Abstract
Occasionally, someone’s list of favorite holiday films includes a strange offering released by Universal Pictures in 1944 called Christmas Holiday. Starring Gene Kelly and child star Deanna Durbin, it sounds like a festive seasonal film. A few scenes were set in Yuletide locales such as Catholic Midnight Mass but the tale of a murderous Southern aristocrat (Kelly) and the woman he brings down (Durban) is now regarded as early film noir, the second such work from director Robert Siodmak.
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