Between Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly and Gale Sondergaard, the realm of talent is incredibly high. What is missing is a sensible structure, a fully believable script and enough motivation to make thus work. There are confusing starts and finishes, flashbacks out of sequence, and a blaze way of presenting the facts and characters. It starts off with characters unrelated to the three leading characters flying into a storm for the titled Christmas holiday, and it is there where the title and its relevance ends. Spring may have been a little late that year, to paraphrase the Frank Loesser song that Durbin sings, but the script and its sensibility never seemed to arrive.
The main plot involves Kelly meeting Durbin at a concert, their courtship and sudden marriage, and the twist that Kelly is a sociopathical killer. Sondergaard, as his loyal mother, initially praises Durbin for her seemingly indestructible strength (indicating that she knows that there's something horribly wrong with her son), but when Durbin disappoints her, only a slap across the face seems to be warranted. The scenes between Kelly and Sondergaard suggests a mother love that goes way beyond reality, while Kelly and Durbin totally lack any sort of heat to make their whirlwind romance believable.
Perhaps better to be viewed as a character study than as a plot oriented film, this is a disappointing film noir directed by one of the best (Robert Siodmark). One flashback within a convoluted narrative is plenty, but this takes it way overboard. Gladys George and Richard Whorf try to fit in to the bookends of the main story but the results are unsatisfactory. Hearing Durbin sing the Irving Berlin classic, "Always", is a nice touch, but ultimately, this is a Christmas holiday that ain't so merry.
The main plot involves Kelly meeting Durbin at a concert, their courtship and sudden marriage, and the twist that Kelly is a sociopathical killer. Sondergaard, as his loyal mother, initially praises Durbin for her seemingly indestructible strength (indicating that she knows that there's something horribly wrong with her son), but when Durbin disappoints her, only a slap across the face seems to be warranted. The scenes between Kelly and Sondergaard suggests a mother love that goes way beyond reality, while Kelly and Durbin totally lack any sort of heat to make their whirlwind romance believable.
Perhaps better to be viewed as a character study than as a plot oriented film, this is a disappointing film noir directed by one of the best (Robert Siodmark). One flashback within a convoluted narrative is plenty, but this takes it way overboard. Gladys George and Richard Whorf try to fit in to the bookends of the main story but the results are unsatisfactory. Hearing Durbin sing the Irving Berlin classic, "Always", is a nice touch, but ultimately, this is a Christmas holiday that ain't so merry.