The title of this film shows just how far we Brits and our transatlantic cousins are divided by our common language. I had expected a romantic comedy entitled "Holiday Affair" to be set in summer and that it would feature the hero and heroine walking in their swimsuits along the beach in some seaside resort. I had forgotten that in Americanese that sort of holiday would be called a "vacation" and that the word "holiday" is often used to refer to the Christmas season.
This is an example of what I have come to think of as the "third wheel" type of rom-com. The basic plot is that a handsome, charismatic stranger (inevitably played by a major A-list Hollywood star) comes into the life of the heroine who is instantly smitten by him, even though she already has a decent, dependable steady boyfriend (inevitably played by a minor B-list Hollywood character actor). Equally inevitably the first name above the title gets the girl, but nobody ever gets emotionally hurt.
The action takes place in New York during one Christmas season in the late forties. The heroine is Connie Ennis, a beautiful young war widow with a young son. The third wheel is Connie's long-time boyfriend Carl Davis, a lawyer, who becomes first her fiancé, then her ex-fiancé, in the course of her film. And the hero is Robert Mitchum, here disguised as Steve Mason, a handsome stranger whom Connie meets while he is working in the toy department of a department store, although his great ambition is to move to California and set up a business building sailing-boats. (Mitchum was not a natural actor in romantic comedy- his more normal fare was film noir, war films and Westerns, but the studio had insisted on his taking the role because they felt it would help rehabilitate his reputation after he had served a jail term for drug offences).
You can work out the bare bones of the plot from the above, although actually there are a few more complications, involving an expensive toy train upon which Connie's son Timmy has set his heart, a necktie, Steve's arrest on suspicion of robbery and an excruciating Christmas dinner in the course of which Steve makes a speech demanding that Connie should marry him, even though her fiancé Carl and her first husband's parents are present. (In real life he would probably have been shown the door immediately. But then this is a Hollywood rom-rom, not real life).
Because of its Christmas associations, the film has taken on the status of a minor holiday classic and frequently turns up on television during the Christmas season (which is when I saw it) along with the likes of "It's a Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34th Street" and "Meet Me in St Louis". It is not, however, a film I really care for, even though Janet Leigh makes a sweet heroine and Mitchum is better than I thought he would be as a romantic lead. This is probably because I don't really care for "third wheel" rom-coms as a genre, as I know all too well (from bitter personal experience) that this sort of scenario does not generally lead to the sort of "happy ever after" ending which Hollywood would have us believe in. I was one of those rooting for Connie to end up with Carl, who loves her deeply, rather than the charismatic but eccentric Steve who seems to do everything, including proposing to Connie, on an impulsive whim. But what Hollywood scriptwriter is going to write an ending in which the heroine rejects Robert Mitchum for a B-lister like Wendell Corey? 5/10
This is an example of what I have come to think of as the "third wheel" type of rom-com. The basic plot is that a handsome, charismatic stranger (inevitably played by a major A-list Hollywood star) comes into the life of the heroine who is instantly smitten by him, even though she already has a decent, dependable steady boyfriend (inevitably played by a minor B-list Hollywood character actor). Equally inevitably the first name above the title gets the girl, but nobody ever gets emotionally hurt.
The action takes place in New York during one Christmas season in the late forties. The heroine is Connie Ennis, a beautiful young war widow with a young son. The third wheel is Connie's long-time boyfriend Carl Davis, a lawyer, who becomes first her fiancé, then her ex-fiancé, in the course of her film. And the hero is Robert Mitchum, here disguised as Steve Mason, a handsome stranger whom Connie meets while he is working in the toy department of a department store, although his great ambition is to move to California and set up a business building sailing-boats. (Mitchum was not a natural actor in romantic comedy- his more normal fare was film noir, war films and Westerns, but the studio had insisted on his taking the role because they felt it would help rehabilitate his reputation after he had served a jail term for drug offences).
You can work out the bare bones of the plot from the above, although actually there are a few more complications, involving an expensive toy train upon which Connie's son Timmy has set his heart, a necktie, Steve's arrest on suspicion of robbery and an excruciating Christmas dinner in the course of which Steve makes a speech demanding that Connie should marry him, even though her fiancé Carl and her first husband's parents are present. (In real life he would probably have been shown the door immediately. But then this is a Hollywood rom-rom, not real life).
Because of its Christmas associations, the film has taken on the status of a minor holiday classic and frequently turns up on television during the Christmas season (which is when I saw it) along with the likes of "It's a Wonderful Life", "Miracle on 34th Street" and "Meet Me in St Louis". It is not, however, a film I really care for, even though Janet Leigh makes a sweet heroine and Mitchum is better than I thought he would be as a romantic lead. This is probably because I don't really care for "third wheel" rom-coms as a genre, as I know all too well (from bitter personal experience) that this sort of scenario does not generally lead to the sort of "happy ever after" ending which Hollywood would have us believe in. I was one of those rooting for Connie to end up with Carl, who loves her deeply, rather than the charismatic but eccentric Steve who seems to do everything, including proposing to Connie, on an impulsive whim. But what Hollywood scriptwriter is going to write an ending in which the heroine rejects Robert Mitchum for a B-lister like Wendell Corey? 5/10