While not the best classic Christmas film, “Christmas in Connecticut” is still an enjoyable, fun and delightful film that will no doubt make you laugh as it did with audiences back in 1945.
© 1945, 2005 Turner Entertainment. All rights reserved.
FILM: Christmas in Connecticut
DATE OF FILM RELEASE: 1945
DURATION: 101 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Black and White, Closed Captions, Dolby Digital, English and French Monaural
COMPANY: Warner Bros.
RATED: NOT RATED
Directed by Peter Godfrey
Screenplay by Lionel Houser, Adele Comandini
Story by Aileen Hamilton
Produced by William Jacobs
Executive Producer: Jack L. Warner
Music by Friedrich Hollaender
Cinematography by Carl E. Guthrie
Edited by Frank Magee
Art Direction by Stanley Fleischer
Set Decoration by Casey Roberts
Costume Design by Milo Anderson
Starring:
Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane
Dennis Morgan as Jefferson Jones
Syndey Greenstreet as Alexander Yardley
Reginald Gardiner as John Sloan
S.Z. Sakall as Felix Bassenak
Robert Shayne as Dudley Beecham
Una O’Connor as Norah
Frank Jenks as Sinkewicz
Joyce Compton as Mary Lee
Dick Elliott as Judge Crothers
Journalist Elizabeth Lane is one of the country’s most famous food writer. In her columns, she describes herself as a hard working farm woman, taking care of her children and being an excellent cook. But this is all lies. In reality she is an umarried New Yorker who can’t even boil an egg. The recipes come from her good friend Felix. The owner of the magazine she works for has decided that a heroic sailor will spend his christmas on *her* farm. Miss Lane knows that her career is over if the truth comes out, but what can she do?
Every year on Christmas Eve, I try to pick out one classic holiday film to watch. And sure enough, on my queue was the 1945 holiday screwball comedy “Christmas in Connecticut”.
The 1945 film is directed by Peter Godfrey (“The Two Mrs. Carrolls”, “Cry Wolf”) and stars Barbara Stanwyck (“The Lady Eve”, “The Big Valley”, “Double Indemnity”), Dennis Morgan (“It’s a Great Feeling”, “Captains of the Clouds”), Sydney Greenstreet (“Casablanca”, “The Maltese Falcon”, “The Mask of Dimitrios”), Reginald Gardiner (“The Great Director”, “The Flying Deuces”) and S.Z. Sakall (“Casablanca”, “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, “In the Good Old Summertime”).
And a film that has remained a favorite of classic film fans during the Christmas holidays, “Christmas in Connecticut” is among one of the films featured in Warner Bros. “Classic Holidays Collection Vol. 1”, which also includes “Boys Town” (1938), “A Christmas Carol” (1938) and “The Singing Nun” (1966).
The film had also been remade by actor Arnold Schwarzenegger back in 1992 starring Dyan Cannon, Kris Kristofferson and Tony Curtis, but if you want to see the film, the classic 1945 version is the version to watch!
“Christmas in Connecticut” begins with Jefferson Jones (portrayed by Dennis Morgan) and Sinkewicz (portrayed by Frank Jenks) surviving a u-boat torpedo which killed everyone but them. Surviving for days on a lifeboat, keeping Jefferson alive is his dreams of the food written by the popular columnist Elizabeth Lane.
Just the thought of her food makes him salivate and he dreams of one day tasting the dishes that she has written about in “Smart Housekeeping”.
As Jefferson and Sinkewicz are war heroes, the two are stuck in the hospital eating the food given to them. But because Jefferson’s stomach is not used to eating solid foods, since he was without food for a days, Jefferson just can’t help but feel hungry while reading “Smart Housekeeping” in bed.
So, he gets close to the nurse after being told by Sinkewicz that flirting with her can get him a good meal. And sure enough, flirting with nurse Mary Lee (portrayed by Joyce Compton) works! But as expected, because his body is not used to solid foods, he is unable to eat anything just yet.
But thinking that Jefferson wants to marry her, she wants to do something good for him. So, Mary Lee writes to the publisher of “Smart Housekeeping” in hopes that war hero Jefferson Jones can eat at Elizabeth Lane’s home on Christmas Day.
And because this event could make a great article, publisher Alexander Yardley (portrayed by Sydney Greenstreet) contacts “Smart Housekeeping” editor Dudley Beecham (portrayed by Robert Shayne) of his plans.
But Dudley begins worrying and schedules a meeting with Elizabeth Lane.
We are then introduced to the popular columnist, Elizabeth Lane (portrayed by Barbara Stanwyck). Who writes about having children, living on a farm and cooking her meals. But the truth is that Elizabeth is living in a hotel, the recipes for her column comes from restaurant owner/chef Felix Bassenak (portrayed by S.Z. Sakall) and as for the farm, the Connecticut farm is owned by John Sloan (portrayed by Reginald Gardiner), who has always loved Elizabeth, but she never had the same feelings for him.
But as Elizabeth (who is not wealthy), purchases a mink coat that she is making payments on, Dudley comes to break the bad news for her and worried that about losing their jobs, Elizabeth’s quick thinking makes her want to marry John (because he owns a farm), have Felix accompany her on this ruse to fool her publisher Mr. Yardley and also the war hero Jefferson Jones.
As for the children, because John’s maid, Nora (portrayed by Una O’Connor) is often taking care of the neighbor’s baby, they will pretend that the baby belongs to Elizabeth.
As everyone tries to stage this facade of Elizabeth Lane’s Connecticut life and get through the holiday with no problems, when Jefferson arrives, immediately Elizabeth begins to become smitten by him and for Jefferson, who has always been smittened by the columnist, he wonders why it appears that Elizabeth is different from her column and that she behaves as if she is not married.
But as Elizabeth and friends are trying to execute their plan of fooling them, will Elizabeth’s guilty feelings of lying to Jefferson affect her from executing her plan thoroughly?
“Christmas in Connecticut” is a fun screwball comedy starring Barbara Stanwyck in a role where she is a strong, independent woman and also a popular columnist named Elizabeth Lane.
The problem is that she is to cook for her publisher and a war hero and despite writing a column about food, she has no experience cooking anything. She can write but the recipes belongs to her friend and chef, Felix.
Part of its efficacy as a comedy is the fact that Elizabeth must create this facade that she can cook, she is a mother of babies and lives on a farm and everything she gets her hands on, in order to prove to war hero Jefferson Jones and her publisher Mr. Yardley, unfortunately doesn’t go as well as she hoped.
As Felix teaches her how to cook something simple and tossing it on a pan, Elizabeth keeps throwing the food towards the ceiling. When trying to clean the baby, she has no idea what to do but fortunately Jefferson loves kids, loves cooking and wants to make an impression on the columnist that he has admired for so long.
The characters are also quite fascinating as Sydney Greenstreet plays a publisher that always is thinking how to sell more copies of an issue using Elizabeth and possibly her husband to be, John Sloan. But the person who literally steals each scene that he is featured is actor S.Z. Sakall playing the chef Felix Bassenak. He’s very opinionated and can’t stand the fact that Elizabeth is marrying John Sloan, often in arguments with maid Nora (portrayed by Una O’Connor) and is always patient towards Elizabeth, despite how her decisions tend to stress him out.
The other fascinating reason why I enjoyed the film is because we are so used to seeing Stanwyck in film noir or a western, she is a great dramatic actress, so whenever you see her in a comedy role, you can’t help but be amused as it shows her diversity and skill as an actress.
While not the best classic Christmas film, “Christmas in Connecticut” is still an enjoyable, fun and delightful film that will no doubt make you laugh as it did with audiences back in 1945.
