25 Greatest Christmas Films: #21 — ‘Susan Slept Here’ (1954)

Since I’ve known my lovely wife this romantic comedy set on Christmas Eve and starring Dick Powell and Debbie Reynolds has been her favorite among what she calls “her cute little movies.” Shot in that beautiful Technicolor process among crisp colorful sets (Powell’s apartment gets my vote for Most Fifties Ever!) that give off a nice holiday feel, it tells the completely contrived tale of a thirty-five year-old Oscar-winning screenwriter (Powell, who was actually 50) forced to deal with a seventeen year-old delinquent (Reynolds) over Christmas Eve. He desperately needs a muse and she’s looking for a daddy of the sugar variety and … well, you can see where this is going.

Sounds awful, don’t it? That’s what I thought and refused to pay it much attention for years. But the lead performances, supporting cast and dynamite dialogue are all superb, and it really is a cute little movie with some crisp cynical shots taken at Hollywood to boot — most of them courtesy of Alvy Moore who most of you will recognize from “Green Acres.”

“Susan Slept Here” would be Powell’s last big screen appearance before he made a permanent and very successful transition to television, and amongst all the innocent silliness used to disguise the salacious premise of his cinematic swan song, he’s given a memorable scene where his character (Mark Christopher) sits alone one evening watching an old movie of his on television.

Christopher might live the cliched life of a swinging Hollywood bachelor in one of those spacious apartments busier than Grand Central Station where glamorous visitors never knock or call ahead, but the sheer embarrassment on his face as he mouths along with his own awful dialogue is a real and human moment in an otherwise perfectly surreal holiday confection. 

You can catch Susan Slept Here every once in a while on TCM. Trust me, you’ll be charmed. And fellas, they don’t come much more beguiling than Debbie Reynolds.