Christmas Holiday (1944)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1944
Running Time	88:37
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Robert Siodmak
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Deanna Durbin Gene Kelly Richard Whorf Dean Harens Gale Sondergaard Gladys George David Bruce
Case	Custom Packaging
RPI	Box	Music	H.J. Salter Frank Loesser Irving Berlin

    Good news for those contemplating buying the nineteen disc boxed set Deanna Durbin : The Collection! Roadshow have announced a price drop to $150 "for Mother's Day".

   

"Love ... was her crime!
"Love ... was her punishment!"

    Based on Somerset Maugham's novel, and "written for the screen" by Herman J. Mankiewicz, the movie opens with a Christmas Eve officer school graduation ceremony. Grimly the young men are told that they will all serve in different ways, "some by living, some by dying", an ominous phrase that echoes through to the end of the film. The new officers have ten days leave before shipping out, and Lt. Charles Mason (Dean Harens) is off to San Francisco to propose to his girlfriend, Mona. Mason and Lt. Gerry Tyler (David Bruce), who have become "pretty good pals", are admiring the engagement ring when Mason receives a telegram from his girl telling him that she has married someone else. Gerry tries to persuade Mason to fly with him to New York and then on to Lake Placid,  he "wants to see (him) in snow shoes". But the jilted Mason is intent on his original destination, muttering that "they're not gonna get away with it".

    Mason's plane to San Francisco is caught in a storm and is forced to make an alternate landing "just outside New Orleans". Staying in a New Orleans hotel until the flight can be resumed, Mason meets reporter Simon Fenimore (Richard Whorf) who suggests a visit to a dive on the edge of town run by Valerie de Merode (Gladys George). In this sleazy 1940s movie version of a brothel, Mason sees trashy looking "singer" Jackie Lamont (Deanna Durbin) gently warbling Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year. Valerie "introduces" the two, who eventually end up in Mason's room for the night - to be more exact, "rooms". He has the bed while she has the sofa. (It was 1944!) Through their time together Jackie tells Mason her story. Her real name is Abigail Minette, notorious wife of convicted murderer Robert Manette (Gene Kelly). In flashback sequences, not arranged chronologically, we see the young couple's  married life living with Robert's mother (Gale Sondergaard), their meeting, delicate romantic courtship, marital strife and ultimately the circumstances that led to Robert's justified conviction. Christmas Day brings the news that Manette has escaped. Having learned about his wife's new life, employed at the "dive", Manette is out to make her pay. The film moves, as they say, inexorably towards a climax that has real emotional punch.

    I have not read the original work by Somerset Maugham. Unsurprisingly it evidently contains overt themes of homosexuality and incest. This was not acceptable in the Breen dominated Hollywood of the 40s, but subtle and intelligent movie makers such as Robert Siodmak, aided by Mankiewicz's screenplay, could imply through images and subtle references what could not be explicitly portrayed. The actors, in particular Kelly, are deprived of meatier material to explore, but the audience is still able to work out what is really going on. The pretty-faced innocence of  Harens as Mason, the verbal play between the two lieutenants, the always excellent Gale Sondergaard's ominous presence, the uneasy nature of Richard Whorf's character and performance, all work towards creating an atmosphere of a world where the unspeakable lurks threateningly just beneath the surface. Art is indeed an artifice, that which is not natural, and perhaps the strictures which were enforced on filmakers in this period contributed towards the production of so many artistic triumphs.

    The two stars are astonishing. The first sight of Deanna Durbin, world weary, heavy lidded, over painted, and sexily gowned in black satin. This can't be the girl last seen a few months earlier in His Butler's Sister. But this is not the a star doing her "thing". This is a true dramatic performance. It is a jolt when we come to the first flashback and there is the "old Deanna" glowingly optimistic in her new marriage. Even the songs are not used as "numbers". Never using the full force of her voice, Durbin soulfully delivers the lyric of Frank Loesser's, new then and now standard,  Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year, and later sweetly and romantically coos Irving Berlin's timeless ballad  Always into Kelly's ear. (I have since played Durbin's 78 release of Always, and it is not a patch on the beautiful performance in this film.)  These two songs, one old and the other new, tellingly comment on the unfolding drama.

    Not coming into the film until about half an hour in, Gene Kelly is excellent. From his next film, Anchor's Aweigh,  Kelly's trademark smile and Irish charm dominated his screen persona. Here the smile and charm cloak much darker depths, and Kelly conveys this despite the necessarily disinfected nature of the screenplay. No doubt he is aided here by having Gale Sondergaard as his mother, but much of the credit has to go to Kelly.

    Robert Siodmak directs the entire film with assurance and style, and an unerring eye for detail. Famed for his contribution to the film noir genre, most notably with The Killers and Criss Cross, Christmas Holiday is often referred to as film noir, but the fit is not comfortable. There are noir elements, such as the monotone voice-over narration  (this time female) and the general look of much of the film, the play between shadow and light being crucial thematic imagery. However the customary male narrated, pessimistic, fatalistic, philosophical cynicism of film noir is lacking. The romantic element is too strong for the film itself to be called film noir. What we do have is a very strong - especially for its time - psychological drama, which at times teeters on the edge of melodrama, more akin to another Siodmak work, The Spiral Staircase.

   The director of photography is Woody Bredell, who had captured Deanna Durbin so beautifully in His Butler's Sister. Once again the close-ups are photographic art, whether of the harshly detailed,  overpainted "trampish" Durbin or the glowingly lovely woman hugging her husband at the piano as she sings Always. This piano close-up  is followed by a striking shot with the young couple in the foreground , darkly lit, with Sondergaard seated in the midground watching them intently. Also there are at least two extremely interesting pieces of crane work of some description. One has the camera panning over an expansive concert hall audience, with layers of balconies, finally coming to rest on the top tier where we see the two strangers who are about to meet. The other is smaller in scale when Durbin and Kelly are wining in a New Orleans restaurant. They are at first seated at their table on the  upper, iron-laced verandah. As the camera tracks/pans they get up, walk along the verandah down an iron spiral staircase and onto the dance floor into dialogue medium close-up. Very interesting stuff. Just clever and showy? Maybe, but isn't that what Kelly's character is all about.

    Apart from being a most unusual and interesting film, Christmas Holiday is also a totally engrossing drama that had me glued to the screen until the final frame, where story, performance, music and imagery merge with tremendous emotional impact.

Video

    This print  of  Christmas Holiday shows its age, but there is nothing that  detracts from the enjoyment of the film.
     
    The image is presented in a 4x3 transfer with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, the original presentation having been 1.37:1.

    The print used appears to be undoctored, without any restoration. Reel cues are still in evidence.
    

    The image is sharp, even the close ups looking very good.
    Shadow detail is  pleasing, notably in the many night scenes. Shadow and light are crucial to the film's imagery, and the transfer reproduces the original picture very nicely.
    Film to video effects were difficult to find, with just a few cases of low level noise noted.
    The black and white image is quite a pleasure to watch, with almost no grain, deep solid blacks and no flaring in the whites.
    The overall grey scale is excellent.
    The play of shadow and light is crucial to this film, and happily the transfer satisfies. The blacks are deep and solid, there is no flaring on the whites, and the entire grey scale is reproduced very nicely.
   
    Film artefacts are quite frequent throughout the film, but these are limited to white flecks and the occasional scratch. There is nothing major and nothing that intrudes.
    There was only one minute spot of debris, too small to make a note of.

    This is an unrestored print of the film, with consistent quality from reel to reel. It is basically in good, clean condition and delivers a solid, reliable and enjoyable image. .

      
    There are no subtitles and the disc is single layered.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio on this unrestored print is also quite satisfactory, with some problems but  loud, clear and without distortion.
    There is only one language, English, in a Dolby Digital 2.0 reproduction of the original mono Western Electric Noiseless Recording.
    There are no sync problems.
    
    
    At times a background rumble can be detected, but you really have to put your ear to the speaker to hear it.
    There is a small amount of crackle throughout much of the film, which for some reason gets louder with the vocals.
    Reel changes are accompanied by a small "pop", and there are a few others throughout the film.

    The clarity of the sound on this film more than compensates for the problems of  "crackle and pop" referred to.The human voice is produced sharply and cleanly - in dialogue and song.
    The background orchestrations sound very impressive, rich and full, and reaching full impact in the film's final moments.
    This is a lovely score, combining original music with the two great songs used to such effect in the story.
    
    There are no dropouts.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The box set of nineteen movies on nineteen discs contains a Sixteen Page Souvenir Booklet.
    Apart from this booklet and the Stills Galleries on five of the titles, there are no extras on the entire nineteen discs, not even a trailer.
    The picture disc reproduces the title's cover.
    There are no subtitles.

Menu    
   

    
    All menu screens are 4x3.
    

    The main menu design is extremely basic. The screen comprises two stills from the film, with orchestral audio.
    The options are :
        Play Film
       Scene Index: Selecting this option gives a new screen with two further stills and a list of ten scenes. No thumbnails, no sound.
       Stills Gallery : The gallery contains ten black and white production stills from the film in very nice quality.

    

    Region 1 does not have a current release of Christmas Holiday.
    
    The nineteen titles box set is available in Region 2 where it is more than double the Australian price. Christmas Holiday  is also available separately.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall