Watch Christmas Holiday For Free

People are voting emotionally.

Memorable, crazy movie

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Stylish Hollywood film noirs, particularly such that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations were really big in the 1940s to the late 1950s. However, I never thought for once, that a big time studio like Universal, at the time, would market one, during the holiday season, but surprisingly, they did in 1944 with 'Christmas Holiday'. Although, the movie directed by Robert Siodmak was a huge success at the box office at the time. It hasn't aged well, overtime with general audiences. Partially, because of the forgettable generic title of the picture, the little reference to the event, and the fact that this movie isn't your typical, feel good, family friendly Frank-Capraism, Christmas film. Another reason, why this film doesn't stand out, much, is because the Hays Codes at the time, rejected many of the risqué themes from the 1939's novel of the same name like prostitution, misandrist beliefs toward war & politics, and the physical abusive toward women. This cause the film's version to be so water down, that it barely mirrors, the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It was not a faithful adaptation. It was a far cry from the original. Instead, of having an rich naive bourgeois Englishman painter meeting a beautiful Russian woman who has chosen a life of prostitution as penance for her husband's sinful act of murder in Paris, France, the film screenplay written by Herman Mankiewicz change it to a wartime, bitter, U.S. military officer, meeting a beautiful tragic depress, nightclub American lounge-singer, trying to escape from her in-prison, murderous husband & his family, while on layover in New Orleans, Louisiana. Even the melodrama flashbacks, are different from the book. Instead, of the woman losing everything, due to her husband's actions during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922), causing her to live in physical abusive, poverty, outside of her own country. The film has the nightclub singer, "Jackie" AKA Abigail Manette (Deanna Durbin), lose everything, due to her ex-husband, Southern aristocrat Robert Monette (Gene Kelly)'s gambling, resulting her to live, in a somewhat quiet, yet gentler life. While, Deanna Durbin was a fine actress, in portraying melancholy, both in her singing and acting. Her character's struggles are merely adequate, and not as strong as the novel. In the book, we can understand, more on why the woman would still love her partner & why she choose the life of the prostitute. She sees her ex-husband's murderous actions as acts of desperation to survive, much like, her selling her body, in order to feed herself. While, in the film, it makes little to no sense, why Abigail would still continue to love Robert. Nor get the idea, that singing the blues is just as rough as prison-like. In the end, most of her scenes, come across, as over-dramatic. As for Gene Kelly as Robert. It's an astonishing change from his typical inconsequential musical fare, as he gave a pretty good yet, ominously performance, as a man with something to hide, while also coming across as very charming. You really can't tell, if he has ulterior motives or not, at times. As for Dean Harens as Charlie Mason. His character by far, the weakest of the trio, as much of his bourgeois original character was butcher to generic, American all-around boy-scout stereotype. However, he does do a good job, on being on edge at times, especially, at the beginning, where he finds out that his love to be, marry somebody else. Still, I wish, the movie made more, use of him. He's pretty much, has little to do or say, when Abigail begins tells her story. Much of this, has to do with the awkward story structure of the film, which carry from the novel. In the novel, the flashbacks are needed, as they were showing a different settling and time. In truth, much of this story of the film, could easily be, told in the present day, as the past events, are not so different from the present. Don't get me wrong, I understand, why they went with the oddly place, story structure, as a way for Abigail to slowly fall in love with Robert in the end, after first, exposing the mysterious, then reminiscing with Charlie, but I really could do, without the multiple flashbacks. The reasons, why, are very clear. It's highly slow down the pace. Scenes like the church & concert, went a little long. Even, musical numbers sung by Durbin like "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year' by musical artist, Frank Loesser and "Always" by composer, Irving Berlin kinda dragging a times. Much of this movie, could had been told better, eliminating the irrelevant. Nevertheless, the atmospherically low-key black and white visuals by cinematographer, Woody Bredell with classic music were great. The use of shadows and silhouettes, were also pretty impressive. However, I can't say, this movie is the best film noir, I have seen. In the end, while, it was insightful, and intriguing. It falls short of being quietly profound. It's mediocre, at best. It would had dig darker depths, but falls into routine. No wonder, why it doesn't stand out.

I saw the last two scenes of this strange film when I was living in Germany. When American films are shown in Germany, and they have music, the dialogue is dubbed, but the songs remain in English. I always wanted to see the whole thing.Don't be fooled by the title "Christmas Holiday." This 1944 Universal film is no Christmas movie, but instead, a quasi-psychological story of obsessive love and guilt. Sounds just like a Deanna Durbin movie, doesn't it?Durbin here plays Jackie Lamont, who tells her story to a soldier, Charles Mason (Dean Harens) grounded in New Orleans during bad weather. He's received a telegram from his fiancée telling him she's married to someone else, but he's decided to take his Christmas leave in San Francisco anyway, possibly to confront her. When he can't leave New Orleans, a newspaperman, Simon (Richard Whorf) takes him to a club, Maison L'affite, run by Valerie (Gladys George). Jackie is a singer there and, like the other women who work there, talks to the male guests. There's a strong implication that they do something else for the male guests as well, but the code is in place so no one comes out and says it.At her request, Charles takes her to midnight Mass - I haven't heard a mass in Latin in decades - where she breaks down. Afterwards, she explains that she is in reality Abigail Martin, the wife of Richard Manette (Gene Kelly), in prison for killing a bookie. She tells him the whole story of how in love with him she was and still is, how they met at a concert, and how his mother (Gale Sondergaard) obviously knew something Abigail didn't know: that Richard was a charming, scheming, thieving weakling, and she was hoping Abigail could change him. She didn't.One night he comes home with blood on his trousers and a lot of dough. It's not long before he's put on trial for murder and found guilty. His mother blames Abigail, and Abigail changes her name to Jackie and goes to work at the club, apparently as some sort of punishment.This is pretty heavy going. It's suggested by a Somerset Maugham story - he wasn't known for light comedy. The casting of Durbin and Kelly is certainly interesting, plus the name. Imagine walking into a movie theater knowing nothing about this movie. You would assume you were about to see a cheerful musical.Durbin sings "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," and "Always," which she does beautifully. She was a good actress and able to pull off the drama.Kelly is a charmer in the beginning and then reveals his true colors. He was good, as was Gale Sondergaard.The theme from Tristan & Isolde is played at the concert and at the end of the film. Always surprises me to hear Wagner in a film made during World War II, because all the German arias were taken out of the compilations of arias for various voice types during the war. Nevertheless, it's quite an arresting theme. Tristan & Isolde is similar, and predates, the legend of Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. Its theme doesn't seem to have much to do with this movie.Deanna Durbin would leave films four years later and told an interviewer once that Universal was giving her worse and worse films. Given how much money she had made for them, the powers that be never knocked themselves out finding her good material."Christmas Holiday" is an aberration, but so odd and so oddly cast that it's worth seeing. I love Deanna, and I'll take her any way I can get her.

What a surprise treat to see this rare film as part of a Robert Siodmak Festival at the Cleveland Art Museum in the summer of 2014. It put me back in the mid-WWII period and the beautiful, pristine 35mm print was shown as originally presented on the big screen, thanks to Film Curator John Ewing. The major attraction here is that Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly both play against type in a "doctored up" Somerset Maugham story. Siodmak direction is dark, atmospheric and smoothly executed throughout. Deanna sings Irving Berlin's "Always" in a pop style very effectively. A good portion of Wagner's "Liebestod" from Tristan and Isolde is heard in an orchestral setting to heighten the dramatic proceedings.Both stars work surprisingly well in their very heavy roles, and I found myself glued to the screen during Durbin's depiction. Her acting style has often been subtle, and this performance was one of her most understated. Kelly's role challenged him to reach dramatic heights, and he rises to occasion.While some of the script is dated, Deanna dominates the screen whenever she's on, and is matched by a fine supporting cast. Truly a worthwhile viewing.

Pairing sunny star Deanna Durbin with stormy director Robert Siodmak is like coupling Snow White with Orson Welles. So who's going to win out—Universal's top money earner or noir's artistic vision. It's a struggle between luminous halos, on one hand, and creepy shadows, on the other. Actually the odd pairing works pretty well, thanks to Durbin's genuine acting ability, Gene Kelly's subtle ambiguity, and an unusually suggestive script. Clearly, Durbin is looking to change her virginal type casting, while Kelly has yet (I believe) to settle into his premier dancing career.But, it's really Kelly's Manette who steals the film, with both a startlingly sly performance and the script's unconventional suggestions of incest and homosexuality. For example, there's a rather emphatic reference to Manette's being his mother's "all", plus mom's (Sondergaard) consuming attachment throughout the film. There's also repeated reference to Manette's "weakness", just ambiguous enough to go beyond a gambling habit. Couple that with his shaded behavior in several scenes, especially in the "anything goes" gambling den. Needless to say, such forbidden themes could only be hinted at in 40's Hollywood. Adding to the 40's exotica is Durbin playing what amounts to a barroom hooker. She may remain pure at heart—confirmed in the midnight mass scene—nonetheless, the role amounts to a risky departure for Universal's teen idol. Thus director Siodmak's challenge is to reaffirm Abigail's (Durbin) basic innocence no matter what else happens, which he does through selective cameo lighting, even though that conflicts with his noirish sensibility. Then too, Dean Haren's sweetly normal escort is there to reassure fans that underneath it all, Durbin remains Durbin.And to think the studio entitled this odd excursion into the dark side, Christmas Holiday, of all things. I sympathize with unsuspecting fans plunking down money to see the usual Durbin fluff. Nevertheless, the movie remains a fascinating study in conflicting styles and ambiguous characterization.