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

A favorite Christmas oldie

I first saw this years ago, and it gets better with every viewing. Barbara Stanwyck is Elizabeth Lane, a magazine columnist/domestic goddess/perfect wife + mother -- the Martha Stewart of 1945 -- who's a total fraud. Single, childless and a terrible cook, she bangs out her columns in her city apartment while wolfing down sardines beside a window view of her laundry drying against a downscale Manhattan skyline. When her clueless publisher insists she and her "husband" take in a war hero for the holidays at their "Connecticut farmhouse," it's a mad scramble to come up with hubby, hearth and baby in time to save her career. And when she finds herself falling for the visiting sailor (a dashing Dennis Morgan), her best-laid plans unravel deliciously. S.Z. Sakall is her Uncle Felix --a gourmet chef who cheerfully abets her homemaker column -- and Reginald Gardiner is perfection as John Sloan, her stolid, thoroughly unappetizing faux husband. December 26, 2008

Great classic

My husband and loved this movie. Great film. Barbara was absolutely wonderful, her performance with Dennis Morgan and Sydney Greenstreet superb. Wonderful Christmas film, I recommend this one for your collection. December 23, 2008

PURE CHRISTMAS MAGIC!

Christmas in Connecticut (1945) is a Christmas movie, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, and Sydney Greenstreet. Released through Warner Brothers, it was directed by Peter Godfrey. Although originally released on 11 August 1945, the film has become a holiday classic.

The film begins in World War II as a German U-Boat fires a torpedo, sinking an American vessel. Two survivors, Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) and Seymour Sinkiewicz (Frank Jenks) float aboard a raft and wait for rescue, eager to rid themselves of their hunger. After eighteen days, they are rescued and begin recovery at a U.S. Navy hospital. However, Jones must do without solid food while Sinkiewicz gets all he can handle. The explanation is that he starved longer than Sinkiewicz, allowing him the last available K-ration. Desperate for some real food, Jones turns to Sinkiewicz, who tells him that the nurses will do special favors for patients who are in love with them. Jones decides to try this with his nurse, Mary Lee (Joyce Compton). The con pays off, but Jones soon learns that the doctors were right. His stomach is not ready for solid food.


Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane in Christmas in Connecticut.Jones later realizes the plan has worked too well, and Mary is prepared to marry him. He tells her that, being in the Navy, he's never really known what a real home is like. Nevertheless, Mary is determined to see the engagement through. She reads an article in a housekeeping magazine by Elizabeth Lane. Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) is comparable to today's Martha Stewart. She lives on a farm in Connecticut with her husband and baby, a model of domesticity and the idol of many an American housewife. Mary decides to write to the publishing magnate, Mr. Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet) who controls Lane's publication. She asks if Jones can spend Christmas on Mrs. Lane's farm. Mr. Yardley, sensing a public relations boon, supports the idea wholeheartedly.

Unfortunately, there's a problem; Elizabeth is not nearly what she appears. She lives in a small apartment in New York, is unmarried and has no concept of domestic life or cuisine. She writes the articles simply for the money, and her "five-star" recipes are provided by her friend, Felix (S.Z. Sakall), who owns a Manhattan bistro. When she hears of Mr. Yardley's plan, she begins to panic. She tries to call off the plan, but Yardley dismisses this. In addition, Yardley is feeling lonely this Christmas. His daughter is stuck in Washington, and he stands to spend Christmas alone is his Long Island mansion. He decides to invite himself to the farm for Christmas, adding more pressure to Elizabeth's problems.

With time running short, Elizabeth turns to her friend, John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner). Sloan is a pompous architect who has given Elizabeth numerous marriage proposals, none of which she has accepted. John actually lives on a farm in Connecticut and he agrees to let her use it, if she agrees to marry him. Given the circumstances, Elizabeth agrees. She decides to bring Felix along to do the cooking and pose as her uncle, a favor he is willing to carry out as Elizabeth helped to fund his restaurant business. It seems that Elizabeth is in the clear, but the next few days put a decisive strain on the plan.

Elizabeth struggles to keep up the charade, demonstrating a degree of unfamiliarity in farm life and child care, as well as great reluctance toward the kitchen. In addition, Elizabeth develops a romantic interest in Jones, which she must also keep to herself. But things go horribly wrong on the evening after Christmas, when Mr. Yardley spots a woman stealing Elizabeth's baby and immediately calls the police. (The woman was actually the baby's real mother. Due to the mother's long hours at the nearby war plant, the baby spends much of the day at the farm-allowing Elizabeth to pass it off as her own.) When Elizabeth comes home to find a media circus, she decides to come clean. Furious, Mr. Yardley fires her, but has a change of heart after Felix fabricates a story about a competing magazine's attempts to hire her. After finding out that Jones' fiancee, the nurse Mary Lee, is now married to Sinkiewicz, Jones and Elizabeth admit their love for each other. The film ends with the couple set to be married.
December 21, 2008

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

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