Overrated

Excellent but underrated film

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Well to kick off our "Third Annual Christmas Watching Season" we put on the classic film "Christmas in July" This 1940 Film is a Gem "Christmas in July", is written and directed by Academy Award winner Preston Sturges. In this film a workplace practical joke goes awry when an office clerk (Dick Powell), believing he has won a $25,000 prize, takes his girlfriend (Ellen Drew) on an extravagant Christmas shopping spree… in the middle of July! After they discover it was all a hoax, their spending spree turns into a wild slapstick riot. More than just a holiday heart-warmer, this madcap masterpiece is a classic gift of laughter that is perfect for every season.The fast paced film runs only 69 Minutes but not a minute goes by without 10 laughs!

The premise behind "Christmas In July" seems arresting: Capitalism is a sucker's game that can be fun to play anyway. Yet its execution is not sharp. This early Preston Sturges comedy is more interesting for the ideas that seemed to shape it than for anything on-screen.Jimmy MacDonald (Dick Powell) is a lowly office drone at a coffee company who has big dreams. His latest involves coming up with a new slogan for a rival coffee company, a contest hosted on a national radio program. Surprise, surprise, he gets a telegram telling him he's the winner, but no sooner does he share his joy with the neighborhood than everything goes to pot.Weighing in at under 70 minutes, "Christmas In July" won't overtax your patience. The bouncy concept of early 20th-century marketing gone awry is pleasant for a while. Compare it to the Depression-era films of Frank Capra, where some greedy fat cat was cheating the little guy of his just reward: Here Sturges gives us no easy villains, presenting us instead with a more sophisticated, rather disturbing if nonetheless heartwarming critique of American life.In fact, it's a mid-manager at MacDonald's company, a guy named Waterbury whom Sturges initially establishes as a bullying bad guy in the Capra mold, who winds up surprising both MacDonald and us by graciously offering a heartfelt, humanitarian perspective on things:"Ambition is alright if it works, but no system can be right where only one-half of one percent were successes and the rest were failures."Waterbury urges MacDonald to let go of his dreams and focus on doing what he can, content in being able to live upright and look people he cares about in the eye. It's a bracingly fresh and balanced perspective from Hollywood, then or now.The problem "Christmas In July" has may be related to that sensibility, though: It's stiff and takes itself too seriously most of the way through. Taken from a stage play, the film only has five or six scenes, which means Sturges doesn't give himself much room for subplots. Powell is surprisingly hard to warm up to in the central performance, and the sentimentality gets rather gooey, as when Jimmy and his girlfriend Betty (Ellen Drew, not much better than Powell) play Santa to their impoverished neighborhood, treating the kids to ice cream and a wheelchair-bound girl with her own doll. The girl has black rings painted under her eyes in case the wheelchair wasn't enough for you.For gags, we get too much sputtering, snarling, and people putting on goofy hats. There's even people pelted with fish and vegetables. It's like Sturges went back and added this material when he realized he wasn't getting enough laughs in the reading room.The whole marketing gimmick of coming up with a new slogan for Maxford House Coffee, because everyone agrees the old one is too tired ("Grand To The Last Gulp" doesn't sound like anything that would fly today, does it?) has potential, and MacDonald's alternative slogan is pretty funny because it is so terrible. It's long, requires convoluted logic to appreciate, and serves to remind people why they don't use the product half the day."It's a pun," MacDonald explains to Dr. Maxford himself."It certainly is," Maxford deadpans. "It's great. I can hardly wait to give you my money."But the notion of marketing as a science people put their faith in without really understanding is only lightly touched upon. The reaction of Jimmy's employer at the other coffee company seems similarly like a wasted opportunity, as his apparent brainstorm has benefited a competitor. They just want a chance to bask in his genius, too, until it is exposed for what it really is. That's pretty much the whole of the plot, Jimmy and Betty trying to do right in good and bad times."Christmas In July" has some fun performances, a clever ending, and a pure heart, but don't mistake this for one of those classics upon which Sturges built his reputation.

Enjoyed "Christmas In July" as it was funny but not uproariously so. The hero, Dick Powell, thinks he has won a 25,000 dollar prize for submitting the winning slogan for Maxford House coffee, but he really didn't - it was the result of a practical joke by some co-workers. The story hinges, then, on a mean-spirited prank, which for me took some of the fun out of the movie.Dick Powell and Ellen Drew were the couple who had great plans but were brought down to earth when the hoax was uncovered. The best role in the picture went to Raymond Walburn as the bombastic, harried President of Maxford House and who had some of the best lines. Powell's character turns out to be a big-hearted, generous sort, with presents for as many neighbors and acquaintances as he could think of, which I felt made the joke even more heartless. I know, it was only a movie, but that's the way it struck me. De gustibus non est disputandum, as they say.

This is probably my favorite Presto Sturgess film--and I am not sure wonder why it's one of his least famous films. This is because although the story is quite simple, it's presented absolutely perfectly. The dialog, the characters and everything about the production is top-notch. In fact, it's so good I give it a 10--something I actually do pretty rarely. But it has got to be one of the best comedies of its time--in the same league as great comedies such as "Bringing Up Baby", "His Girl Friday" and "Arsenic and Old Lace" (all, incidentally, which starred Cary Grant).The film stars Dick Powell and Ellen Drew. I have always liked Powell in films where he didn't sing--he had a nice presence about him and was underrated as an actor. As for Powell, he, too, hated the singing in all his earlier films and I am sure he liked having a break in the usual routine. However, if you've seen many of writer/director Sturgess' films, you'll know that the real stars of his movies are the wonderful supporting characters. Raymond Walburn is simply terrific but Franklin Pangborn, William Demerest (who seems to be in almost EVERY Sturgess film) and Ernest Truex are just wonderful and add so much color to the movie.Powell plays a guy who is always entering jingle contests (something rather popular back in the good 'ol days) but keeps failing. He is especially excited about a coffee company that is giving away a $25,000 first prize--and that's all he thinks about or talks of to his fiancé or at work. To play a joke on him (a very, very unfunny one), one of his co-workers decide to send him a phony telegram saying he's won this contest. As soon as this occurs, an unexpected chain of events takes place and the joke goes spiraling out of control. I'd say more, but I don't want to ruin the film. Just see the movie--it will give you quite a few laugh out loud moments and is clever and supremely well-constructed. A must-see.