Christmas Holiday

It has one of the most unlikely casts in film noir: musical-comedy stars Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly must have shocked audiences as the leads in Robert Siodmak’s Christmas Holiday. Kelly plays Robert Manette, a gangster and murderer in prison for life, and Durbin plays his forlorn wife Abigail who’s resorted to singing in nightclubs in his absence. When U.S. Army officer Charlie Mason (Dean Harens) is diverted to New Orleans due to bad weather, he meets Abigail and hears her life story, whether he wants to or not. Siodmak creates a unique intimacy, especially whenever the unusually contemporary Durbin is on screen, which alternates with enormous stage pieces like midnight mass at a Roman Catholic cathedral and a Wagner concert at symphony hall, where Durbin and Kelly enjoy a gorgeous rendition of the climactic “Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde, which comes back at the film’s end. Abigail’s devotion to Robert is thoroughly believable from Durbin (“As if you could stop loving because it’s shameful to love”), even if Kelly seems to be phoning it in at times. A highly unusual, fascinating, and early noir from one of the greatest masters of the cycle.