Holiday Affair (1949)

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Director: DON HARTMAN. Screenplay: Isobel Lennart. Based on a story, "Christmas Gift", and a novelette called "The Man Who Played Santa Claus" by John D. Weaver. Photography: Milton Krasner. Film editor: Harry Marker. Art directors: Albert D'Agostino and Carroll Clark. Set decorators: Darrell Silvera and William Stevens. Miss Leigh's costumes: Howard Greer. Music composed by Roy Webb, directed by Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Hair styles: Larry Germain. Make-up: James House. Assistant director: Sam Ruman. Sound: Frank Sarver and Clem Portman. Producer: Don Hartman.Copyright 23 November 1949 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. U.S. release: 24 December 1949. New York release at Loew's State: 23 November 1949. U.K. release: 6 February 1950. Australian release: 6 April 1950. Sydney release at the Esquire: 10 March 1950. Australian length: 7,943 feet (88 minutes). U.K. length: 7,812 feet (87 minutes).SYNOPSIS: Comparison shopper inadvertently gets toy salesman fired from New York department store. Salesman romances shopper and her six-year-old son.COMMENT: A slight little Christmas romance with a foregone conclusion that seemed a lot more entertaining and engrossing back in 1950 than it does now. Admittedly, the two principal characterizations are fairly intriguing - Mitchum is likeably off-beat at first but becomes more conventionally outspoken as the film progresses; Miss Leigh's profession is refreshingly original - but the rest of the players are handicapped by their strictly clichéd roles, particularly Wendell Corey's stuffy attorney and Gordon Gebert's gap-toothed wonder. The players are not helped by direction that only comes to life with fluid camerawork in some of the crowd scenes, elsewhere letting the cast and the dialogue do all the work in a series of long takes. The dialogue is occasionally witty or pointed but mostly it and the situations are dull to the point of boredom. Even the episode in the police station which could have been fairly amusing seems somewhat strained as Henry Morgan makes heavy weather out of rather thin clouds. Miss Leigh looked good to indulgent males in 1950, but Father Time has stripped a lot of her illusion away, forcing her to rely on a charm and personality that is otherwise blandly inadequate. Photography and other credits are capable enough - even occasionally attractive. A Holiday Affair also has some historical interest as Mitchum's first starring essay into the field of romantic comedy and it must be admitted that he handled the lightweight part with a professional flair of delightful nonchalance (when he wasn't buried under sticky dialogue of the sentimental kind). However, despite mildly enthusiastic reviews and a domestic release that coincided with Christmas, Mitchum's fans were unimpressed and A Holiday Affair added little to RKO's coffers. It was not until his final RKO film, She Couldn't Say No (1954) that Mitchum was again cast in a comedy.

"Holiday Affair" may be a lesser known holiday film, but it certainly lacks nothing in the way of likability or warmheartedness.I viewed this for the first time, just a few days ago, and I can say that it will be one of those that I watch every Christmas season.Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh are a perfect combination. And Wendell Corey plays the Ralph Bellamy-type role to a tee. The three of them play off of each other, and add such warmth, that I dare anyone to resist the charms of this film.And Harry Morgan steals the film.This will be the best film that you've never heard of, this season.

With a cast list containing Janet Leigh, Robert Mitchum and Wendell Corey you think this would be a crime thriller. It is a romantic comedy.Leigh is a widow with a young boy and works as a comparison shopper, regarded at the time to be a despicable profession.She meets Mitchum in a department store who works there as a toy salesman over the Christmas holidays to earn enough money so he can return to the west coast. He is selling toy trains but although he guesses she is a comparison shopper, he does not report her and gets fired for his non action.Wendell Corey is a lawyer who has been courting Leigh for years but she has never got over her husband and her boy does not seem to like Corey. However something stirs when she encounters Mitchum and they keep on meeting and he also purchases a train set that her son wants for Christmas.This is not a whimsical or sentimental film, the people feel real with real problems of the post years, poverty or bereavement or just trying to get the girl.Despite the cast, this is a low key film, where everybody is nice to each other. Corey does have the thankless role as the nice guy who has go up against Mitcham for the girl. At one point he even defends him in court. However Mitcham the drifter with a dream of building boats is the one who sizes up Leigh.

A perfect Christmas film. Touching and warm. To viewers who are 75 and 80 years old, this film is very real. They would have been 10 or 11 years old at the time this film was made. To many, the film seems to focus on the main characters and tribulations that were not all that uncommon in those days shortly after the end of World War II. Jobs were scarce. Housing was scarce. The soldiers were being separated (honorably discharged) from military service and they were flooding the country looking for jobs and places to live. The 50's were right around the corner but the boom of those years hadn't started. What the film portrays was very real. The young 10 or 11 year old boy was the only "man" in the family. It was not uncommon for a single mother (who lost her husband in the war) to call her young son "the only man." His childhood evaporated quickly. He had to grow up and assume his new role as an adult and head of his household. This character in the movie has an incredible number of lines to deliver for someone that young. But the "understory" can't be told by anyone else. Not only is he lonely, he's also a kid. But since he was about five his Christmas gifts were socks, oranges, new shoes, a shirt, and a small jacket that couldn't keep him warm outside in the blowing snow because it had to be cheap. A single mother with an apartment and a young son to care for has it tough. Yet, to him, the jacket was a fur coat because his mom bought it for him when she couldn't even afford bread. How she could do that for him was an astonishing event. He was touched so deeply it was hard to eat. The train meant much more than any toy could mean to anyone else. He had never seen anything so grand. Watch the interaction between the characters from this boy's perspective. Perhaps you'll see yet another film. In fact, watch the film twice. You won't be disappointed.