User reviews

If you want to see a film version of Somerset Maugham's "Christmas Holiday", you'll have to wait a while. This isn't it, despite the credit. "Suggested by..." would have been a more accurate credit. Maugham's tale is set in prewar Paris and concerns a young English college student who goes to Paris to see the sights during his Christmas vacation. This film updates the action to WW2 and concerns a lieutenant just graduated from flight school on leave to get married in San Francisco. Grounded by bad weather in New Orleans, he receives a telegram from his fiancée announcing her marriage to some other cluck. He decides to continue to S.F., presumably bent on vengeance. From here on film and Maugham more less parallel each other in broad outline, but all of Maugham's discussions between the student and his radical journalist friend about politics, sex, society and other more or less tabu topics in 1944 Hollywood are eliminated. In the film, the journalist is a pestiferous, drunken ne'er-do-well who frequently acts as a pimp for Gladys' dive. In the original story, Deanna's character, named Sonya, is a Russian émigré forced into prostitution to support herself and her sociopathic lover. Stripped of all of Maugham's philosophical thrust, we have just another film-noir/weeper, although it's not too bad in many respects. Not to reveal the melodramatic denouement tacked on by Hollywood, I'll only say that Maugham's story ends without any resolution, except possibly the student's regret that after being introduced to Sonya, he didn't see Paris, and all he got out of Sonya was conversation. In that, film and story agree.

Well, there you are! Somerset Maugham's "Christmas Holiday" indeed! But it's not as bad as some critics declare. Pauline Kael didn't like it, of course. But it is interesting as a film noir, and Deanna's first, perhaps only real, chance at a dramatic vehicle. Helen Hayes, or even Jane Greer, she wasn't, but then it's doubtful that Universal ever made any effort to develop her acting talent beyond the merest fundamentals. Also she didn't have the long film background of a Helen Parrish. She does present a winsome, sympathetic girl plunged into bad circumstances when her attractive husband proves a murderer and general bad type. Added to that, her mother-in-law casts her out after the husband's conviction. It's not a great performance, but Hollywood has produced many worse. Gene Kelly and the rest of the cast are very good. Kelly is in a very early role, the others are mostly veterans. It's a very moody piece, with photography to suit, and not at all what you would have gotten if Maugham's real story had been filmed.

Oh, yes. Deanna gets to sing two songs. Early on we get "Spring will be a little late this year", which is a slightly jazzy torch song, and later in the film, "Always", beautifully and wistfully delivered by Deann.

I was lucky enough to catch a rare screening of this never-on-video film at the Cinematheque here in Hollywood last night. It was very beautiful, moving even, with lovely black-&-white cinematography by Woody Bredell. Other users' comments to the contrary, Gene Kelly's role is most definitely not insignificant - he's the villain, for crying out loud! His genuinely complex and subtle performance is a real standout in a film filled with wonderful work by all of the actors. Gale Sondergaard, also, is clearly well-cast, too, as Kelly's mother; she may have been a little young for the role in real life, but that certainly doesn't come across in her portrayal of the stifling, weak-willed, coddling mother of a killer. Deanna Durbin, though always more of a performer than an actor per se, is more than convincing as a world-weary singer in a whorehouse (not a night club; though it's never explicitly identified as a house of ill repute, only the most boneheaded viewer would take it for anything else). Her tearful breakdown in the church during Christmas Eve mass (an exquisitely rendered set piece, full of deep, soft shadows and luminous pools of communal light) is genuinely touching and heartfelt. And the film's final moments, if accepted unironically (as they were intended), are truly poetic and uplifting.

DEANNA DURBIN begged Universal to let her play a dramatic role after her great success in a string of mostly mediocre films where she played a Little-Miss-Fixit in featherweight romantic comedies who sang operatic ditties with great skill and charm. She was always involved in a scheme to reunite her mother and father for the final clinch.

Here, she handles her very adult role with competence, quite believable as a torch singer in a disreputable nightclub, a troubled woman seeking redemption for problems in her twisted past relationships with a mother and son (GALE SONDERGAARD and GENE KELLY).

Deanna shines in the role, giving it shades of both simplicity and charm while playing the happy bride, but convincing when she becomes the bruised and fragile woman who manages to tell her tale of woe to a young lieutenant. The soldier is nicely played by DEAN HARENS, an officer on Christmas leave who is on his way to San Francisco when a storm forces his plane to land in New Orleans.

The film structure is not always smooth, burdened as it is by a couple of flashbacks in the middle and a rather weak ending that is over too abruptly. But Robert Siodmak and cameraman Woody Bredell give the whole piece a fluid style with long tracking shots and superior cinematography for several key scenes, notably the one that takes place at a church service on Christmas eve, and another in a concert hall.

Durbin's fans will certainly appreciate her rendering of "Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year" and Irving Berlin's haunting ballad "Always." The background music, a mixture of popular songs and classical pieces, is effective, especially for all of the nightclub scenes. Hans J. Salter deservedly won an Oscar nomination for his detailed and meticulous score.

Effective supporting performances from GALE SONDERGAARD, GLADYS GEORGE and RICHARD WHORF strengthen the tale. Well worth watching. Oddly enough, Deanna handles her dramatic chores in much better style than Gene Kelly, who's unable to do much with his role of a weak-willed wastrel who turns to crime for reasons unexplained.

Trivia note: David Bruce has a small role at the beginning. Two years later he'd be co-starring with Deanna in much bigger parts in CAN'T HELP SINGING and LADY ON A TRAIN.

This is a strange noir, made even more so by the odd casting of the usually wholesome Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly as a barely-disguised 'floozie' and an inveterate gambler and murderer respectively! Besides, the title is most ironic since, while it does revolve around just that occasion, the main narrative (which unfolds in flashback, a typical genre device, I might add) hardly evokes a feeling of good cheer – incidentally, this is possibly the only film set around this time of year to depict the Midnight mass traditionally held on Christmas Eve! Christmas HOLIDAY, then, was only director Siodmak's second noir: the result is somewhat pretentious for a movie from this vintage, yet this very quality has helped render it less dated than others of its ilk! I should point out that the late eminent British film critic Leslie Halliwell resented the script's approach to the source material – but, while this is unusually billed in the opening credits as "W. Somerset Maugham's Christmas HOLIDAY as written by Herman J. Mankieiwicz", the author himself was reportedly enthusiastic about the screen rendition!

For the record, I own 10 vehicles by the female lead (who actually initiated the project in an effort to change her child-star image!) but, more by accident than design, this is the first I have watched – and it appears that, not only was the film her personal favorite but also, in her opinion, the only worthy one she ever did! Incidentally, she would again dabble in the thriller genre with the more modest but still interestingly-cast LADY ON A TRAIN (1945), which I do have a copy of. By the way, the actress (who retired from the screen way back in 1948!) has just turned a venerable 90 years old in December! With respect to Kelly, this was his seventh picture (having debuted just 2 years previously) and, in his case, too, he would appear in only one other title in this vein i.e. BLACK HAND (1950), which I have also acquired some time back but have yet to catch up with. As for how the two fare within this seedy/gloomy environment, Kelly is quite good as a ne'er-do-well but Durbin (even though the studio bosses forced her into a couple of numbers – Frank Loesser's "Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year" and Irving Berlin's "Always", with the latter essentially turned into a motif throughout – to appease her established fan-base!) is surprisingly excellent.

Anyway, the plot involves Durbin and Kelly meeting at a concert (the 'Love/Death' theme from Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan And Isolde" – also effectively reprised here for the finale – which, for my money, has been immortalized in two Luis Bunuel films!) and immediately falling in love. When he takes her home to meet his mother (Gale Sondergaard in one of her best roles), the latter realizes the girl (who obviously is unaware of his character foibles) can help her make an honest man of her boy. However, events take a tragic turn as Kelly kills a man in a dispute over money, is caught, tried and condemned. Sondergaard, whose feelings for her son go far beyond motherly love(!), takes it out on Durbin for having failed her – which sends Durbin on her path to perdition (self-imposed, really, so as to be herself in a prison of her own making!)…which is how we first see her, offering solace at a New Orleans "joint" to a soldier who has his own beef against love (in fact, he was on his way home to take revenge upon the fiancée who had just jilted him!).

Other prominent characters are the proverbial madam-with-a-heart-of-gold played by Gladys George and Richard Whorf as the sleaziest figure of all, a muck-racking reporter who also operates as something of a pimp in the latter's establishment! The climax, then, sees Kelly escape from prison and (understandably) misconstruing Durbin's particular method of expiation: however, the Law is soon on his tracks, and he dies in a shoot-out with the Police – his dying words to his wife, finally appreciating the nature of her sacrifice, are "You can let go now, Abigail" (promptly reiterated by the young soldier, looking on).

What a surprise treat to see this rare film as part of a Robert Siodmak Festival at the Cleveland Art Museum in the summer of 2014. It put me back in the mid-WWII period and the beautiful, pristine 35mm print was shown as originally presented on the big screen, thanks to Film Curator John Ewing.

The major attraction here is that Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly both play against type in a "doctored up" Somerset Maugham story. Siodmak direction is dark, atmospheric and smoothly executed throughout. Deanna sings Irving Berlin's "Always" in a pop style very effectively. A good portion of Wagner's "Liebestod" from Tristan and Isolde is heard in an orchestral setting to heighten the dramatic proceedings.

Both stars work surprisingly well in their very heavy roles, and I found myself glued to the screen during Durbin's depiction. Her acting style has often been subtle, and this performance was one of her most understated. Kelly's role challenged him to reach dramatic heights, and he rises to occasion.

While some of the script is dated, Deanna dominates the screen whenever she's on, and is matched by a fine supporting cast. Truly a worthwhile viewing.

"Christmas Holiday" (Universal, 1944), directed by Robert Siodmak, is an interesting drama with "film noir" elements, (based on the story by W. Somerset Maugham which changes the local from Paris to New Orleans), starring two performers long associated with musical-comedy, Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly (on loan from MGM), in their only film together. Deanna Durbin's long awaited dramatic role, with two songs thrown in for good measure, might have earned her an Academy Award nomination, but didn't. Due to its lack of television revivals during the last couple of decades, "Christmas Holiday" just remains only a memory to anyone who has any recollection of ever seeing it.

The story begins with Lieutenant Charlie Mason (Dean Harens) about to have Christmas leave from military service to return home and marry his fiancée, Mona, but he receives a letter written by her that reads that she has married someone else. When his plane lands in New Orleans due to a bad rainstorm, Mason, quite depressed, makes the acquaintance with Simon Fenimore (Richard Whorf), a reporter, who invites him to accompany him to a night club managed by Valerie De Merone (Gladys George). While there, Mason meets Jackie Lamont, a night club singer (Deanna Durbin), and after she finishes vocalizing, "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," Jackie has Mason accompany her to a church. During the Mass, she starts to break down and cry. Mason covers up by placing his coat over her. He then escorts this troubled girl to a diner where she tells him her story: (Flashbacks reveal Jackie to be Abigail Martin. She meets Robert Manette (Gene Kelly). They fall in love and are soon married. Their marriage is happy and blissful for six months until Abigail learns that her husband, a troubled gambler, has just murdered his bookmaker. Abigail goes through a series of unpleasant circumstances during her husband's trial, especially when Robert's domineering mother (Gale Sondergaard) gives her a hard slap across her face for not having been a stronger influence on him after her son is found guilty and sentenced to serve time in prison.) Forwarding to the present: Abigail finishes her revealing story to Mason. She later learns that Robert has escaped from prison and is out to get her, adding more to her troubles.

When I first saw "Christmas Holiday" in one of its very rare television presentations on a PBS channel in 1982, I was moved by it and Durbin's performance from start to finish, and have never forgotten it. Possibly watching this movie again after so many years, I would not have that same reaction I had the first time, but otherwise, it still brings a new kind of experience in seeing Durbin in a serious role, that shouldn't go unnoticed. Durbin sings two songs, "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," and her lovely rendition to Irving Berlin's "Always." I was even surprised to find Gene Kelly playing a role against type. Still new to movies (making his debut in 1942), his dramatic acting comes off somewhat awkward. I've seen Kelly act in other serious roles, some good, some not, but his character in this production is definitely unsympathetic. He even gets a chance to carry a gun and use it in a shoot out. No dancing for him here unless he's dodging bullets bouncing from the floor. As for Gale Sondergaard, she looks too young to be playing Kelly's mother, a role that would have been far better suited to the likes of Margaret Wycherly (best remembered for her gangster mother role in James Cagney's in "White Heat" (1949)), but Sondergaard doesn't disappoint with her domineering performance over her "Momma's boy."

Also seen in the supporting cast is Universal contract player, David Bruce playing Gerald Tyler. Bruce would soon be elevated to Durbin's co-star in her only Technicolor musical, CAN'T HELP SINGING (1944).

Yes,"Christmas Holiday" is a rare find indeed, a different kind of Christmas story, the one that doesn't get to be added in the package of other Christmas movies that air annually on television, including all versions to "A Christmas Carol" (1938), "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) and/or "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947). While this movie has never been presented on classic cable channels like American Movie Classics, it's currently available (as of 2006) in the VHS format and can be purchased through Movies Unlimited. I recommend seeing it, at least once, if not for its dramatic content, but for its casting. (***)

Before MGM decided that they would be the only ones commanding Gene Kelly's services, they did lend him out for two memorable roles. One was Cover Girl for Columbia which firmly established Kelly as a musical star and the second was as Deanna Durbin's co-star in Christmas Holiday. Deanna sang a couple of numbers, but Kelly didn't even tap his foot to keep time. Yet he showed he was an actor to be reckoned with.

Through a combination of circumstances soldier on leave Dean Harens who was supposed to be getting married but has just gotten a 'dear john' letter is alone and at sea in New Orleans and meets up with Deanna Durbin who is singing in a nightclub.

Trying to console each other Durbin tells the story of her marriage to Gene Kelly who has enough charm for ten men, but at heart is a wastrel. The blood of the original French settlers in the New Orleans are has become pretty thin. He lives with his mother Gale Sondergaard in genteel poverty.

Sondergaard's hopes is that marriage might straighten her boy out, but that doesn't work out. Kelly kills Cy Kendall, a bookmaker he's into for some big bucks and eventually the cops catch up with him.

But that is hardly the end of the story as both Harens and Durbin learn a lot about life and love in that Christmas Holiday season.

New song that Deanna sings is Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year and Irving Berlin's classic Always is given a fine rendition. Christmas Holiday got an Oscar nomination for Best Musical Scoring in 1944.

But it's both Deanna and Gene's acting is what you'll remember most from Christmas Holiday.

With a surprisingly boring script by Herman J Mankiewicz (Citizen Kane), and supposedly based on a story by Somerset Maugham, Christmas Holiday proves that you can chunk and mess up a story all you want with no dramatic effect other than the viewer disinterest.

We have a story that begins with a lieutenant on leave at Christmas who finds out at the last minute that his girlfriend he is going to marry in San Francisco has left him. Then we follow the adventures of this lieutenant who cannot travel and has to stay in New Orleans by the storm. Later he meets a girl in a club, accompanies her to mass and discovers that the girl does not stop crying during the liturgical ceremony (a very long scene justifiable only with the aim of assessing the supposed acting skills of the actress). Half an hour has passed and the couple decides to have dinner at a bar. There the girl begins to tell him the story of her life in a flashback that we have the feeling will be short and almost marginal in the story, but surprisingly ends up being the main plot of the film.

After that flashback in which the girl tells that she married a murderer who is nowadays arrested (total spoiler), we realize that unfortunately (because of the lack of interest) there are other flashbacks in which she tells how they met, got married and went to live with the mother of the husband. They are loose scenes, without any relief, without links, simply the three or four important moments. At no time do they form a story, nor do they configure characters.

We don't understand what was the use of so much preamble, so much lieutenant, so much mass... the film wanders from one idea to another without arousing the slightest interest or emotion in the viewer: there is crime but neither suspense nor tension, there is love but it leaves us cold , there are three or four characters that at no time take on the slightest life.

If we add to this an absolutely wrong cast, the result could not be more disheartening. Gene Kelly was a great dancer, a great choreographer, a solvent comedy actor, but his dramatic ability is non-existent; Deanna Durbin was the cutest next-door-girl of the 1930s, who could outsmile and outsing any other teen actress. But growing older she was not cute anymore, she acquired a certainly matronly face, she was tired of the same mediocre childish films and desperate for dramatic roles. She still had the power and the money to try to find them. The result was not even passable and she had to return to her inconsequential comedies and ended her career shortly after.

If the film's footage and its meandering style didn't leave much time to develop the plot and the characters, Durbin spends time singing a few ditties. If we include more spent time playing almost complete Isolde's Liebestod, we start guessing Siodmack found he didn't have much of a story, or needn't much time to tell it.

When one thinks that in 1944 Siodmack had just shot the brilliant Phantom Lady, and in 1945 he would shoot another couple of notable films such as The suspect and The strange affair of Uncle Harry, always with the wonderful Ella Raines, a film as dead as this one becomes incomprehensible.

The two stars are Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly so 1940's audiences seeing a title like "Christmas Holiday" may well have expected a musical. The surprise was a TKO, and people reeled under this somewhat cleansed version of the Maugham novel. A powerful drama, "Christmas Holiday" actually proves that Durbin could have been on the verge of a stellar adult career that would have included important dramatic roles. She is merely superb in this one as a 'dance hall singer-hostess' who is determined to suffer as much as her murderous, jailed, asocial husband, very well done here by Gene Kelly. Durbin sings two standards beautifully, but it is her ACTING here that boosts the attention. Robert Siodmak, one of our finest noir-ish directors, carries off this challenge with excellence. Dean Harens is an fine foil for Durbin in her quest for retribution. A Broadway actor, he sounds and acts in the Tom Drake-style, and that is a compliment. Gladys George, Gale Sondergaard, Richard Whorf work well under Siodmak. Perhaps the public wasn't ready for Durbin and Kelly as 'hostess' and 'psycopath', and that is a shame. Despite the whitewash of some of the novel's elements, this is a very very fine film, and Deanna Durbin, wherever you may be these days, you are to be sincerely commended. Thanks for this one!!

I know that online bidders pay up to $75 for this film AND Gene Kelly and Deanne Durbin are cast against type (which, I guess, is cool) AND Robert Siodmak directed AND....

Well, the plain fact is that it's not a great fim or a great film noir. Some nice touches (the 2 versions of Always) and good acting don't make up for a pretty standard script/dialogue. Sidomak's style is not so apparent here, which is unfortunate....or maybe my print was so lousy that I didn't notice. There's nothing particulary offensive or poorly done...the film just kinda lays there.

If you're a Siodmak fan or a big film noir buff, check it out...but by no means shell out a day's pay for it!!

Pairing sunny star Deanna Durbin with stormy director Robert Siodmak is like coupling Snow White with Orson Welles. So who's going to win out—Universal's top money earner or noir's artistic vision. It's a struggle between luminous halos, on one hand, and creepy shadows, on the other. Actually the odd pairing works pretty well, thanks to Durbin's genuine acting ability, Gene Kelly's subtle ambiguity, and an unusually suggestive script. Clearly, Durbin is looking to change her virginal type casting, while Kelly has yet (I believe) to settle into his premier dancing career.

But, it's really Kelly's Manette who steals the film, with both a startlingly sly performance and the script's unconventional suggestions of incest and homosexuality. For example, there's a rather emphatic reference to Manette's being his mother's "all", plus mom's (Sondergaard) consuming attachment throughout the film. There's also repeated reference to Manette's "weakness", just ambiguous enough to go beyond a gambling habit. Couple that with his shaded behavior in several scenes, especially in the "anything goes" gambling den. Needless to say, such forbidden themes could only be hinted at in 40's Hollywood.

Adding to the 40's exotica is Durbin playing what amounts to a barroom hooker. She may remain pure at heart—confirmed in the midnight mass scene—nonetheless, the role amounts to a risky departure for Universal's teen idol. Thus director Siodmak's challenge is to reaffirm Abigail's (Durbin) basic innocence no matter what else happens, which he does through selective cameo lighting, even though that conflicts with his noirish sensibility. Then too, Dean Haren's sweetly normal escort is there to reassure fans that underneath it all, Durbin remains Durbin.

And to think the studio entitled this odd excursion into the dark side, Christmas Holiday, of all things. I sympathize with unsuspecting fans plunking down money to see the usual Durbin fluff. Nevertheless, the movie remains a fascinating study in conflicting styles and ambiguous characterization.

I saw the last two scenes of this strange film when I was living in Germany. When American films are shown in Germany, and they have music, the dialogue is dubbed, but the songs remain in English. I always wanted to see the whole thing.

Don't be fooled by the title "Christmas Holiday." This 1944 Universal film is no Christmas movie, but instead, a quasi-psychological story of obsessive love and guilt. Sounds just like a Deanna Durbin movie, doesn't it?

Durbin here plays Jackie Lamont, who tells her story to a soldier, Charles Mason (Dean Harens) grounded in New Orleans during bad weather. He's received a telegram from his fiancée telling him she's married to someone else, but he's decided to take his Christmas leave in San Francisco anyway, possibly to confront her.

When he can't leave New Orleans, a newspaperman, Simon (Richard Whorf) takes him to a club, Maison L'affite, run by Valerie (Gladys George). Jackie is a singer there and, like the other women who work there, talks to the male guests. There's a strong implication that they do something else for the male guests as well, but the code is in place so no one comes out and says it.

At her request, Charles takes her to midnight Mass - I haven't heard a mass in Latin in decades - where she breaks down. Afterwards, she explains that she is in reality Abigail Martin, the wife of Richard Manette (Gene Kelly), in prison for killing a bookie.

She tells him the whole story of how in love with him she was and still is, how they met at a concert, and how his mother (Gale Sondergaard) obviously knew something Abigail didn't know: that Richard was a charming, scheming, thieving weakling, and she was hoping Abigail could change him. She didn't.

One night he comes home with blood on his trousers and a lot of dough. It's not long before he's put on trial for murder and found guilty. His mother blames Abigail, and Abigail changes her name to Jackie and goes to work at the club, apparently as some sort of punishment.

This is pretty heavy going. It's suggested by a Somerset Maugham story - he wasn't known for light comedy. The casting of Durbin and Kelly is certainly interesting, plus the name. Imagine walking into a movie theater knowing nothing about this movie. You would assume you were about to see a cheerful musical.

Durbin sings "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," and "Always," which she does beautifully. She was a good actress and able to pull off the drama.

Kelly is a charmer in the beginning and then reveals his true colors. He was good, as was Gale Sondergaard.

The theme from Tristan & Isolde is played at the concert and at the end of the film. Always surprises me to hear Wagner in a film made during World War II, because all the German arias were taken out of the compilations of arias for various voice types during the war. Nevertheless, it's quite an arresting theme. Tristan & Isolde is similar, and predates, the legend of Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. Its theme doesn't seem to have much to do with this movie.

Deanna Durbin would leave films four years later and told an interviewer once that Universal was giving her worse and worse films. Given how much money she had made for them, the powers that be never knocked themselves out finding her good material.

"Christmas Holiday" is an aberration, but so odd and so oddly cast that it's worth seeing. I love Deanna, and I'll take her any way I can get her.

This starts out as the story of a serviceman looking forward to his leave. He's going to see his fiancée and give her a ring. Before we know it, his plane has made a forced landing in New Orleans.

He meets a songbird -- Durbin, who was very wise to turn to film noir when her charm as a girl soprano was waning. She starts to tell her own story and voila! His story is essentially forgotten. One might almost say junked.

Durbin was married to Gene Kelly. He's highly believable in an exceptionally unsympathetic role. Gale Sondergaard is his mother. And what a couple they are! We're looking at a highly unnatural relationship here.

All three of these performers are good. Richard Whorf is -- well, he's there as the solider. Gladys George has a touching bit as the manager of the bar where Durbin performs.

It's not the best movie ever made. But it's one of the creepiest.

Cast against type both Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly are excellent in Robert Siodmak's noirish romance "Christmas Holiday". She's an chanteuse in a New Orleans 'club' (for that read brothel) telling her story, (it's mostly in flashback), to soldier Dean Harens one stormy Christmas Eve. You see, she was married to good-for-nothing wastrel Kelly who's now in jail for murder. The fine supporting cast also includes Gale Sondergaard as Kelly's possessive mother, Gladys George as a big-hearted madam and the director Richard Whorf as a low-life reporter. Herman J Mankiewicz wrote the fine script from a novel by Somerset Maugham. Certainly not your usual Christmas fare and all the better for it.

Hmmm, I wonder of Tennessee Williams saw this in 1945 and wrote SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER as a riff on this astonishing incestuous masochistic noir. Universal's 1944 "Christmas Holiday"is a startling dark film that is quite explicit in its adult themes of prostitution, self punishment, sexual manipulation, incest and some quite twisted emotional ideas. It even has scenes similar to that same 1959 Taylor Montgomery Hepburn drama. Cleverly, Universal cast music stars Gene Kelly as the handsome spoiled son with the demon mother (Gale Sondergaard) and cherubic Deanna Durbin as the adoring slavish young woman that Mother encourages he marries to keep his amoral unethical character in check. The idea that Mother enthusiastically endorses their marriage so she can control both of them by their sexual desire for each other is a rank idea as slimy as seen in the pre code shocker THE SILVER CORD. I personally found the film riveting and I very much liked the casting against type. For me it gave the film excellent surprise value. Kelly made a terrific seductive rat. Durbin's slide into willing prostitution to 'be with him' in a decadent lifestyle (while he was away) is a great downbeat storyline. Everything about "Christmas Holiday" is deceptive, right from the happy title to the handsome horror of Kelly's character. I will not spoil the story for you other than to say the whole film is a terrific ride, and with a ripe explicit tone, you will be seduced yourself. Plenty of flashback like SORRY WRONG NUMBER and equally as creepy. What a surprise! Hilariously, in Australia it was our Nationwide TV treat at 8.30pm on Christmas night! Haven't our TV programmers got a sly sense of humor.

Lt Mason (Dean Harens) is returning home when his plane has to make an emergency landing. On an overnight stay, he has an encounter with Jackie/Abigail (Deanna Durbin) at a nightclub where she reveals her past to him. She is married to Robert Manette (Gene Kelly) who is serving time for murder. They spend an evening together before Lt Mason continues on his journey. However, Manette has escaped from jail.....

This is a film noir with unlikely lead roles going to Durbin and Kelly who are more noted for appearing in annoying musicals. Surprisingly, it works. Kelly doesn't do any cheesy, smiley, grinning dance moves where he sticks his bum out, and Durbin sings a couple of songs that are actually quite good. The film is slow to get going - think half an hour - which grants the viewer a right to question what on earth is going on and to get slightly bored. But, once the flashbacks begin, we have a story to follow and both my girlfriend and I far prefer Gene Kelly as a baddie.

This is a turgid melodrama, very loosely based on a Maugham story and designed to appeal to people during the Second World War. It's an odd movie in several ways. It wastes the huge talent of Gene Kelly, and does little more for the gifted Deanna Durbin. Deanna cries and sobs and looks hurt a lot, while otherwise amiable Kelly is forced to appear to be mean and insensitive. Two flashbacks tell the story, the second being set earlier in time than the first. The music throughout is a mess, becoming so loud at the corny and predictable ending that you want to shout at the screen. Several scenes in the film are just filler, including a symphonic orchestra scene that must have cost Universal a bundle. Gale Sondergaard was good, but then she was playing her usual villainous role.

In short, here is one to miss. In the following year, Durbin would shine in Can't Stop Singing, and Kelly would delight in Anchors Away. They both no doubt shuddered at war's end to think of Christmas Holiday.

Musical headliners Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly take a walk on the noir side in this in this offbeat assembled drama in which a hint of the lead is nowhere to be found ten minutes in. Enter movie musical superstar of her day Durbin and eventually famed hoofer Kelly as her heel husband. He's doing life for murder and she's trying to put her past behind her by changing her name and singing in a bordello. Recounting her story to a weather bound military officer the film in flashback tells of a disturbed son and domineering mother ( played with stoic abandon by Gail Sondergaard) deceiving her.

Kelly offers interesting offbeat but Durbin warbling a couple of tunes lacks the fatale chops to amp up the desperation. Director Robert Siodmak speaks film language in his typical eloquent fashion but the circuitous opening and deus ex machina finale works against whatever is commendable between it. Christmas Holiday is not much of a gift.