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"[Holiday Affair] has a few more perks than just the magical realism if Santa Claus exists or not. It is about real people. It is about the holidays not being as easy as people think. It is also remarkably lady-power fueled for a 1940s film ... (1/)
"... and I think this fact often flies over the average moviegoers perception of "Holiday Affair." In a time when women struggled for agency, Janet Leigh's Connie Ennis has enough of it to make her way in the world and with an 8-year-old son! (2/)
"She herself holds the reigns of whom she wants to be with, the free-spirited Steve or the steady and reliable and almost more of a friend Carl. The problem is that she channels those reigns through her son ... (3/)
"...who she practically suffocates herself with with the need to be with the more reliable man. Steve Mason finally buckles down realizing the situation. [...] (4/)
While I can understand that a lot of current feminists would call this piece of Lennart's dialogue an immediate mansplanation on the surface, it's not that Steve is actually explaining Connie to herself, but trying to get through to a place that she has deadened herself to. (5/)
"If another woman character was brought onto the film to have this same conversation with Connie, she could be doubly perceived as one of those women who just don't support women. Regardless, the root of all of this is about Connie's true agency that she has kept locked up. (6/)
""Holiday Affair" is a brevy of psychological effects of the widows of WW2 and it's truly remarkable. Let me reiterate the fact that Carl and Steve are never pitted against one another or do they look at one another as threats! (7/)
"...They come across more amused over one another's existence. Carl even semi-heartedly helps Steve get out of an arrest when he's suspected of stealing supposedly gifted salt and pepper shakers he was given on Christmas Day! (8/)
"...It may also be telling that this film was written by a woman and not a man like "Miracle on 34th Street" had been with its themes of consumerism and male power over corporation culture. (9/)
"..."Holiday Affair" is a fantastic little fable that all women, whether widowed or not, deserve to chase after the guy that makes your knee caps melt. (/10)
