In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Barbara Stanwyck (Mrs Lane) is a popular journalist on Sydney Greenstreet's (Yardley) magazine who specializes in homely life articles from her farm in Connecticut with her husband and baby. She also tops the charts when it comes to her recipes. War hero Dennis Morgan (Jeff) wins an opportunity to spend Christmas at her farm courtesy of Greenstreet who also invites himself along. How nice. Except Stanwyck is a fraud. She can't cook, she doesn't live on a farm, she doesn't live in Connecticut, she hasn't got a baby and she hasn't got a husband. And she doesn't want to get busted so she needs help to keep up the pretence… This has a good premise for comedic situations and Stanwyck is funny in her role, especially when it comes to her baby etiquette. However, there are too many misunderstandings that need resolving and so we regretfully fall into a madcap zany, screwball comedy that gets tedious. By the end of the film you have been willing things to resolve themselves for at least 20 minutes and it has also become complicated. They didn't need so many things going wrong and opportunities for better comedic situations weren't explored as much as they could have been, for example, the arrival of a different baby. That could have been very funny. But, the film became poorly written. Characters also started to grate, especially Uncle SZ Sakall (Felix). He has that cuddly image but he is just annoying.There are funny moments, more so at the beginning as you set out with the film, but I'm afraid the film gets boring. I read one reviewer who said that this film reminded him of "Holiday Inn" (1942) only this was funnier. What!!?? He is obviously completely bonkers. Watch "Holiday Inn" every time over "Christmas In Connecticut".

It was interesting to watch a holiday movie in August. I do think these stories should air year round and not just in December. I had never seen Christmas IN CONNECTICUT all the way through. Well, now, I finally have. I found myself focusing on S.Z. Sakall's performance as Felix the cook-- you know, the guy who says "everything is hunky-dunky!" But in addition to Sakall, the rest of the cast shines too-- and it's obvious they were all having fun making this film. There's a lot of screwball comedy here, and the dialogue is just so intentionally silly in spots that you can't help but love it. Sakall's scenes with Stanwyck are quite good, but his scenes with Greenstreet are even better. And there's a scene at his restaurant early in the film where he walks around and doesn't have dialogue. If you watch that part carefully, you will see a great bit of improvisation. Truly one of the best character actors in Hollywood during the 1940s.

Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) is a single NYC food writer who is famous for her articles about her fictional Connecticut farm and family. She doesn't know how to cook. Her friend chef Felix Bassenak (S.Z. Sakall) gives her the recipes. The publisher Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet) insists that Elizabeth host a Christmas dinner for returning war hero Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan). Her editor Dudley Beecham (Robert Shayne) fears being exposed. In desperation, Elizabeth reluctantly agrees to a loveless marriage to the insistent John Sloan (Reginald Gardiner) and somehow get a baby before the dinner.The story is rather boring until Stanwyck starts faking in Connecticut. The war hero isn't very compelling. Dennis Morgan is not that special as a leading man. It takes awhile for the movie to set up the premise and there are no good jokes in that section. The loveless marriage is kinda sad. The movie finally gets to Connecticut after 30 minutes and it takes awhile for the comedy to pick up. Stanwyck has some fun as she fakes a modern-day Martha Stewart starting with changing the baby.

This is a film that truly and nostalgically shows us the America of the 1940's, even as the two great supporting actors, Sydney Greenstreet and S. Z. Sakall hailed from Europe, and the screenplay co-author's parents had gone through Ellis Island. Now for a detail or two. The address of Felix's restaurant was carefully presented as was often the norm at that time: 1. The 300 block is too far away from Fifth avenue. 2. We are not shown if this is East or West from Fifth avenue. 3. The better restaurants are usually in the 50's, not the 40's. That way, you might not be forlornly looking for it. Later on, perhaps for financial reasons, Barbara Stanwyck appeared in a TV western, whatever it was, and so younger viewers may not always know what a great actress she was during the 1940's, the golden age. After seeing this, you might even be wondering, why don't we occasionally have horses and buggies anymore?