December 14: Christmas in Connecticut (1944)
Problem is, Elizabeth doesn't cook, she isn't married, and being in Manhattan, she doesn't see any farms or babies and couldn't even diaper a baby if she saw one. She's been able to carry off the scam for quite a while, being as only her editor Beecham (Robert Shayne), her architect boyfriend John Sloan (Reginald Gardner) and her neighborhood restauranteur, Felix (S.Z. Sakall), a master chef who supplies the recipes, have helped her keep up the pretense.
So, we have four men attending Elizabeth's Christmas gathering at her farm--Sloan-who wants to get married, Felix--to do the actual cooking, Yardley--who has no idea this is all an elborate joke on him--and war hero Jefferson Jones. Elizabeth has concocted a plan with Sloan while he insists includes actually marrying him -- which she's willing to go along with -- Then she meets the sailor Jeff Jones.
In comparison to other comedies, like Preston Sturges, this one's alright and will provide an evening of Christmas as WWII folks would have ideally liked to remember them.
- In his restaurant, Felix asks busboy Sam (Emmet Smith) what "catastrophe" means (in his middle-European dialect), and Sam in perfect diction replies with the Oxford dictionary meaning.
- The social history of the trade offs of babies and neighbors babysitting the little ones while their mothers were off at the defense plant.
Reprinted from December 2017