Christmas vacation

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Movie
German title Christmas vacation
Original title Christmas Holiday
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1944
length 93 minutes
Rod
Director Robert Siodmak
script Herman Mankiewicz
production Felix Jackson for Universal Pictures
music Hans J. Salter
camera Elwood Bredell
cut Ted J. Kent
occupation

Christmas holiday (AKA Christmas Holiday ) is an American film noir , 1944. The director was dating Robert Siodmak . The script is based on the novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham . The two main actors Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly , who have so far only appeared in musicals and light comedies, are cast here against their previous image.

action

On Christmas Eve, Lieutenant Charles Mason learns that his girlfriend Mona has married someone else. Because of bad weather, his plane has to interrupt his journey in New Orleans, where a pub acquaintance takes him to the “Maison Lafitte” establishment. Its operator Valerie De Merode encourages its female employees to also be sexually pleasing to their customers. Charles meets Jackie Lamont, who works there as a singer and hostess. She asks him to accompany her to midnight mass. He complies with her request, and later she follows him to his hotel room. There Jackie admits that her real name is Abigail and that she is the wife of the convicted murderer Robert Manette.

Abigail tells her story in a flashback: The then still very naive young woman meets Robert Manette, the son of a formerly wealthy but now completely impoverished family, in a concert and immediately falls in love with the attractive man. His mother, Mrs. Manette, expects Abigail to have a good influence on Robert, whom she adores. The two marry and appear to be a happy marriage. But then Robert shoots his bookmaker, to whom he owes. Abigail is horrified; Mrs Manette, on the other hand, who does not seem to be surprised by the act, destroys the evidence of the crime and then goes back to business. Still, the police track down the killer and Robert is convicted. Mrs. Manette blames Abigail for the verdict. Abigail then accepts the position as a singer and hostess to punish herself for the lack of support from her husband.

A short time later, Charles learns that Robert has escaped from prison. Abigail, who still loves her husband, rushes into his arms, but Robert is disgusted with what she does. The moment he is about to shoot Abigail, the police arrive and kill Robert. Abigail is finally free of her guilt and can start a new life.

background

Since her success in Three Sweet Girls in 1936, 14-year-old Deanna Durbin had risen to become Universal Pictures' biggest star. Her subsequent films have all been very successful financially, and the studio carefully planned the gradual move into the young adult profession. Spring Parade was the first film to show Durbin as an adult and at the same time established her image as a smart young woman. However, the star increasingly wanted to move away from the harmless, cheerful romances and music films and finally take on dramatic roles. In 1943, the dispute between Durbin and the studio finally escalated. After they had been on strike for over half a year for their goal, the parties finally agreed on Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham. The story of a prostitute who falls in love with a murderer who is entangled in an incestuous relationship with his mother was first brought to the camera by Walter Wanger in 1939 . Joseph Breen , who monitored compliance with the Motion Picture Production Code in Hollywood film productions, expressed strong reservations about various “sexual deviations” and a lack of “compensatory moral values”. In 1943, Felix Jackson , producer at Universal Pictures, made another attempt. Jackson saw the story as the ideal vehicle for his then wife Deanna Durbin, whose attempts to switch to the dramatic field in unsuccessful productions like Nice Girl? and The Amazing Mrs. Holliday had ended. Jackson commissioned Herman Mankiewicz to dramatize the original, which, in accordance with the requirements of the Production Code, emphasized or greatly weakened all allusions to prostitution, homosexuality and incest. Mankiewicz also changed the names of the protagonists, moved the plot from Paris to New Orleans and Americanized the main British and Russian characters in the novel. Robert Siodmak, who was just beginning to make a name for himself as a commissioned director at Universal and was shooting his second film noir for the studio on Christmas vacation, had trouble with star Durbin, who “wanted to play a different type of role but shrank from looking like a drifter ". Her partner, Broadway star Gene Kelly, borrowed Universal from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , where he was under contract.

Christmas Vacation originated between November 1943 and March 1944 and premiered in New York City on June 28, 1944. Despite the negative reviews, the film turned out to be the most financially successful in Durbin's career, with grossing over 2.2 million US dollars, which she described in retrospect as her "only really good one".

The film was not shown in cinemas in West Germany, but was first broadcast on West 3 on May 26, 1976.

music

The following pieces of music are performed in the course of the plot:

The song Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year was composed for the film and became a classic that later became part of Ella Fitzgerald's standard repertoire, among others .

Reviews

“The story written by Herman J. Mankiewicz is old hat - the kind of dramatic mish-mash that fading stars played ten years ago. And it bears little resemblance to the Somerset Maugham novel on which it is "based". [...] Ms. Durbin does her best to suggest emotional conflict, but her performance is painfully poor. "

- Bosley Crowther : The New York Times

"An entertainment film based on Somerset Maugham, not without its atmospheric charisma, less convincing in the psychological examination of the characters."

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

The film was nominated for the Academy Awards in 1945 :

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Joseph Greco: The File on Robert Siodmak in Hollywood, 1941–1951. Dissertation.com, 1999, ISBN 1-58112-081-8 , pp. 27-30.
  2. ^ A b Joseph Greco: The File on Robert Siodmak in Hollywood, 1941–1951. P. 35.
  3. ↑ a b Patricia K. Hanson, Amy Dunkleger (eds.): AFI. American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States. Feature Films 1941-1950. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles 1999, ISBN 978-0-520-21521-4 , pp. 425-426.
  4. ↑ a b Christmas Vacation in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used .
  5. ↑ “ For the story which Herman J. Mankiewicz has written is the oldest sort of hat — the kind of dramatic farrago that was being played by faded stars ten years ago. And it has but the vaguest resemblance to the Somerset Maugham novel on which it is 'based.' […] As the piteously wronged young lady, Miss Durbin does all that she can to suggest an emotional tower. But her efforts are painfully weak. ”- review. In: The New York Times , June 29, 1944; Retrieved January 29, 2013.