Home :: DVD :: Classics  

Action & Adventure
Boxed Sets
Comedy
Drama
General
Horror
International
Kids & Family
Musicals
Mystery & Suspense
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Silent Films
Television
Westerns
Christmas in Connecticut

Christmas in Connecticut

List Price:
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Unsung Christmas Classic
Review: I love this film and watch it every year. The movie (set in WW2 America) stars Barbara Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane, who writes a successful magazine article about her life in Connecticut. She lives on a farm, she has a husband and a baby, and she's a great cook and housewife! Or is she? In truth, she makes up everything in her articles, and her Hungarian friend, Felix, (a real master chef) sends her recipes to put in her articles. Her editor, Dudley, knows this. Her publisher, Mr. Yardley, does not. So one christmas, Mr. Yardley asks Elizabeth to entertain a hospital-striken sailor at her farm over the holidays. To make things worse, Mr. Yardley, feeling lonely for the holidays, decides to come to the farm as well. Not knowing what to do, her suitor, Mr John Sloane (works as an architect) offers to let her use the farm he owns in Connecticut, Nora, the housekeeper, will take care of the housekeeping and Felix volunteers to come and do the cooking. But even with an experienced crew, this plan seems to have "Titanic" written all over it (it seems doomed to fail). Humorous dialog, loveable characters, an old-fashioned christmas spirit, and a couple of annoying people whose halls you would love to deck (Sloane), make Christmas in Connecticut great holiday fun for the young and young at heart.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A holiday movie must see
Review: I must watch this every year during the holidays. Great story. Don't get the remake, it doesn't even come close.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Babs @ one of her best
Review: I wanted to comment on this wonderful film. To me it is one of the most romantic holiday films around. If you note the piano scene with Dennis Morgan and how Barbara falls for him quick while trimming the tree--it just doesn't get any better than this. It's a shame todays movies can't show this type of compassion anymore.
The whole film is clever, fast paced and most of all entertaining for every age to watch.
This is one of my favorites for the holidays but being a Stanwyck fan all are my favorites that she is starring.
Meet John Doe is another choice for the holidays along with The Bishops Wife, Little Women,1933 Kate Hepburn version; It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.
If you have not checked these movies out please do so and you will see why these black and white treasures are so good. And to keep these movies for our enjoyment remember Film Preservation.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Where's the DVD?!?!?
Review: It's funny, it's fast-paced, it blows the later version out of the water... but why, why WHY isn't it on DVD? I refuse to buy it on VHS.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Far Down My List of Holiday Classics
Review: Let me preface this by saying I love to watch "It's A Wonderful Life", "White Christmas" and "Holiday Inn" every holiday season. A friend of mine recommended this film as a holiday classic.

Compared to the others, it pales miserably. The plot is stretched far too thin, and there's only one - ONE - song in the whole movie. If you're not going to have a good plot, at least provide some good song and dance (and in that era, song and dance was at its best). If you're not going to have any singing or dancing, then give us a plot.

For those who love any and every movie from that era, by all means get it. For those who love any and every holiday movie, go ahead and get it. For those who want a little more, don't waste your money. Get one of the films I've listed above, or a modern classic like the George C. Scott "Christmas Carol".

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of Stanwyck's better romantic comedies
Review: My favorite female performer in the history of film is Barbara Stanwyck. Unlike many actresses, she could excell in sympathetic roles, comedic roles, and sinister roles. We could love her or hate her. Unfortunately, this enormous versatility of hers kept her from making as many romantic or screwball comedies as I would have liked. As great as she could be in comedy (especially in her three great comedic pictures, BALL OF FIRE, her other, even better, holiday film REMEMBER THE NIGHT, and the incomparably brilliant THE LADY EVE, which provided her with one two or three greatest screen roles, and which also took place partly in Connecticut), she made comparably few.

CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT is a good film, and Stanwyck is Stanwyck, but despite many fine and enjoyable moments, it does not rank among her very best. The problem does not lie with her, but with her costar Dennis Morgan, who although quite handsome and possessed of a beautiful baritone, was more than a little stiff as an actor, and not terribly good at comedy. The supporting cast, however, is utterly first rate. The film provided S. K. "Cuddles" Sakall one of his finest roles, as Felix, the person who provides columnist Stanwyck her recipes. Reginald Gardiner is also excellent, as the would-be and more than a little dull suitor, less oily and dislikable than most of his other roles. Sydney Greenstreet is great in a role that we more normally associate with Charles Coburn in the forties.

But a couple of things keep me from liking this film as much as I might have. First, there is the aforementioned Morgan. I find him just a little too dull. A good singer and serviceable in musicals, but not a comic talent. I know Cary Grant and Joel McCrea weren't available for every film being made in the decade, but I do regret that someone with a little more charisma. Second, there is a problem with the script that makes the film seem too formulaic for me. Now, this is a formula picture, like most comedies, apart from the greatest classics (like THE LADY EVE or BRINGING UP BABY, which, by the way, used the same house as this one). The trick with the good formula pictures is that they don't allow the formula to drive the picture as key moments. This one does. For instance, when Barbara meets Dennis Morgan for the first time, she is almost instantly smitten with him. Why? Was it because things happened that indicated a magical chemistry? No, it was because the plot required that she fall in love with him right away. Contrast this with the long initial seduction scene where Barbara causes Henry Fonda to fall in love with her in THE LADY EVE, during which she unexpectedly falls in love with her prey. Now, later in the film, her talent takes several scenes over and she makes their attraction seem more plausible than the script itself does. But their first several minutes seem faked, more a need of the film's story than anything else.

Still, another good Barbara Stanwyck movie. Not all of her movies are good, but I have never seen her in a film in which she wasn't superb. Anyone seeing this primarily because it is a holiday movie should definitely go out of their way to see the even better REMEMBER THE NIGHT, in which Barbara goes home with Fred MacMurray to Indiana for the holidays.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love it, but can't find it :.(
Review: My mother and I saw this cute movie way back in the early 80's when Beta was still around. We taped it on Beta, but now we can't even find that tape. We both just love this movie, it was on t.v., but now they play the awful 1992 version. If you have this video, I would consider you to be very fortunate. p.s. if you do order it online, they always tell you after you place the order that they all of the sudden don't have it. Very annoying.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A YEAR 'ROUND CHRISTMAS FANTASY!
Review: Not many movies continue to delight me over the years as much as this Christmas classic filmed in 1945. This is one of those black and white "take me back" flicks that I love to watch year 'round despite it's holiday mood. Much like an I Love Lucy plot, the madcap story line here bounces from room to room in a beautiful Connecticut country home setting. A lovely Barbara Stanwyck literally floats through each scene in glamourous period style...while Dennis Morgan provides the handsome romantic interest. Sidney Greenstreet and Reginal Gardiner are equally entertaining in this charming tale, but it's the lovable "Uncle Felix" (played by S. Z. Sakall) who adds the perfect zip to this wonderful comic farce and leaves me wanting to adopt him! Fun to watch when you need a reminder of better times!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Possibly the best Christmas Romance Film?
Review: Stanwyck is great as bride to be that is having second thoughts. However, Morgan's acting is strong also. He goes unnoticed in most films but was a very capable actor, check out KITTY FOYLE. He plays the visiting sailor that woos Stanwyck away from her husband to be.

This is a christmas classic. The settings and the story make for a great christmas romance.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The movie itself is a Christmas Classic...
Review: The feeeling of Christmas and family comes through quite well..The scenery is beautiful and reminds me of home at christmas time..the beautiful home is my favorite part of the movie one i would love to build some day....


<< 1 2 3 4 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates