Holiday Affair (1949)
Holiday Affair (1949)
Robert Mitchum in a romantic comedy? Well sort of. Janet Leigh plays a war widow who’s got an 8 year old son (Gordon Gebert) who wants to keep the expensive train he finds in his comparison shopper mom’s bag assuming it’s his Christmas present. Mitchum plays a veteran who moves around & changes jobs a lot as he struggles to find his place in the world. While working as a department store toy salesman hired to help out during the Holiday crunch he meets Leigh when she tries to return it. Apparently returns weren’t as easily accepted "back" in those days but Mitchum helps her out of a jam (e.g. accepts the train) which costs him his job. He later buys the train for Leigh’s son anyway. The lovely Ms. Leigh who happens to be nearly engaged to Wendell Corey a stable if dull successful lawyer spends some quality time with Mitchum in a park feeding seals and in her home at dinner with her folks. So as is frequently the case in such "dramas" Leigh’s character must choose between the "good boy" (that can offer her and her son a stable home environment) who doesn’t excite her and the "bad boy" (dreamer that doesn’t even have a job) who does. Produced & directed by twice Oscar nominated writer Don Hartman with a screenplay by twice Oscar nominated writer Isobel Lennart. Henry O’Neill who I believe plays Mitchum’s department store boss and Harry Morgan who plays a police lieutenant also appear.