Christmas holiday
(Favourites DVDs)

Made in 1944

Based on a story by Somerset Maugham

Cast: Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly, Dean Harens, Gale Sondergaard, Richard Whorf, Gladys George, David Bruce

Credits: music, Hans Salter

Deanna Durbin, better known for her roles in all-singing, all-dancing musical comedies, strikes out in this bleak, brooding Hollywood film noir. She plays Jackie Lamont, a femme-fatale nightclub singer with a dark secret. An army lieutenant, Charles Mason (Dean Harens), recently jilted by his fiancee, meets her in a New Orleans bordello and the two strike up a conversation. Her story then unfolds in flashback as she recounts it to the lieutenant. As a young woman, Jackie had married a Southern aristocrat, Robert Manette (Gene Kelly), only to discover that he was unstable and violent. After he was arrested for murder, Jackie ran away from her life of misery and changed her identity, believing that her husband was safely behind bars serving life imprisonment. But unbeknownst to her, he has escaped and is intent on tracking her down...

BBFC code: PG