Christmas Eve

CinemaSerf

This is quite a fun Christmas story about an increasingly eccentric old lady (Ann Harding) who has been dispensing largesse to a large degree on worthy causes, so much so, that her avaricious nephew "Philip" (Reginald Denny) has stepped in to have her certified so he can keep the estate for himself. It transpires that the old lady has three adopted sons who have long since shot the craw. She must reunite with them by Christmas eve if she is to thwart the greedy ambitions of her grasping, but shrewd, relative. Two of the three sons have led pretty disparate lives, George Brent - a penniless debtor whom Philip can easily manipulate; George Raft is the second - but he is hiding from the authorities in South America with some Nazi loot. Only the third, Randolph Scott, has stayed on the right side of the law - he is an agent trying to infiltrate the black market for the adoption of babies (kidnapped-to-order). It's more of a compendium of three short stories hung loosely around a hook created by Harding with Christmas as an excuse for some snowy backdrops and carols. 90 minutes seemed a bit too long for this, but the stars keep it's head just above the water.