Scanialara
You won't be disappointed!
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Francene Odetta
It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
MartinHafer
I would consider this among Deanna Durbins' more disappointing films. As I watched it, I seriously wondered if the film was originally just the portion with Gene Kelly and the other plot involving the soldier was done as an afterthought. In hindsight, this was a mistake and the soldier's story really wasn't necessary to this clumsy movie.When the film begins, a Lieutenant serving in WWII gets a dear John letter from his sweetie. Naturally he's hurt and angry...and this occurs just before he goes on leave. However, during the leave, he is diverted to New Orleans and is stuck there...and he meets Abigail (Durbin). She then tells him about her experience with love...and it consists of a series of flashbacks with her then husband (Gene Kelly)...a man who is a total scum-bag. The ending of the film, is very abrupt and you wonder what the studio was thinking.Overall, a disappointing and slightly confusing film...one that made you wonder, as Durbin was one of the studio's biggest assets and deserved a better picture than this.
ptb-8
Hmmm, I wonder of Tennessee Williams saw this in 1945 and wrote SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER as a riff on this astonishing incestuous masochistic noir. Universal's 1944 "Christmas Holiday"is a startling dark film that is quite explicit in its adult themes of prostitution, self punishment, sexual manipulation, incest and some quite twisted emotional ideas. It even has scenes similar to that same 1959 Taylor Montgomery Hepburn drama. Cleverly, Universal cast music stars Gene Kelly as the handsome spoiled son with the demon mother (Gale Sondergaard) and cherubic Deanna Durbin as the adoring slavish young woman that Mother encourages he marries to keep his amoral unethical character in check. The idea that Mother enthusiastically endorses their marriage so she can control both of them by their sexual desire for each other is a rank idea as slimy as seen in the pre code shocker THE SILVER CORD. I personally found the film riveting and I very much liked the casting against type. For me it gave the film excellent surprise value. Kelly made a terrific seductive rat. Durbin's slide into willing prostitution to 'be with him' in a decadent lifestyle (while he was away) is a great downbeat storyline. Everything about "Christmas Holiday" is deceptive, right from the happy title to the handsome horror of Kelly's character. I will not spoil the story for you other than to say the whole film is a terrific ride, and with a ripe explicit tone, you will be seduced yourself. Plenty of flashback like SORRY WRONG NUMBER and equally as creepy. What a surprise! Hilariously, in Australia it was our Nationwide TV treat at 8.30pm on Christmas night! Haven't our TV programmers got a sly sense of humor.
Alex da Silva
Lt Mason (Dean Harens) is returning home when his plane has to make an emergency landing. On an overnight stay, he has an encounter with Jackie/Abigail (Deanna Durbin) at a nightclub where she reveals her past to him. She is married to Robert Manette (Gene Kelly) who is serving time for murder. They spend an evening together before Lt Mason continues on his journey. However, Manette has escaped from jail.....This is a film noir with unlikely lead roles going to Durbin and Kelly who are more noted for appearing in annoying musicals. Surprisingly, it works. Kelly doesn't do any cheesy, smiley, grinning dance moves where he sticks his bum out, and Durbin sings a couple of songs that are actually quite good. The film is slow to get going - think half an hour - which grants the viewer a right to question what on earth is going on and to get slightly bored. But, once the flashbacks begin, we have a story to follow and both my girlfriend and I far prefer Gene Kelly as a baddie.
dbdumonteil
Robert Siodmak's career is huge .I wonder whether there's one user who has seen all of his output.It includes German,French and American movies.1944 saw three of his movies: a classic "Phantom Lady" ,an exotic extravaganza best forgotten "Cobra Woman" ,then the overlooked "Christmas Holiday"."Christmas Holiday " is a deceptive movie.Its very structure is weird beyond comment: it was not that much common to begin a film with many scenes revolving around a character that is not really the hero of the story (Gene Kelly appears long after the cast and credits);more stunning ,the two flashbacks are not in chronological order:the first one actually takes place in the middle of the second one.Even more amazing is the Christmas mass: to attend a service after spending the first part of the night in a club is downright disturbing.Anyway ,it's in that scene in the church that Siodmak turns in some of his finest signatures:creating an atmosphere was always his forte ,witness "the spiral staircase " or the French "Pièges" (remade as "lured" by Sirk) .After a complete "Kyrie Eleison" sung in Greek,there's this incredible moment when Deanna Durbin begins to cry as she hears the "Mea Culpa Mea Culpa Mea Maxima Culpa" sentences (which echo to the "guilty ,guilty,guilty" when the jury brings a guilty verdict and when the mother slaps her daughter-in -law in the face.) That mother is over possessive ,like so many Hitchcock mothers ("Notorious" "Strangers on the train" etc) and Gale Sondergaard as Mrs Monette almost outshines the two stars.(In Wyler's "the letter"another Somerset Maugham adaptation, ,she almost stole the show from Bette Davis).And the editing of the flashbacks makes sense: the first one begins after something horrible happened ,something the husband and his mom do not want the wife to know,because she is an intruder in their house.The title itself is a misnomer.People who are expecting a nice Christmas tale will be disappointed.People who are looking for something different will be satisfied.Siodmak's last French movie was called "Pièges" (= Traps).
