Christmas Holiday is directed by Robert Siodmak and adapted to screenplay by Herman J. Mankiewicz from the novel of the same name written by W. Somerset Maugham. It stars Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly, Richard Whorf, Dean Harens, Gale Sondergaard and Gladys George. Music is by Hans J. Salter and cinematography by Elwood Bredell.The title is a bit of a bum steer, the presence of Durbin and Kelly a splendid slice of red herring casting, and the written notices on the internet announce that the source material was watered down for this filmic adaptation. All of these instances mark Siodmak's film out as a fascinating oddity, and certainly of high interest to film noir lovers.Plot essentially has Durbin telling Harens in flashback how her life crumbled around her when she married Kelly. She thought he was a wealthy gent full of charm and love, but soon she comes to realise that he's a rascal with underlying issues, not helped by his mother, a witch like Sondergaard.Had Siodmak been able to go full tilt with the characterisations here, we would have most likely been privy to one of his finest dark noirs, he was after all one of the great purveyors of such devilish delights. Yet even though there's a frustration that some of the bolder elements of Maugham's prose are not overtly evident, there's still a dark heart beating away, with suggestions of prostitution, incest and homosexuality dangling in the air, baiting those who in the classic eras adhered to censorship.Siodmak and Bredell don't over saturate via noir filters, but as the story moves between seedy New Orleans clubs and Gothic churches, the sense of everything being out of sorts is amplified by smoke and lighting techniques. The pace is very up and down, and not all the director's scene constructions help the narrative be all it can be, but his knack for emphasising certain thematics via tone and responses from his actors is very much evident here.Thematically it's all very glum, America gone bad, love and romance are mere illusions. From the opening sequence as Harens – having served in the war for his country – receives a "Dear John" letter, to the striking denouement, this is anti-love and a portrait of a self loathing country readily able to accept corruption and the dark bents of human nature. The strong performances by the leads, supplemented by the wonderful Sondergaard (you know things are going to be creepy when she's around), and the Oscar nominated score by Salter round out the many strengths of Christmas Holiday.Not one to cheer you up at the yuletide season, and far from perfect with its draggy mid-section, but this is hugely effective film noir and fans of such will get plenty of miserablist rewards from it. 7.5/10

FALSE CLAIMS ALERT!! This may have 'Christmas' in the title, and indeed set around the Yuletide period, but is in fact an attempt at a film noir. It mainly concentrates on a young army man (played by Gene Kelly) meeting a singer at a bar when his plane home is delayed. He then proceeds to hear her life story, which involves her sadistic husband being convicted of murder a few years ago. And Whatdoyouknow... Her partner escapes from the slammer THAT VERY SAME NIGHT... And guess who's first on his hit list...I don't know if they were familiar with the concept of 'filler' back then... But there's lots of it here. As well as Deanna Durbin's impromptu musical performances (She's a singer... REMEMBER?) We also have a five minute section devoted to a church service. Now, as nice as it is to see a film which celebrates the true meaning of the season, it slows the action down to a grinding halt.Also, they have a cheek referring to Durbin as a 'femme fatale' in the publicity text. She's completely subservient to her man, puts her life on hold while he's in solitary confinement and only begins to see him as the pig he truly is when he tries to MURDER her towards the conclusion. 'Battered Housewife' more like it. Still, that was the 40's, and we've made GREAT STRIDES SINCE. Now, it's men who say "Yes Dear" a lot and rush around on command. Oh, happy day.The whole unholy, tedious hullabaloo is resolved in one of those overblown melodramatic scenes that bad black and white films do so well. No-one in real life talks like that, and no-one ever will. And as our put-upon lass stares out of the window at the dawning of Christmas day, you think to yourself: this would be the perfect opportunity for a shot of Santa riding home in his sleigh, to make up for the distinctly unfestive 90 minutes that preceded it.But, nope... They even mess that one up. 4/10

My mother SWEARS Deanna sang "Spring..." while standing on a train station platform. ("She must have sung it twice and the one time was deleted since I saw it when it was new.") But she is 84 and she does misremember sometimes. The movie was shown at least once on TBS, but our cable company chose those two hours to perform maintenance... Correcting an earlier comment, Richard Whorf is the reporter, not the soldier. I couldn't help but notice similarities to "Suddenly Last Summer," set in New Orleans, with big windows looking out on courtyards, and a domineering mother... and that just happened to be a Joseph Mankiewicz production.

Robert Siodmak's career is huge .I wonder whether there's one user who has seen all of his output.It includes German,French and American movies.1944 saw three of his movies: a classic "Phantom Lady" ,an exotic extravaganza best forgotten "Cobra Woman" ,then the overlooked "Christmas Holiday"."Christmas Holiday " is a deceptive movie.Its very structure is weird beyond comment: it was not that much common to begin a film with many scenes revolving around a character that is not really the hero of the story (Gene Kelly appears long after the cast and credits);more stunning ,the two flashbacks are not in chronological order:the first one actually takes place in the middle of the second one.Even more amazing is the Christmas mass: to attend a service after spending the first part of the night in a club is downright disturbing.Anyway ,it's in that scene in the church that Siodmak turns in some of his finest signatures:creating an atmosphere was always his forte ,witness "the spiral staircase " or the French "Pièges" (remade as "lured" by Sirk) .After a complete "Kyrie Eleison" sung in Greek,there's this incredible moment when Deanna Durbin begins to cry as she hears the "Mea Culpa Mea Culpa Mea Maxima Culpa" sentences (which echo to the "guilty ,guilty,guilty" when the jury brings a guilty verdict and when the mother slaps her daughter-in -law in the face.) That mother is over possessive ,like so many Hitchcock mothers ("Notorious" "Strangers on the train" etc) and Gale Sondergaard as Mrs Monette almost outshines the two stars.(In Wyler's "the letter"another Somerset Maugham adaptation, ,she almost stole the show from Bette Davis).And the editing of the flashbacks makes sense: the first one begins after something horrible happened ,something the husband and his mom do not want the wife to know,because she is an intruder in their house.The title itself is a misnomer.People who are expecting a nice Christmas tale will be disappointed.People who are looking for something different will be satisfied.Siodmak's last French movie was called "Pièges" (= Traps).