While purchasing another Deanna Durbin movie on DVD at Amazon, I saw this title and it peaked my curiosity. I wondered why, with two such great stars as Gene Kelly and Deanna Durbin, I had never heard of this movie before. So I ordered it...I watched it....and now I know why I 've never heard of it before. It is terrible. It is the worst performance ever, in the careers of both Gene and Deanna. And, as other reviewers have said, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with Christmas...nor is it a musical. Gene doesn't dance a single step, and the only time Deanna sings is when she is expressing undying passionate love for this vicious, psychopathic murderer she is married to. <br /><br />In the opening scene, we are introduced to two military men having a conversation about the upcoming nuptials of one of them. We grow to like these two men, and I felt cheated, because one of them we never see again, and the other, the engaged one, merely serves for the rest of the movie as a body for Deanna to tell her story to. In this scene we learn that he is taking military leave to visit his fiancé, when he receives a "Dear John" letter saying she has married someone else. He is devastated, and plans to go back home anyway to confront her. Due to bad weather, the plan has to stop in New Orleans, where he meets Deanna in a sleazy night club. The proprietor is the enchanting Gladys George. Deanna tells him (and us) how she met Gene...they were sitting next to each other at a symphony concert. She was captivated by his shy, "aw shucks" demeanor. They married and moved in with his very strange mother, played by Gale Sondergard, who horror movie fans will know very well. Gene and Gale are the creepiest mother & son team since Sante and Kenneth Kimes.<br /><br />The are blissfully married for 6 months. All of a sudden, he starts displaying signs of criminal behavior, and starts abusing Deanna...but still she stands by him! Before you know it, the police come looking for him, and he is on trial for murder. Deanna and Mom sit together in the courtroom, and when the guilty verdict is read, Mom turns to Deanna, slaps her in the face and declares her responsible for sonny going to jail. Needless to say, she kicks her out of the house.<br /><br />Now Deanna has to find work, so she gets a job singing at Gladys George's sleazy nightclub. Eventually, Gene escapes from prison and hides out in the nightclub to kill Deanna, because he assumes since she's working there, that she must be sleeping with all the patrons. The unbelievable part of this plot, is that when she sees him hiding in the back room, she runs to him with open arms, ready to run off with him ! I really hate to make you watch this to find out the ending, but we're not allowed to give "spoilers"....<br /><br />You know, I always believed that even the greatest of stars made some clinkers in their careers that we never see....and this film is proof!