It premiered 75 years ago this week, but Holiday Affair<\/em> is in some ways more progressive than the retrograde Christmas romances that currently clog the streaming pipeline. It presents a simple love triangle, but the competition between brash aspiring boat builder Steve Mason (Robert Mitchum) and dependable lawyer Carl Davis (Wendell Corey) for the affections of widow Connie Ennis (Janet Leigh) includes a looming additional obstacle: Connie\u2019s late husband, who was killed in World War II and whose portrait is displayed prominently at her bedside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the moment that comparison shopper Connie meets department store clerk Steve, it\u2019s obvious that they\u2019ll end up together. She\u2019s wading through the holiday rush of children in the toy department to get Steve to sell her an expensive train set (more than $1,000 in 2024 dollars), and he immediately clocks her as a fake customer. Mitchum often played shady characters and hard-boiled antiheroes, and he brings just enough of that edge to his performance to make Steve seem like a charming rogue, someone who instantly catches Connie\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She puts that out of her mind, though, because she has such a loyal man at home. Carl is devoted and diligent, but he isn\u2019t portrayed as a pushover or a loser, and he\u2019s even allowed to help Connie with the dishes without becoming a punchline. \u201cYou\u2019re a very pleasant man\u201d is the most ardent compliment she can pay him even while they\u2019re ostensibly happy together, so there\u2019s no question that their union won\u2019t last. But there\u2019s also no question that some other woman will be lucky to end up with Carl on the rebound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Connie and Steve don\u2019t need an elaborate meet-cute, but they do get into some mild shenanigans before fully making a connection. When she comes back to the store to return the train set, he takes pity on her and decides not to report her to the store detective for corporate espionage, which results in him losing his job instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The movie never shames Connie for being a working single mother, and neither Steve nor Carl are ever condescending about her dedication to her job. Even though Steve is the one who\u2019s now unemployed, he tags along with Connie on her next excursion, helping her carry packages before getting lost in the holiday shopping shuffle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At that point he becomes a bit like the prototypical stalker-ish rom-com leading man. He goes to great lengths to track down Connie\u2019s address so he can return her items, but he clearly has more on his mind than just ensuring that she doesn\u2019t get in trouble at work. He asserts his position as a potential match for Connie while going toe to toe with Carl in awkward small talk (both saying \u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d over and over) and bonding with Connie\u2019s young son Timmy (Gordon Gebert), then overdramatically states that he\u2019ll leave her alone forever, since she\u2019s already committed to Carl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, though, he comes up behind her and forcibly grabs her for a kiss that she hasn\u2019t consented to, although she melts into his embrace, as expected. Steve is no brute, but that kiss provides another contrast between him and Carl: Carl has been patiently waiting for two years for Connie to agree to marry him, while Steve marches in and takes what he wants. A less graceful movie would then allow Steve to run roughshod over Carl, whom Connie would easily toss aside, but Holiday Affair<\/em> keeps Carl around, as a further example of healthy masculinity for both Timmy and the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Steve later observes, his real competition isn\u2019t Carl as much as it\u2019s Timmy\u2019s late father, whose memory is kept alive via Christmas visits from his parents and Connie\u2019s insistence on keeping Timmy as the spitting image of the man he never really knew. Connie\u2019s in-laws refer to each other as \u201cMother\u201d and \u201cFather\u201d and have the kind of bland, reliable relationship that Carl offers. Numbed by years of grief, though, what she needs is someone bold and vibrant like Steve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet Steve is reliable, too, and that\u2019s the key to Holiday Affair<\/em>. It\u2019s easy to imagine Connie settling down with Carl, but it\u2019s also easy to imagine her settling down with Steve. Both men are eager to be father figures for Timmy, both respect and adore Connie, and both understand and honor the memory of the husband she lost, even as they prod her to move on. Christmas is a time of remembrance and hope, a sweet and wistful notion that makes Holiday Affair<\/em> more enduring than flashier, emptier holiday romances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Holiday Affair” is available for digital rental or purchase<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/holidayaffair2-1024x576.png\")
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