ThiefHott Too much of everything

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

JohnHowardReid 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.

Tad Pole . . . about toy trains, check out the original version of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Released a couple years after HOLIDAY AFFAIR, the science fiction movie warmed the cockles of Great Depression Era hearts with its poignant scene showing an alien bonding with a little boy over a toy train set. On the other hand, HOLIDAY AFFAIR comes off more as a primer of what NOT to do with toy trains in a film. One key toy train no-no is to NOT break a tiny tyke's heart by messing with his mind over whether or not he's actually getting a toy train for his birthday, Christmas, Kwanzaa, the Fourth of July or some other occasion for gift-giving, as does HOLIDAY AFFAIR. Secondly, only someone with a screw loose would dream up equating a toy train giver with stranger-danger warnings against psychos with candy. Finally, if screenwriters are trying to figure out how to work a beloved toy train into their scripts, they definitely should NOT come up with a HOLIDAY AFFAIR scenario in which crowds of adults engulf the kid with a train, stomping on this prize possession and breaking it. Probably the only reason that HOLIDAY AFFAIR is not titled THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHR!STMAS is that Dr. Seuss already had dibs on what would have been a more appropriate description of this mean-spirited story.

wes-connors Pretty World War II widow Janet Leigh (as Connie) works as a "comparison shopper" in New York City. This means she buys merchandise from rival department stores, brings the goods to her employer for comparison (of price and quality, presumably), and finally returns the items as something she really didn't want. She's not a very good "comparison shopper," but she is very pretty and usually wears tight clothing. Leigh buys a train from down-on-his-luck department store clerk Robert Mitchum (as Steve Mason). He recognizes Leigh's scam, but doesn't report her to the manager. Being pretty has its advantages. While this costs Mr. Mitchum his job, it does gets him a lunch date with Leigh in Central Park. They are mutually attracted, but there are complications...Leigh has a 6½ years old son, Gordon Gebert (as Timothy "Timmy" Ennis). While washing up for dinner, young Gebert peaks in the newest box his mom has bought home as a "comparison shopper." It's an expensive train set, which Gebert assumes to be a Christmas gift for him...It's not...When visiting Leigh, Mitchum makes a fatherly connection with Gebert and decides to buy him a train set, although Mitchum can't afford one, either. Mitchum, as you may recall, lost his job for not reporting Leigh to his store manager. Buying the train set renders Mitchum homeless. No doubt many boys seeing "Holiday Affair" asked their parents for train sets they couldn't afford, in 1949. A bigger problem for Leigh and Mitchum is that she's engaged to marry nice lawyer Wendell Corey (as Carl Davis). After a couple years of dating, Leigh has finally agreed to wed Mr. Corey, on New Year's Day. We're supposed to wonder who she will pick, in the end...But wait, maybe Mitchum has a dark side...After the first 30 minutes, watch for an interesting part of the story. Mitchum is allowed to visit Gebert alone, in the boy's bedroom. After he emerges, Mitchum grabs Leigh and forcibly attacks and kisses her, then leaves abruptly. Times have certainly changed. Other than that, this is not a bad film at all. The four main players perform well and the story, while dated, engages.****** Holiday Affair (1949-11-23) Don Hartman ~ Janet Leigh, Robert Mitchum, Gordon Gebert, Wendell Corey

robert-temple-1 This is very much a 'film of its time', but it was designed to be precisely that. It dealt with one of the major social issues of the immediate postwar years, the problems of the grieving young women whose husbands had been killed in the War. The main character in this film is just such a pretty young war widow, played by Janet Leigh. She keeps framed photos of her husband in uniform all round her apartment and beside her bed, and can't let him go. Her little boy Guy is turned into what she calls 'the man of the house'. She cannot come to terms with her loss or make a new life for herself, despite the fact that three or four years have gone by. America was full of women in her condition at this time, women who had been deeply in love with their husbands, lost them in combat, and were then expected to find a new man. Janet Leigh just can't do that. A boring and 'stable' admirer, played by Wendell Corey, has been patiently courting her for two years and keeps telling her that friendship is enough for a marriage and she doesn't need to love him. She is gradually bringing herself round to accept this kind of a future and even says yes to him at last, convincing herself that it will give her 'a quiet life' and a father for her boy (who does not like Corey and keeps insulting him). This film was given a misleading title, because there is no 'affair' and the 'holiday' refers merely to the fact that it is Christmas time. However, this is not, as some imagine, just 'a good Christmas film'. Christmas is merely the convenient background for the story. The story is really about Janet Leigh's struggle to come to terms with her loss. Through an amusing, if somewhat hectic, series of circumstances, Leigh meets Robert Mitchum. He is working in a New York City department store selling toy trains and she is a 'comparison shopper' working for a rival department store. She goes around buying things, taking them to her employer for study, and then returning them and getting a refund. Mitchum discovers this and is about to turn her in, but when he hears she is a war widow with a child, he takes pity on her and lets her go. This is spotted by the floorwalker, and Mitchum is instantly fired. Then a highly complex relationship develops, involving the boy, a train set, various misunderstandings and comic coincidences, and Fate, which obviously had it in mind all along, brings them closer and closer together. This gets up the nose of Corey, who takes it very badly indeed. Little Guy adores Mitchum, and the story is really very ingenious and amusing, as to how things go on from there. I can't reveal what happens in the end, but you could say Leigh is really on the spot and struggles between boring safety and passionate uncertainty. Mitchum proposes too, and which one will she, can she, choose? This film would have gone straight to the heart for many thousands, probably tens of thousands, of young American widows in her position at that time. As social history it is very important. The film is very sensitively done and must have been a big hit when it came out. It is entertaining to watch, has many amusing moments, and excellent performances.