Christmas Came Early (Kinda)

A Comfort Approach to Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Poster for Christmas in Connecticut (1945) via IMDb

Christmas in Connecticut (1945) - Comfort

Merry Christmas, darlings! (Kinda)

Yes, I am aware Thanksgiving is two weeks from today, but my viva is only one and that means it’s Christmas. (Kinda.) As my beloved readers already know, and my new ones from Bluesky (Hi!) are about to find out, my PhD is on Hollywood Christmas films from the post-war period. (Kinda.) And in one week, I have to defend that thesis with my life. (Kinda.) So in between checking on The Horrors™ that have been developing since Election Night, I have been re-reading my dissertation, having Bluey on constantly in the background to keep my blood pressure down, and refreshing myself on films I might be asked about next week.

So, this week I thought we’d do a little light-hearted dive into comfort and just talk about things that are neat and fun and low-key to distract from The Horrors™ and viva-prep.

Note for my wonderful new subscribers: This is not a normal edition of Review Roulette. I hope you will stick around a bit or read some earlier reviews to get a sense of what I do here, but this week and next week and possibly Thanksgiving week will be a little different from my usual as I get through this defense. Thank you for subscribing – we will be back to our regularly scheduled program eventually!

So, again, my dissertation analyses the federal government shaking things up in Hollywood in the post-war period and I do a deep dive into a case study on Christmas films from 1946 to 1961 to explore the cultural ramifications of the Federal Fuckery™. I am anticipating a question on Christmas films that were released prior to that period so last night I watched Christmas in Connecticut (1945) and tonight I watched Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). I did not spin the Review Roulette wheel because I had other dissertation-related annotation priorities while watching so we’re doing “Comfort” as our lens. Yes, I made that up.

I wasn’t nuts on Meet Me in St. Louis – it was a bit too hectic for me. I did enjoy that it was more just a Judy Garland Variety Hour though. But Christmas in Connecticut I loved. Both of these films are fairly fast paced but with a slightly smaller cast and a more focussed plot, Christmas in Connecticut was the far less hectic of the two. It moves at a clip with some of my favourite humour I’ve ever come across in a post-war film.

Christmas in Connecticut is about Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck), a column writer with a fictional life as a housewife on a farm in Connecticut. The nation is swept with love for her quaint, nostalgic, wholesome home life, including discharged sailor Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan). Jefferson’s fake girlfriend/nurse in the veteran hospital arranges for him to spend Christmas with Liz and her fictional family so he can get the marriage bug and come back to her ready for a domestic life. Liz becomes cornered by her lies and is forced to live the make-believe life she writes about. And it is a god damn delight.

Stanwyck is sensational in this film. Her Liz has absolutely no time for faking her way through just two days with these people, and after all of the films I studied in the post-war period, this earlier one was so refreshing. Later post-war Christmas romances have a far more socially conservative spin that set the paradigm for the trashy formulaic Christmas films that are still made today (you can pre-order a book in which I have a chapter about this exact subject if you are interested). The women in those films are often convinced that they do want the heteronormative life of a suburban or rural housewife with a kid and a car and maybe even a cow. But Liz? Ain’t no way my girl Liz is settling for any of that. She gets her man in the end, and she does get married, but her spunk and personality do not suggest in any way that she will be a subdued housewife, especially after expressing negative interest in having kids or leaving the city. I can’t picture her wanting the fully heteronormative, traditional life that would be all but guaranteed by the ends of films just a few years later.

I found it a little inspiring that Stanwyck played Liz so strongly with so much ferocity of spirit. She still ends up in a marriage, but she actively chose to spend her life with Jefferson. She didn’t marry him just to have a husband; he didn’t marry her just to have a wife; they married each other because they wanted to. And I think that that is a very important distinction to make from films such as Holiday Affair (1949) or White Christmas (1954) in which discussions of marriage precede the couples falling in love.

Also, it’s just fucking funny. Jokes are running a mile a minute in this film and they hit every time. (I can’t decide if the baby or the way Reginald Gardiner says “murder” is my favourite joke, but they are top two). If you need some Christmas cheer or just cheer or just a laugh, I heartily recommend kicking the season off early with Christmas in Connecticut.

I chose Christmas films for my dissertation for many reasons but one important one was that they bring me joy. I love a good Christmas film and still do after years of working with them (even the ones I love to hate). And I think that’s a really beautiful thing. Comfort is why a lot of us watch movies, right? Not all of them or all the time, but to feel safe for an hour or two, to feel like the only thing you have to worry about is how Liz will pretend to braise a goose, to share an emotional moment with humans whether they’re phsyically with you or speaking to you from nearly 80 years ago, promising you there is joy in the little things? It’s why I watch movies and why I made it my job to do so. I want to study how people found comfort in the past, how they spent their lives and cherished their little joys.

While I am incredibly stressed prepping for my defense and feeling enough imposter syndrome to make even the elves question whether Santa is the real deal, I am grateful that some of the work I have to do this week is watching more Christmas films. Comfort is what keeps the soul safe in scary times, and if that means dipping into the Christmas coffers for a bit of spirit a month early, so be it. If you are stressed or feeling The Horrors™ and need a little break, I suggest watching a comfort film or series or finding a new one (Bluey, for real, worked like a charm). Turn your phone off for a bit, have a little chocolate or treat, and just foster some joy because you deserve happiness, and you deserve to choose whatever that happiness is for you just like Liz.

I would also love to know what your comfort films or media are. Are you a Christmas comfort person or does another genre do it for you? If you would like to share, please comment below!