Monday, October 12, 2020

Christmas in Connecticut, directed by Peter Godfrey (starring Barbara Stanwyck)

In Christmas in Connecticut, Stanwyck isn't a show girl on the run or a con artist, she's a writer. She's the Martha Stewart of the newspaper for which she works, headed by Sydney Greenstreet. Only .. it's all a fantasy: she can't cook, she doesn't have a farm in Connecticut, and for sure she doesn't have a baby - she's not even married!

This is a well-made film: entertaining, polished, and well-paced. Interestingly to me, the movie opens with the bombing of a Navy ship and two sailors attempting to survive in a life raft. There are two narrative threads that don't unite until the middle of the film: Stanwyck's scrappy reporter and the sailor who survived the torpedoing of his ship and spent his time in a lifeboat dreaming of good food. Dennis Morgan is the sailor.

I truly enjoyed this film but it's not a patch on Lady Eve or Great Ball of Fire.


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