Christmas in July (1940) - film review

Jimmy MacDonald is a low-paid clerk in the Baxter Coffee House Company.   Desperately short of cash, he enters a rival company’s slogan competition, and expects to win the $25,000 prize.  His colleagues decide to play a practical joke on him, sending him a faked telegram claiming he won the prize.  Jimmy is jubilant at his stroke of good fortune.  He immediately goes on a spending spree, buying an expensive engagement ring for his girlfriend Betty and presents for everyone in his street.  Hearing the good news, Jimmy’s boss offers him a new job, devising advertising slogans for his company.   But when the fraud is exposed it looks as if Jimmy will lose everything...

Short and sweet and frantically funny is one way to sum up Preston Sturges’s second film, Christmas in July.  For many years, this has been one of Sturges’s most underrated works, partly on account of its short runtime (it is just over an hour in length), but also because of its apparent frivolity.  Appearances, however, can be deceptive, and there is far more to this film than first meets the eye.  

With a frothy mix of satire, slapstick and screwball comedy that is uniquely Sturges, Christmas in July is a film which is tirelessly funny, with jokes flying around so thick and fast that you’re unlikely to catch them all in a single viewing.  Yet, as in this director’s other film comedies, there is a hard edge of realism to the exuberant humour, and more than a suggestion of wry social commentary.    

Some parts of the film are surprisingly tough, accurately reflecting the real hardship experienced by most ordinary Americans at the time.  The outrageous comedy is brilliantly undercut in places by some moments of genuine pathos, which make the point, very effectively, that there is far more to life than the pursuit of wealth.   The film’s hero – superbly played by Dick Powell, a great choice for a role that combines melodrama and farce  – is a man who clearly doesn’t need money to be happy; the love of a good woman is far more important, and this he has in the bag.

For its time, Christmas in July is actually quite a subversive film, since it exposes the hollow reality that lies behind the much-vaunted American dream.  What Jimmy MacDonald’s experiences show is that people succeed in life (i.e. get rich, fat and litigious) not because they are talented, but because they are lucky.  The capitalist system is one that rewards a fortunate minority on the basis of chance, not ability.  The whole thing is just a fancy game of roulette...

© James Travers 2008

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