starring Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly
directed by Robert Siodmak
93 minutes
On Christmas Eve, Charlie, a serviceman who has just learned that his fiance has married another man before he could get home on leave to marry her, meets Abigail (Deanna Durbin), whose husband Robert (Gene Kelly) is in prison for murder. Abigail feels as if she didn't do enough to help guide Robert away from the path that he chose to take.
Abigail's been suffering internally for the two-and-a-half years since Robert was locked up. She changed her name and been working as a nightclub singer. She unburdens herself by telling Charlie her story but then Robert returns, after breaking out of prison. He is convinced that she is to blame and is looking for payback.
I'm not so sure about the character of Charlie. The movie followed him for almost 25 minutes before Abigail entered the picture. I wasn't impressed with the performance of the actor who portrayed him. I didn't feel as if having him in the story added much even though it felt like there was some potential there.
This is ostensibly a Christmas movie but the presence of the holiday isn’t terribly noticeable, outside of a scene that takes place at midnight mass. The movie probably could have been set at any other time of year without changing very much. The story came from a novel of the same name. Maybe Christmas played a bigger role in the book.
There were a couple other characters who play pivotal roles in the story I don't feel that it was necessary to mention them in my brief synopsis of the movie.
There is a piece of music used in the movie that foreshadowed how it might end but I was unfamiliar with the music so it didn’t register with me.
The plot seemed a bit odd but that's mostly because of the half-hearted inclusion of Charlie. Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly were both quite good. I was very moved by how the film ended.
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