In The Company Of Glenn

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)...

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Many Thanks...

Both the angel and the Bride of Frankenstein figure at the top of our tree offer the greetings of the season (well, okay, they don't, actually, but you get the idea) to all you loyal and lovable blog readers. It's been quite a year. For one thing, this very blog came into being a year and about two weeks ago...we didn't go "live" until January or so of this year, I think, but if you go back in the archives it's all there. The paper-and-ink version of Premiere, at least the U.S. edition (you know, the one I worked for), ceased to be in March. (And if you think I'm not still mourning the loss, you're sorely mistaken. But times change, and better to be in New Media than out of it...) My Lovely Wife and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary in June. And this month we got our very first Christmas tree, for me to place DVDs and dopey figurines of the Bride of Frankenstein on.

And finally, over the year this blog built a loyal, smart, fun following of folks that I constantly look forward to entertaining, informing, and interacting with. Thanks so much to all of you. Blogging's going to be light between now and the New Year but I do have some things in store, including at least one Very Special Monday Morning Foreign Region DVD Report (one hint: Siodmak) and whatever else strikes my fancy. I hope you enjoy the holiday whatever way you spend it, and that the New Year brings more health, happiness and great movies to mix it up about.

A Thanksgiving Trinity (updated)

In memory of New York TV station WWOR's long-ago practice of running these pictures every Thanksgiving Day, providing a family's cinephile something to fight with its football fans about...

Kong, King Kong, Cooper, Schoedsack, O'Brien, 1933...

...his frankly inexplicable offspring, Son of Kong, Cooper, Schoedsack, O'Brien, 1933...

...the beatific Mister Joseph Young, Mighty Joe Young, Schoedsack and O'Brien, 1949...

Update: a good commenter, below, deplores his inability to embed. I'll embed for him, and for Cinetrix, and for all of you:

Enjoy the nostalgia...