Christmas in July (Preston Sturges, 1940)

Christmas in July is another Preston Sturges comedy which also at times poses as a drama. It’s again a simple but heart-warming story, filled with wit and satire. It’s probably one of Sturges’ simplest films, and thus probably one of his least impressive. Still, it’s a neat little film which is really worth watching.

Jimmy MacDonald is a simple worker, who has a wonderful girlfriend, but he doesn’t have too much money and he dreams of bigger things. There is a competition from a coffee corporation where the person who comes up with the best commercial slogan wins a cash price of $50 000. So of course he wants it badly. However, the jury is stuck on their decision, and the announcement of the winner is postponed. Meanwhile, some of his working chumps decide to play a trick on him. They write a letter saying he is the winner of the big cash price, and he is easily fooled by this. What ensues is a chaos of misunderstandings and dramatic irony. The comedy works superbly on many levels. Few people in the film except the audience know what is really going on, making most of the cast look quite foolish. But we also worry about the protagonist, seeing the inevitable crushing disappointment when he eventually finds out it was all a big joke. We feel bad for the protagonist when he thinks he has won a huge cash price and goes nuts, but at the same time we can’t help but laugh at the predicament.

The film is also satirical, poking fun at American hysteria of the time and the search for wealth that is so predominant in the American psyche. But there is also a strong ring of truth in the film, and all the characters seem like real people with real goals, and not just caricatures. In the film’s most hilarious moments they might seem like such, but in the end these are deeply true issues, at least for the times. There are fun moments such as when the protagonist and his girlfriend goes on a shopping spree with his new earned money, or the quarrels between the upper stairs coffee corporation bureaucrats. The film ends on a somewhat ambiguous note, where the film shows us that we shouldn’t get our hopes up too much, but at the same time there is hope. I guess the theme of the film is that you shouldn’t put your hopes too much on a lottery, but trust your own skills and instincts to make something of yourself. It’s not bleak, but more of a cautionary tale.

I enjoyed Christmas in July, it’s a funny film that can bring your spirit up without being a complete feel good happy sell out. At its core it’s a frightening realistic film with some harsh truths about the world, but most importantly, it’s a very funny comedy with some great performances.