Tad Pole . . . about toy trains, check out the original version of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Released a couple years after HOLIDAY AFFAIR, the science fiction movie warmed the cockles of Great Depression Era hearts with its poignant scene showing an alien bonding with a little boy over a toy train set. On the other hand, HOLIDAY AFFAIR comes off more as a primer of what NOT to do with toy trains in a film. One key toy train no-no is to NOT break a tiny tyke's heart by messing with his mind over whether or not he's actually getting a toy train for his birthday, Christmas, Kwanzaa, the Fourth of July or some other occasion for gift-giving, as does HOLIDAY AFFAIR. Secondly, only someone with a screw loose would dream up equating a toy train giver with stranger-danger warnings against psychos with candy. Finally, if screenwriters are trying to figure out how to work a beloved toy train into their scripts, they definitely should NOT come up with a HOLIDAY AFFAIR scenario in which crowds of adults engulf the kid with a train, stomping on this prize possession and breaking it. Probably the only reason that HOLIDAY AFFAIR is not titled THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHR!STMAS is that Dr. Seuss already had dibs on what would have been a more appropriate description of this mean-spirited story.

Stephen Alfieri "Holiday Affair" may be a lesser known holiday film, but it certainly lacks nothing in the way of likability or warmheartedness.I viewed this for the first time, just a few days ago, and I can say that it will be one of those that I watch every Christmas season.Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh are a perfect combination. And Wendell Corey plays the Ralph Bellamy-type role to a tee. The three of them play off of each other, and add such warmth, that I dare anyone to resist the charms of this film.And Harry Morgan steals the film.This will be the best film that you've never heard of, this season.

Prismark10 With a cast list containing Janet Leigh, Robert Mitchum and Wendell Corey you think this would be a crime thriller. It is a romantic comedy.Leigh is a widow with a young boy and works as a comparison shopper, regarded at the time to be a despicable profession.She meets Mitchum in a department store who works there as a toy salesman over the Christmas holidays to earn enough money so he can return to the west coast. He is selling toy trains but although he guesses she is a comparison shopper, he does not report her and gets fired for his non action.Wendell Corey is a lawyer who has been courting Leigh for years but she has never got over her husband and her boy does not seem to like Corey. However something stirs when she encounters Mitchum and they keep on meeting and he also purchases a train set that her son wants for Christmas.This is not a whimsical or sentimental film, the people feel real with real problems of the post years, poverty or bereavement or just trying to get the girl.Despite the cast, this is a low key film, where everybody is nice to each other. Corey does have the thankless role as the nice guy who has go up against Mitcham for the girl. At one point he even defends him in court. However Mitcham the drifter with a dream of building boats is the one who sizes up Leigh.

barrymn1 There's no question that this was a modestly made movie and it wasn't much of a success, either. Totally forgotten, it was rediscovered by TCM and now is considered a Christmas Classic, which is clearly is.All of the acting is really quite good, other than Wendell Corey's typical one-dimensional style of acting. Since his part is of a rather conventional, dull lawyer, I guess he does what's required.What most other people seem to suggest that it's a rather thin story, it's well conceived and really quite well written. Janet Leigh's son Timmy in the movie is picture perfect too.What's really a revelation is to see Robert Mitchum play such a nice, light comedic part. Despite his usually off-the-cuff persona - on and off the screen - he was really a gifted and talented actor and this film really shows how charming he could be.This film is really a nice treat.