#26 Golden Age of Hollywood Series
When I found a battered DVD copy of Christmas in Connecticut in a secondhand bookstore, the clerk told me it was his mother’s favorite Christmas movie.
I can see why.
Elizabeth Lane is the ultimate wife and mother. In her popular columns for Smart Housekeeping, she writes of her bucolic life on a farm in Connecticut with her husband and baby. She spends evenings beside a crackling fire in her stone hearth. She uses a spinning wheel and scours the local antique shops for the perfect rocking chair.
But mostly, she cooks.
Her recipes have sent Smart Housekeeping’s circulation soaring, and sailor Jefferson Jones salivates over them while slurping tasteless broth in a hospital while recovering from war wounds. He dreams of an old-fashioned Christmas dinner with all the trimmings at Mrs. Lane’s table.
Through the magic of movies, his nurse just happens to know the head of publishing at Smart Housekeeping, and she’s soon arranged for Jefferson to spend his first Christmas out of the hospital at the Lane Farm in Connecticut.
So far, so good.
Then we get our first look at the Martha Stewart of 1945.
Barbara Stanwyck is dressed in a sleek white blouse, picking at a breakfast of sardines on a coffee saucer and pounding away at a typewriter. The radiator hisses, and her undergarments are hanging on a line on her balcony that overlooks the heart of New York City.
Last time I checked farm wives didn’t run around in wardrobes designed by Edith Head.
Her panicked editor arrives with the news that their boss invited a sailor to her home for Christmas.
The problem, of course, is obvious: Though her publisher doesn’t know it, Elizabeth Lane is a fraud.
She has no farm, no husband, no baby.
And she can’t cook.
But she just bought a gorgeous mink coat that’ll cost her six month’s salary, and she’s willing to do anything to keep it and her job.
Which means this bachelor girl needs a farm, a husband, and a baby pronto.
Christmas in Connecticut is a frothy, fun Christmas romantic comedy. The best scenes of the movie are when Stanwyck, the career girl, has to pretend to be the perfect farm wife and mother despite the fact that she can’t cook, doesn’t know how to change a diaper, and is completely bewildered when a cow shows up in the kitchen.
Dennis Morgan plays the charming sailor who finds himself falling in love with the hostess he believes is married. Stanwyck’s character heartily reciprocates the sentiment, and the plot thickens before resolving itself quite happily.
Stanwyck is as charming and convincing as ever in the role.
Good Christmas movies hold a special place in our heart, because we watch them over and over during the holiday season. They are meant to be watched with out of town family members, or as a rest from a day shopping at the mall. They reinforce—either with heavy sentiment, or, as in Christmas in Connecticut—with a light touch—the importance of love and family. They can make you nostalgic for the Christmases and family you never had.
So this December, take a break from the Hallmark Movies. For one night, put aside Die Hard, Home Alone, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, It’s A Wonderful Life, and White Christmas.
Pop some popcorn, put on your fuzziest socks and warmest pajamas, and curl up with Stanwyck and Christmas in Connecticut.
You’ll be glad you did.
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