I love Netflix, the Internet DVD rental service that has been so helpful
to me in expanding my movie knowledge, but at times I find it
frustrating. This is especially true this time of year. From
mid-November on, I have a keen interest in watching Christmas movies,
but Netflix has no category set aside for seasonal flicks. The only way
for me to browse such movies is to enter a Christmas-related keyword and
hope for the best. This means that I’ve wound up with a lot of movies
with “Christmas” in the title, the latest of which isn’t even a
Christmas movie. However, despite getting off to a somewhat shaky start,
it is quite a cute movie, so I don’t really mind the lack of seasonal
connection.
Christmas in July, written and directed by
Preston Sturges, is a short movie, barely more than an hour long.
Released in 1940, it’s a black and white film that focuses upon Jimmy
MacDonald (Dick Powell), a rather hot-headed young man obsessed with the
thought of winning a slogan contest for a coffee company. I watched
this just after watching That Thing You Do!,
the fun Tom Hanks film about an Erie-based one-hit wonder band’s swift
rise to fame, and I had to laugh when I realized the character’s name
was Jimmy, as that’s also the name of that movie’s ultra-serious
songwriter. This Jimmy reminded me a lot of him initially. He’s a
sourpuss, he doesn’t seem very attentive to his girlfriend and he’s
obsessed with making weird puns that nobody else really gets. I knew
there was a romantic storyline, but I assumed Jimmy was the typical jerk
boyfriend and that the main character would be a sweet guy who Jimmy’s
current girlfriend would realize was much better for her. I was
surprised, then, when I realized that Jimmy was the main character.
My biggest complaint with the movie would have to be this abrupt shift
in characterization. For the first ten minutes or so, he comes across as
argumentative and dismissive, and I found myself wondering why sweet,
demure Betty (Ellen Drew) ever got together with him in the first place.
And then he mentions his mom. And suddenly, he’s this incredibly sweet
Mama’s boy who just wants to give his impoverished mother and his
girlfriend the finer things in life. This desperation to do well by them
is what drives him to such obnoxious behavior. He’s just stressed to
the max. Still, the shift is so abrupt and complete that it gave me
whiplash. Could’ve been handled a bit better if you ask me.
The movie’s premise is that, as a prank, some of Jimmy’s coworkers
decide to send him a phony telegram informing him that he’s won this
contest. Everything is so disorganized that when he goes in to claim the
check, the president of the coffee company doesn’t question it, and
Jimmy’s amazing streak of luck continues. It’s pretty silly and totally
dependent on the complete incompetence of several people. Maxford House
coffee company has been building up to a huge coffee slogan contest for
ages, but on the day of the big announcement of the winner, they still
haven’t chosen one, and their communication with the guy in charge is
abhorrent. Everything about this setup, which is established early in
the movie, exposes this company as very poorly run indeed. What
ridiculous lack of planning!
But this is a comedy, so that’s okay, and Raymond Walburn is hilarious as Dr. Maxford, who, like J. Jonah Jameson
in the Spider-Man movies, always seems about two seconds away from
having a coronary. He revels in shouting at his underlings in the most
animated of language, often employing strange metaphors like “a gang of
horse whistles who wouldn't know a slogan from a poke in the eye with a
stick!” When he’s not busy blowing a gasket, his dry sarcasm is just as
funny.
Ernest Truex is a bit more restrained as J. B. Baxter, a
higher-up at Jimmy’s company. He does have quite the temper, and he’s
jumping to quick conclusions when we first see him, getting all worked
up over Jimmy’s display of euphoria in the workplace. When he realizes
why he’s so happy, however, all is forgiven, and Jimmy actually gets a
promotion because of it. If he could win such a prestigious contest,
then he must be good at coming up with slogans, even if they don’t make a
lot of sense to Mr. Baxter. He’s a funny character because there’s so
much artifice in what he does. Jimmy impresses him because somebody rich
and important awarded him a prize, and he’s more inclined to trust that
person’s opinions than his own. He’s a nice enough guy, a bit of a
softie underneath a lot of bluster, but he’s a good example of what can
be wrong with the world of business.
While Dr. Maxford is my
favorite character by virtue of how very entertaining he is, the
character I like the most is probably Jimmy’s immediate boss, the very
level-headed E. L. Waterbury, who serves almost a Dumbledore role in
this movie as he tries to mentor the jittery Jimmy. His little speech to
him toward the beginning has deep resonance today in a time of economic
crisis.
“I used to think about $25,000 too, and what I'd do
with it. That I'd be a failure, if I didn't get a hold of it. And then
one day I realized that I was never gonna have $25,000, Mr. MacDonald.
And then another day... a little bit later - considerably later - I
realized something else - something I'm imparting to you now, Mr.
MacDonald. I'm not a failure. I'm a success. You see, ambition is all
right if it works. But no system could be right where only half of one
percent were successes and all the rest were failures - that wouldn't be
right. I'm not a failure. I'm a success. And so are you, if you earn
your own living and pay your bills and look the world in the eye.”
A good thing to remember.
The title comes from the scene in which Jimmy, having received his
check, decides to play Santa Claus and buy presents for everybody in his
neighborhood, an act of extravagant generosity that I wouldn’t have
thought capable of that snappish grump in the opening. During this
scene, one character refers to another as Hitler, and the name Mussolini
is later tossed out. I found this interesting, considering the fact
that World War II was just heating up at the time that this movie came
out.
Christmas in July is a light-hearted movie about
ambition and luck and where the two meet. It doesn’t have much to do
with Christmas, but if you don’t mind a bit of silliness, it is pretty
entertaining.
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