“Christmas in Connecticut”, with Barbara Stanwyck.
As a good feminist, my first reaction to this one is, “Thank goodness things have changed!”
This classic 1945 “oh-what-a-tangled-web-we-weave” comedy manages to be a lot of fun, though.
Let’s see if I can keep all the subterfuge straight here. A hospitalized veteran is on strict orders–no solid food. To get a thick steak, he turns on the charm for a nurse–who begins hearing wedding bells in the distance.
Meanwhile, a single and completely undomestic magazine columnist passes herself off, every month, as “Mrs. Lane”, the go-to authority on cooking and home economics. Then, fate throws veteran and columnist together–at a Connecticut farmhouse owned by the columnist’s would-be fiance. Their meeting happens just as the columnist’s boss invites himself to visit her and her “husband”, for Christmas. (Yes, it’s convoluted–and enough to leave any twenty-first century career woman shuddering with “was-that-really-how-it-was” horror.)
But, it also manages to be a great time–and worth seeing just for S.Z. Sakall’s hilarious and down-to-earth “Felix”, who plays the role of favorite uncle/benevolent meddler to the hilt. His pithy comments at one “luncheon” scene are classic!