Christmas Holiday

If you want to see a film version of Somerset Maugham's "Christmas Holiday", you'll have to wait a while. This isn't it, despite the credit. "Suggested by..." would have been a more accurate credit. Maugham's tale is set in prewar Paris and concerns a young English college student who goes to Paris to see the sights during his Christmas vacation. This film updates the action to WW2 and concerns a lieutenant just graduated from flight school on leave to get married in San Francisco. Grounded by bad weather in New Orleans, he receives a telegram from his fiancée announcing her marriage to some other cluck. He decides to continue to S.F., presumably bent on vengeance. From here on film and Maugham more less parallel each other in broad outline, but all of Maugham's discussions between the student and his radical journalist friend about politics, sex, society and other more or less tabu topics in 1944 Hollywood are eliminated. In the film, the journalist is a pestiferous, drunken ne'er-do-well who frequently acts as a pimp for Gladys' dive. In the original story, Deanna's character, named Sonya, is a Russian émigré forced into prostitution to support herself and her sociopathic lover. Stripped of all of Maugham's philosophical thrust, we have just another film-noir/weeper, although it's not too bad in many respects. Not to reveal the melodramatic denouement tacked on by Hollywood, I'll only say that Maugham's story ends without any resolution, except possibly the student's regret that after being introduced to Sonya, he didn't see Paris, and all he got out of Sonya was conversation. In that, film and story agree.

Well, there you are! Somerset Maugham's "Christmas Holiday" indeed! But it's not as bad as some critics declare. Pauline Kael didn't like it, of course. But it is interesting as a film noir, and Deanna's first, perhaps only real, chance at a dramatic vehicle. Helen Hayes, or even Jane Greer, she wasn't, but then it's doubtful that Universal ever made any effort to develop her acting talent beyond the merest fundamentals. Also she didn't have the long film background of a Helen Parrish. She does present a winsome, sympathetic girl plunged into bad circumstances when her attractive husband proves a murderer and general bad type. Added to that, her mother-in-law casts her out after the husband's conviction. It's not a great performance, but Hollywood has produced many worse. Gene Kelly and the rest of the cast are very good. Kelly is in a very early role, the others are mostly veterans. It's a very moody piece, with photography to suit, and not at all what you would have gotten if Maugham's real story had been filmed.

Oh, yes. Deanna gets to sing two songs. Early on we get "Spring will be a little late this year", which is a slightly jazzy torch song, and later in the film, "Always", beautifully and wistfully delivered by Deann.

"Christmas Holiday" (Universal, 1944), directed by Robert Siodmak, is an interesting drama with "film noir" elements, (based on the story by W. Somerset Maugham which changes the local from Paris to New Orleans), starring two performers long associated with musical-comedy, Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly (on loan from MGM), in their only film together. Deanna Durbin's long awaited dramatic role, with two songs thrown in for good measure, might have earned her an Academy Award nomination, but didn't. Due to its lack of television revivals during the last couple of decades, "Christmas Holiday" just remains only a memory to anyone who has any recollection of ever seeing it.

The story begins with Lieutenant Charlie Mason (Dean Harens) about to have Christmas leave from military service to return home and marry his fiancée, Mona, but he receives a letter written by her that reads that she has married someone else. When his plane lands in New Orleans due to a bad rainstorm, Mason, quite depressed, makes the acquaintance with Simon Fenimore (Richard Whorf), a reporter, who invites him to accompany him to a night club managed by Valerie De Merone (Gladys George). While there, Mason meets Jackie Lamont, a night club singer (Deanna Durbin), and after she finishes vocalizing, "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," Jackie has Mason accompany her to a church. During the Mass, she starts to break down and cry. Mason covers up by placing his coat over her. He then escorts this troubled girl to a diner where she tells him her story: (Flashbacks reveal Jackie to be Abigail Martin. She meets Robert Manette (Gene Kelly). They fall in love and are soon married. Their marriage is happy and blissful for six months until Abigail learns that her husband, a troubled gambler, has just murdered his bookmaker. Abigail goes through a series of unpleasant circumstances during her husband's trial, especially when Robert's domineering mother (Gale Sondergaard) gives her a hard slap across her face for not having been a stronger influence on him after her son is found guilty and sentenced to serve time in prison.) Forwarding to the present: Abigail finishes her revealing story to Mason. She later learns that Robert has escaped from prison and is out to get her, adding more to her troubles.

When I first saw "Christmas Holiday" in one of its very rare television presentations on a PBS channel in 1982, I was moved by it and Durbin's performance from start to finish, and have never forgotten it. Possibly watching this movie again after so many years, I would not have that same reaction I had the first time, but otherwise, it still brings a new kind of experience in seeing Durbin in a serious role, that shouldn't go unnoticed. Durbin sings two songs, "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," and her lovely rendition to Irving Berlin's "Always." I was even surprised to find Gene Kelly playing a role against type. Still new to movies (making his debut in 1942), his dramatic acting comes off somewhat awkward. I've seen Kelly act in other serious roles, some good, some not, but his character in this production is definitely unsympathetic. He even gets a chance to carry a gun and use it in a shoot out. No dancing for him here unless he's dodging bullets bouncing from the floor. As for Gale Sondergaard, she looks too young to be playing Kelly's mother, a role that would have been far better suited to the likes of Margaret Wycherly (best remembered for her gangster mother role in James Cagney's in "White Heat" (1949)), but Sondergaard doesn't disappoint with her domineering performance over her "Momma's boy."

Also seen in the supporting cast is Universal contract player, David Bruce playing Gerald Tyler. Bruce would soon be elevated to Durbin's co-star in her only Technicolor musical, CAN'T HELP SINGING (1944).

Yes,"Christmas Holiday" is a rare find indeed, a different kind of Christmas story, the one that doesn't get to be added in the package of other Christmas movies that air annually on television, including all versions to "A Christmas Carol" (1938), "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) and/or "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947). While this movie has never been presented on classic cable channels like American Movie Classics, it's currently available (as of 2006) in the VHS format and can be purchased through Movies Unlimited. I recommend seeing it, at least once, if not for its dramatic content, but for its casting. (***)

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.

The two stars are Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly so 1940's audiences seeing a title like "Christmas Holiday" may well have expected a musical. The surprise was a TKO, and people reeled under this somewhat cleansed version of the Maugham novel. A powerful drama, "Christmas Holiday" actually proves that Durbin could have been on the verge of a stellar adult career that would have included important dramatic roles. She is merely superb in this one as a 'dance hall singer-hostess' who is determined to suffer as much as her murderous, jailed, asocial husband, very well done here by Gene Kelly. Durbin sings two standards beautifully, but it is her ACTING here that boosts the attention. Robert Siodmak, one of our finest noir-ish directors, carries off this challenge with excellence. Dean Harens is an fine foil for Durbin in her quest for retribution. A Broadway actor, he sounds and acts in the Tom Drake-style, and that is a compliment. Gladys George, Gale Sondergaard, Richard Whorf work well under Siodmak. Perhaps the public wasn't ready for Durbin and Kelly as 'hostess' and 'psycopath', and that is a shame. Despite the whitewash of some of the novel's elements, this is a very very fine film, and Deanna Durbin, wherever you may be these days, you are to be sincerely commended. Thanks for this one!!

A nice film--and it is nice to see Deanna Durbin shed her little girl image for something with a bit of a bite to it. She plays a singer in a nightclub and is married to Gene Kelly, although he doesn't have much to do in this film. Nice to see some good supporting performances by Gladys George and Gale Sondergaard--although Ms. Sondergaard seems a bit young to play Gene Kelly's mother!!