The Post-War Christmas Tale Phil and Ellen are divorced. They take turns raising their daughter Philippa (Flip, as she is called in the film). She loves to go to a restaurant to visit Luigi - the owner - a long-time friend of the family, at one of the meetings which, in fact, her parents met. On Christmas Eve, Phil buys a gift for his daughter and prepares to take her daughter to her mother. And the little fictionalist Flip is sure that at Christmas desires come true and parents will be together again.
A beautiful Christmas story, very romantic and touching. The more interesting it looks in the harsh post-war years, which, although it affected the United States much less than the USSR, but it is impossible not to note the “correctness” of the film conveyor, from which beautiful works descended even in wartime. It is impossible not to mention these naive, but always flawlessly executed comedies 30-40 years of the USA. Yes, and the USSR.
The story is simple and unpretentious like three pennies. However, it has a lot of beautiful, absurd (in the best sense of the word) and very comic situations. After half the film, the writers’ fantasy began to come to an end and the situation began to seem secondary. If you remove all these nitpicks, you get a magnificent kaleidoscope of positive emotions.
Phil is an artist from nature, not lacking in female attention. Being divorced, he builds some kind of “awkward” relationship with one of his models – Nancy, who dreams of marrying him. In the film, she appears at the most unexpected time and always at the wrong time. I’m not a big fan of Errol Flynn — I don’t think he’s any special actor, but he’s done the A-minus. Most of all, of course, I was struck by the play of little Flip (Patty Brady), a girl with a radiant smile, expressive eyes and generally the brightest character in this film. While the father is busy clarifying relations with his mother, she communicates with fictional two brothers who have very unsound and indecent names for the Russian dialect - Nicodemus and Eboniz, and also corresponds with soldiers as they were taught in school.
She also played the role of Ellen, Flip’s mother Eleanor Parker. The makeup artists and costumers worked on it. Thank you very much for that. Also extremely remarkable (although ridiculous, of course, to the point of madness) the line with Captain Vicki, who arrived after the war, with whom little Flip corresponded throughout the war on behalf of her mother.
To tell the film is easier than simple, but to look at the magnificent actors, to be charged with a wonderful mood - it is you yourself.
7 out of 10