I posted this in the musicals section, but since it more fittingly belongs here I'll mention that I came across the entire film of the Robert Siodmak movie adaptation of Christmas Holiday (1944) on YouTube. Starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly in very non-musical roles, the credits are cut off, but the print is excellent and the soundtrack is clear, if you don't mind watching your movies in 10 minute snippets. If you'd like to view it you can do so here
Now, if only The Suspect and The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry would turn up there.
Robert Siodmak Films
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moira finnie
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Robert Siodmak Films
Last edited by moira finnie on March 10th, 2008, 12:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Ann Harding
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I bought the DVD last year as I was curious to see Kelly playing a bad guy as well as a 'mummy's boy'. In the end, I was really disappointed by the film. I found Deanna Durbin pretty bland. The part looks like too much for her at the time. And among Siodmak's pictures, it's really one of his lesser film noir. Not a patch for The Killers!
Perhaps I should watch it again....but I doubt it will modify my opinion.
Perhaps I should watch it again....but I doubt it will modify my opinion.
Moira, I'm always amazed what some manage to find online. Did you specifically go to Youtube looking for Christmas Holiday or was it just by chance you found it?
I saw this movie once, many years ago. Kelly impressed me with his performance then and I've been curious to see if it still holds up or if my standards have changed. Anyway, thanks for the link.
Di
I saw this movie once, many years ago. Kelly impressed me with his performance then and I've been curious to see if it still holds up or if my standards have changed. Anyway, thanks for the link.
Di
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charliechaplinfan
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moira finnie
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Good Monday Morning all!
I primarily posted this link to Christmas Holiday (1944) for four reasons:
1.) It is a very rare, hard to find film, and this YouTube video is a good, clear print.
2.) Robert Siodmak's rich and dark exploration of human nature in movies from Menschen am Sonntag (1930) to Phantom Lady (1943) to The Killers (1946) to Custer of the West (1967) fascinate me. Since his films--other than the better known noirs, are often unknown and unavailable to others, I'd hoped to share this rarely shown film.
3.) I believe that several of us have only relatively recently had an opportunity to see the interesting range of work of Deanna Durbin. Even though her acting was never going to make a Bette Davis or a Katharine Hepburn shake in her boots, the girl had a voice I like, as well as a presence and a matter of fact style that I find engaging, even in her less successful roles.
In this particular movie, she brings a ripe, almost unself-conscious sensuality and an intelligent, reflective quality to the part that seems quite unusual to me, especially in the forties. Though the script doesn't develop the relationships between Durbin, Gene Kelly & Gale Sondergaard as fully as I'd like, I think that she managed to create an intriguing character in this little movie. She is also especially touching in the scene at Midnight Mass. In several scenes her weary resignation to her situation is quite well done, and her almost motherly attitude toward the young lieutenant (Dean Harens, who's pretty lame) interests me. I also think she does a heckuva job singing two very languid and plaintive versions of standard ballads (Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year & Always) in this movie. I really believe her when she explains the exaltation that music gives her to her new acquaintance (Mr. Kelly) at the concert hall.
4.) As one of those people who enjoys Gene Kelly anytime--even when his feet have some clay on them and in part because of the juxtaposition of the aggressive side of his talent with that gentler, almost poetic facet of his screen persona--this movie is pretty interesting. I like the fact that I get to see him at the beginning of his film career trying something he's clearly not all that comfortable with in his dramatic scenes. I also like the way he was cast in a part that gave him a chance to show flashes of that dark, and yes, Irish streak of aggressiveness as well as a dreamy longing to 'lose himself' (as his character puts it), in music or the girl played by Durbin. He is a weak character looking for a life raft and, in a sense, that's one of the things that appeals to Durbin too, who probably sees something of herself in him too. There seem to be elements of pity, desire, loneliness and delusion in Durbin's love for this character.
Btw, I think the movie pretty much falls apart in the scenes in which we're supposed to believe that Kelly has an intense relationship with his mother (Gale Sondergaard) and by asking us to believe that Kelly could possibly have grown up in the South, much less New Orleans! *lol* Yeah, yeah, I know there's a big Irish-American community in NOLA, and the New Orleans accent does have traces of Brooklyn in it, but please don't ask me to believe that this obviously Northeastern born boy grew up there.
Other than that, I really like this movie. Not great, but maybe we could file it under "interesting failure"?
Dianabat, how nice to have you drop by the site! No, I wasn't looking for anything specifically related to this movie, but I was researching something about film noir in general when I came across it by accident.Moira, I'm always amazed what some manage to find online. Did you specifically go to Youtube looking for Christmas Holiday or was it just by chance you found it? ~dianabat
I primarily posted this link to Christmas Holiday (1944) for four reasons:
1.) It is a very rare, hard to find film, and this YouTube video is a good, clear print.
2.) Robert Siodmak's rich and dark exploration of human nature in movies from Menschen am Sonntag (1930) to Phantom Lady (1943) to The Killers (1946) to Custer of the West (1967) fascinate me. Since his films--other than the better known noirs, are often unknown and unavailable to others, I'd hoped to share this rarely shown film.
3.) I believe that several of us have only relatively recently had an opportunity to see the interesting range of work of Deanna Durbin. Even though her acting was never going to make a Bette Davis or a Katharine Hepburn shake in her boots, the girl had a voice I like, as well as a presence and a matter of fact style that I find engaging, even in her less successful roles.
In this particular movie, she brings a ripe, almost unself-conscious sensuality and an intelligent, reflective quality to the part that seems quite unusual to me, especially in the forties. Though the script doesn't develop the relationships between Durbin, Gene Kelly & Gale Sondergaard as fully as I'd like, I think that she managed to create an intriguing character in this little movie. She is also especially touching in the scene at Midnight Mass. In several scenes her weary resignation to her situation is quite well done, and her almost motherly attitude toward the young lieutenant (Dean Harens, who's pretty lame) interests me. I also think she does a heckuva job singing two very languid and plaintive versions of standard ballads (Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year & Always) in this movie. I really believe her when she explains the exaltation that music gives her to her new acquaintance (Mr. Kelly) at the concert hall.
4.) As one of those people who enjoys Gene Kelly anytime--even when his feet have some clay on them and in part because of the juxtaposition of the aggressive side of his talent with that gentler, almost poetic facet of his screen persona--this movie is pretty interesting. I like the fact that I get to see him at the beginning of his film career trying something he's clearly not all that comfortable with in his dramatic scenes. I also like the way he was cast in a part that gave him a chance to show flashes of that dark, and yes, Irish streak of aggressiveness as well as a dreamy longing to 'lose himself' (as his character puts it), in music or the girl played by Durbin. He is a weak character looking for a life raft and, in a sense, that's one of the things that appeals to Durbin too, who probably sees something of herself in him too. There seem to be elements of pity, desire, loneliness and delusion in Durbin's love for this character.
Btw, I think the movie pretty much falls apart in the scenes in which we're supposed to believe that Kelly has an intense relationship with his mother (Gale Sondergaard) and by asking us to believe that Kelly could possibly have grown up in the South, much less New Orleans! *lol* Yeah, yeah, I know there's a big Irish-American community in NOLA, and the New Orleans accent does have traces of Brooklyn in it, but please don't ask me to believe that this obviously Northeastern born boy grew up there.
Other than that, I really like this movie. Not great, but maybe we could file it under "interesting failure"?
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charliechaplinfan
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Ann Harding
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I think Kelly is better 'dramatic actor' in other pictures. I'll mention only one: Marjorie Morningstar (1958). It's a melodrama where he plays a failed song-and-dance man who only manages as a summer camp entertainer. In some of his heaviest scenes, he suggest a level of despair and abject failure which is heartbreaking. Again, this Irving Rapper film is not a masterpiece, but, Kelly is able to project a real dense character.
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charliechaplinfan
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I, too, have to agree that although I admire Kelly's talents in musicals (particularly "Singin' in the Rain"), there was always something lacking in his dramatic turns. I do feel he fared quite well as the hot-headed resistance fighter in "The Cross of Lorraine", but he really was miscast as the young Italian (?) Johnny Columbo out to avenge his father's death at the hands of the turn-of-the century Mafia in "The Black Hand". Could never figure out the logic behind that casting decision.
Under Contract
Probably the same brainiac who decided to cast George Murphy as an undercover INS agent in Border Incident. Both actors were under contract to M*G*M when the studio's fortunes began circling the drain starting during the late 40's.Could never figure out the logic behind that casting decision.
"First is First and second is nobody"
Couldn't agree with you more, Moxie, about George Murphy being miscast in "Border Incident". Fortunately, the rest of the strong cast (Montalban, DaSilva and especially Charlie) makes up for it. Always thought Murphy was too much of a "Smiling Jim" to be believable in stark drama -- though I found him acceptable in "Bataan".
I suspect one of the reasons this film held such fascination for me on first viewing was because it didn't star the Gene Kelly so familiar from MGM's glitzy musicals. Watching it again will be interesting for many reasons.moirafinnie wrote: As one of those people who enjoys Gene Kelly anytime--even when his feet have some clay on them and in part because of the juxtaposition of the aggressive side of his talent with that gentler, almost poetic facet of his screen persona--this movie is pretty interesting.
Di
I really dig Christmas Holiday It is the perfect Film Noir movie that conveys the darkest of Seasons Greetings.
What other classic era Hollywood movie has Gene Kelly playing an escaped murderer with a penchant for incest with his creepy Mom (the lethal Gale Sondergaard) with songstress Durbin playing a trollop in what I believe was her most credible screen performance.
With a terrifically dark story and some fascinating sequences of Xmas Midnight mass filmed in a New Orleans church to the strains of
Wagner's LIEBESTOD, it is a beautifully paced film by noir maestro Robert Siodmak. I watched Christmas Holiday for the first time at the Egyptian Theatre on Easter Weekend and was won over big time.
You do have to suspend your belief system while viewing Christmas Holiday, but isn't that what watching movies is all about?
What other classic era Hollywood movie has Gene Kelly playing an escaped murderer with a penchant for incest with his creepy Mom (the lethal Gale Sondergaard) with songstress Durbin playing a trollop in what I believe was her most credible screen performance.
With a terrifically dark story and some fascinating sequences of Xmas Midnight mass filmed in a New Orleans church to the strains of
Wagner's LIEBESTOD, it is a beautifully paced film by noir maestro Robert Siodmak. I watched Christmas Holiday for the first time at the Egyptian Theatre on Easter Weekend and was won over big time.
You do have to suspend your belief system while viewing Christmas Holiday, but isn't that what watching movies is all about?
"First is First and second is nobody"
This is one of my problems with watching certain films. I like to have a brief idea of what the movie is about while I'm watching it, but reading about this Christmas Holiday turns me off completely. The summary Moxie gives makes me rather ill. The Oedipus factor and prostitution are two subjects I have no interest in widening my range of knowledge. I'll listen to swearing and cussing, and I'll watch sex and violence, but there are some things I'm still a prude about. Sometimes this can be a negative in my movie watching and sometimes a positive, but there are some things I want to be warned about.
Anne
Anne
Anne
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Sorry about that Anne- not intentional at all. I actually don't care for vocational ed films about incest or prostitution either. That's really not what Christmas Holiday is about anyway.The summary Moxie gives makes me rather ill
I find that I have a natural firewall between movie bad stuff and the real thing. Particularly when it is vintage noir circa 1944. Also while Kelly's character is an out and out scoundrel, Durbin's prostitute is sympathetically admirable. The movie has a lot of dark corners, but it is probably not as lurid as my endorsement made it sound.
Again, sorry if my enthusiam for Christmas Holiday was a little raw.
"First is First and second is nobody"