CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY: sadly lacking in the Yuletide cheer department

CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY is a real Hollywood oddity and not in a good way. Despite the title there's nothing festive or heartwarming about this tale of a nightclub singer who's swept off her feet by a dashing and wealthy young man who turns out to be a wastrel of the worst kind.
What makes this such an odd drama is the casting. A young and decidedly lightweight Gene Kelly plays the dashing cad, while teen singing sensation Deanna Durbin makes her dramatic debut as the young woman he wrongs. Although CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY was her first serious acting part, the 22 year old Durbin was a Hollywood veteran, having starred in a series of musical vehicles dating back to 1936.
On the evidence of CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY she should have stuck to the warbling which made her famous. She gives a one-note performance which lacks depth and believability. Her movements look awkward and rehearsed, and her.limited emotional range is further stunted by a surfeit of facial puppy fat which severely restricts her ability to register any expression other than sullenness, topped off by an overly red pair of "trout-pout" lips.
Her unconvincing portrayal of a woman to whom horrible things are happening is matched by Robert Siodmak's lacklustre direction. Too often he pads the running time with long, pointless scene-setting shots which do nothing to advance the story.
An all-round disappointment CHRISTMAS STORY is really only worth watching as an example of how even the Hollywood studio system occasionally got it completely wrong.