This old RKO joint with Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh has become a holiday tradition for me, and I just screened it again the other day. It's not the most dynamic Christmas movie around, but I have a soft spot for it dating back to the old pre-awful AMC days when the network ran it often. Now Turner Classic does its part by playing it every year.
There's lots to enjoy here, like the sheer novelty of seeing Mitch wooing a widow and her young son by being so damned decent (and all-knowing). My favorite scene, though, is when the leads are dragged in front of policeman Harry Morgan to explain how Mitchum's Steve Mason winds up in the vicinity of a mugging with some of the victim's effects on his person. Morgan gives a great running wise-ass commentary as he learns about the love triangle unfolding. And watch the faces when Mason explains he wasn't hiding behind a rock when the police came, but he was feeding a squirrel.
And there's always the fun of watching Leigh's Connie Ennis choose between Robert Mitchum and Wendell Corey. Hmm, big suspense there, eh? Let's break this one down a bit and lay out the facts as we ponder who a better husband would be (and of course, it's "husband," as things were decent back then, you know), Steve Mason or Corey's Carl Davis.
MASON: Looks like Bob Mitchum
DAVIS: Looks like Wendell Corey
MASON: Killed a man or 3 back in the day, and not just in the military (Oh, he doesn't say this, but his character is vague about his past, and COME ON)
DAVIS: Kills Connie every day...with kindness!
MASON: Wins over Connie's young boy in about 30 seconds without resorting to bribery
DAVIS: Has trouble getting the boy excited about inviting him to dinner
MASON: Goes ahead and bribes the kid anyway with an $80 train on Christmas.
DAVIS: Gets the kid a camera, then whines bitterly about being upstaged by the Mason Express.
MASON: Has the romantic aura of unemployment but plans to head West and get into boating...where he will roam the high seas capturing pirates (OK, I might be projecting a bit once again).
DAVIS: Calls himself an attorney, but doesn't do a very good job defending Mason before Harry Morgan.
MASON: Goes ahead and kisses Connie just because he feels like it.
DAVIS: Woos Connie with lines like, "You look like a tired, beautiful girl instead of just a beautiful girl."
I won't tell you who Connie chooses, but it's clear to me who she SHOULD choose. Why, it's Carl Davis, of course. Oh, Steve Mason may seem like a great guy, and maybe he is, but Janet Leigh's not a big enough star yet at this point. She should settle for the comfortable blandness of life with Carl Davis, a life marked by stability, order, and sex once a year after a few attempts at conceiving a child of their own. Then, of course, she can expect the inevitable drinking problem, a real "Holiday Affair" or two when Carl takes over his law firm and has his mid-life crisis, and a messy divorce in the mid 1960s.
Besides, Steve Mason will be too busy killing buccaneers to play Ward Cleaver.
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3 comments:
I've only seen bits and pieces of this movie but now that I know Harry Morgan is in it I intend to dissect it the next time it's on.
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I think it's gonna be on TCM again before Christmas, Ivan. You'll love the Harry "billed as Henry" Morgan scene. The rest of the movie is rather tame, but I LOL at his reactions.
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