This is supposed to be a Christmas Classic, and it's also written by Preston Sturges (before he started directing himself), AND it stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, who also team up in the greatest Film Noir of all time, Double Indemnity, so (I thought, upon hearing about it) sign me up! Well, the first thing to note is that their characters are about as far from those in Double Indemnity as you could imagine (even though Stanwyck is putatively a hardbitten shoplifter), and the second thing is that this is more like the Sturges of Sullivan's Travels, particularly the part when Sullivan gets thrown in prison, than the knockabout Sturges of Miracle of Morgan's Creek. This is much more "heartwarming" than it is "gutbusting." The funniest part of the film is probably the trial at the beginning. The film begins with Stanwyck's Lee Leander lifting a valuable bracelet from a jewelry store but then getting arrested when she tries to pawn it. Then we see a bit of business as the DA insists that his star prosecutor, MacMurray's John Sargent, be the one who prosecutes her, as he's particularly good at getting convictions against women (and as it's just before Xmas, when juries are particularly soft-hearted, this conviction will be especially tricky). The funny part is Lee's defense attorney, who is a giant ham and has just about convinced the jury that Lee is a victim of hypnotism when John insists that such a charge requires confirmation by an expert witness, who is on holiday until after Xmas, so the trial will have to be adjourned. This is really because he knows that if the trial were to wind up today the defense will surely win. However, he feels a bit guilty that Lee will have to spend Xmas in jail, so he asks the bail bondsman, Fat Mike, if he will bail Lee out as a favor. Mike misunderstands and thinks that John wants to abuse his position and get himself some action from a desperate woman, and so he drops Lee off at John's apartment (which he shares with his (lamentably simple) black butler). Lee is naturally wary at first, but then relieved and then a bit insulted that it's all a misunderstanding and John has no interest in her. She also reveals that she's got nowhere to stay because she got turfed out of the hotel she had been staying in for not paying the rent. John takes her out for a meal
(and gets seen by the judge who is naturally horrified at the prosecuting cavorting with the defendant) and discovers that Lee, like him, is from Indiana, where he's about to drive to visit his mother. He offers to drop her off at her mother's and pick her up on his way back, and she takes him up on the idea, after allowing him to convince her that her mother will be pleased to see her. Her mother is not pleased to see her. We discover this after some adventures in Pennsylvania, where a detour strands them in a farmer's field
and they almost get arrested, but Lee's quick thinking allows them to escape. Anyway, her mother has remarried and is an old harridan who has never forgiven Lee for "borrowing" money that was earmarked for religious purposes, and John quickly decides that she should come and stay at his family farm. The contrast is stark: where Lee's mother's house looked deserted, with all the lights out, John's mother's farm is ablaze with light. She lives there with her spinster sister Emmy (with whom she has a very warm, if bickering relationship) and a younger male relative, Willie (played by voice-of-Pooh Sterling Holloway) who seems as simple as John's butler.
They welcome Lee into the bosom of the family, even though John lets his mother know that she's a thief.
Over the Xmas break, Emmy becomes convinced (and is happy about it, not knowing about the thief business) that John and Lee are in love, and she also convinces Ma Sargent, who is less pleased. She goes to Lee and gently convinces her that it would be selfish of her to wreck John's career (which he had to work hard to build, particularly given their poverty when he was little).
This weighs heavily on Lee, and although John is smitten, and takes her on a detour through Niagara Falls, and plans to tank his prosecution, she is torn. Back in the courtroom there is further jeopardy: the judge who saw them at the restaurant is divulging his misgivings to John's boss, and says that John will probably sabotage the prosecution. Will everything go wrong? Will love tank all that John has worked for? Can Lee love herself? All is revealed in the thrilling, bittersweet conclusion.
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