Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

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A homemaking writer (Barbara Stanwyck) finds herself in a jam after her magazine editor (Sydney Greenstreet) invites himself and a wounded war hero (Dennis Morgan) to her house for Christmas dinner to experience the life she writes about. Trouble is, she isn’t anything she claims to be in her articles — she’s not married, does not have a baby, doesn’t live on a beautiful farm, and can’t cook to save her life! With the help of her fiancée (Reginald Gardiner) and a restauranteur (S.Z. Sakall), the writer is able to fabricate the perfect holiday for everyone. But when the writer starts to fall for the war hero, the whole scheme begins to unravel.

Christmas in Connecticut is a satisfying screwball comedy where nothing goes according to plan and every effort to remedy the situation backfires ten-fold. Stanwyck plays it straight, affording everyone else comic reactions to her shenanigans. Highlights include a test of Stanwyck’s flapjack flipping ability and Sydney Greenstreet’s disbelief after she tries to pass off one borrowed baby for another. The plotting gets pretty tangled at times, but the cast keep everything light and bubbly. S.Z. Sakall steals many scenes as the Hungarian chef with a loose grasp of the English language. Daffy character actress Una O’Connor (The Invisible Man, The Adventures of Robin Hood) also has her moments as the territorial housekeeper.