It’s not often I come across a movie with a Christmas connection that I had not even heard of. Especially one released in the 1940’s, but I came across Christmas Eve by chance on a streaming service and decided to check it out. The cast boasts George Raft, Randolph Scott, and Joan Blondell, how did I miss this?? The answer is that it’s not very good so it didn’t get the TV play that other more “classic’ films did.
The basic story is about a very wealthy elderly woman who raised three “adopted” boys and now finds herself in danger of losing her fortune to her nephew who wants to paint her as “not competent” and take control of her fortune. She insists her 3 boys left because they wanted to make their own way in the world and not be beholden to her. So she lets the news of her position out to the media to get her sons’ attention. One is an opportunistic ladies man (George Brent). Another a shady-ish nightclub owner (George Raft) who gets mixed up with Nazi criminals in Central America, and the other a somewhat famous rodeo star (Randolph Scott). In the end they do arrive and save their eccentric adopted mother’s reputation and fortune.
It sounded interesting, but for a 90 minute film it just drags on and doesn’t have a particular tone. Each son has a bit of a story and each is very different, but not very engaging. The second one involving Nazi war criminals is just too long and comes out of nowhere. By 1947 the leading players in this movie were stars in their own right, or at least well known to audiences and all talented people. George Raft growls his dialogue and makes grumpy faces, George Brent doesn’t seem to know how to play his character, and Randolph Scott plays, well… Randolph Scott in a western (but this isn’t a western). The script is very awkward and disconnected. The screenplay needed a lot of work before they should have started shooting. The wealthy old woman was played by Ann Harding, a still pretty attractive woman of 45 at the time, with age make-up to appear older. In reality she was younger than some of the men playing her sons. It struck me as odd and distracting. Why not cast an older actress in the role? This is no attack on Harding, I just don’t get why they made her up to look old. I kept waiting for flashback scenes shower her as younger, which would explain casting her and not an actual woman in her 60’s or 70’s. Weird!
I got the impression director Edwin L. Marin wasn’t sure what film he was making either. It’s a screwball comedy, it’s an action thriller, it’s a commentary on greed, it’s a noir. It’s a mess. Marin was known for directing films in any genre and had already made films like A Study in Scarlet, A Christmas Carol (1938), Invisible Agent, and Abilene Town (with Randolph Scott). All I can figure is that the concept was that the 3 sons’ stories would be told in a different styles with the Mother’s story as the connecting tissue. If that was the plan it didn’t work. Calling the film “Christmas Eve”, the date the boys are expected to return, is a bit misleading too. Making the viewer think the holiday is a more important plot point. The studio must have thought that too because at some point it was also released as “Sinner’s Holiday”. A title that is not much of an improvement either. It’s a shame because bringing this group of actors together was an interesting idea, it just didn’t work.
I watched Christmas Eve on the streaming service Paramount+, but it is available on DVD and Blu-Ray for those who actually like it.
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