Christmas in Connecticut

If you haven’t figured out I am trying to put myself in a merry mood by watching Christmas movies, so I let my mouse do the clicking on Netflix and I found Christmas in Connecticut. Somehow I have never seen this movie or even heard of it. While Christmas in Connecticut is a fun movie made during the end of WWII and reflects the effervescent spirit Americans needed to deal with the conflicts overseas.

In the film Elizabeth Lane is touted as the best cook in America; she writes a monthly magazine column about her life as a housewife on a Connecticut farm with her husband and baby. The problem is that there is no baby, no farm, and no husband. Elizabeth can’t even cook. However, Elizabeth has gotten to where she is because she is tenacious and men adore her. Her friend Felix is the real cook who brings her monthly recipes, John Sloan is a successful architect who wants to marry her and actually has the farm in Connecticut and her editor has allowed her to fabricate all of this and get away with it for so long. The problem comes into this screwball comedy when her editor grants a wish from a friend to have recovering soldier Jefferson Jones stay with Elizabeth Lane and her family on their farm for the holidays. Suddenly Elizabeth is tapped and she has only one option to keep her job and not be exposed as a liar – she need to get the farm, the husband and the baby.

What I truly love about this movie (and a lot of classic movies similar to it) is the obvious pro-feminist message it gives that is ultimately squashed by the end of the movie due to either the censorship board, studio or other means. Elizabeth Lane is a powerful single woman with a job of status and doesn’t need or want a man, but when a moment of trouble comes she is running to Sloan to get married – marriage will literally solve all of her problems in the film. She narrowly avoids marrying Sloan to pretend to be his wife, and ends up falling for Jones instead who is in love with the ultra feminine guise that Elizabeth writes under. By the end of the film she is jobless and running to get married again – but this time because she wants to. It’s rather humorous to watch.

I do enjoy this movie and recommend it for Yuletide watching but be aware that while it is very entertaining it is a silly movie.

Director: Peter Godfrey
Writers: Lionel Houser & Adele Comandini
Elizabeth Lane: Barbara Stanwyck
Jefferson Jones: Dennis Morgan
Alexander Yardley: Sydney Greenstreet
John Sloan: Reginald Gardiner
Felix: S.Z. Sakall

John Sloan: Having babies to boost your circulation takes time.