Customer Reviews

Christmas in Connecticut

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This feature film is the type of movie that puts a smile on my face. It is one of my favorite Christmas movie that I watch in the last two weeks prior to Christmas day. It is light hearted and does not pretend to be an oscar contender. It simply lifts your spirit and make you wish you would be part of the cast. If unsure try to rent it and decide if it worth buying it. You might end up making it part of your traditions during the holiday season. Also, Barbara and Dennis were so cute together.

Forget all the others that people think are "must sees" at Christmas time. This is the best and, seemingly, the least well known.

It is so funny to watch in light of today's Martha Stewart and other domestic "divas." A lot of the humor was probably risque for the day but, sadly, most youths today would have to have it explained to them.

The movie is a well written comedy of errors. The characters are interesting and not just one demensional as is so often the case in comedies. I found myself very involved with the story...cheering for my favorite characters.

If you only have time to see one Christmas movie this year do make it this one. You won't be sorry.

I have to admit, I don't really like most holiday movies. They tend to be too sugary and whimsical for my taste.

But "Christmas in Connecticut" is a delicious exception, being less a holiday movie than a romantic comedy that happens to be at Christmas. Sure, i it's a bit on the fluffy side, but it never dips into the sentimental or syrupy, and the country Christmas makes a delightful setting for a more grown-up Christmas story.

Navy officer Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) nearly starves to death after his ship sinks. While he's recovering, his nurse is convinced that if he spends Christmas at a "real home," he'll go all domestic and marry her. So she writes magazine mogul Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet) for assistance. Yardley decides to send Jones to stay with his hottest asset: perfect wife/mother/cook/columnist Elizabeth Lane (Stanwyck), on her farm in Connecticut.

Problem is, she's actually an urban singleton who can't cook to save her life. So to keep up the ruse, Elizabeth hastily accepts a proposal from an old friend, stuffy John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner) -- who happens to have a farm in Connecticut. But when she arrives at the farm, she's instantly smitten with Jones, and starts to rethink the whole marriage thing... especially when her charade starts to collapse.

"Christmas in Connecticut" is just a funny, romantic, heartwarming little Christmas movie. It straddles the fence between a screwball and a straightforward romantic comedy, and director Peter Godfrey keeps it all looking effortless. It's just fun, fun, fun, even when Elizabeth's secret inevitably comes out.

Instead, Godfrey deftly juggled the romantic and screwball aspects of the movie. A lot of the humor is centered on Sloan trying to marry Elizabeth, and always getting interrupted. There's also some gloriously embarrassing humor from baby-washing, snowdrifts, and pancake flipping.

It also has lots of funny dialogue; when Yardley yells, "I don't want anything to happen to that baby. It will ruin my circulation!," Felix chimes in with, "It won't do the baby no good, neither." But it also has some achingly romantic scenes, like Jones and Elizabeth's sleigh ride on a moonlight, snowy night.

Stanwyck and the boyishly sweet Morgan have solid chemistry, although it's restricted to G-rated flirting since he thinks she's married. We also get a wonderful performance from Greenstreet, who plays a more genial character than usual. And S.Z. Sakall steals the show as the wily chef Felix, who is determined to see "Lizka" live happily ever after with Jones.

The DVD also contains the Oscar-winning short, "Star in the Night." It takes place in the American west, with a young man and his pregnant wife (guess who!) arriving at an inn, where the embittered Italian innkeeper tells them that there's no room. When the young girl goes into labor, the cowboys and travellers around the innkeeper show him that human nature is not essentially selfish.

For anyone seeking a little Christmas story aimed at grown-ups, this might be the right balance of romance and sly wit. An enchanting little movie for the holidays.

The ORIGINAL "Christmas in Connecticut" is one of my favourite romantic comedies of all time, not just one of my favourite Christmas flicks. If you like "Sleepless in Seattle" or "While You Were Sleeping", you will love this movie. The cast is wonderful, and there is far more magic in the original than in the (in my opinion) lousy made-for-TV remake - Dyan Cannon was ok, but get Kris K off the screen! This movie is a pure gem, and definitely needs to be released on DVD - my videos keep wearing out!!!

I look forward to seeing this romantic comedy of errors each year at Christmastime. Barbara Stanwick is superb, and it's great to see Sidney Greenstreet in a comedy. I just want to know...when is it coming out on DVD?!!

This was a wonderfully comical and good hearted movie based on old fashioned values. It's a definite classic, in my opinion!! The first time I saw it was on Turner Classic Movies and I didn't know the title, and therefore really didn't know it was a Christmas movie. But it was absolutely funny, cute and a delight!!! It's nice to see them provide a soldier with a homey Christmas. This movie is romantic, funny, and best of all it's about Christmas!! I love Christmas movies.

I wanted to comment on this wonderful film. To me it is one of the most romantic holiday films around. If you note the piano scene with Dennis Morgan and how Barbara falls for him quick while trimming the tree--it just doesn't get any better than this. It's a shame todays movies can't show this type of compassion anymore.
The whole film is clever, fast paced and most of all entertaining for every age to watch.
This is one of my favorites for the holidays but being a Stanwyck fan all are my favorites that she is starring.
Meet John Doe is another choice for the holidays along with The Bishops Wife, Little Women,1933 Kate Hepburn version; It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.
If you have not checked these movies out please do so and you will see why these black and white treasures are so good. And to keep these movies for our enjoyment remember Film Preservation.

I have a couple of holiday favorites, and this is one of them. I love the sets, the manners, the general tone of life in the 40's. The dialogue is lively, and the acting is good. It isn't deep by any means, but is a nice way to spend an evening and get into the spirit of the season.

My favorite female performer in the history of film is Barbara Stanwyck. Unlike many actresses, she could excell in sympathetic roles, comedic roles, and sinister roles. We could love her or hate her. Unfortunately, this enormous versatility of hers kept her from making as many romantic or screwball comedies as I would have liked. As great as she could be in comedy (especially in her three great comedic pictures, BALL OF FIRE, her other, even better, holiday film REMEMBER THE NIGHT, and the incomparably brilliant THE LADY EVE, which provided her with one two or three greatest screen roles, and which also took place partly in Connecticut), she made comparably few.

CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT is a good film, and Stanwyck is Stanwyck, but despite many fine and enjoyable moments, it does not rank among her very best. The problem does not lie with her, but with her costar Dennis Morgan, who although quite handsome and possessed of a beautiful baritone, was more than a little stiff as an actor, and not terribly good at comedy. The supporting cast, however, is utterly first rate. The film provided S. K. "Cuddles" Sakall one of his finest roles, as Felix, the person who provides columnist Stanwyck her recipes. Reginald Gardiner is also excellent, as the would-be and more than a little dull suitor, less oily and dislikable than most of his other roles. Sydney Greenstreet is great in a role that we more normally associate with Charles Coburn in the forties.

But a couple of things keep me from liking this film as much as I might have. First, there is the aforementioned Morgan. I find him just a little too dull. A good singer and serviceable in musicals, but not a comic talent. I know Cary Grant and Joel McCrea weren't available for every film being made in the decade, but I do regret that someone with a little more charisma. Second, there is a problem with the script that makes the film seem too formulaic for me. Now, this is a formula picture, like most comedies, apart from the greatest classics (like THE LADY EVE or BRINGING UP BABY, which, by the way, used the same house as this one). The trick with the good formula pictures is that they don't allow the formula to drive the picture as key moments. This one does. For instance, when Barbara meets Dennis Morgan for the first time, she is almost instantly smitten with him. Why? Was it because things happened that indicated a magical chemistry? No, it was because the plot required that she fall in love with him right away. Contrast this with the long initial seduction scene where Barbara causes Henry Fonda to fall in love with her in THE LADY EVE, during which she unexpectedly falls in love with her prey. Now, later in the film, her talent takes several scenes over and she makes their attraction seem more plausible than the script itself does. But their first several minutes seem faked, more a need of the film's story than anything else.

Still, another good Barbara Stanwyck movie. Not all of her movies are good, but I have never seen her in a film in which she wasn't superb. Anyone seeing this primarily because it is a holiday movie should definitely go out of their way to see the even better REMEMBER THE NIGHT, in which Barbara goes home with Fred MacMurray to Indiana for the holidays.

Not many movies continue to delight me over the years as much as this Christmas classic filmed in 1945. This is one of those black and white "take me back" flicks that I love to watch year 'round despite it's holiday mood. Much like an I Love Lucy plot, the madcap story line here bounces from room to room in a beautiful Connecticut country home setting. A lovely Barbara Stanwyck literally floats through each scene in glamourous period style...while Dennis Morgan provides the handsome romantic interest. Sidney Greenstreet and Reginal Gardiner are equally entertaining in this charming tale, but it's the lovable "Uncle Felix" (played by S. Z. Sakall) who adds the perfect zip to this wonderful comic farce and leaves me wanting to adopt him! Fun to watch when you need a reminder of better times!