Part of Holiday Classics
Even though he recently lost his job as a department-store clerk, Steve Mason buys an electric train set for a child he scarcely knows. It must be Christmastime.
Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh are warmly matched in HOLIDAY AFFAIR, a seasonal favorite scripted by Isobel Lennart (later to adapt Mitchum’s THE SUNDOWNERS) and directed by Hope/Crosby “road movies” veteran Don Hartman. Mitchum plays Mason, helping a child who’d otherwise find disappointment under the Christmas tree. The boy’s war-widow mom (Leigh) notes the gesture, and she’s drawn to the handsome stranger. But will she abandon the security of the prosperous attorney (Wendell Corey) she’s dating for the charm of this unemployed man who puts his money where his heart is?
“You have to love any movie in which Robert Mitchum sells trains in a toy store and Janet Leigh looks the greatest she ever did on screen this side of JET PILOT.” —USA Today
“Mitchum’s tough-guy demeanor serves him well here… His character is sometimes written as too pushy, but the scene in which he declares his intentions over Christmas dinner, a moment where there’s no room for lies, is downright electric — and the final scene is a stunner.” —Keith Phipps, Vulture
