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Of Notoriety: Reader recalls forgotten Christmas classic film with Indiana ties

One of my favorite black and white Christmastime films is the 1945 Warner Bros. classic “Christmas in Connecticut” starring the late Barbara Stanwyck as a popular syndicated magazine columnist who writes as an expert about recipes, cooking and entertaining/host duties.

Gruff Sydney Greenstreet plays Alexander Yardley, her boss and the media mogul, owner of a chain of publications distributing her photo bylined columns. In today’s world, the Stanwyck character is akin to Martha Stewart. However, Martha was only 3 years old before this movie hit the screen, long before her own famed homemaker celebrity status.

Instead, the inspiration for Stanwyck’s character was likely Mary Margaret McBride (1899-1976), who wrote her own syndicated column and hosted a popular nationally broadcast radio show, as well as publishing cookbooks and writing for magazines. McBride is referenced in my own published cookbooks.

The iron-fist publisher Mr. Greenstreet is clearly based on media tycoon William Randolph Hearst.

The twist to “Christmas in Connecticut” is that Stanwyck’s character is such a good writer, with prose oozing with details and description of her cooking and decorating know-how, that she has been able to fool her readers for years.

In reality, she does not really entertain or host parties in a posh city townhouse (she only has a tiny apartment above a New York City deli/restaurant), nor does she have a sprawling country farm estate in Connecticut where she spends her weekends.

She’s built her career using the help and know-how of her friends who really do embody the practices and lifestyle she purports to recommend to her devoted readers. Of course, comedy and confusion unfolds during the course of the film.

This week, reader Bob Cooley of Crown Point recommended another Christmastime classic black and white film starring Stanwyck which he said he’d never seen before, and even I’ve not heard of the title, despite my affinity for film favorites of the past.

“Remember the Night” stars Stanwyck opposite Fred MacMurray and was released five years earlier in 1940 by rival Paramount Pictures on Jan. 19.

Reader Cooley said he thought the film plot would even be ideal as a remake for a Hallmark Channel holiday movie.

“Hadn’t seen this Christmas film before, and enjoyed it very much,” Cooley said.

“Its plot would make for a decent Hallmark movie. Just before the Christmas holiday, bad girl Barbara Stanwyck gets caught stealing a bracelet and trying to pawn it. Prosecutor Fred MacMurray needs a continuance or he’ll lose his case to the jury’s season sympathy, so he contrives to get one. Feeling bad about sticking Babs in jail for the holiday, he has a bail bondsman spring her, and she is mistakenly delivered to his door. He’s going back home from New York City to his family’s farm in Indiana, and as it turns out, she’s also from Indiana, so a road trip ensues. What separates this from a Hallmark movie, besides all the fine performances, is the script by Preston Sturgess, and it’s his last to be directed by somebody other than himself. He explores the motivations of the characters and the morality of their actions, while keeping the tone light overall, although there are always dark corners hidden deep in Sturgess’ work. And its abrupt, ambiguous ending is like nothing you’re going to see in a Hallmark movie.”

I’m grateful to reader Bob for sharing his movie watch suggestion and I’m equally fascinated by the movie’s Indiana references, including some “goofs.”

In an early nightclub dance scene before the Stanwyck and MacMurray duo start their trip, he tells her that he is from Wabash, Indiana, and she says that she is from Heltonville, Indiana. This prompts him to respond: “That’s only 50 miles outside of Wabash,” and her saying “Yes, sir.”

But we know Wabash is near West Lafayette, while Heltonville is well south of Indianapolis, a true distance of about 160 miles!

This film has the added Hollywood Hoosier bonus of having the iconic Beulah Bondi also in the cast, as the warm and kind Indiana farm mom of the MacMurray character, who is pleased to see both her son and his guest join the family for Christmas. Bondi, who also plays Jimmy Stewart’s mom in the 1946 holiday hit “It’s a Wonderful Life,” was born and raised in Valparaiso.

Writer, playwright, screenwriter and director Sturgess was born and raised in Chicago, which is why the Indiana references are understandable when he penned the work.

Married four times before his death at age 60 in 1959, Sturgess’ second wife from his 1930 marriage was wealthy socialite Eleanor Close Hutton, daughter of cereal heiress Majorie Meriwether Post, the latter who was married to financial Wall Street wizard E.F. Hutton.

However, despite that prominent (albeit brief) 2-year marriage to Hutton (she married five more times), another “fun fact” about this movie is that screenwriter Sturgess said he based the Beulah Bondi mother character on his own mother-in-law at the time, which was the mom of his third wife Louise Sargent Tevis, a farm wife from his wife’s hometown of Fort Dodge, Iowa. He even named Bondi’s mom character “Mrs. Sargent,” with this last name taken from his third wife’s family name.

Philip Potempa is a journalist, published author and the director of marketing at Theatre at the Center. He can be reached at pmpotempa@comhs.org.