Laughter, Warmth, Character, and (a touch of) Music

If you want a  good  movie to watch this Christmas season, one of the all time best  is Christmas in Connecticut  released by Warner Brothers in 1945.  With an outstanding cast headed by  Barbara Stanwyck  and  Dennis Morgan, this is a motion picture that continues to delight, year after year and viewing after viewing.  If you haven’t yet seen this picture, watch it;  you are in for a  treat.

What, no Santa?

Christmas in Connecticut   is not a Christmas movie in the sense many viewers may have come to expect.    There are no flying reindeer, no elves, no Santa, no talking snowmen,  nor any other fictional Christmas characters.  As such this may not be the kind of motion picture that will hold the interest of young children, but it is a film you can watch comfortably with family members of all ages. Nor does Christmas in Connecticut  tell the historical  story of Mary and Joseph and their journey through Roman occupied Judea  to Bethlehem;  of shepherds,  or angels, or the birth of Jesus.  So if it is neither a whimsical Christmas fairy tale, nor a fact-based telling of the Nativity,  what makes Christmas in Connecticut one of the all time best Christmas movies?  In the first place it is funny.  At the heart of Christmas in Connecticut is a hilarious and charming romantic comedy.    Mistaken or concealed identity is an element in some of the funniest motion pictures, and this device is expertly crafted into Christmas in Connecticut by screenwriters Lionel Houser and Adele Comandini ,  from  an original story by Aileen Hamilton.

More than that…

Besides being a great romantic comedy,  Christmas in Connecticut is a depiction of America during a time of great national crisis, the Second World War.   For those of you who do not want to watch a war film, fear not,  the opening sequence where the ship on which  Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) and  Seaman Sinkewicz (Frank Jenks) are serving is torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat  is the only combat scene in the picture.  (Was any pun intending in naming the character Sinkewicz?) From a life raft adrift in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the settings  move to more peaceful domestic surroundings:  a Naval Hospital, a restaurant, several residences, and a town hall, plus several brief but evocative snowy outdoor scenes.  Despite these peaceful surroundings so far from combat zones,  reminders of the war and the effects it is having on the lives of the characters in this picture are ever present:   many of the men and some of the women seen in public settings are in uniform, the event held at the town hall is a dance and war bond drive,   main character Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) pretends to be the mother of first one, then another infant while their real mothers are working  at a nearby plant to support the war effort.

A black and white time machine to the greatest generation facing their crisis

This depiction of America is one of the things that makes Christmas in Connecticut such a worthwhile film to watch.  Set against the backdrop of Christmas time in New York and Connecticut, with much of the story taking place on Christmas Eve and Christmas day,  Christmas in Connecticut is a story of the greatest generation of Americans told by the greatest generation of Americans during the time of our nations greatest crisis.   There is a sense of duty portrayed in all the characters of this picture, it is not heavy-handed, nor do I believe it to be an intentional theme of the picture;  instead it appears to be the natural portrayal of Americans at the time.  Foremost are the men in the military who are risking their lives; and  the nurses in the naval hospital who care for the wounded veterans.  There is the  headstrong and domineering publishing magnate  Alexander Yardley(Sidney Greenstreet),  who mixes duty with the desire to increase his circulation, to Yardley’s daughter, who is never seen onscreen, but whose war work requires her to stay in Washington and miss Christmas with her father.   One of the most important and funny characters is Elizabeth  Lane’s persistent suitor John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner), who reluctantly agrees to assist Lane in the deception of Yardley in order to prevent Lane’s supervisor and cohort in deception,  Dudley Beecham (Robert Shayne) from loosing his job.   Then there are the mothers who leave their children to go work in the war plant,  to the  housekeeper Norah( Una O’Connor) who cares for the children while the mothers are working, to the citizens of the town who request the honor of the presence of convalescing war hero Jefferson Jones at their war bond drive and dance:  Christmas in Connecticut provides a long cast of varied and amusing and imperfect Americans who recognize their duty and who do it.

Americans at work

Another outstanding aspect of Christmas in Connecticut is the way it portrays Americans working in so many scenes in the picture.  Characters are portrayed as busy, but not  burdened by their work.  Just as in the sense of duty mentioned above, this appears to be a genuinely natural portrayal of Americans at the time. Besides the previously mentioned mothers working at the war plant, we also see a woman courier delivering a package to Elizabeth Lane at her New York apartment.  A small touch, but this opportunity for added depth could  easily have been overlooked .   By crafting in this small, brief  detail  the films makers have allowed the motion picture to accurately portray the shift in the make up of the nations work force as women stepped forward to fill the jobs that had previously been done by men now serving in the military.

Restaurant Felix

A short distance from Elizabeth Lane’s apartment is Restaurant Felix, who’s owner “Uncle” Felix Bassenak (S.Z. Sakall)  is a good friend and supplier of recipes to Lane, a magazine columnist who has become a household name as America’s foremost homemaker, wife, and cook.  Only one problem, she isn’t married and she can’t cook!

At Restaurant Felix we see more portrayals of Americans at work.  The central figure is Felix himself, presiding with  proprietary fussiness over the restaurant that bears his name,  demonstrating for a group of waiters how to toss a salad just so, lighting a cigarette for a guest, then a moment later, with a mild scold, removing the cigarette from the mouth of one of his musicians.

Many  motion picture laughs have been generated over the years  by portrayals of New York City Cabbies, newsboys, waiters, busboys, and holders of various other vocations that are not high on the education required list.  These laughs are often achieved by the use of a very distinct and exaggerated New York accent, or some colorful misuse of vocabulary or grammar.   Christmas in Connecticut however, presents us with a reminder of the dignity of work, and a respect for all who work,  no matter what position they hold.   Felix,  in his thick  eastern European accent,  asks his employee Sam (Emmett Smith) , who is busy sorting and stacking glassware,  the meaning of the word “catastrophe.”  Instead of a comical accent or demonstration of ignorance,  Sam defines the word for Felix in perfect American English, even referencing the Greek origin of the term.

The whole scene at Restaurant Felix is one of those wonderful motion picture experiences that make you want to go there and have a beverage  at the bar, move over to the  buffet table and load up your plate with, among other things, horse radish and pickled walnuts, then sit down for dinner to the mildly exotic sound of Hungarian music being played just a few feet away.

Home in Connecticut

Restaurant Felix is just the first of the superb settings that make you want to be there.  The other is the Connecticut home of architect John Sloan.   The audience is treated to spending much of the picture in and around this home.  Our first view of the house is an exterior shot as a large dog leaps over a garden  wall in the foreground while at the top of the frame a horse drawn sleigh comes into view from around the curve on the snow covered drive.

The interiors are just as inviting,  and one wonders if John Sloan would acknowledge with approval the high level of detail shown in the set design.  The living room is dominated by a huge, open fireplace,  while at the far end of the room is a grand piano sitting next to a towering Christmas tree.

The rest of the house is just as fascinating and contributes to the successful story telling done by all involved in this motion picture.  Most notably, there is the kitchen, where Yardley and Jones  sneak down for a late night snack after everyone else has gone to bed, and where Elizabeth Lane flips her one and only flap jack;  also the downstairs guest room and bath,  where children left for the day by their mothers have naps and are bathed and do not swallow large watches;  and the den, with it’s smaller, more intimate fireplace, and enigmatic bar, under which the characters are required to duck in order to enter.  Every year we wonder how John Sloan could have overlooked this detail!

Characters and character

There is an outdoor scene, on Christmas Eve, with Elizabeth Lane and Jefferson Jones that again demonstrates the craft with which this story is told, and how when done well, a great deal about a character can be demonstrated with  only a  few words.  To set the scene, Jefferson Jones is attracted to  Elizabeth Lane, whom he believes to be married to his host, John Sloan.  Lane , who is not really married, but is  putting on the deception so her boss Yardley will not know that her magazine persona is a fraud,  senses Jones attraction to her, and is also attracted to Jones.  After a short walk they stop to sit on a bench.  Elizabeth Lane asks Jones if he is the kind of a man that would kiss a married woman?   “No,”  he answers, “But I wish I was.”    Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan create such an on screen chemistry that the audience can  feel the yearning these characters have for each other.   Knowing she is not married, she wants him to kiss her, also knowing she is not really married, the audience wants him to kiss her.  Jones however does not know she is not really married, and no matter how much he  wants to, he cannot kiss her. Such a brief exchange, and such an enduring demonstration of character.    There is no more discussion, no  reiteration to make sure the audience “got it”, just a momentary silence before they agree to resume their walk.  There are gems in the history of motion pictures.   Moments that may be fleeting, that may be a word, or an unsaid word, or glance, or a turning away, that convey so much of the character of the character and the craft of the filmmaker. This moment is one of those gems.

As you look for movies to watch this Christmas season, I hope you will make it a point to sit down and enjoy the 1945 production of Christmas in Connecticut.  It combines laughter, warmth, great performances and story telling, and a wonderful ambiance of snowy landscapes, crackling fires, glittering Christmas trees and  just a touch of song to help kindle that sense of magic so many of us love and look forward to at this beautiful time of year.

If you enjoy stories like Christmas in Connecticut, you may also like the short novels of R.K.Morris, including his new Christmas Classic, Friends, Snowmen Countrymen, be of Good Cheer.  Browse books by R.K.Morris here: amazon.com/author/morrisrk