Tu partirai con me

Christmas is six months away from now, but I felt to comment on this film now. Holiday Affair is one of the best holiday films out there. Janet Leigh and Robert Mitchum are perfect as the widow and unemployed store clerk, plus the boy who plays Leigh's son performance in the picture is excellent. This film shows the true spirit of Christmas during the holidays. A film not to pass up during any time of the year especially on Christmas.

After accidentally discovering this film on one or another classic film network's graveyard shift holiday schedule, I've often wondered why it is not more prominently featured. The film blends some time honored themes of Christmas (the suspense and longing children feel at Christmastime, for example) with more complex undertones involving Janet Leigh's character, Connie. You see, Connie needs to decide whether she asked Santa for the safe and familiar toy (Wendell Corey) or the complicated model shipped without directions that may be a whole lot more interesting (Robert Mitchum). Leigh's wistful performance as a war widow struggling with needing to begin life again while trying to preserve the memory of her husband rings true. This is a great little holiday film and is now shown every Christmas at my house, just in case it gets relegated again to the no-show lists on air. Mitchum's performance is effortless and he seems to be enjoying himself-you will, too.

Bright and engaging holiday-themed romantic comedy has single mom Janet Leigh wooed by two men over the holidays: devil-may-care Robert Mitchum (who really does have a sardonic demon in his eyes!) and staunch, dull Wendell Corey. Poor Corey really has a thankless role here, not only playing the third wheel but berated for it as well; still, he plays dishwater-dull to perfection and his voice of reason would surely give Leigh cause to second-guess her heart. Surprisingly quirky film isn't the least bit obvious or clichéd, and Janet's screen-relationship with Gordon Gebert, the likable youngster playing her son, is very well handled. *** from ****

I've only seen this a couple of times on television as it's one of those forgotten Christmas classics that didn't get that much airplay over the years. It's not a traditional sentimental Christmas film but it's setting is during the Christmas season. Robert Mitchum stars as a department store sales clerk who falls for a WWII war widow who is the mother of a boy and engaged to be married. Janet Leigh co-stars with Wendell Corey as her fiancé. Harry Morgan is among the supporting cast. Janet Leigh had made almost a dozen films since her screen debut a couple two years before A Holiday Affair was made but this was only her second film in a lead actress role. The whole cast is great in this adaptation of a story called Christmas Gift by magazine writer John D. Weaver. Don Hartman only directed five films in his career including this but was a busy guy in Hollywood as a screenwriter, producer, director and composer. Veteran cinematographer Milton Krasner whose career extended from the 30's into the 70's photographs this film. His excellent work included The Farmer's Daughter, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Seven Year Itch, Bus Stop and The Sterile Cukoo. Harry Marker whose film career began in the silents and went into the sixties is the film's editor. It's a good story with a good script and I would give it an 8.0 out of 10.

This really is a nice, little Christmas movie that gets very little airplay. Still waiting for it to make it to DVD. No big musical numbers or production standards, just a simple story about a young widow (Janet Leigh) and her son and how their lives turn upside down once Christmas season when a rather aimless drifter (Robert Mitchum) enters the picture. Some very good supporting actors throughout. Skip the remake. It does play from time to time (Turner Classics), so if you get a chance, watch it...don't expect that much, just a warm little picture, like a nice hot cup of coffee on a cold winter night. With all the crap that has become annual Xmas "Classics"...this one is just patiently sitting on the shelves...waiting. It really deserves it.