for as little as 9.95 but be sure to search about if you come across some the ones I found at 24.99. Although I liked the movie very much, I would be hesitant to spend more than ten dollars on it myself, but then I am not an avid Jimmy Durante fan!

White Christmas - a Classic

White Christmas was produced in 1954 and starred Bing Crosby , Danny Kaye , Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen . We watched this last night and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all the age groups represented by our family which run from being in the late forties down through the early twenties, teens, single digits and ultimately finishes with infancy. Okay – Elsa, at 7 months, might be a little young to add her two bits to this review but she was often engaged, glancing at the TV screen with interest and cooing along with the melodies.

I read an original review and was struck by how the writer had not particularly enjoyed the movie in stark contrast to our family's enjoyment and our wish that there were more innocent movies of this type still produced today. Little did the author of this review realize that this would become a Christmas Classic.

We enjoyed the dance routines as well as the slick timing of Danny Kay as Bing's foil in this musical. Many of the lines while possibly considered corny by some, brought laughs from all ages groups in this family of 14.

The story line is that of an army general fallen on hard times and a Captain (Bing Crosby) and a Private (Danny Kay) from his army career become a successful music act and while in pursuit of a sister act (Clooney & Vera-Ellen) they show up at his Ski Resort in Vermont; where no snow has brought business to a stand still. Wallace and Davis (Crosby & Kaye) decide to bring their act to the inn so as to generate some income for the General and help him save his inn.

There is a slight romance plot to it, tastefully done and adds to the enjoyment of the story line. The dance routines are awesome and Kaye, I think, completely steals the show with his perfect delivery as well as his dancing. Crosby is at his usual best but Kaye shone, so much so that I am inspired to look for other movies that he is in.

If you have forgotten this classic or have never watched it, take time to include it in your Christmas line up this season as it is very enjoyable and takes you back to a time of innocence as well as when it was still okay to wish one another a Merry Christmas without fear of being ‘un PC’.

We rented this through Netflix, but it can be found on Amazon and, no doubt, in your local movie rental store.