nomoons11 I've never really understood the fascination or the popularity of Deanna Durbin. I've seen a few of her films and she's just not much of an actress. I guess because in most she tries to be a comedienne and to me...it doesn't work. Not so in this case.A solider is heading home to marry his girlfriend. Just before he leaves he gets a dear john letter saying she has married someone else. He thinks he can change things by going back early but weather conditions strand him in a small town near New Orleans. He ends up at a bar and then a "Cat House" where he meets a singer who's also one of the regulars at the place. He listens to her life story and it's a tragedy. She tells of her fast marriage to a nice guy gambler type but was really a go nowhere type to begin with. He ends up killing somebody and from there it's remembrances and tales of the past. Maybe his girlfriend marrying someone else doesn't pale in comparison to this girl's life.They don't say it outright but basically Mrs. Durbin plays a prostitute who happens to sing in a Cat House. It's inferred slightly but it only enhances how down and out her life had become. I imagine this was a different type of role for Deanna Durbin so she took it. This is no comedy or uplifting tale. It's a down and out film about where life can take you after bad things happen.I liked it for what it was. It's not perfect but it's entertaining and a load off to see Durbin do something other than bad comedies.

morrison-dylan-fan After watching the fun romantic Christmas drama Holiday Affair,I decided that I should try to hunt down a Film Noir which takes place during the Xmas period.Asking for advice on this websites fantastic Film Noir board,I got suggested a very interesting,grim Film Noir,that features the future star of Singing In The Rain in a leading role!The plot:Prepairing to take a break from the army and get married to his girlfriend,Lt Charles Mason gets a heart breaking letter shortly before Christmas from his long-time girlfriend,who has written to give him the news that she is leaving him.Deciding to make the most of a bad situation,Mason decides to tag along with his army buddies,and get away from the barracks.Sadly Mason's luck continues to nosedive,when the plane that he is on has to make an emergency landing.Chatting to other poor souls stranded,Charles is eventually taken to a bar,to chill out for the night.Suddenly the owner of the bar appears and goes over to Mason's table,to offer him some "quality entertainment" for the night.Before he has the chance to reply,the owner calls one of the very best "bar" girls over to the table: Jackie Lamont.After originally being uneasy around her,Mason soon gets use to Jackie,and ends up inviting her to a mass!.Part way through the mass,Charles is caught off-guard when Lamont begins to have an emotional break down.Attempting to comfort her after the mass,Jackie explains that she decided to attend the mass with him,so the she would at last have the opportunity to become a part of something.Calming herself down,Lamont surprises Mason when she tells him that her real name is in fact Abigail Martin.Feeling strangely at ease around Mason,Jackie begins to tell him about her "past life" with her husband Robert Manette,who she feels will never be let out of jail,after he was found guilty of murder.Unbeknowst to Martin,whilst she is telling Charles everything that her husband and his mother put her through,Robert is beginning to plan away out of jail,to finally be reunited with his wife Abigail Martin.. View on the film:Looking at the brilliant,atmospheric directing of Robert Sidodmak,two of the scenes that struck the most with me were the scenes of Abigail at mass,and another scene of her watching a music performance.With the mass scene,Sidomak films the scene in shadows,which suggest,that despite Abigail's desire,there is no chance at all of her "seeing the light" at the mass.As Abigail starts to discuss with Charles about the start of her relationship with her former husband,Sidodmak goes into a flash back that features one of Abigail's happiest ever moments:attending a music concert.For the brightly-lit concert,Sidodmak shows Abigail and her future husband on the very top balcony of the venue,looking down at the mass audience below them.Shortly after the performance finishes,Abigail says that watching music performances "When I hear the music,I feel that something has been added to my life…that wasn't there before."As the credits to the film started to reach their end,I was shocked to see Citizen Kane's co-screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz credited as the writer of this wonderful film.Interestingly both films feature flashbacks that show the characters happiest moments before their "fall",with Kane remembering his winter childhood,and Martin remembering the experience of a music concert.For Abigail's marriage,Herman makes sure that the character gets put through hell with both barrels.Thanks to making the husbands (Robert Manette) mother Mrs Manette (played by a wonderfully cunning Gale Sondergaard) someone who kicks in Abigail's anxiety at every waking moment,due to Mrs Manette having a vice-like grip on her "mummys boy" son Robert.Whilst Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly are both more well known for their famous musical performances,both actors show that they have what it takes to become engulfed in a Noir world.Although Deanna's role as a "bar escort" is only hinted at,Durbin is still able to make Abigail Martin into a tremendous Femme Fatale,thanks to showing Abigail to be a very fragile character,who goes from living in almost total bliss with her new husband,enjoying the finer things in life and doing everything possible to become accepted via Robert's mum.To gradually living in constant fear,which is unhelpfully heightened when she discovers that Roberts trousers have a spot of blood on them, (a reference to Macbeath?)and that his mother is being a prison-warden type figure to her,who makes sure that punishment is served whenever Martin falls out of step in the slightest.For his strong performance,Gene Kelly turns Robert Manette into one real creep.Initially in the scenes that show Robert and Abigail meeting for the first time,Robert just seems to be a bit of a "wise guy",with Kelly showing Robert to be goose bump-inductively all over Abigail.As the flashbacks to their married life expand,Gene starts to cleverly show Manette's mask gradually removed,and show that behind his "wise guy" image,Robert is someone in a pre-Psycho era,who will do what ever possible to get into the good books of his mother,who both cause Abigail to walk on egg shells around them.Until everything gets too much,and begins to crack for her. Final view on the film:A tremendous Film Noir that can be enjoyed any time of the year.

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.

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).