Every holiday season, the team here at Spoiler Free Reviews chooses some relevant content to review for the site. Some new, some classics, but most often, we choose a favorite from our lives. This year, I wanted to choose a film I had never seen before, and thus, that’s how HOLIDAY AFFAIR came into my life.Â
I was excited to visit a black and white film from 1949 starring a young Vivian Leigh. Depending on your age and classic film knowledge, you may know Leigh best as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO or perhaps as Jamie Lee Curtis’ mom. She appears alongside 32-year-old Robert Mitchum, who was more well-known for his film noir roles of the 1940s at the time. For the uninitiated, HOLIDAY AFFAIR is about a widow & mom named Connie (Leigh), who meets toy salesman Steve (Mitchum) while holiday shopping. She must choose between falling in love with Steve or marrying her long-time friend Carl, played by Wendell Corey.
Now, if this were a film in 2023, I’d like to think that Connie would just decide to keep going on her own or take it slow with a new beau. She has a lovely apartment and a decent job, plus she’s a mom to a young boy. In the grand scheme of things, she doesn’t need to rush into any relationship or marriage with anyone. But in 1949, at least in Hollywood films, a woman’s role was to marry the first handsome man who asked her, so people didn’t think she’d turn into an “old maid.” The irony is not lost on me that Leigh was just 22 years old here and playing mom to an almost 7-year-old boy and that her husband was killed in WW2. From here, you know where the story is going and that Connie is, of course, going to choose either Steve or Carl.Â
In the decades since HOLIDAY AFFAIR was released, women in romantic comedies & other romance films have long chosen the exciting bad boys over the stable company of nice, possibly boring men. Maybe my young self would have chosen Blane in PRETTY IN PINK, but all these years later, Duckie is clearly the right choice for Andie. Unfortunately, there’s less comedy in this film, and it needed something more. More laughs or more drama, more to care about. Just when I thought that a movie from 7 decades ago would allow a single man and single woman to be friends, HOLIDAY AFFAIR falls back into the trope of men exerting what seems like ownership over a pretty, available woman in their life.Â
Does HOLIDAY AFFAIR have some redeeming qualities? Yes, of course! Seeing the depictions of long-gone department stores selling toys with real salespeople is magical. And watching customers get dressed up in suits and dresses to go to the store. There are a couple of fun scenes taking place at the Central Park Zoo, and Leigh and Mitchum are wonderful in their leading roles. Unfortunately, they lack any natural chemistry, and there’s just a lot at stake to take HOLIDAY AFFAIR to the next level.
HOLIDAY AFFAIR is currently streaming on MAX, MAX with Prime and TCM. You can also rent or buy it from your favorite retailer.
