Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 4-December-05
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Good food, roaring fires, and jolly fat men: what would December be without them? "Christmas in Connecticut" has them all, with sexy GIs and romantic tomfoolery to boot. This perfectly cast comedy features Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane, a columnist for a women's magazine who has fabricated a persona as America's greatest homemaker. All over the country, men and women look to Mrs. Lane as the epitome of feminine excellence: a devoted wife, loving mother, superb cook, and expert hostess who reassures them of the soundness of middle-class virtues. Nice work if you can get it, but the fact is that Elizabeth lives alone in a New York apartment and couldn't tell a teaspoon from a tortoise. When the owner of the magazine (Sydney Greenstreet) invites himself and a war hero to spend the holidays at her country home, deception becomes the order of the day.

"Christmas in Connecticut" tweaks the disparity between fact and fiction in American domestic affairs, but mostly it's just merry sport. As luck would have it, Elizabeth's dull-as-dishwater suitor (Reginald Gardiner) owns a rustic bungalow, and he offers it as the setting for her imposture after she agrees to marry him in a moment of weakness. Her lovable Uncle Felix (S. Z. Sakall) agrees to come and do the cooking, and they even rustle up a baby to complete the picture. For a moment it looks like the plot might work, but then the war hero, Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), arrives. He's tall and deep-voiced and cute as a button (Hel-lo, Sailor!), and the sparks that fly between him and Elizabeth could set the yule log afire.

Oh, what fun it is to watch Mr. Jones shadow Elizabeth on her maternal rounds (while he alone knows which end of a baby is up); or her boss demand that she flip a flapjack straight out of the skillet; or Uncle Felix extend his usefulness by thwarting her fiancé's plans. There's also a lively dance (as there should be in every holiday film) and a cow that bears Hilary Swank's nickname from "Million Dollar Baby" (which takes the drama out of it, don't you think?). By the time this Christmas is over, everybody gets what they asked for, no matter if they were naughty or nice. May viewers share such enjoyment wherever their stockings are hung!

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