Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

In 2019, someone I was very close to moved from Tennessee back to her home-state of Maine, but before she did, she left me an enormous box of CDs and a fairly small box of DVDs to take to McKay's. Out of curiosity, I dug through the latter to see what she had in there, and it ranged from stuff I had no interest in whatsoever, like Legally Blonde and a season set of the television series, Bones (both of which were missing discs, I might add), to other stuff I wouldn't have expected her to have, like Nacho Libre with Jack Black and 28 Days Later, as well as the Kurt Russell action flick, Executive Decision (which I did keep because I liked that movie), among others. One of them was this film, which I'd never heard of before (or, at least, thought I hadn't), and unlike everything else, was still in the plastic. I didn't get around to watching it until around Christmas a couple of years later but, by that point, I realized that I had, at the very least, heard this title before, as a made-for-TV remake was produced in 1992. Mind you, I've never seen that movie; the only reason I know about it is because it was directed by, I kid you not, Arnold Schwarzenegger! By all accounts, though, it wasn't nearly as well received as this film, which may explain why Schwarzenegger never directed again. In any case, the original Christmas in Connecticut is, in my opinion, an okay movie. It's not something I would've sought out of my own volition, as this is not my type of flick, but since I still had that DVD lying around, I figured I might as well do a write-up for it, just for something a little different. As a comedy, I wouldn't call it a laugh riot, and it's very dated in terms of its attitude towards women (while also shockingly progressive in other ways), but it does have that old-fashioned, Golden Age of Hollywood charm about it, making it difficult to dislike.

After surviving their ship being torpedoed by an enemy submarine and stranded out on a raft for eighteen days, seamen Jefferson Jones and Sinkewicz are rescued and taken to a hospital. During his time there, Jones, desperate for a really big, fancy meal after nearly starving to death, satiates himself by reading Elizabeth Lane's food articles in Smart Housekeeping magazine. In an attempt to get some really nice food (which doesn't work out due to how sensitive his stomach is after nearly starving for so long), he appeals to his nurse, Mary Lee's, affections and convinces her that he wants to marry her. But when Jones is about to be discharged, he appears to have cold feet about marriage, which Mary Lee feels is due to his having never really had a home before. She then writes to Elizabeth Lane's publisher, Alexander Yardley, to arrange for Elizabeth to host a Christmas dinner for Jones at her farm in Connecticut. Yardley calls Elizabeth's editor, Dudley Beecham, and demands she meet with him so they can discuss it. However, there's a problem: despite her claims that she's married with an eight-month old son and lives in Connecticut, Elizabeth is actually single, lives in New York, and can't cook to save her life, as all of her recipes are courtesy of her "honorary uncle," Chef Felix Bassenak. Knowing that both she and Dudley will lose their jobs if Yardley learns the truth, Elizabeth meets with him, intending to make up an excuse, but the intimidating, loud Yardley doesn't give her the chance to speak. Even worse, he invites himself to her "farm." While all hope seems lost, it turns out that her friend and longtime suitor, John Sloan, does have a farm in Connecticut and she reluctantly agrees to marry him in order to make the ruse complete. She brings Felix with her to help with the cooking, while John arranges for them to pass off a working neighbor's baby as their own. However, their attempt to get married is spoiled when Jones arrives earlier than expected, and with Yardley following not long afterward. And to complicate things further, Elizabeth falls head-over-heels in love with Jones when she sees him, and Jones the same with her.

The film was directed by Peter Godfrey, an English-born actor and director who'd started out on the London stage, founding the experimental Gate Theatre Salon in 1925 after having grown tired of the standard repertory theaters common in the United Kingdom at that time. He began directing films in the early 30's, making two British features before moving to New York in 1937, and then to Hollywood two years later. Christmas in Connecticut was his first major hit as a director, as it grossed an impressive $3 million, despite being released in August. Godfrey went on to do a number of successful movies throughout the 40's, like Hotel Berlin, One More Tomorrow, Cry Wolf, Escape Me Never (the latter two of which both starred Errol Flynn), and The Two Mrs. Carrolls, with Humphrey Bogart. In the 1950's, he switched from film to television, with his last feature being 1956's Please Murder Me!, starring Angela Lansbury and Raymond Burr. He directed episodes of shows like Cavalcade of America, The Doctor, Big Town, Janet Dean, Registered Nurse, The Magical World of Disney, Telephone Time, and Deadline, among others. He died in 1970, at the age of 70.

This was the first of three movies Godfrey made with Barbara Stanwyck, and the two of them remained very close for the rest of his life. As Elizabeth Lane, she's playing someone who's living a massive lie. Though she claims in her articles for Smart Housekeeping to live on a Connecticut farm with a husband and young son, she's actually single and lives in a New York apartment. What's more, despite the delicious recipes she writes into her articles, Elizabeth can't cook at all, as the recipes are the work of her honorary uncle, Chef Felix Bassenak. When her editor, Dudley Beecham, tells her about Alexander Yardley's plan for her to host a Christmas dinner for Jefferson Jones at her "farm," Elizabeth is forced to face and stall off the intimidating Yardley herself. And while she tries to tell him that her "son" has whooping cough to stall him, Yardley steamrolls her into not only going through with the dinner but also invites himself to it as well. Now faced with losing her job, Elizabeth, despite having no feelings for the man herself, decides to marry her longtime suitor, John Sloan, only then remembering that he himself has a farm in Connecticut, which happens to be the inspiration for many of her articles. She brings Felix with her to take care of the cooking, and upon arriving, finds that Sloan has arranged for them to be taking care of a neighbor's baby to pass off as their own. However, their attempts to make things official are continually spoiled by the arrivals of Jones and, later, Yardley. Making things even more complicated for Elizabeth is when she meets Jones and has a severe case of love at first sight, especially when she spends a lot of time with him and learns that he feels similarly about her. By contrast, Sloan really can't think of anyone but himself, and eventually learns that his marrying Elizabeth will be very lucrative for him thanks to Yardley.

Things come to a head on the night of Christmas, when many of the party attend a dance at the town hall, and Elizabeth and Jones end up taking a romantic sleigh ride together. Though their ride comes to an end when the sleigh's owner catches them, along with the local sheriff, and they're sent to the jailhouse for the night, neither of them are upset about it; in fact, they're quite happy about getting to spend the evening with each other. But when they're driven back to the farm the next

morning, Elizabeth's ruse completely falls apart, as Yardley believes that the baby was kidnapped when his actual mother came for him. Elizabeth then has no choice but to explain the whole thing and the enraged Yardley fires her on the spot. She's not too broken up about it, noe is she when Sloan breaks off their engagement, but that changes when Mary Lee shows up to visit Jones. Learning that she's his fiancee, a dejected Elizabeth goes to pack her things to return to New York. However, Felix

first tricks Yardley into thinking that American Housekeeping, his biggest competitor, is interested in hiring Elizabeth, and then, after learning that Mary Lee has married someone else, tells Jones that he can now have a relationship with Elizabeth. But when Yardley goes to talk with Elizabeth, he makes the mistake of suggesting she go ahead and marry Sloan solely because it would help with the magazine's circulation. That's the last straw, as she tells him, "Suppose you listen to me for a change?!", and when he, again, tries to steamroll

her, she goes, "I said listen to me! I'm tired of being pushed around. Tired of being told what to do. Tired of writing your gol-darned articles. Tired of dancing to everybody else's tune. Tired of being told whom to marry. In short... I'm tired," before throwing him out of her room. That's when Jones takes his turn, and at first, Elizabeth doesn't take kindly to him coming on to her the way he does, but when he reveals that he knows she was never married, and that Mary Lee broke her engagement with him, she quickly changes her tune.

It's funny how what sets this fairly complicated story in motion is how Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan), after being stranded at sea for nearly two weeks, is dying for some decent food. After reading Elizabeth's recipes in Smart Housekeeping, Jones is so desperate for something other than milk that he acts as though he's deeply in love with his nurse, Mary Lee, and wants to marry her, just so she'll go above and beyond for him. However, when she does and brings him some chops, her warning that his stomach isn't ready for anything solid yet proves right when he immediately upchucks his first bite. After that, Jones initially plans on telling Mary Lee the truth, but when she figures he's afraid of marriage because he doesn't want to be tied down, he goes along with it, telling her that he's never really had a home. This leads her to write to Yardley and get him to arrange for Elizabeth to host a Christmas dinner for Jones in Connecticut. When Jones arrives and meets Elizabeth, he's quite taken when he sees she's a beautiful young woman, clearly expecting a grandmotherly type (he brings her a rocking chair for that very reason). Despite knowing she's "married," he can't help but find himself attracted to her, especially when he spends time with her, helping her bathe the baby and return a loose cow to the barn. Eventually, he all but comes out and tells her how he feels, as well as that he senses how she's not exactly happy with Sloan. Keep in mind that this whole time, he's never mentioned Mary Lee, and whether or not he thinks Elizabeth is married, that's still rather shitty of him, especially when she shows up and Elizabeth is devastated as a result. Of course, then Jones learns from Felix about Elizabeth's ruse and that Mary Lee broke their engagement, encouraging him to pursue her... rather aggressively. He goes into her room, kisses her, tells her that he's now the type of man who kisses married women, and when she tries to get away, telling him, "There's only one thing to do with you," he responds, "Yes? Let's do it!" He goes on about how she attracts him, acting like a real lecher, and forces another kiss on her, and it's only after she's slapped him and he corners her, making her admit that she's not married, that he lets in on that he knew and that he's single. Then, the tune changes and the two of them decide to marry, but like I said in the introduction, these sexual politics are poorly dated and a bit uncomfortable by today's standards.

Though he's not exactly an antagonist in his role as Alexander Yardley, Sydney Greenstreet still plays someone who's bullish and overpowering to those around him, forcing them to bend to his will either out of fear or because they can't get a word in. Upon receiving Mary Lee's letter about Jefferson Jones, Yardley phones up Elizabeth's editor, Dudley Beecham, and demands that she meet with him; when Dudley hesitates, Yardley growls, "I only ask two things of my editors, Beecham: print the truth and obey my orders! I expect Mrs. Lane at 4:00." When Elizabeth meets with him, Yardley doesn't let her finish her sentences, assumes that she's more than happy to host the Christmas dinner, goes on about their patriotic duty and what Jones has been through, and talks about her cooking, which he's quite an expert on, as he says her entries are the only sections in his own publications that he reads (to no one's surprise, food is very important to Yardley). Thus, when Yardley is given his doctor-prescribed Christmas menu, which includes mashed prune whip and cream turnip fluff, he invites himself to Elizabeth's dinner as well, refusing to eat such "barbaric atrocities." When he arrives at Sloan's Connecticut farm, he's quite taken with the place itself, as well as the food, although he's disappointed to hear that Uncle Felix will be doing the cooking rather Elizabeth herself. While talking with Sloan, Yardley comes up with a very crass idea to increase the sales of his magazine: get Elizabeth to have "another" baby, as when she had her first, sales went up due to baby-food advertisements and fan mail. He's especially keen on doing so since a writer for his biggest competitor is going to have a baby as well, and encourages Sloan to, "Take all the time you need." Later, though Sloan, after all the frustration and trouble they've gone through, tries to tell Yardley the truth, Yardley hits him with the idea of making him the editor of a new, home-building section of his magazine, which makes him back off. 

But things start to fall apart when Yardley sees Elizabeth and Jones slip away from the dance at town hall together for a sleigh ride. He tries to follow them, but falls down a snowbank, much to his annoyance. Moreover, that night, when the baby's real mother comes by to pick him up, Yardley spots her and believes the baby is being kidnapped. More worried about what it will mean for his magazine's circulation than the child's well-being, he calls the state police and has Felix

retrieve Sloan from the town hall. Reporters also show up at the house and he gives them a description of the baby, offering a $25,000 reward for his return. When Elizabeth and Jones show back up the following morning, Yardley, in his mind, helps the former save face by telling the inquisitive reporters that she's been out searching for the baby with Jones' help. Once the reporters leave, however, he tears into her about her going off with Jones, and is shocked when she's not at all

concerned about what happened to the baby, thinking that, now that she's fallen for Jones, her family means nothing to her. Again, proving he's more concerned about his magazine's reputation, he orders Elizabeth to live up to the wholesome image that all of their readers have of her. That's when Elizabeth and Sloan tell him the truth and Yardley, enraged, calls off the police search for the baby and fires Elizabeth. However, his attitude changes completely when Felix makes up a story about Elizabeth getting an offer from American

Housekeeping. Unwilling to let his competitor steal away his people, Yardley goes to Elizabeth and offers to rehire her and double whatever American Housekeeping is offering, but when he presses her to marry Sloan for the magazine, she stands up to him and throws him out of her room. He calls her the, "Most unreasonable woman I've ever met!", but becomes interested when Jones goes in to see to Elizabeth himself. In the end, Yardley does wish them happiness when they announce their plans to marry.

John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner), Elizabeth's longtime suitor, takes advantage of the dilemma she's in at the beginning and her impending firing by asking her, yet again, to marry him. Even though she's told him that she doesn't have feelings for him, Sloan, clearly only interested in her looks, brushes it off, saying, "All that will come in good time." Much to his delight, she sees no other recourse than to accept his proposal. But when both she and Dudley Beecham hit upon the notion that he has the very farm they need for the Christmas dinner, Sloan is initially reluctant to have two other men there on his honeymoon, but Elizabeth manages to talk him into it. Once they arrive at the farm on Christmas Eve, Sloan reveals that he arranged for them to babysitting for a neighbor in order to pass the baby off as their own, and they plan to get married as soon as possible. However, the early arrivals of both Jones and then Yardley force them to stall the wedding, which happens over and over again. What's more, it becomes clear that Sloan only thinks of himself, as when he kisses her at one point, he starts talking about a house he once designed and goes into details about the plumbing, of all things. Elizabeth asks him not to talk about plumbing when they're kissing, leading to this exchange: "What? Oh, sorry, of course not. Well, what shall I talk about?" "Well, do you... do you have to talk?" "You quaint little thing." He also gets aggravated when Elizabeth picks up a certain bottle down in the living room, always forcing her to put it down, and is less annoyed with Elizabeth's interest in Jones than when her spending time with him ia an inconvenience, like when it forces them to give up on making things official yet again. Between that and Yardley's insisting that he and Elizabeth have "another" baby for the good of the magazine's circulation, Sloan comes close to telling him the truth, when Yardley offers to make him editor of a new home-centered section of his magazine. Sloan then decides to keep his mouth shut and go along with the lucrative offer, constantly peppering Yardley with ideas. But once the truth comes out the following morning, Sloan decides he's had it with Elizabeth and breaks their engagement. He then keeps trying to get Yardley to agree to his own magazine section but Yardley clearly has no interest and Sloan eventually stops trying altogether.

Though he's only in the first act, Elizabeth's editor, Dudley Beecham (Robert Shayne) is yet another man in her life who uses her for his own benefit. Having helped her concoct her alter ego, he risks losing his job as well should Yardley learn the truth, and presses Elizabeth to meet with him and break off the Christmas dinner, preying on her sympathies by making her think of his own family. Naturally, he's not at all happy when she's not only unable to get the dinner canceled but Yardley invites himself to it as well. Fearing that they're fired for sure, Dudley calls his wife to give her the bad news, then admits that he didn't have the heart to break it to her. Whether or not he's telling the truth, his sob story does help get Sloan, whose interest in Elizabeth initially annoyed Dudley, to agree to host the dinner at his Connecticut farm.

The one truly decent man in Elizabeth's life is her beloved friend and honorary uncle, Felix Bassenak (S.Z. Sakall), a Hungarian chef who supplies her with recipes. Absolutely adoring her, especially since she helped get him his New York restaurant, Felix always looks out for her best interests and worries about her. When he visits her apartment at the beginning and sees that she's bought an expensive mink-coat, he tells her, "Nobody needs a mink-coat but the mink!" When she comes back after meeting with Yardley, depressed because she's sure she'll be fired, Felix tries to encourage her by saying she can just get another job. He's also not too keen on John Sloan's interest in her, and when he's moving in on her while they're being served some nice food, Felix surreptitiously voices his displeasure by intoning each thing he puts on their plates: "baloney," "horse radish," "nuts." Despite this, he comes with Elizabeth to Connecticut to take care of the cooking, and quickly comes into conflict with Sloan's housekeeper, Norah, especially in matters of cooking. He also grumbles about not liking the country, telling her when she mentions they have a horse and a cow, "I hate horses, and cows don't like me, either!" Realizing Elizabeth's attraction to Jefferson Jones, he attempts to stop the wedding between her and Sloan at every opportunity, even saying that the baby swallowed his watch when they're just about to go through with it at one point. And at the end of the movie, when Mary Lee arrives, she tells Felix that she's married someone else, prompting him to both tell Jones, allowing him to pursue Elizabeth, as well as make up a story that prompts Yardley to try to rehire her after he's fired her for her deception. In the end, though, all Felix really cares about is Elizabeth's happiness, and is quite tickled when she does end up with Jones.

Felix is a major source of the movie's humor, with how he swings back and forth between fairly jolly to fussy and opinionated, and with his thick accent (sometimes, it can be hard to tell what he's saying). In his first scene with Elizabeth, when he sees that she had sardines for breakfast, he asks her if she's angry at her stomach over something, and is absolutely shocked when he notices the mink-coat she's wearing. When Elizabeth comes back from seeing Yardley, she tells Felix it's a "catastrophe," a

word he doesn't recognize, so he asks a busboy what it means. The busboy, Sam, answers, "It's from the Greek. It means a misfortune, a cataclysm, or a serious calamity." Felix, not grasping it, asks, "Is it good," and is told it's very bad. Throughout the movie, he starts using the word, but mispronounces it "catastroph," and similarly, whenever he's happy, he tends to say, "Everything is hunky-dunky!" Going back to "catastroph," he writes off John Sloan's kitchen as

one when he arrives at the farm, and is horrified at the sight of Norah's Irish stew, which he calls, "Goulash with turnips!", as well as, of course, "Catastroph." When Yardley arrives, he helps himself to one of the drinks Felix has mixed for Judge Crothers in the next room, to which Felix grumbles, "Fat man." Speaking of Crothers, Felix has him leave the house by climbing out the window so nobody will see him, which the judge takes in stride. On Christmas morning, as he's making flapjacks, he tells Elizabeth, "I show you

how to flip-flop the flop-flips." Of course, he does it well, but when he gets Elizabeth to try, she messes it up with every attempt. And when Elizabeth ends up with another neighbor's baby boy when she had a girl the day before, Felix tells her, "It's life. Sometimes you get girls, sometimes boys."

Una O'Connor, whom I know for having memorable supporting roles in The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein, has a small role here as Sloan's Irish housekeeper, Norah (thankfully, she doesn't do any of her obnoxious screaming as in those movies). As I've already said, she comes into humorous conflict with Felix as soon as he arrives, especially when it comes to her kitchen and cooking. She also initially has a trouble with his name, initially calling him, "Mr. Basternook" and then, "Baselknocker," making him insist that she just refer to him as Felix. And she's so disgusted with how Elizabeth and Sloan are treating the notion of marriage that she almost quits and leaves the house when they, late Christmas Eve, attempt to secretly go through with the ceremony again. However, she quickly relents when they ask her to stay as a witness and apologizes to Elizabeth for insinuating that she's a woman of easy virtue.

Sinkewicz (Frank Jenks), Jefferson Jones' shipmate who gets rescued along with him, is really the one who sets everything in motion. While the two of them are being nursed back to health at the hospital, Jones is perplexed as to why he's not able to eat anything other than milk, while Sinkewicz is getting everything from steak to well-done chicken meals and such. Jones comes to ask him how he's pulling it off and Sinkewicz tells him to use, "The old Magoo," later elaborating that it means to act like he's in love with his nurse so she'll start going above and beyond for him. Jones is unsure of this at first, saying it could break a woman's heart, but Sinkewicz remarks, "It's her heart or your stomach." And when Jones also asks how far he has to go, Sinkewicz, in return, asks just how hungry he is. But by the end of the movie, when Mary Lee shows up at the farm to meet up with Jones, it turns out that she went and married Sinkewicz, despite her engagement to Jones... not that Jones minds, as it allows him to pursue Elizabeth.

Dick Elliot, whom most are likely remember as the first mayor of Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show, has the small role her as Judge Crothers, who's constantly called over to the farm to officiate Elizabeth and Sloan's wedding, only for it to be put off at every turn and for him to be given the runaround. But he takes it all in stride, often laughing when he's forced to hide himself or when Felix makes him leave the first time by climbing out a window, and doesn't get mad about having to be constantly called back to the farm, even fairly late on Christmas Eve, as he doesn't live too far away. He's even good enough to go along with Elizabeth and Sloan when Yardley walks in on one attempt and Elizabeth says they repeat their wedding ceremony every Christmas. And fortunately for both Elizabeth and Jones, he happens to be on hand at the end when they realize they can pursue a relationship together.

Despite its winter setting, the film was shot from May to July, entirely at Warner Bros. Burbank Studios, with soundstages covered in soap flakes for the exterior scenes. While not exactly believable, those scenes and shots do have a lovely, almost postcard look and feel to them, like the establishing shot of John Sloan's Connecticut farm, the scene outside when Elizabeth and Jones return a wandering cow to the barn, the exteriors of the town hall where the dance is held, and the very lovely scenery of the snow-covered countryside

and woods in the background during the scene where they go for a nighttime sleigh ride. It's also very obvious in that latter scene that you're seeing some rear-screen projection in the close-ups of Elizabeth and Jones sitting in the sleigh, but because everything else is clearly artificial, it's actually not that distracting. In addition, despite the time of year in which they shot, they do a convincing job of making it come off as cold throughout much of the film. Going back to the

subject of rear-projection, the shots of Jones and Sinkewicz lost at sea at the beginning are also clearly done either through that technique or, in the case of a dream Jones has about his shipmate serving him dinner on the raft, a studio tank, but they're so brief that there's no reason to complain. Speaking of the beginning, there's actually some well-done special effects work depicting their ship being sunk by a German submarine. It could possibly be stock footage from another movie, as Jack L. Warner was trying to keep costs down at this time, but regardless, it looks really good and is the last thing you expect to see in a Christmas movie, let alone to start one off.

Truth be told, just as Haphazardstuff noted in his own written review, despite the snow, Christmas trees, presents, the sleigh ride, and such, this is one of those movies where the holiday itself is little more than a backdrop for the story. There's nothing significant at all about the main plot playing out over Christmas Eve and Day, as you could've just as easily had Jefferson Jones be invited to a Thanksgiving or Easter dinner, or even just a fancy dinner with no holiday behind it at all, and it would've played out exactly the same. What's

more, the final scene takes place the day after Christmas. But this is far from the only movie where that's the case, as you could easily say the same about Home Alone, Die Hard, and so many others that just happen to be set on Christmas (though, then again, none of those I'm thinking of have Christmas in the title).

When it comes to the actual sets, they're quite lovely and, in some cases, downright spectacular. In fact, there isn't a single one that's repulsive or cheap in any way. Elizabeth's New York apartment is small, and the view of the city skyline isn't as lovely as the picture she paints about the view of her farm's front yard, but it's still rather nice and cozy. Of course, it's nothing when compared to Yardley's extravagant mansion, with an incredible dining room, featuring a very long table and a chandelier on the ceiling; an elegant study; and a

lovely foyer. Felix's restaurant, appropriately called "Restaurant Felix," is another really nice set, and heck, even the hospital where Jones and Sinkewicz spend their recovery isn't half-bad, certainly a lot more pleasant and comfortable than any I've ever seen or been in. Of course, the main set is Sloan's incredible house in Connecticut (which was previously used in the famous Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn film, Bringing Up Baby), the centerpiece of which is a very awesome sitting

room, with two sofas in front of a large fireplace, a grand piano next to a window, with the Christmas tree behind it, a grandfather clock by the staircase, and plenty of lovely furnishings and decorations on the walls. There's another room off from it where Sloan has his own mini-bar, while on the other side of the sitting room is a lovely bedroom where his and Elizabeth's supposed baby sleeps, connected to a little bathroom where she and Jones wash him early on. And near the stairs is the door to Sloan's

fairly quaint but, despite what Felix thinks, nice kitchen. The barn on the property looks almost as nice as the house itself on the outside, with the inside not looking too bad either, and bringing it all home is the town hall where the Christmas dance takes place.

Besides Felix, a lot of the humor comes from Elizabeth having to deal with the charade she's forced to keep up when both Jones and Yardley arrive at the farm. Shortly after the former arrives, the baby starts crying in the next room and Elizabeth obliviously notes, "Must be time for... something." Fortunately for her, Jones notes that, based on her articles, it's time for the baby's bath; unfortunately, he then asks if he can watch her bathe the baby. Not knowing at all what she's doing, she tries to put it off by saying it's too cold a

day for a bath, and when Jones asks, "Don't they have to be bathed every day?", she answers, "No, no. That's the old-fashioned idea." But when Jones insists, she decides to go along with it. That's when she's asked what the baby's name is and she pulls "Robert" out of thin air, while she awkwardly undresses him, then just tosses the diaper aside, much to the chagrin of Sloan, who's watching from the door. She gets a break when it turns out that Jones knows how to wash a baby, having done so with his sister's children, and she allows him to

take over. But when he puts the baby into the wash-tub, he notices something that prompts him to ask if its name really is "Robert." Absentmindedly, Elizabeth answers, "Yes," then realizes what he's referring to and quickly answers that it's "Roberta." This baby situation causes more problems, as the next morning, another of Sloan's neighbors gives Elizabeth her baby to watch, and hers is the exact opposite of the one she had the day before: rather than a brunette girl who can't

speak and has no teeth, it's a blonde boy who has teeth and can talk. Later, when everyone thinks the baby swallowed Felix's watch, Yardley follows Elizabeth into the bedroom and is perplexed when he sees the baby, noting how different it looks. Elizabeth asks, "Wouldn't you look different if you'd swallowed a watch?", and when Yardley notes the differences, she says, "Mr. Yardley, this is no time to take inventory!" Yardley walks out, murmuring, "Most extraordinary thing I ever saw."

When Yardley believes the baby has been kidnapped that night, he tells the reporters, "He's eight months, a boy. Has blonde hair and teeth... No, no, he hasn't!" "No blonde hair and teeth?" "That's right." The next morning, both women come by to drop off their babies, further confusing Yardley, who's already thinking the worst of Elizabeth and Sloan upon learning they're not married.

Speaking of Yardley, he himself is a figure of fun, despite how imposing he is. Much comedy is derived from his obesity and how perpetually hungry he is, with his whole reason for coming to Connecticut being because he refuses to eat the Christmas dinner his doctor prescribed for him. Late Christmas Eve, he comes downstairs and ducks into the kitchen, where he joins Jones in a midnight snack that involves drumsticks and some liquor. He tells Jones that his diet was prescribed because the doctor believes he's too fat, adding that

he started feeling better when he stopped listening to him. The next morning, Elizabeth tells him that Jones is ahead of him on the flapjacks and as he walks in, Yardley proudly proclaims, "Well, I've give him a head-start of a dozen and still eat him under the table!" And near the end of the movie, when Yardley has fired Elizabeth and is preparing to leave him, he sniffs the air, puts down his luggage, exclaiming, "I'm hungry!", and heads straight for the kitchen, where he runs into Felix,

cooking breakfast. Yardley is also the butt of the joke in other moments, like when the first baby cries at the sight of him, and when he tries to follow Elizabeth and Jones in the sleigh, but slips and falls down a snowdrift, yelling, "Confound it!", in hilarious frustration. And like Norah and Sloan, he's sometimes frustrated with Felix, particularly when he's rather lackadaisical in his attitude about the baby being "kidnapped."

Food is also a source of humor during the first act, when Jones and Sinkewicz are terribly hungry after being lost at sea, with Jones dreaming about the latter serving him a fancy meal despite their being on a small raft in the middle of the ocean. Then, when they're recovering at the hospital, Jones has to deal with being served nothing but milk (once, he gets a raw egg in a bowl of it), at one point telling Mary Lee, "Every time I yawn, I'm scared I'll moo," while Sinkewicz gets a lot of really nice food. She says it's because Jones gave him the last

of their K-rations, thus was starving longer and his stomach isn't ready for anything more solid. Regardless, Jones decides to take Sinkewicz's advice and act like he's in love with Mary Lee so she'll start bringing him some good meals. That backfires badly when he gets some chops and gets nauseous, yelling for Mary Lee to, "Look out!", while Sinkewicz jumps out of his bed and grabs something for him to vomit into.

Going back to Elizabeth, besides the ordeal with the baby, she also has to put up with Yardley expecting her to be the one doing the cooking. The first time it comes up, she says that Felix uses all of her recipes and that she taught him everything he knows. Yardley comments that he won't feel the same without her doing it, to which Felix remarks, "Believe me, you will feel much better." That night, Yardley asks if he may watch her cook breakfast the next morning, and when she says Norah is the one who cooks breakfast, he insists

she do it just for him. Jones interrupts her before she can say anything else, and while Felix, yet again, cooks breakfast, Yardley walks in on Elizabeth when she's alone in the kitchen, with food cooking. He says he wants to see her flip the flapjacks, unaware of her poor performance when Felix was there moments before, but she says, "I'm not in the flipping mood this morning, Mr. Yardley." Norah then comes in and Elizabeth tells her, "Norah, Mr. Yardley wants to watch you flap...

I mean, flip the flapjacks." Norah says she just scoops them, and when Yardley asks him to flip just one, she says, "I've never flipped in me life, and I'm not gonna start flippin' now for nobody." Later, when they're all at the breakfast table, Yardley, again, asks Elizabeth to flip a flapjack, and while she tries to come up with another excuse, Jones asks to see it as well. With that, she feels she has no choice but to go through with it. Warning them that she's out of practice, she hesitates, but finally does it when everyone's watching and, much to her and Felix's relief, as he was silently praying, she does it quite well.

Elizabeth and Felix's nervousness is well-founded, given what happens earlier when he tries to show her how to flip them. The first time she tries, the flapjack lands on one of the stove's eyes; the second time, she flings it up and it gets stuck to the ceiling; and the third time, though she flips it up fairly high, he has to catch it in his hands. The night before, she also has to put a loose cow back in the barn after she shows up at the door to the kitchen; Yardley thinks the cow is Macushla, whom Elizabeth has written about in her articles,

saying she won't settle down until she goes in and bids her good night. With Jones' help, she goes to walk the cow back to the barn, only to lose her when she becomes distracted with talking to him. They find that she went back inside the barn by herself, and there's a moment in there where Elizabeth bends over to pick something up, while Jones pats the cow's rear end and comments, "Nice firm rump," causing Elizabeth to shoot straight back up. And when they leave the barn, a bunch of

snow on the roof falls down on them when they close the door, covering them up to their heads. Sloan comes running out of the house, asking Elizabeth if she's alright, and she dazedly answers, "I feel wonderful, darling. How are you?", while cuddling up to Jones (who doesn't seem to mind, despite her "husband" standing right there).

While it's not gut-bustingly funny by any means, Christmas in Connecticut is certainly charming and nicely light-hearted in that same way a number of big studio movies from this era are. Also, while it was filmed when World War II was pretty much over (all of the euphoria was likely why the movie was such a hit, despite its not being released at Christmastime), the film still clearly takes place during wartime and makes for an interesting look at life in American during such a period, with those like Jones who'd survived attack on the front lines

coming home as heroes; people working at war plants, even at Christmas, like the mothers of the two babies featured in the film; and the dance the characters attend meant as a way to raise war bonds. However, at the same time, there's no denying that the film's attitude about women would not fly today, with how Elizabeth is expected to be nothing but a dutiful housewife and cook because of her magazine articles by Yardley and especially by Sloan, even though the two of them are never officially married. What's more, she's pushed

around by just about all of the men in her life, from Sloan and Yardley to Dudley Beacham and even Jones by some extent, given how strongly he comes onto her when he learns his engagement with Mary Lee is off, as well as how he never told Elizabeth about his engagement to begin with. Speaking of which, the way Jones and Sinkewicz go about getting the meals they want by leading on women they have no real interest in, with Jones going as far as proposing marriage, is really low,

something the movie itself even acknowledges. (Granted, Mary Lee went and married Sinkewicz behind Jones' back, so women aren't entirely innocent here, either.) And finally, regardless of it being a sign of the times, I myself never care for romances that are love at first, as I know that's never how it goes in real life, nor would such a relationship work out, anyway.

Surprisingly, the movie is very progressive in its treatment of African-Americans. Granted, there are only two such characters and they're both minor roles, a delivery-woman and a busboy, but neither of them are portrayed in a stereotypical or demeaning way whatsoever. In fact, when Felix asks the busboy, Sam, what "catastrophe" means, Sam's answer is very intelligent and articulate, telling him not only what it means but that it's derived from Greek, something you rarely ever get from Hollywood movies during this era.

The music score by Frederick Hollander is pretty forgettable, coming off as run-of-the-mill in its light and airy quality, which is fairly typical for this kind of movie at the time. The most memorable bits are when Jingle Bells is used as part of the score during the opening credits and the establishing scene for the Connecticut farm, and also when traditional songs like Pop Goes the Weasel, Turkey in the Straw, and The Irish Washerwoman are played during the dance at the town hall. In the scene where Elizabeth is decorating the Christmas tree while Jones is playing and singing at the piano (it actually is Dennis Morgan singing), he performs O Little Town of Bethlehem and The Wish That I Wish Tonight, the latter of which is something of a theme song for the movie at large, as it also plays during the credits and in the score. Personally, it didn't leave much of an impression with me either, although I did it finny to learn that they started using it in the Looney Tunes cartoons whenever Bugs Bunny was dressed in drag.

According to the back of the DVD, Christmas in Connecticut is a "perennial seasonal favorite." Maybe it is for some, but it'll never be that for me, as this really isn't my bag as far as films go, nor do I find it hysterically funny. That said, however, it's a perfectly fine, charming little flick, with good performances and likable characters, a beautiful look to the production design, more than its fair share of amusing moments, and is wonderfully carefree in its spirit and execution. However, besides its not being truly funny, it has some very outdated attitudes about women, the romance between Elizabeth Lane and Jefferson Jones is the kind that just doesn't work nowadays, and, for me, there isn't much to the score, aside from some traditional songs used as part of it and on the soundtrack. To sum up, if you're tired of all the more well-known Christmas movies and also want something light and airy but not Earth-shattering, you could do far worse.