What is it about Christmas movies and falling in love?  Perhaps I should not complain or question it?  After all, God is love, and the more of it we see in the world, the more we have of Him.  Please include the usual Catholic caveats with that last sentence.  My musings on this subject usually pique around this time of year since I watch so much seasonal material.  I suppose there is only so many times you can tell the story of how the holiday started since Jesus was only physically born once.  Spiritually speaking, He should come into our lives in new and refreshed ways every December 25^th.  What is not fresh, though, are these plots.  I would not be surprised if most people believe that Hallmark invented the Christmas film formula, particular when it comes to romance stories.  As we shall see with Christmas in Connecticut(1945), they are nothing new.

Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) and his United States Navy (USN) shipmate, the poorly named Sinkewicz (Frank Jenks), are far from a Christmas in Connecticut when their destroyer is sunk by a German U-boat in the Atlantic Ocean.  As Jefferson drifts in and out of consciousness brought on by not having eaten in two weeks, he dreams of scrumptious meals to be had if they ever get rescued.  When they do and are convalescing in the hospital, Sinkewicz gets to have all the food about which Jefferson fantasized.  When Jefferson asks his nurse, Mary Lee (Joyce Compton), the reason for his dietary restrictions, she explains that his sacrificing of his rations to Sinkewicz means his stomach is not ready for solid nourishment.  This is when Sinkewicz comes up with the most anti-Catholic (in spirit) scheme ever simply to get a steak: convince Mary to fall in love with Jefferson so that his sustenance can consist of more than just milk.  So much for the sanctity of vocational marriage, but then again, as I have noted often, things were different at this time.  Sinkewicz’s plan work, though maybe too well.  Wanting to do something nice for the man she now hopes to marry, Mary writes to the publisher of the magazine that prints the articles of Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck).  She is what one might call a lifestyle guru, penning stories mainly about all the incredible meals she cooks from her family on their Connecticut farm. The president of the company, Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet), receives Mary’s missive about Jefferson’s plight and her request that the wounded sailor get to spend Christmas on Ms. Lane’s farm and enjoy some Yankee hospitality.  Alexander thinks it a wonderful idea and phones his editor, Dudley Beecham (Robert Shayne), to make the arrangements.  A horrified Dudley visits Elizabeth to tell her about this request, and this is when we learn that she is a fraud.  She is single, lives in a Manhattan apartment, and her meals are prepared for her by her “Uncle” Felix Bassenak (S.Z. Sakall), a chef and owner of a nearby restaurant.  If Alexander learns these truths, Dudley fears that he and Elizabeth will both be fired.  However, there is a solution.  First, she can give in to John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner), an architect who has been trying to get Elizabeth to be his wife for some a while, though she continues to protest that she is not in love with him.  He also happens to have a farm in Connecticut.  You can see where this is going, and further pressure is added when Alexander announces that he would like to also be there with Jefferson for the Holidays.  Elizabeth and John travel to the spread first, bringing Uncle Felix with them to prepare the repasts.  In order to make everything legal, so to speak, John has Judge Crothers (Dick Elliott) come to perform a hasty wedding.  They are not fast enough, though, as Jefferson gets there a few hours early.  As soon as Elizabeth opens the door and lays eyes on Jefferson, it is evident that she is attracted to him.  Uncle Felix observes this, as does John, and they watch suspiciously as Jefferson helps the clueless Elizabeth with a baby that John’s maid, Norah (Una O’Connor), is watching for the day.  The infant is also part of the ruse, which is continued to be made necessary when Alexander arrives shortly thereafter.  From here, it becomes a cat and mouse game, with Elizabeth trying to play the part of a housewife, John trying to get Judge Crothers to wed them, Elizabeth dodging it to spend as much time as she can with Jefferson, Uncle Felix encouraging this last bit because he thinks John unsuitable for Elizabeth, and Alexander observing it all.  It is Alexander who remains the most vigilant, not liking the closeness with which Elizabeth and Jefferson dance with each other during a Christmas town ball.  He watches them through the window as they sneak off into the night, sitting in a sleigh, and being carried off by the overly zealous horse.  He then returns to John’s place in time to see the mother of one of the babies Norah is watching come and take it.  Believing he has just witnessed a kidnapping, he calls the police and reports the incident.  Because he is an important figure, and with the connection to the nationally known reporter Elizabeth, it threatens to become a big story.  Luckily, Elizabeth and Jefferson come home early in the morning, having been inadvertently arrested for making off with the sleigh.  By this point, she is ready to tell the truth to everyone because she is in love with Jefferson.  While she does so with Alexander, admitting her feelings to Jefferson are temporarily stymied when Mary pops in and says that she is Jefferson’s fiancée.  The newly fired Elizabeth goes to pack, dejected, but Uncle Felix intervenes once more.  Having learned that Mary has actually been wedded to Sinkewicz, the real reason for her visit, he tells Jefferson this development.  The sailor then convinces Alexander to give her back her job, again with some help from Uncle Felix, and Jefferson tells all this to Elizabeth.  We end with them kissing.

While watching Christmas in Connecticut, part of me felt an abhorrence for many of the characters involved because of the lengths to which they go to get what they want.  Jefferson is willing to tell Mary that he will be her husband in order to get a steak, and Elizabeth will marry a man she does not love in John to keep her job.  Lying is not ideal in any situation, and the Church teaches us that all untruths, no matter their perceived size, are a sin.  So far, so obvious, but the character I would like to devote some of my Catholic attention to is Alexander.  He is well meaning, and has a strict adherence to telling the truth.  It is because of this rule that Dudley and Elizabeth are so worried about their livelihoods.  Still, no amount of so-called job security is worth the damage to the soul done by sinning.  The person who could use a dose of this sentiment is Elizabeth.  To her credit, she eventually realizes the enormity of her mistake, chiding herself for her lack of, in her words, “moral courage.”  In some respects, she deserves forbearance.  It is no laughing matter to mess with a person’s job, and it is compounded by the fame of her writing.  At the same time, she appears to have been a con-woman from the start, using her friendship with John to gain inspiration for her articles.  Though it is arguably over-quoted, Mark 8:36 is a handy Scripture for this occasion, “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life.”  That describes well this specific situation.  Put another way, Elizabeth in particular, and John to a certain extent, are trying to have their cake and eat it too, no matter what it could cost them.  Therefore, it is refreshing that Elizabeth does get some of that moral courage about which she preached.

There is one more lesson to be had from Christmas in Connecticut about which to preach.  In admonishing Alexander, who is used to being listened to and not the other way around, Elizabeth tells him if he would just be quiet sometimes, he might learn something.  With this being Advent, quiet your heart and let Jesus in.  And then you can watch this movie.