User Reviews

"Holiday Affair" the 1949 comedy, produced and directed by Don Hartman, is a sweet Christmas picture set in the New York of those years. The film was written by Isobel Lennart, a woman who knew about what to give to the public, as proved by this satisfying comedy in which two unlikely people find love without really trying hard.

A pleasant surprise this film turned out to be. The unusual casting of Robert Mitchum, an actor notorious for playing heavies on the screen, and Janet Leigh, a sweet presence in the movies, seemed doomed from the start. How wrong could anyone be in judging what the creators had in store for their audience? Robert Mitchum showed he was an actor of tremendous range, as he demonstrates here. Janet Leigh had great chemistry playing opposite Mr. Mitchum. Both principals make us believe that anything is possible when one is in love.

The great Wendell Corey also is seen in the film as a lawyer who finds himself out of the picture once the strong presence of the Robert Mitchum character shows up. Gordon Gebert has some good moments without being bratty. Henry Morgan and Henry O'Neil are seen in supporting roles.

"Holiday Affair" will warm anyone's heart especially during the Christmas season.

Janet Leigh plays a young war widow who works as a comparison shopper. On Christmas Eve, she goes to Crowley's department store to buy a train set from salesman Robert Mitchum. He instantly suspects that she is a shopper and when she returns the train set the next day, he is fired after taking it back after listening to her sob story. Her young son (Gordon Gebert) thinks the train is for him and is disappointed to find out it was part of his mother's job assignment. But much to his surprise, he ends up with the train anyway, and it turns out that the now unemployed Mitchum has bought it for him as a gesture of Christmas good will. This is disappointing to Leigh's longtime friend WendelL Corey who has bought the kid a camera. It's apparent from the time that young Gebert meets Mitchum he wants him as a stepfather over the staid Corey. And when Leigh's in-laws come on Christmas day, it's also apparent that Mitchum is the man they approve of raising their grandson.

This is a charming holiday comedy/drama that some may consider a "Miracle on 34th Street" knock-off, but stands up on its own merits. There are some charming scenes at the Central Park zoo with Leigh and Mitchum getting to know each other in full view of the seals. It's apparent that there is more chemistry there, so it's nice to watch Leigh try to deny her feelings and become engaged to Corey in spite of how she really feels. As for Wendell Corey, he's better in film noir and westerns rather than straight romantic parts. Mitchum, then in the midst of his marijuana scandal, is understated great and no amount of scandal can obscure his talent and screen charisma. As for Janet Leigh, she does pretty good in a role that could be overly motherly or one dimensional. As her in-laws, Griff Barnett and Esther Dale add poignancy in a scene where Barnett appears ready to tell Dale off, but praises her for their 35 year marriage. It's nice to see Dale playing a gentle role as opposed to the aggressive or nosy older women she usually played. Barnett may accuse her of being nagging, but it's apparent he appreciates it and loves her for her concern. Henry O'Neill plays the gruff department store owner who ends up being very compassionate when visited by young Gordon Gebert. Very much worth watching.

With a better luck of the draw, this film might have been just as popular and well known as "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street". Somehow it's fallen under the radar, perhaps because those other films came out a couple years earlier and established their popularity right out of the gate. This is a charming little picture, with Janet Leigh's character a widowed mom bringing up a young boy, who suddenly finds herself in a romantic triangle between Robert Mitchum and Wendell Corey. Mitchum's casting is unusual and against type, showing that he had a nice range as an actor and could convincingly portray a softer side. He handles his dialog especially well, whether it's explaining some facts of life to young Timmy Ennis (Gordon Gebert), or challenging his mom to break free of her self imposed restrictions on what might make her happy. Three scenes in the picture stand out, the first being Timmy's march up to Crowley's (Henry O'Neill) office and impressing the department store owner with his tale of woe. Another is when Steve Mason (Mitchum) says it like it is at the dinner table with his rival Carl Davis (Wendell Corey) and Connie's (Leigh) in-laws present. But the best could be Carl's 'case summation' when he lets Connie know that "Anything can change a life that's ready to be changed". That was pretty selfless on his part, allowing for a conclusion I think most viewers would look for. Steve let Connie know that he wanted a girl who would run to him, and in the film's feel good ending, that's just what he got.

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

Looking back at my record in 2010,and seeing that I only watched one Christmas-themed film that year (the likable Elf (2003-also reviewed)),I felt that for this year,I should really try to get hold of some "X-mas classics" which I had never seen before.Whilst searching on Amazon Uk for some of the more well known titles,I suddenly got a rec from the site for a film that I had never heard of before.

Checking the cast,and seeing that "The King of Noir" and Norman Bates favourite Blonde had starring roles in the film,made this sound like the perfect start for my Christmas classics viewings.

View on the film:

When checking the DVD case to this film,my initial excitement for the movie experienced a bit of a drop,when I discovered that along with Mitchum and Leigh the film featured that old chestnut the slowly kills off any TV Comedy series:a kid.

Impressively,child actor Gordon Gebert avoids most of those pit falls by making the character pretty balanced,with Timmy never completely becoming an "aw shucks" kid,or an annoying little brat,but instead walking that fine line of being in between.

Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh show a very natural chemistry,with the scenes of Leigh and Mitchum spending the day together,allowing for Robert to show a pretty under rated comedic side with his very good dialogue delivery.

Although Leigh and Mitchum do take centre stage in the film,Wendell Corey (who,like Leigh would work with director Alfred Hitchcock on the movie Rear Window and an episode of Hitchcocks TV show)is able to steal some of the films best scenes thanks to performing Connie's ambitious lawyer boyfriend role with a real relish.

Whilst the cast do their best to cover up the cracks in Isobel Lennart's screenplay,some of the 'cracks' in the film are sadly left open,with Connie's job of being a "comparison shopper" for a company not having even the smallest appearance of someone from the company who she works for. (which could have been a nice little role for a character actor)

Opening the second half of the film hinting that the life of Mitchum's character is more troubled then it originally seemed (such as him being homeless),the film sadly leaves most of that mood behind,with the final moments of the film being a chase to a train station.

Final view on the film:

A very enjoyable,flawed Christmas Comedy-Drama,with great performances from the whole cast.

The backstory behind the casting of this modest 1949 holiday chestnut is far more intriguing than the romantic roundelay that occurs on screen. At the time, Howard Hughes was the head of RKO Studios and insisted on casting Robert Mitchum in an atypical role as a light romantic lead in response to a tabloid scandal brewing after the actor was sent to prison for marijuana possession. Meanwhile, Hughes was also determined to make Janet Leigh his latest sexual conquest by borrowing her from MGM for this starring role only to be rebuffed later when she eventually fell for Tony Curtis. Nonetheless, both stars beat the odds of their contrived circumstances and display a definite chemistry in this post-WWII Christmas tale. Leigh plays Connie Ennis, a young war widow with a six-year-old son named Timmy. She makes a living as an undercover comparison shopper, and as part of her job, has to buy an $80 model train from a competitive department store. Mitchum plays Steve Mason, the toy salesman who suspects something is afoul in the expedient way she buys the train with no questions asked.

When she brings it home, Timmy is excited about the prospect of getting a train set for Christmas but quickly becomes disappointed when he realizes it's not his present. Meanwhile, standing in the wings is Carl Davis, a steady-minded lawyer who has been smitten with Connie for years and keeps pressing her to marry him. She hems and haws because there are no real sparks between them, but she is tempted by the financial security he can bring to her and Timmy's lives. When Connie returns the expensive model train the next day, Steve gets fired for not turning her in as a comparison shopper. Feeling guilty, she agrees to have lunch with him in the park. Needless to say, sparks start to occur when he shares his dream of going to California to become a boat builder (shades of "The Shawshank Redemption"), but they lose each other trying to catch a crowded bus. He tracks her down at home celebrating Christmas with Carl and her in-laws. Connie is forced to choose between the two men, and there isn't much suspense on what the outcome will be. The interesting Oedipal twist to the story, however, is how Connie views Timmy as a living tribute to her dead husband and how his specter competes with her suitors.

Even though it seems like Mitchum is slumming relative to the classic noir films he was making at the time, his laconic manner and brazen honesty are exactly what this trifle of a movie needs to give it a recognizable pulse. There is a certain joy in watching him grow attracted to Connie knowing that the malevolence of "The Night of the Hunter" and "Cape Fear" was ahead of him. Long before she found herself terrorized in a shower in "Psycho", Leigh is plucky enough as she exudes her girl-next-door image while displaying a most prominent rack. Wendell Corey is saddled with the wet-rag role of Carl, but at least he manages to maintain his dignity against the overwhelming impact of Mitchum's charisma. As Timmy, Gordon Gebert is that rare child actor who comes across like a real kid without looking overly affected, and he provides the movie's most touching scenes, especially the one where he attempts to return the train to the store. Harry Morgan, who just died at age 96, has a few funny moments as a sardonic night-court judge. The print on the 2008 DVD doesn't show signs of restoration, and there are no extras.