Humor, romance and Christmas holiday cheer abound in Peter Godfrey’s intermittently charming if also predictable comedy, “Christmas in Connecticut,” starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan.
Stanwyck plays Elizabeth Lane, the author of a newspaper column entitled “Smart Housekeeping,” in which she provides her readers with festive recipes and homemaking hints. But Elizabeth’s got a secret: She can’t even boil an egg! Indeed, Elizabeth has no cooking skills, no Connecticut farm, no adoring hubby and no baby-makes-three, as depicted in her column.
When her big, ambitious boss Alexander Yardley (Sidney Greenstreet) invites himself and Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), a recently returned war hero, to her home for Christmas dinner, Elizabeth must find a way to turn her fictional life into a real one.
A classic screwball comedy of mistaken identities, the tale depicts how, in desperation, Elizabeth invites John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner) to play her husband, rents a rustic house, and brings a world-renowned chef (S. Z. Sakall) to the place.
The best thing in the film is Stanwyck, a versatile actress, at ease in melodramas, film noir, suspense-crimers and screwball comedies. One of the Oscar’s biggest losers, Stanwyck was nominated for four Best Actress awards, but never won a competitive Oscar.
Made in 1945, at the end of WWII, the comedy, penned by Lionel Houser and Adele Comandini (based on a story by Aileen Hamilton), obviously propagated conservative ideology, sending women to the kitchen to dutifully play their roles as housewives and mothers after tasting some emancipation during the War years.
Cast
Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck)
Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan)
Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet)
John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner)
Felix Bassenak (S. Z. Skall)
Dudley Beecham (Robert Shayne)
Norah (Una O’Connor)
Sinkewicz (Fran Jenks)
Mary Lee (Joyce Compton)
Judge Crothers (Dick Elliott)
DVD Special Features Include:
Vintage Oscar-winning Short Star in the Night
Theatrical Trailer
Credits:
Produced by William Jacobs
B/W
Running time: 102 Minutes