Product Description A female newspaper columnist who writes about being a housewife scrambles to keep her job when her publisher invites himself to her alleged home for t
Amazon.com Christmas in Connecticut is a holiday film that plays 365 days of the year. Barbara Stanwyck gives a brilliant, sardonic performance as Elizabeth Lane, a columnist for Smart Housekeeping magazine, whose enticing descriptions of the exquisite meals she prepares for her husband and baby on their bucolic Connecticut farm earns her fame as "America's Best Cook." A writer, she is; a cook, she is not. As she types the words, "From my living room window, as I write, the good cedar logs cracking on the fire..." the view is of clothes flapping on the line outside her bachelorette Manhattan apartment. An able supporting cast keeps her lie on life support: her editor, her stuffy and detestable architect suitor, and the wonderful "Uncle" Felix (S.Z. Sakall), an English-garbling Hungarian chef who provides the recipes that fill her column.
Cut to Jefferson Jones, a sailor adrift at sea for weeks after his destroyer is torpedoed. Memories of the food described in Lane's columns are central to his survival. After his rescue, as he's recuperating in a naval hospital, a marriage-minded nurse thinks she might nudge Jones to the altar if he could only experience a real domestic Christmas. And it just so happens that she was nurse to the grandchild of Alexander Yardley, the wealthy and powerful publisher of --you guessed it--Smart Housekeeping magazine. And so, she pens the letter that could unravel Lane's carefully constructed fraud. She writes to Yardley asking that Jones be included in America's ultimate Christmas--the one to be held at the Lane family farm in Connecticut. The pompous Yardley (ably portrayed by Sidney Greenstreet) believes the Lane myth and instantly sniffs a story that will send his magazine's circulation skyrocketing. And staring down a lonely holiday, he decides to join the Lanes for Christmas on the farm, too. Now, all Lane has to do is come up with a farm. And a husband. And let's not forget the baby. Christmas in Connecticut is classic screwball entertainment of the best kind, with its on-target skewering of social convention and house-of- cards-about-to-tumble tension: a perfect farcical vision of domestic blitz. --Susan Benson
Christmas in ConnecticutJune 12, 2010 J. Gorden(CA) A funny, heartwarming movie. This has become one of our standard Christmas "must see" movies; so we want to see it when we want.
Christmas in ConnecticuFebruary 21, 2010 Altheaon R. Henry(AL) Love this movie and it was sent to me in good condition and right on time...would recommend the seller
Christmas in Connectcut reviewFebruary 11, 2010 Ruth Leister(South Jordan, UT USA) The "Christmas in Connecticut" movie was o.k., but we purchased the video mainly for the black and white trailer movie, "STAR IN THE NIGHT," which is more than worth the price of the video. It's a modern (well, sort of) version of a birth in a stable, and shows how peoples' attitudes are changed when they work together to help. It will bring tears to your eyes. It's only about 20 minutes, and we watched it several times during the Christmas season.
A holiday favorite!February 10, 2010 Donna M. Gonchar(Burlington, CT) This movie isn't available in many places and at this price. This is one of the funnier, sweet movies I like to watch at Christmas time. Thanks for having it available, even after the holidays!
NOT a Christmas movie at all . . .February 6, 2010 culture lover(Los Angeles, CA) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
but rather a screwball romantic comedy. Except for the snow on the ground, the story could as easily have been at Thanksgiving or Easter.
I was rather disappointed by "CinC" despite a terrific cast including Barbara Stanwyck and Sidney Greenstreet (both playing to their strengths), SZ "Cuddles" Sakall (the comic waiter from "Casablanca") and Una O'Connor (the rubber-faced Irishwoman from a zillion movies in the 30's and 40's, most notably "The Invisible Man" and "Adventures of Robin Hood") providing comic relief.
The problem for me is the story. "Elizabeth Lane" has concocted a fraudulent lifestyle to keep her job as a columnist. When she faces exposure, she is resigned to losing her job and accepts an offer of marriage from her longtime beau John Sloan. When Elizabeth remembers that Sloan has a farm in Connecticut like the one she's been writing about, her fiancee agrees to help fool her boss but they still plan on getting married before the guests arrive. The ceremony is interrupted by the early arrival of Jefferson Jones and almost instantly Elizabeth Lane starts flirting with him. ("What would you say to me if I wasn't married, Mr. Jones?") Although Sloan isn't right for her (he's much too self-absorbed for one thing), that still doesn't excuse Elizabeth from shamelessly flirting with one man while engaged to another in the next room.
(One could point out that Jefferson Jones isn't much better: flirting with his nurse to get better hospital food. But in his case, he's honest enough to admit to the nurse that he isn't ready to settle down.) The whole thing ends happily only due to a deus ex machina from out of left field.
While not a classic (romantic or holiday), this is still a diverting film with an engaging cast. This edition also features the Academy Award winning short "A Star in the Night" directed by Don Siegel. Basically a modern day Nativity Story with elements of "A Christmas Carol" thrown in. Despite the lack of a big name cast and the fact that you can see the ending a mile away, I found this movie to be more affecting than "CinC."
