Christmas Holiday – (1944)
Director: Robert Siodmak
Starring: Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly, Richard Whorf
Casting Hollywood’s most popular singing star (Durbin), this masterly melodrama, possibly one of the most extraordinary of all Christmas movies, was adapted by Herman Mankiewicz from a Somerset Maugham novel and directed by Robert Siodmak. A newly commissioned army officer flying to San Francisco is diverted to New Orleans and spends Christmas with a magnetic girl (Durbin). Sadly when it came time to hand out the Academy Awards, Christmas Holiday walked away with only one Oscar (Best Music Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture).