weezeralfalfa This is a Preston Sturges mistaken identity drama and comedy. It was only moderately interesting to me. It's listed as 64min. long, but the version I saw was only 55min., missing 12 min.. The beginning and ending were present, and I didn't notice any gaps elsewhere. Raymond Walburn, as Dr. Maxford, president of the Maxford Coffee Company, steals this one, for the most part. Dick Powell, as Jimmy, who is the elated victim of a practical joke, provides occasional fireworks, as when he received a bogus telegram notifying him that he had won the grand prize in a slogan contest by Maxford: "If you can't sleep at night, it's not the coffee, it's the bunk". Maxford didn't like it, but an awards committee presumably did. Also, when Jimmy is picking out gifts for his girlfriend Betty(Ellen Drew),and mother, and when handing out lesser gifts to the neighbors and friends, Jimmy is especially animated. "It's like Christmas in July" exclaims Betty. But there are slow sections too, especially, the initial scene with Jimmy and Betty gabbing away on a rooftop for maybe 10min..Walburn was perfectly cast as the easily excitable, blustering, company president, who's intimately involved in this slogan fiasco. He had few peers in this era in this type of role. Adolphe Monjou was nearly as good, at times. I know some people don't like their shtick, but I find them very funny and charismatic. Ellen Drew, as Betty, had little to do, except tag along with Jimmy, wherever he went. She mainly served as eye candy. The duo would be reteamed in "Johnny O'clock". Stuges often included irony as a major plot feature, as well as for lesser roles. For, example,, there are many in his masterpiece "Sullivan's Travels". Here, I point out a few in the present film:1)After all the hullabaloo about the fake telegram had died down, the awards committee, not knowing about this development, selected Jimmy's entry(which Maxford hated)from among many thousands, as the winner.2)That the fake telegram perpetrators were very wrong, in assuming that this was a harmless practical joke that the Maxford people would figure out before they gave him the $25,000.. 3)Even though Jimmy was more than ecstatic over apparently winning the prize, he first thought of gifts for Betty, his mother and neighbors, never mentioning anything for himself.4)Jimmy, in initially falsely winning the contest, induces his boss to assume he's a genius, promoting him, and giving him his private office and secretary, whereas previously, he considered Jimmy an idling daydreamer.

jakob13 A Preston Sturges romantic comedy, with a cast of colorful characters. Written and directed by Sturges, he refreshed a 1931 script 'A cup of Coffee' as if nothing happened since the early days of the Great Depression. We are in New York, among the working class who struggle to make ends meet in what passes for a typical neighborhood of tenements, with the usual make up of 'ethnic' New Yorkers, save the blacks. Dick Powell in one of his last role as juvenile (42 Street for example)is Bill MacDonald a dream who enters contests to win the big prize. He never does, but this time he thinks he shall: he entered the Medford Coffee contest for the best new slogan which will put a good spin on flat advertising. Ellen Drew play his girl friend who sticks with him through thick and thin. There is a wonderful scene where Medford is on the air in a coast-to-coast hook to announce the winner from over 2 million entries. But the jury is deadlocked in a comic scene that years later will turn up in Paddy Chayefsky's 'Twelve Angry Men'. The hold out is the wonderful comic actor William Demarest. And Franklin Pangborn, for once is not type cast as a pansy, does a good turn as the radio announcer and Raymond Walburn as the excitable Dr. Medford. To drive home the comic spin of 'Christmas in July', Macdonald works in the billing department of a rival coffee maker. His office mates hear him telephoning Medford Coffee to find out if the jury has picked winner, and they take him for a sap. So in the days of telegrams, they cut and paste a message saying MacDonald hit the jackpot. And from this the story takes off at a hop-skip-and jump speed. His boss at Baxter Coffee finds out he's a man of idea, even though Baxter's advertising department considers him a dreamer. But the boss respects the power of money, and in scene there's our Bill with cigar in his mouth coming up with a perky slogan and a plan for Baxter. And so it goes, a large check of $25,000 (in today's dollars worth millions?)is an open sesame to buy an engagement ring, a fur coat, a sofa bed for his mum, and and endless number of gifts for his neighbors on the street he lives in. The farce is exposed, but Powell takes it in his stride, nothing ventured, nothing lost'. As he and Drew go back to his new office at Baxter ready to confess, the janitor Sam (the only black in the film and a yessum Mr. Bill stereotypical line on his smiling, chuckling facy)is asked by MacDonald if a black cat rubbing his leg is a bearer of bad luck. And the wise Sam chortles 'it depends what comes after'... Try to find the film on YouTube, for the ironic but guessable denouement a la O. Henry.

bkoganbing For his second film as a director, Preston Sturges was given a slightly bigger budget than he had with The Great McGinty. With that he went and hired a star, not too big a star mind you, but one who was looking for something decent to play and was quite at liberty.The star was Dick Powell who had finished his Warner Brothers contract and spent a year away from the movies. Though Christmas In July might have seen at first glance as silly as some of what he was trying to get away from, Powell did recognize the talent of Preston Sturges and signed for this one shot deal.Sturges chose to satire in Christmas In July, America's obsession with radio contests, a subject that later would be used for television in the James Stewart film, The Jackpot a decade later. Powell has thought of this clever jingle for Maxford Coffee, a play on words, 'if you can't sleep at night, it's not the coffee, it's the bunk' which he tries explaining to any number of people, to his girl friend Ellen Drew and to his co-workers where he toils at a dreary desk job.Co-workers Rod Cameron, Harry Rosenthal, and Adrian Morris decide a nice practical joke is in order and fake a telegram to Powell from Raymond Walburn, the head of Maxford Coffee, saying Powell's jingle won. Powell naturally goes giddy with the thought of $25,000.00 and does as the telegram directs, goes to Raymond Walburn who thinking his jingle committee has actually come up with a winner, cuts him a check.Powell is a very decent sort and thinks of a lot of people in his neighborhood whom he'd like to help and spends it on them. It's quite a letdown for all involved when it all turns out to be a hoax.Christmas In July like all really great comedy has its elements of pathos as well. This same scenario could easily have been the elements for great tragedy as well. Powell and Drew register the highs and lows of their characters very well.By now Preston Sturges had established his noted stock company of players, most of whom appear in Christmas In July. One of them, William Demarest proves the savior of the situation, an ironical savior to be sure when you see the film.Though Powell wanted to do drama and was not to get that chance until a few years later, Preston Sturges was definitely a step up from some of silly stuff Jack Warner had been casting him in. Powell showed he could handle screwball comedy with the best of them in Christmas In July.

Spikeopath On the surface this effort from the brilliant Preston Sturges looks like a standard sugar coated feel good movie, but strip away the outer skin and you get a delightful collage of comedy, romance, satire, drama, and nudge nudge observations about hunger of wealth and all the spin offs that wealth creates.I don't deem it unfair to state that the films core plot of frivolity may not be to everyones taste, but to me personally it ticks all the boxes for a joyride with more at its heart. The pace of the film is more in keeping with screwball comedies of the great era, but that is not to say that the film doesn't shift down a gear for poignant reflection, because it does , but ultimately the film is full of hilarity from many quarters, that is acted out accordingly from a sparky cast, and of course directed by a deity .A joyous winner that prods you in the ribs and gives a cheeky wink along the way 9/10.