A Very Special Monday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report: 'Christmas Holiday'

One of the most unusual putatively-hoiday-themed pictures ever made, Robert Siodmak's 1944 Christmas Holiday features beloved child/teen songstress Deanna Durbin in pretty much her first real adult role, and a doozy it is, too. Herman J. Mankiewicz—he of Citizen Kane screenwriting fame—here whittles down Somerset Maugham's novel (a tale of self discovery with the more far-flung tales of its secondary characters folded in, which begins with its hero's titular getaway to Paris, where he meets a mysterious prostitute)—into something more anecdotal and possibly personal. Dean Harens plays an army Lieutenant who, after getting a Dear John letter from his fiancee, decides to waste his Christmas leave by going to San Francisco to confront his jilter; bad weather forces the plane to land in New Orleans, where a sleazebag reporter (Richard Whorf) takes the young officer under his wing...and to a local brothel...oops, sorry Mr. Breen, we mean nightclub...where madame, oh [cough], we mean hostess Gladys George introduces the sad sack to Jackie. That would be Ms. Durbin. Who sings. "Always," among other numbers. She then induces Harens to take her to midnight mass, and after that tells him the sad story, shown to us in flashbacks, of her marriage to no-goodnik Robert Manette (Gene Kelly)...

...an assignation that began promisingly enough, as the two souls communed in the balcony of the concert hall to the strains of Wagner's "Liebestode" from Tristan und Isolde.

You know things aren't gonna work out well for the couple when Gale Sondergaard turns up as the mother-in-law. And you start worrying for Harens and Durbin, who seem to be getting along, when news breaks that Kelly's character has escaped from prison, and is looking for the wife he's sure is jilting him.

Beautifully shot by Elwood Bredel, who also did Siodmak's classics Phantom Lady and The Killers, and featuring a turn by Durbin described by no less an expert than Andrew Sarris as "lurid" (although she is also supremely sympathetic), Christmas Holiday is one of Siodmak's most compellingly delirious pictures. It's as fine an example as you'll find of what Kent Jones describes as the archetypal manner of Siodmak and/or Ulmer, "whose artistry was focused on satisfying genre conventions and the demands of narrative, and whose loftier ambitions were filtered through those conventions." Except...by the end of this particular picture, Siodmak throws away the filter, and, under the influence of Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou, reprises the Wagner and concocts a montage of incredible power and mystery.

I've treated the Bunuel affinity in a prior post, and it won't hurt to reprise those couple of frames from the ending...

The extras-less British DVD of Christmas Holiday boasts an excellent image and is highly recommended. Merry Christmas, agian!

Comments

[Alex Anisimow]

Thanks for that excellent CH review. You know that CH is the movie that Deanna Durbin feels reflects her best and most important work, although at 86 she still watches most of her other Universal movies at her Paris home. For those who want more information on Deanna Durbin, just visit the largest DD website in the world:

www.deannadurbin.org

ENJOY and have a Happy New Year!!!

[Moviezzz]

Great post. CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY is indeed an interesting film. I have that R2 release as well. Wish it would get an R1 release. All but two of Durbin's films are available in the UK on DVD, but there is only one set of I think it is 5 films in R1. Since the legend is she saved Universal from bankruptcy, you'd think they would do more with her films.

[scott neumyer]

Merry Christmas, Glenn. It's been a pleasure reading your blog this year... :)

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