Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Christmas in Connecticut is a holiday film that plays 365 days of the year. Barbara Stanwyck gives a brilliant, sardonic performance as Elizabeth Lane, a columnist for Smart Housekeeping magazine, whose enticing descriptions of the exquisite meals she prepares for her husband and baby on their bucolic Connecticut farm earns her fame as "America's Best Cook." A writer, she is; a cook, she is not. As she types the words, "From my living room window, as I write, the good cedar logs cracking on the fire..." the view is of clothes flapping on the line outside her bachelorette Manhattan apartment. An able supporting cast keeps her lie on life support: her editor, her stuffy and detestable architect suitor, and the wonderful "Uncle" Felix (S.Z. Sakall), an English-garbling Hungarian chef who provides the recipes that fill her column.

Cut to Jefferson Jones, a sailor adrift at sea for weeks after his destroyer is torpedoed. Memories of the food described in Lane's columns are central to his survival. After his rescue, as he's recuperating in a naval hospital, a marriage-minded nurse thinks she might nudge Jones to the altar if he could only experience a real domestic Christmas. And it just so happens that she was nurse to the grandchild of Alexander Yardley, the wealthy and powerful publisher of --you guessed it--Smart Housekeeping magazine. And so, she pens the letter that could unravel Lane's carefully constructed fraud. She writes to Yardley asking that Jones be included in America's ultimate Christmas--the one to be held at the Lane family farm in Connecticut. The pompous Yardley (ably portrayed by Sidney Greenstreet) believes the Lane myth and instantly sniffs a story that will send his magazine's circulation skyrocketing. And staring down a lonely holiday, he decides to join the Lanes for Christmas on the farm, too. Now, all Lane has to do is come up with a farm. And a husband. And let's not forget the baby. Christmas in Connecticut is classic screwball entertainment of the best kind, with its on-target skewering of social convention and house-of- cards-about-to-tumble tension: a perfect farcical vision of domestic blitz. --Susan Benson Amazon.com essential video

Not Great, But Really Good

Bad direction keeps this movie from being good. In fact, even Barbara Stanwyck comes off looking awkward in some scenes. But she can never be truly bad. Her presence and a great supporting cast keep me watching this one again and again: (the usually weird) Sydney Greenstreet feels just enough out of place to be really fun, (the often overly cute) S. Z. Sakall gets to deliver all the sardonic jabs that keep the movie from being too sweet, and (the always wonderful) Una O'Connor is, well, just wonderful.

The one-reel extra, A Star in the Night, is the kind of pure Christmas schmaltz that will have any true holiday believers bawling on cue. And that alone is worth the price of purchase. November 16, 2008

Don't miss the extras

Don't miss the extra feature on this DVD. I was enchanted by the special vintage short, "Star in the Night." This was a Southwest retelling of the Christmas story. Three cowboys follow a neon star to a rundown inn where the lack of Christmas Spirit runs rampant. When a young expectant mother and her husband in need of a place to stay,arrive, the true meaning of Christmas fills the inn.

Director Don Siegel and writers, Robert Finch and Saul Elkins masterfully tell us the story that we've heard so many times.

October 27, 2008

A classic movie you can watch again and again

Our whole family loves this movie. Barbara Stanwyck plays a writer who pretends to be married with a baby and pretends she's an expert at cooking, sewing, and overall home-making. Her boss decides that she should have a recovering military man to her country home (which she doesn't have) for Christmas so he can experience cozy home-life over the holidays. Then, her boss manages to invite himself along, too! She feels sure she's just lost her job and this will be the worst Christmas ever.... but a male friend of hers (who has been pestering her to marry him for a while) convinces her to marry him and they can have everyone to HIS home in the country. Of course, she doesn't love him.... and she ends up in love with the military man.... It's one problem after another, making this movie a real hoot! June 15, 2008

Christmas in Connecticut

I watch this every Christmas. This is one of my favorite Christmas shows. It is fun and light hearted. March 21, 2008

I'm buying it!

Someone just told me about this movie, right after I mentioned that my name was Elizabeth Lane and I work in publishing. I can't wait to see it -- it sounds like a fun classic! All the great reviews here make the movie sound unbeatable. March 12, 2008

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