Starring Gale Storm, Victor Moore, Don DeFore, and Charlie Ruggles
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Music by Harry Revel; Lyrics by Harry Revel and Paul Francis Webster
Our last review of 2024 takes us to New York for a lesser-known holiday classic. Monogram had specialized in B movies and cheap programmers for over a decade by then. Hoping to improve their image, they created Allied Artists as their A-picture unit. This romantic comedy would be their first production. It cost over a million, made almost two million at the box office, and scored an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Is it worthy of that praise and popularity, or should it be thrown out in the cold? Let's begin as Mr. Aloysius T. McKeever (Moore) explain his living situation and find out...
The Story: McKeever spends his winters living in the boarded-up 5th Avenue mansion of Michael O'Connor (Ruggles), the second-wealthiest man in the world. He takes in former soldier Jim Bullock (DeFore) when the building he's living in is demolished. Jim invites his old war buddies and their families who are living out of cars to stay, too. Trudy (Storm), an 18-year-old girl who claims she's a runway, turns up there and ends up staying as well.
Turns out Trudy is the daughter of O'Connor, who comes to the house looking for her. She tells him she's in love with Jim and hasn't revealed her real identity because he wants him to love her for more than her money. Mike ends up posing as a homeless man and joining the household, but gets fed up when McKeever treats him like a servant and threatens to call the police. Trudy calls her mother and his ex-wife Mary (Ann Harding) to convince him otherwise. She becomes the household's cook, and to the delight of her daughter and McKeever, falls for Mike all over again.
Mike, however, still objects to his daughter marrying a penniless man. He outbids Mike on buying army barracks that would have been turned into housing for homeless soldiers and offers him a job in Bolivia for a single man. It isn't until he almost loses his family - and sees how his selfishness is effecting everyone's morale - that he begins to understand that love...and Christmastime...are more than a business transaction.
The Song and Dance: No wonder this was such a hit. I'm impressed with how charming and well-written this was. Veteran character actors Moore, Harding, and Ruggles clearly enjoy their roles as the homeless man who has no trouble living in other people's splendor and the unhappy rich couple who learn that money can't buy happiness or real connection with one another. Storm doesn't do badly as their feisty teen daughter, either, coming off far better here than she ever did in her many musicals with Monogram and RKO, with DeFore matching her well as the strong-willed soldier with a dream. The witty script keeps things believable, even when the plot is at its silliest.
The Numbers: We open over the credits with "That Wonderful, Wonderful Feeling," which Trudy, McKeever, and Jim also sing in the park right before they find Mike. Everyone sings "That's What Christmas Means" on Christmas Eve as Trudy plays the piano and McKeever dresses as Santa Claus. The chorus gives us "Speak My Heart" as Jim comes looking for Trudy at the music store. Trudy sings "You're Everywhere" as part of her interview for the music store job; we also hear it as Jim talks to her afterwards. Three Italian men sing "Santa Lucia" in the restaurant where Trudy and Jim have their quarrel over him taking the Bolivian job.
Trivia: Frank Capra was originally going to direct this, but opted for It's a Wonderful Life instead.
What I Don't Like: Cute though this is, I wonder what would have happened if Capra or another prestigious director had taken a crack at it. Del Ruth spent most of his career jumping back and forth between action films and musicals, and his work on this comes off as a bit bland. It would be nice if he'd let even one of the few musical numbers finish. In fact, I wish there were more of them. This might have made a very sweet full musical. DeFore, Storm, Ruggles, and Moore had all done musicals and were good singers, and Harding could have at least gotten by. There's also times when it's clear that Monogram hadn't quite tossed off that cheap image, notably when projected backdrops stand in for New York.
The Big Finale: It's not really a musical, but it is a lovely snuggly comedy with a cute cast and nice performances that deserves to be better-known.
Home Media: Apparently, this vanished for 20 years before it started turning up again on TCM around 2010. Nowadays, it's easy to find on disc and streaming. The former is from the Warner Archives; the latter is on Tubi for free with commercials.
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