Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

"Everything is hunky-dunky!"

Director

Peter Godfrey

Cast
Barbara Stanwyck - Elizabeth Lane
Dennis Morgan - Jefferson Jones
Sydney Greenstreet - Alexander Yardley
Reginald Gardiner - John Sloan
S.Z. Sakall - Felix Bassenak
Robert Shayne - Dudley Beecham
Una O'Connor - Norah
Frank Jenks - Sinkewicz
Joyce Compton - Mary Lee
Dick Elliott - Judge Crothers

Last Christmas season (2023) my wife and I sat down to some not-so-traditionally nor highly customary Christmas movies. We picked four movies that aren't as widely appreciated and commercialized as, say, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," or "A Christmas Story," or "Elf" or "It's a Wonderful Life," or any version of "A Christmas Carol." You won't find these Christmas movies emblazoned on t-shirts, winter pajama pants, talking tree ornaments or novelty candies.

I had the idea to review a handful of holiday movies that don't quite get the accolades and appreciation of more customary Christmas movies like those I mentioned. I meant to post them last Christmas, but I didn't. So, I saved them for this year. It's like I packed them away with the rest of the decorations down in the basement. And now with the holidays upon us, I'm digging them back out, blowing the dust off, and displaying them.

Each year at Christmas, audiences often watch the same old Christmas movies which we hear about again and again.

Most of these are great movies, particularly "A Christmas Story" and "It's a Wonderful Life" which are the two greatest holiday movies ever filmed. 

I wanted to give some not-so-talked about movies a chance.

In the 1945 movie, "Christmas in Connecticut," Barbara Stanwyck plays Elizabeth Lane, a food writer out of New York. 

Lane writes columns about her husband and baby living out on a Connecticut farm. She certainly has her fanbase. But the content is all completely made up. 

Her readers don't know that. Her publisher, Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet), doesn't even realize it's all fake. Rather, he wants Lane to host a special Christmas dinner that goes along with the atmosphere of her column for one of her readers - war hero Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan). 

While he was in the hospital, Jones read all her columns and recipes and was really impressed by them. So much so that his nurse and fiancé, Mary Lee (Joyce Compton), penned a letter to Yardley. 

Well, now Lane is caught between either admitting the truth and ruining both her career and that of Yardley's as well as her editor, Dudley Beecham's (Robert Shayne). Or she can go along with this plan as best she can. She doesn't know how to cook well, and she doesn't have any children. 

Lane decides to go along with the plan and wing it along the way. 

She asks her "honorary uncle" and chef, Felix Bassenak (S.Z. Sakall) for help as he's been supplying her with recipes for her column. 

Her first dilemma is finding a farm in Connecticut. Luckily, her friend John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner) happens to have one. He has the hots for Lane so he's fine loaning his property to her. But he insists she marry him in return. In desperation to borrow his farm to carry out this lie of hers, she agrees.  

Next, she needs a baby as she doesn't have one. 

Luckily, the neighbor has a baby which she "borrows" to pass off as her own. However, she has little to no experience with babies. So, there's that issue. 

She also wants to marry John right away. She asks Judge Crothers (Dick Elliott) to marry them right there in the farmhouse. 

But when Jefferson arrives early, causing the ceremony to be delayed, something happens that Lane wasn't anticipating. She falls in love with him. 

Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan in "Christmas in Connecticut."

With all this going on, it's up to Lane to keep this charade going through Christmas. 

Honestly, as comedic as the scenario is, I can see why this movie isn't elevated to the same appreciation and level of the more widely popular Christmas movies.

The premise lacks charm, relatability, and Christmas spirit. 
Stanwyck's character is heaping one lie on top of another, until she simply can't anymore. And she puts her reputation, as well as that of others, on the line. And the audience is expected to like her in the end. 

Then, when things start to turn on her, Lane lashes out at Yardley. 
"I'm tired of being pushed around," she says when he won't let her speak. "Tired of being told what to do. Tired of writing your god-darned articles. Tired of dancing to everybody else's tune. Tired of being told whom to marry. In short, I'm tired!"

I certainly don't feel any sympathy for her. What a joke! 

And to really drive home the fact that Lane is completely selfish, she lashes out at Jefferson for "deceiving her." 
"Don't you come near me, you seawolf, after the way you deceived me," she says. 

"I deceived you?" he says.
"Yes! You're engaged!"

"You're married," he replies.
"That has nothing to do with it!"

Lane is unlikeable, plain and simple. If that's what Stanwyk was going for in her performance, then she nailed it beautifully. Her performance is strong and, all things considered, entertaining and well-performed. The fact this movie takes place at Christmas, as if to say "even assholes can have a Christmas miracle" is void of anything likeable. 

The whole movie plays out like a long early sitcom Christmas special a la "I Love Lucy" or maybe "The Honeymooners." If only Jackie Gleason took the lead role. 

 To its credit, I did stay focused until the end because I needed to see how this whole situation would wrap up. 

With this kind of comedy, I can understand why some might enjoy this movie around the holidays. Not me, though. It leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. 

I can't help but compare this flick to the more iconic, and far superior movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" (with all respect to Frank Capra's fantastic film) which only takes place at Christmas time in the final act of the movie. Part of the charm of the movie is getting to the Christmas portion of the story. 

"Christmas in Connecticut" tries to be charming by appealing heavily on sentiments and the cute appearance of devilish dishonesty disguised as innocence though the main character is anything but innocent.

One good thing did come out of this experience. Next time someone tells me "A Christmas Story" is a stupid movie, I'll direct them to "Christmas is Connecticut."