Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Christmas in July'


Posted May 9, 2011 by Dennis King Comment on this article Leave a comment

This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:

“Christmas in July”

Any opportunity to revisit the rapid-clip, screwball wit of Preston Sturges is cause for celebration, so be of good cheer for the reissuing of one of the writer-director’s minor classics, “Christmas in July,” due out in a repackaged DVD version on Tuesday.

This pithy satire on advertising and greed was only the second directing effort by Sturges, who was one of the first Hollywood screenwriters to persuade studio bosses to let him direct his own scripts. Starting with “The Great McGinty” and this picture, he went on in the 1940s to deliver such enduring screwball classics as “Sullivan’s Travels,” “The Lady Eve,” “The Palm Beach Story,” “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek” and “Hail the Conquering Hero.”

“Christmas in July” is minor Sturges, but it’s nonetheless distinguished by his hyperbolic plotting, breakneck pacing, over-the-top characters and intricate, pun- wisecrack-filled dialogue.

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MOVIE CRITIC
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King spent 31 years as an ink-stained wretch working for newspapers in Seminole, Ada, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. He holds a B.A. degree in English...

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