Elizabeth Lane, the housekeeper of America! With a perfect farm in Connecticut, a loving husband, a baby, and the best recipes, all readers of American Housekeeping, a magazine that Miss Lane writes for, love her. However, when a situation arises where Miss Lane must host two guest for Christmas, Elizabeth is left in a rut. Elizabeth truly lives, in a simple apartment, her Uncle Felix cooks for her as she can't and has neither a husband nor a baby.
But never fear, to save her editors job, perhaps her own, and satisfy a long time 'boyfriend' Elizabeth agrees to be married and will host her guest from her, soon to be, husband's farm in Connecticut.
But before the marriage can be finalized, the guest arrive! Along with Mr. Alexander Yardley, the overbearing owner of the American Housekeeper magazine, comes a war hero. A sailor. An inconveniently handsome sailor. Inconvenient as Elizabeth has promised to marry another.
The rest of the weekend is spent with rented babies, some kitchen mayhem, an evening dancing, several attempts at a secret wedding, and an impromptu sleigh-ride.
Though there may be other characters and actors you might recognize through the film, I just want to touch on one. Uncle Felix, played by S. Z. Sakall. Some of you may know him as Carl, the headwaiter at Rick's Café in Casablanca. He is HILARIOUS in this film. He is so sweet and protective of his niece but is also naturally funny. As he doesn't approve of his niece's choice of husband he plays out his own matchmaking plans to make everything "hunky-dunky". A phrase that is often mentioned in my family around this time of year because of him.
The costumes in this film are wonderful because they are vintage. Particularly the dress pictured above. As for the man at the piano, well, a man always looks better in uniform don't you think? But, after all of this I have to admit that I didn't add this picture for either the dress or the solider. No, I actually added it for the tree. This isn't the best shot of it I know, but really, the tree is so large and so very decorated that I can't help but love it!
I have not included a trailer in this review as, how to put this, terrible? Yes, that's about right. It is terribly cheesy and corny. It's just not an impressive trailer at all, so I wanted you to take my word for it, rather than the trailers. :D
I hope I haven't revealed to much to you and that you will still consider looking this classic up. I can think of no warnings to give you about anything distasteful in the film, so I urge you to look it up directly!
Merry Christmas readers,
Cordy
Oh, I love this movie! I think I like it better than White Christmas, heehee. I hope our library has it-I want to see it again for Christmas!
ReplyDeleteI love Barbara Stanwyck. She's so funny and such a great actress. And her dress! I do remember sighing over how lovely it was when I watched this. :)
Have you, by chance, seen Kitty Foyle? It has Ginger Rogers in it and the guy who plays the hero in this movie. It's one of my favorites!
It's good to hear that someone else knows about this favorite of mine. But not so much a favorite as to place it above White Christmas! THAT would be entirely impossible! ;)
DeleteI hope your library has a copy too!
I have not seen Kitty Foyle. I know of it, because of Dennis Morgan's involvement, but as I couldn't see a happy ending to the movie after reading a summary I avoided it.
Heehee, I am sorry. :)
DeleteOh, I GREATLY advise giving KF a chance. I know when we watched the film for the first time we thought the same thing, but (without giving anything away..) it does turn out rather well. :)
Well, I will have to see if I can get a copy of KF! :D
DeleteYay! Do tell me what you think of it! :)
DeleteThis sounds awesome! I definitely should look it up directly. Great review! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks! I have a hard time review and recommending something without babbling on about all the wonderful things about it. Which would just spoil everything! :D Do tell me what you think!
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