Movie Matinee #9: Miracle on 34th Street

My Kiddo's old VHS

*** Contains Spoilers ***

It's been 70 years since the movie Miracle on 34th Street was released in theaters, but for me, it has always been the go-to movie that ushers in the holiday season. 

The film was actually made in 1946, so it still the sense of the country coming out of its war-time deprivations. People were still hungry - not so much for turkey and all the trimmings, but for peace and prosperity. But Miracle on 34th Street is also a cautionary tale about the kind of commercialism doing without for so long can lead to, while still celebrating the idea of the American Dream - a family, a house in the suburbs - all it takes is a little faith. So, you could say that he real underlying theme of the movie is simply Peace on earth, Goodwill towards all people.

The movie opens with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The man hired to play Santa is found drunk by a charming, elderly, gentle well-dressed white bearded man, whose name just happens to be Kris Kringle. Kris is hired on the spot to replace drunk Santa by Doris Walker. Doris, a realist at heart, is ironically is in charge of making this fantasyland of a parade a reality. 

Meanwhile, Doris’s young daughter, Susan, a realist and a sceptic who does not believe in Santa Clause, is watching the parade from their apartment window with neighbor Fred Gailey, a handsome lawyer who just happens to be single and very interested in Doris when he learns she is divorced. 

Kris is such a great Santa, he’s hired by Macy’s to be their holiday Santa Clause stand-in. The only problem is that Kris isn’t much interested in Macy’s profit margin, but rather he’s more about making kids happy on Christmas morning. Poor Kris ends up in Bellevue’s mental hospital, to be psychologically evaluated. 

In the meantime, Kris has befriended Fred Gaily and little Susan, who is beginning to doubt her realist upbringing and think maybe there could be a Santa. So she tells him what she wants for Christmas - a house in the suburbs. All Kris can do is promise to do his best to deliver on her Christmas wish.

Eventually, Kris ends up in New York's Supreme Court defended by Fred, and things don’t look promising, but Fred manages to prove Kris is really Kris Kringle, thanks to the post office delivering 21 bags of letters addressed to Santa Clause - and it doesn’t hurt that the judges’s son is a big believer, too. 

Susan is very disappointed on Christmas morning when she finds nothing about a house under the Christmas tree (Fred’s influence). But sure enough, later in the day when she, her mother and Fred are driving out to visit Kris, there’s the house and there’s Kris’s cane in it. Did he or didn’t he? That is for the viewer to decide for her/himself.

(I like this whole movie, and the message is sends, but my very favorite scene in Miracle on 34th Street are when Kris is still Macy’s Santa and a little Dutch refugee is brought to see him. The look on her face when he begins to speak to her in Dutch is priceless.) 

Here are some interesting facts about Miracle on 34th Street:

The Macy’s parade scenes were really filmed during the 1946 parade, which a very cold morning. In the scenes of Santa waving to the crowd from his sleigh was really Edmund Gwenn, who plays Kris in the movie. And each of parade scenes only had one chance to get it all right. 

The scenes that take place in Macy’s were really filmed there, but after hours when there were not customers around.

It was so cold when the scene where Susan spots her dream house that the camera’s froze and they had to wait for the cameras to throw before they could continue. Neighbors invited the cast into their home to warm up.

You may recall that in the parade scene outside Susan’s front window, There were six balloons in the parade in 1946, but it is Harold the baseball player balloon is floating by Susan’s window. Harold hasn’t been seen again since 1946.. Well, this year, to mark the 70th anniversary of the movie, they are reintroducing Harold: 

You can find more interesting facts about Miracle on 34th Street HERE

You can find the original NY Times movie review by Bosley Crowther (June 5, 1947) HERE

The new 70th anniversary DVD 

Movie Matinee #8 - Winter in Wartime

Way back on November 1, 2011, I reviewed a book called Winter in Wartime by Jan Terlouw (my review).  I found the book to be a compelling coming of age story about a 15 year-old Dutch boy named Michiel who becomes involves with the resistance movement there quite inadvertently in the last year of the war.

Though the book was published in Dutch in 1972, it wasn't until 1978 that an English language translation of it was available. Then, in 2008, a film version of the book was released in Holland. The film was directed by Martin Koolhoven, done in Dutch, English, and German and starred a young Dutch actor named Martijn Lakemeier.  

At the time I wrote my review, I mentioned that a movie had been made from the book Winter in Wartime.  I also said that I had heard that the movie wasn't very good.  On January 4, 2013, a comment was left on my review in which the commenter said they had seen the movie and it was actually quite excellent.  On August 8, 2016, another comment was left that seconded the comment left in 2013 about the excellence of the film version of Winter in Wartime. 

Well, I finally was able to watch the movie on Netflix thanks to my allergies and asthma which has sidelined for the last two weeks.  

And I have to say that my two commenters were absolutely correct to say Winter in Wartime is an exceptional film. In fact, it has even won a number of awards, mostly European, although it was shortlisted for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Academy Awards.  

And while I do recommend this film to anyone interested in World War II, this is not a movie for young viewers.  Among other themes, it is a story of loss and betrayal, and there are some raw scenes that are simply not meant for everyone, which is why it received an R rating.

What did I learn from all this?  Judge for yourself.

You read the New York Times review of Winter in Wartime HERE

Movie Matinee #7: Yankee Doodle Dandy

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

HAVE FUN, STAY SAFE!

Yankee Doodle Dandy is a historically not terribly accurate bio-film about the life of George M. Cohan (James Cagney).  It begins when he is summoned to the White House by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. There, he begins to tell the President the story of his life, beginning with his birth on July 4, 1878 in Providence, RI, where his father was performing in vaudeville.  The scene then leaves the Oval Office and flashes back to that date.

From there on, in voice overs, Cohan narrates each scene change as time go by, and he and his sister Josie grow older and join in their parents vaudeville act, becoming The Four Cohans.  We seea very talented though somewhat arrogant George as a boy starring in Peck's Bad Boy, and blowing the family's chance to play Broadway with his demands.

Later, George meets Mary, the girl he will marry, and for whom he wrote the song "Mary is a Grand Old Name."  The whole time the family is performing, George is writing musical theater scores, but no one is interested.  Finally, he meets Sam H. Harris, also not succeeding in selling his material, and the two become partners and successes with their production of Little Johnny Jones, most noted for the songs "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Give My Regards to Broadway."

When the US enters World War I in 1917, George tries to enlist, but is told he is too old at 38.  Leaving the recruiting station, he runs into soldiers and an Army marching band, and as he listens to them,  the song "Over There" begins to formulate in his head.  

But Cohan's professional successes and failures isn't the only storyline.  The movie also follows his family life, though only when it suits Cohan's story.  For instance, his sister get engaged and we never find out what happened to her until later we learn that both his mother and sister have already died.  And after Cohan marries Mary, there is no mention of their three children, or his first marriage, for that matter.  The whole movie I thought they were childless because of his career.

Eventually, Cohan retires and travels the world, but when he is offered a part on Broadway playing the President, he jumps at the chance to go back to the smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd.  And that's when he is called to the White House.  Thinking he is in trouble, instead he is give the Congressional Medal of Honor for his two songs,  "You're a Grand old Flag," written in 1906 for Cohan's musical play George Washington, Jr and "Over There" written in 1917.

Original Sheet Music courtesy of the Library of Congress

The finale is priceless, even if anachronistic.  As Cohan leaves the White House he joins a parade of soldiers singing "Over There" and obviously heading off to fight in WWII.  Cohan received his Medal of Honor in 1940, a year and a half before the US entered the war.  But, so what, it is still an ending that is sure to bring a tear to the eye.  

Besides James Cagney Yankee Doodle Dandy has a wonderful cast.  There is Walter Huston as his father Jerry, and Rosemary de Camp as his mother Nellie, Cagney's real sister Jeanne ss his Cohan sister Josie, and Joan Leslie as his wife, Mary.  Richard Whorf played Sam Harris, Cohan's partner and one of my favorites, S.Z. Sakall, has a small but pivotal part in the film (Sakall played Uncle Felix, the chef in Christmas in Connecticut).

Yankee Doodle Dandy is a little corny, a whole lot energetic and off the charts flag waving patriotic propaganda now that the US had entered WWII.  Still, the dancing numbers are wonderful, and although James Cagney is not Fred Astaire, I loved the tap dancing scenes.

Movie premiere May 29, 1942 in New York City, as a war bonds benefit
(Public Domain)

Yankee Doodle Dandy has been named as one of the American Film Institutes 100 Greatest American Films; James Cagney won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role; and the Library of Congress chose it to be preserved in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historicaily or aesthetically significant."  And while it is certaainly historically significant, there is one scene that bears this out in a rather offensive way when The Four Cohans are seen performing in blackface.  Historically accurate, sadly yes, but no less odious to the modern viewer.

Here is the offical movie trailer from 1942:

As long as this is a Yankee Doodle day, I thought I would also include a copy of the Uncle Sam movable paper puppet you can put together.  It's been circulating around the Internet for a while and we actually made one yesterday, but it went home with one of the kids and I didn't have time to make another.  I printed it out on 8 1/2" by 11"white card stock, cut it out and just followed the directions.  As far as I know, it was from an old postcard, printed in London, from around 1914 (I couldn't find a recent copyright, so I assume this is in the public domain now).

Oh, this modern world!  I actually rented Yankee Doodle Dandy from iTunes and watched in on my iPad with headphones.  A weird, yet rather pleasant experience  

Movie Matinee #6: The Book Thief

I've waited a whole year to watch this movie.  When it opened, I had just reread the novel and wanted to put some distance between the written word and its cinematic representation.  Also, the critics really didn't like this movie.  In his New York Times review of November 7, 2013, Stephen Holden, described The Book Thief as a "shameless piece of Oscar-seeking Holocaust kitsch."    At rogerebert.com, critic Godfrey Cheshire echoes this sentiment, writing that there is a distinct air of solipsism in the film, that main character Liesel never undergoes a transformation, so that the actual tragedy [that is the Holocaust] is reduced to the role of kitschy backdrop.

Sounds like a colossal flop, doesn't it?

But, let's not forget that in her March 27, 2006 review for the NY Times Janet Maslin snarkily referred to the novel as "Harry Potter and the Holocaust."  Yet, it has been on the NY Times YA best seller list almost consistently since it come out and almost everyone who reads it, loves it.

OK, back to the movie with a Spoiler Alert Warning

It's  April 1938 and the voice of Death begins to tell the story of young Liesel Meminger, on a train with her mother and brother traveling to their new family.  The children are being taken from their mother because she's a communist.  When Liesel's brother dies on the trip, he's buried by the side of the tracks.  One of the gravedigger's drops his manual and it becomes the first book Liesel steals.

Arriving at the home of Hans and Rosa Hubermann on the ironically named Heaven Street, it soon becomes apparent that Liesel can't read and she becomes a target for the class bully, Franz Deutsche.  So, gentle, kind-hearted Hans teaches her how to read in the basement of their home, using chalk to list the words she learns on the walls.  Rosa Huberman appears to be a hard-hearted women who calls every one Saumensch (pig) and takes in the Bürgermeister's laundry to make some money.

Liesel becomes friends with neighbor Rudy, who is immediately smitten with her.  Rudy also admires runner Jesse Owens, and works hard to emulate his skill, which earns him a place in a special Nazi school when he turns 14.

After Kristallnacht in November 1939, Max Vanderburg arrives ill at the Hubermann's home one night seeking refuge.  Max is on the run from the Nazis because he is a Jew, but his father had saved Hans's life in WWI and so the Hubermann's willingly take him in despite the danger to themselves and Liesel if they were to be caught.

During a book burning, Liesel steals another book.  But this time someone sees her and when she next delivers the Bürgermeister's laundry, his wife invites her in to see and use their library to her heart's content.  Unfortunately, when her staunch Nazi husband discovers it, he throws Liesel out and fires Rosa.  Later, when Max becomes very ill, Liesel starts to sneak into the Bürgermeister's library to borrow books to read to him.   Liesel and Max are definitely kindred spirits when it comes to their love of books, reading and words.

Despite living in Nazi Germany, Liesel is surrounded by people who love her and whom she loves.  But Death soon visits again and Liesel loses everyone she loves.  Death also informs us that Liesel grew up, married (not Max), had children and grandchildren, and became a successful writer.

Not everyone disliked this movie as intensely as the two critics above.  And neither did I, although I do think it is a somewhat flawed film.  Cinematically, it is a beautiful film.  It was directed by Brian Percival, whom you might remember directed some of the Downtown Abbey episodes.  And there is a definite Downtown feel to The Book Thief, mostly notably in the cinematic color palette Percival used.  It was done in dark shades of browns, blacks, and red so that the bright red, white and black of the Nazi flag really stands out, as does the fire yellows in the book burning scene.

Living in Nazi Germany meant leaving in constant fear, but I didn't necessarily feel that that in the movie, as much as in the book.  Sure, there were air raids and house searches looking for hidden Jews and constantly being hungry, there was even a scene where Jews were forced to march through the streets in a roundup.  And when Hans stands up for a Jewish acquaintance, he finds himself drafted into the German Army despite his age.  But there was a certain lack of feeling on the part of the characters even while they are endearing themselves to you.

The person I watched the movie with thought it was odd that Liesel and Rudy were both in the Hitler Youth, but they would have had no choice, that was mandatory by then.  Penalties for not letting your children join were harsh and stiff.  But it is clear, even as Germany is losing on the Eastern Front, Liesel believes what she has been told - that Germany is winning the war.

The book burning seems strangely out of place.  Book burning were done in the early 1930s,  In all my research, I don't recall hearing about book burnings happening the late 1930s or early 1940s.  It seems a  plot device to bring Liesel and the Bürgermeister's wife together on a mutual appreciative ground.  Her dead son was also a lover of books and the library that temporarily is made accessible to Liesel belonged to him.

Five years pass during which Liesel lives with the Hubermann's that we see and in all that time, Liesel and Rudy don't get older.  The only concession to time passing this the length of Liesel's hair, but Rudy never matures beyond his original 12 years.

Those are my main gripes about The Book Thief.  On the whole, I did like the film, and thought the acting was excellent.  Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson play the Hubermanns,  Sophie Nélisse plays Liesel and Nico Liersch is Rudy.  Some complaints were made because the characters speaks English with German accents with the occasional German word.  My feeling was that it bridged the fact that I was watching a German story in English and helped to keep the sense of place.

This film is recommended for viewers age 13+
This film was purchased for my personal library

Movie Matinee #5: The Diary of Anne Frank (2009)

"I want to go on living even after my death"

 4 April 1944

Yesterday was Anne Frank's 85th birthday and so I thought I would take a look at the 2009 BBC/Masterpiece Theatre production of The Diary of Anne Frank.

There have been a number of film and stage adaptations of Anne Frank's famous diary, chronicling the over two years spent in hiding from the Nazis.  I have seen the 1959 adaptation starring Millie Perkins, whose portrayal of Anne as a wide-eyed waifish looking girl was, a little to flat and unrealistic.  I think the movie reviewer said it best in his 1959 NY Times review: "…there does not surge out of her [Perkins] frail person a sense of indestructible life, of innocence and trust that show no shadows, of a spirit that will not die.  She does not rise  in the drama as a pillar of perceptible faith in man.  She is reedy..."

Year later, in 1997, I saw Natalie Portman in a stage production of The Diary of Anne Frank, which I liked very much.  I thought Portman did a very creditable job of portraying Anne and Linda Lavin was a truly wonderful Mrs. Van Daan.  But the play closed early because it had been struggling to fill seats at every performance and when it didn't win any Tony awards, the produced decided to cut their losses.

L. Millie Perkins as Anne R. Natalie Portman as Anne

In 2010, a new production of The Diary of Anne Frank aired on television in England and the United States.  I had watched it when it first aired on Masterpiece Theatre and watched it again last night.  I realized that the thing that I found to be so powerful in this production was that it captured exactly was was missing from the 1959 movie.  Anne was played by Ellie Kendrick, a young English actress who you may recognize from her role as Meera Reed in the Game of Thrones TV series.  Ellie was actually 17 years old at the time she was playing 13 year old Anne, but I thought she brought Anne to life in a way that hasn't been done before.

Here, at last, is a robust Anne that resembles a real 13 year old girl.  She is self-absorbed, moody, impulsive, kind, fresh, loving, angry, flirty and curious.  And she is fearful, as are all the occupants of that very cramped Secret Annex, their hiding place above her father Otto Frank's place of business, a pectin and spice company.   Kendrick's portrayal of Anne is almost perfection as she brings all these mixed emotions and feelings out with perfect timing, and a wonderful flounce when she is obviously angry but silent.  And we never lose the sense of "a spirit that will not die."

FYI: Kendrick's version of Anne also finally talks about more intimate things like getting her period, her painful, messy, but sweet secret, and being curious about her changing body and budding sexuality - passages that were edited out of the her diary by her father when it was originally published.  Anne's burgeoning sexuality was finally put back into the diary when the definitive edition was published in 1995.  I think this makes Anne more of a person that a symbol and I am rather glad that when she adapted the diary for this production, Deborah Moggach included it in her well done screenplay.

Kendrick with Iain Glen as Otto Frank and Tamsin Greig as Edith Frank

The film is done with a lot of voice over using the content of the diary, and just enough dialogue to move time along.  Additionally, the tension among the residents of the attic as time went by, as food shortages increased and the abject fear they felt each time there were noises near the attic door that they were about to be discovered by armed Nazis is simply payable and will set your heart racing.

But knowing the ultimate outcome of all the lives in the attic makes this beautifully done film so very difficult to watch.  But do watch it, nevertheless, especially if you haven't seen it yet.

You can watch an OK version of the entire film on YouTube, but the film is also available at the library, or you can purchase a copy, and PBS occasionally reruns it.

You can download an excellent, extensive Teacher's Guide for this version of The Diary of Anne Frank from PBS Masterpiece Classic

Did you know that on March 28, 1944, Anne was inspired to rewrite her diary after hearing a radio speech by Dutch Cabinet Minister Gerritt Bolkestein who said:

"History cannot be written on the basis of official decisions and documents alone.  If out descendants are to understand fully what we as a nation have had to endure and overcome during these years, then what we really need are ordinary documents - a diary, letters from a worker in Germany, a collection of sermons given by a parson or priest.  Not until we succeed in bringing together vast quantities of this simple, everyday material will the picture of out struggle for freedom be painted in its full depth and glory."

Anne had almost finished revising her diary when the Nazis arrived on August 4, 1944.  Anne wanted to make a difference with her writing and on 1 April 1944, she wrote:

"I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to G-d for this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me.  I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.  But, and that is the great question, will I ever be able to write anything great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?"

Poignant words from a writer whose diary has touched so many people.

Movie Matinee #4: Janie (1944)

Lobby Card with Scooper, Dick Lawrence and Janie

Janie Conway is a pretty typical 16 year old girl living in the small town of Hortonville.  She has a high school boyfriend named Scooper and lots of girlfriends, a wiseacre little sister named Elsbeth, a dad, Charles Conway, who is the editor of the town paper and a mom, Lucille Conway, who does war work.

Life looks pretty good for the Conways despite the war.  Until now, that is.  After learning that the Army plans to open a base nearby, Mr. Conway had written an editorial opposing it, worried that so many soldiers around so many impressionable, young energetic, boy crazy girls might not be such a good idea.  Now, he is trying to get special priority from Washington for a new printing press, and his requests are being ignored.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Conway's old friend, Thelma Lawrence, is arriving in Hortonville with her son, a private in the Army and needs a place to stay.  Of course, once they arrive at the house, and Janie meets Private First Class Dick Lawrence, it is instant attraction, much to Scooper's distress.

When Janie's parents make plans to go out for an evening with Mrs. Lawrence, Janie decides to seize the opportunity to see Dick Lawrence alone in the Conway house.  But now some of her girlfriends also have boyfriends in the Army and no place to see them, and since they know Janie is home alone, they all drop by.

Elsbeth, always in the way, is sent off to her grandmother's on what should have been a short bus ride with Dick, but she gets the on the wrong bus intentionally because she likes riding buses.  Dick runs into his old chemistry professor, who also likes to ride buses and hands Elsbeth over to him so he can get back to his evening with Janie.

Scooper, jealous of Dick, calls the Army base and tells them to send over more soldiers, that there is a party going on at the Conway house for them.  Before long, the house is filled with servicemen and their girlfriends, more of Janie's girlfriends, music, singing and dancing.  There are even plenty of wieners to eat and pop to drink.  Before long, the furniture is pushed aside and a long conga line forms.  Janie's quiet evening with Dick turns into the biggest and best party Hortonville has ever seen.

Lobby Card

But all good things must end, especially when the base commander shows up, followed by the police and then your parents.  But this is a light domestic romantic comedy, so all's well that end's well.

I watched Janie on a gloomy, rainy, chilly Sunday afternoon and it really was a fun thing to do.  It is a very fast paced film, and a lighthearted war movie.  Janie, played by Joyce Reynolds, is a bubbly teen, always up to things she would rather her parents didn't know about, like going off to a blanket party (a party where everyone brings their own blanket to sit on, to "smooch" with their boyfriends.  Janie speaks a mysterious lingo with her friends, really just the slang of the day, but it totally bewilders her dad.

This was definitely a feel good movie made for a war weary audience, released on September 2, 1944.  It was highly recommended by movie editors in magazines like Child Life, Calling All Girls and Life, having appeal for both adults and teens.  As much fun as Janie is, though, I can't say it reflects the life of the average American teenage girl in 1944.  And the feminist side of me did bristle somewhat at how boy crazy girls were portrayed.   

Originally a successful Broadway play, Janie was made into a movie by Warner Bros., and directed by Michael Curtiz, who had already won an Academy Award in 1944 for directing a film you may be familiar with called Casablanca.

Hattie McDaniel, another Academy Award winner for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone with the Wind, plays April, the Conway's maid.  Unfortunately for this favorite talented woman, playing the role of a maid was the part she was always cast as during the war.

Other well known actors who appeared in Janie were Robert Hutton as Dick Lawrence, Edward Arnold as Charles Conway, and Ann Harding as Lucille Conway.  Ironically, it turns out that the irrepressible, but annoying younger sister Elsbeth was played by Clare Foley who made only two movies in her film career: Janie and the 1946 sequel Janie Gets Married.  I could not find any more information about her.

And here is some real trivia:  I used to watch reruns of the original Mickey Mouse Club when they were on late at night and I was still writing papers for grad school.  If you remember the Mickey Mouse Club and happen to catch Janie on TMC, see if you can find Jimmy Dodd, head Mouseketeer and song writer (Hint: he is an uncredited soldier during the party scenes).

This movie is recommended for viewers age 11+
This movie was watched onTurner Movie Classics (it isn't available on DVD yet, but runs pretty frequently on TV.

Enjoy the trailer for Janie after the annoying 30 second ad:

Movie Matinee Coming Attractions: The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is one of my favorite books and I am hoping it will also become on of my favorite films.  The film is set to open in the US on November 15, 2013 and stars Geoffrey Rush as Hans Hubermann and Emily Watson as his wife Rosa Hubermann, the couple who take in Liesel Meminger, when her mother is taken into custody in Nazi Germany for her communist leanings.  Liesel is played by Sophie Nélisse, who looks exactly the way I pictured Liesel in my head when I read the book.

Here is the first trailer that was just released and so far, so good:

Movie Matinee #2: Christmas in Connecticut

Year after year, television offers up a variety of Christmas movies.  There are perennial favorites like It's a Wonderful Life with James Stewart and Donna Reed, A Christmas Story, A Christmas Carol, and, of course, Home Alone, just to name a few. These are all fine movies, but my very favorite is an old 1945 black and while film I discovered on television when I was about 12 or 13.  

It is called Christmas in Connecticut and is a wonderful, zany romantic comedy.  It stars Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane, who writes articles of a woman's magazine, Smart Housekeeping, about life on her Connecticut farm with her husband and baby and includes decorating ideas and menus with recipes for the wonderful meals she prepares for them.  In truth, Elizabeth is a single woman living in a Manhattan apartment and couldn't boil water or diaper a baby if her life depended on it.

The love interest is Dennis Morgan who plays Jefferson Jones, a Navy man whose ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat and who spends 18 days in a life raft eating K-rations and dreaming about food and then six weeks in hospital eating mush.

Feeling sorry for Jefferson because he claims he never had a proper home and having finagled an engagement to him, his nurse Mary writes to Alexander Yardley, the owner of Smart Housekeeping, asking if Jefferson could spend the holidays at the Lane farms to experience a real home.  Yardley thinks it's a splendid idea, and that it would even be fun for him to join the festivities.

Luckily, Elizabeth has a friend, John Sloan, with a farm in Connecticut who just happens to want to marry her.  Elizabeth, thinking she will be fired when Yardley finds out the truth about who she is, agrees to marry Sloan in exchange for entertaining Jefferson and Yardley for the holidays.  Elizabeth, Sloan and Felix, the restaurant owner who provides her with the excellent recipes for the articles, all head to the farm.  Conveniently, Sloan's housekeeper watches a baby for a woman working in the nearby munitions factory.

But before the Justice of the Peace can marry Sloan and Elizabeth, Jefferson Jones shows up.  Now here is the sticky part - it is love at first sight, Jefferson and Elizabeth are totally smitten with each other.  Nut, he believes Elizabeth is a married woman, and Elizabeth believes he is engaged to be married.

From this point on, it is a series of close calls with the judge, changing babies (turns out the housekeeper watches two different babies - a boy and a girl), domestic close calls (the best is when  Elizabeth is asked to flip the breakfast flapjacks the way she describes in her articles and it is clear she doesn't know how), shameless flirting and lots of innuendo.

Does love win out?  Well, it's a romantic comedy, so you probably can guess the answer to that.  But, really, the best part of this movies is the journey.

Barbara Stanwyck was really a great comedic actress, but this wasn't showcased enough in her film career.  Certainly, she was as good as Katherine Hepburn, though in a different way.  This was the movie that made her one of my favorite actresses.  And Dennis Morgan wasn't too bad as the love interest, he is mighty good-looking and has a beautiful tenor voice.

As for the war - well, there is the footage of Jefferson's ship being torpedoed and of him and his friend on the life raft.  And Felix, whom Elizabeth introduces as her uncle, actually fled Hungary because of the Nazis.  Interestingly, although there are many mentions of the war, including a dance to sell war bonds,  there is no such thing as rationing, or shortages of any kind.  Ironically, though the film was made during the last year of the war, it was released in theaters three days before J-J day.  People loved it.

Elizabeth Lane is often compared to Martha Stewart, but forget that comparison.  Elizabeth is totally domestically challenged.  However, Elizabeth's magazine feature was modeled on Gladys Taber, who did live on a Connecticut farm, Stillmeadow Farm, and who did write a similar feature in Ladies Home Journal called Diary of Domesticity.  And according to Gladys's granddaughter, copies of Ladies Home Journal were often included in care packages to soldiers.  You can find more about this over at Hooked on Houses along with some wonderful movie screenshots.

And you can find more on Gladys Taber if head over to Letters from a Hill Farm.  Nan has written about Gladys a number of times.

If you are looking for a nice, relaxing holiday movie amid all the hustle and bustle of shopping, wrapping, decorating, cooking, baking and the million other things need to get done, get a copy of Christmas in Connecticut, sit back and have a chuckle or two.

This is the trailer that was shown in movie theaters in 1945.  Enjoy!

P.S. There is a 1992 updated remake of Christmas in Connecticut with Dyan Cannon and Kris Kristofferson and directed by Arnold Scharzenegger.  I avoid it.

Movie Matinee #1 - Journey for Margaret

Based on a 1941 novel by William Lindsay White, Journey for Margaret tells the story of American journalist John Davies and his wife Nora, a very happy, in-love couple.  They have just arrived in London from France in 1940 and the Davies' are expecting their first baby.

John wants Nora to return to the US, but she wants to stay by his side, despite the Blitz.  But after a bomb hits the hotel she is in, Nora loses the baby and the doctor tells John she is no longer able to have children.

Nora leaves the hospital a bitter, detached woman and leaves for the US a few days later.  John remains in London to report on the blitz, but the quality of his reporting has decidedly lost its edge.  One night during an air raid, John witnesses a mother carrying her dead daughter, believing she is only asleep and later helps rescuers pull a three year old boy out of the rubble, during which he absently pockets the boy's toy lamb.  John Davies get mad and gets his journalistic edge back.

His next assignment is a home for children orphaned by the Blitz.  There he runs into the little boy he helped save.  The boy, whose name is Peter, immediately attaches himself to John and "adopts" him after John returns his lamb.

Before John leaves the home, a little girl is brought by a woman who had adopted her after her parents were killed by bombs.  The little girl, Margaret, was too hard to handle.  For one thing, she carries the shell casing of a magnesium bomb around her neck, and she constantly is wiping her eyes.  Why? Watch the clip -

Margaret also attaches herself to and "adopts" John Davies, setting up a very funny sibling rivalry between Peter and herself.  This turns to sad poignancy, however, when John takes them for a visit to meet people who are willing to adopt them and he must enter and exit the house with both children clinging to his legs.

It isn't long before John decides to adopt them and return to the US.  When his wife receives his letter about this plan, she has a bit of a breakdown but emerges from it her old self, happily agreeing to the adoption.

But of course, there is a SNAFU - the plane they are planning to take is completely booked.  John convinces the airline to permit him to use his baggage allowance for the kids, but they are over the weight limit.  So it is decided he will take Margaret, and Peter, who regresses to his old shell-shocked behavior, is sent to live with the people he had visited earlier.

Can John manage to finally get Peter on the plane?

This movie, while at time overly sentimental, is actually a pretty good film.  It depicts the way people dealt with the Blitz - guests bedding down in the hotel shelter or in its one save corridor, the loss of a child or parent(s), and of course the fires, the rubble of everyday life and the people who worked though these conditions even as the bombs continued to fall to save lives..   But the film's most redeeming quality is the picture it paints of the effect the war had on young children - the fear of the sky causing children to walk around always looking up, or the little girl who screams reliving what happened to her.  In the 1942 movie review of Journey for Margaret, the critic wrote "As Director Van Dyke and his authors have made a film of childhood as if they knew that all the heartbreak lay in childhood's...inability to speak and tell its wounds."

Journey for Margaret is rated 4 hankerchiefs. 

Journey for Margaret is sometimes shown TMC, and can be rented from various online sources, but I borrowed it through interlibrary loan.