Holiday Shopping Guide

My nomination for an overlooked classic
Hollywood holiday film this Chanukah-Christmas is
There's Always Tomorrow, directed by Douglas Sirk.
It's also a great last minute gift buy; not only does it
star Barbara Stanwick, one of the two
indispensable Hollywood Stars (Bette Davis
of the languid eye-lids being the other
of course), but it stars my favorite fatally entwined
film noir couple, Barbara Stanwick-Fred MacMurray,
not to mention the smouldering Joan Bennett,
who played my favorite film mother ever in That Reckless Moment.

In any case, it's the best film I know of about
loving one while being trapped with another.
It's also the one film I know about a toymaker
in which the filmmaker doesn't infantalize himself.
It's not explicitly a holiday film, but toys and
Christmas go together, so there you are.