There are, I suppose, as many reasons for seeking out specific films as there are specific films, bearing in mind that one man's specific is another man's Huh! In my case I have other passions besides movies one of which is what used to be called Popular Song in the days when the only other categories were Classical Music or Country Music and I had long loved the gorgeous ballad Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year which I knew Frank Loesser had written for Christmas Holiday making that reason enough to search for the film (for the record my life is crammed with movies I've never seen that contain great Frank Loesser songs: College Swing (1938) Moments Like This; Some Like It Hot (no, not THAT one, the Bob Hope entry from 1938 with The Lady's In Love With You); Thanks For The Memory (1938) Two Sleepy People; Kiss The Boys Goodbye (1940) Sand In My Shoes; Seven Days Leave (1943) Can't Get Out Of This Mood; The Glass Key (1943) I Don't Want To Walk Without You; Happy Go Lucky (1943) Let's Get Lost; The Perils Of Pauline (1947) I Wish I Didn't Love You So; Neptune's Daughter (1949) Baby, It's Cold Outside; Red, Hot And Blue (1950) Where Are You, Now That I Need You. For good measure Loesser actually appeared in the latter as a piano player) and eventually I tracked it down and was disappointed to say the least. Now, thanks to my good friend in France, I actually own it and I'm still disappointed, not least with the travesty of the beautiful ballad which is stepped up to a Dixieland tempo and completely thrown away by Deanna Durbin. Apart from that director Siodmak seems to be having a bad air day all round. He proved himself time and again a master of noir and that very same year he would helm The Suspect, followed the next year by The Spiral Staircase but here, possibly hampered by a script from Mank's big brother Herman that plays fast and loose with Willie Maugham's novel, he is curiously inept. For one thing we waste a good reel and a half on something that is totally superfluous; a passing-out parade, a Dear John letter, a plane journey interrupted by bad weather that could all have been eliminated leaving us with the main story of Deanna Durbin's ill-starred marriage with Gene Kelly who, in addition to enjoying an all-but-spelt-out incestuous relationship with his mother, Gale Sondergaard, is also addicted to gambling and not above murder. Maugham's novel of pre-war Paris has been transposed to present-day New Orleans, a bordello has become a night club, a hooker a singer and ... well, you get the drift. Almost nothing works though Siodmak does his best, still, everyone's entitled to one mistake.
Review of Christmas Holiday
