I was excited to see this film due to its cast and a premise that sounds ready-made for a great Christmas story. The movie's plot is that the greedy nephew of a rich old lady (Ann Harding) wants her declared mentally incompetent so he can have complete control of her fortune. The old lady, however, wants to leave her money to three adopted sons (George Brent, George Raft, Randolph Scott) she raised but hasn't seen in years. A judge postpones his decision until Christmas Eve, when she says her three sons will return to her. The bulk of the movie deals with telling the stories of the three sons, who have all grown up to be less-than-reputable men.

Sadly, this isn't a great film. There's many reasons for this. For starters, why is this old lady played by a 45 year-old Ann Harding in bad makeup? There was no shortage of fine elderly actresses in Hollywood at the time. Any one of them bringing some authenticity and warmth to the role would have helped the movie quite a bit, instead of Harding's doddering portrayal. Also, the three stories of the sons aren't great and seem oddly disjointed. Raft's dark story in particular stands out against the other two stories, which are much lighter in tone. It feels like they took three story ideas for other movies and cobbled them together to make this.

Lastly, the main reason I think this fails is that its ultimate point, that the boys love their mother so much they return to help her despite any trouble it may cause them, falls flat when you stop and consider that when she dies they become rich!!! I mean who wouldn't show up to help the old crow if there was a payday at the end of it? Look, I know it has a great cast but they can only do so much. It's got quite a bit wrong with it and I just scratched the surface. The biggest problem really is that, for a Christmas movie, it doesn't really give me a Christmasy feeling. See it for the curiosity factor and the assembled talent. But keep expectations low.

"Christmas Eve" is a very strange film and is difficult to score. While the film had some familiar actors and actresses, the overall effort was very confusing and muddled--like they took several very different films and attempted to morph them together. The plot is just too strange to fully put into words--and it isn't all that good.

The film begins with a rich old lady being visited by her nephew, a judge and a psychiatrist. It seems that the nephew is trying to have the court intervene because he's worried the old lady will throw away her fortune by giving it to a wide variety of charitable causes. While it's obvious that this is a very eccentric woman, it's still uncertain if she indeed is in need to court intervention. Oddly, the lady announces that her three adopted sons (who she hasn't heard from in years) will all return for Christmas Eve once they hear of her plight and they will prove that they are capable of handling her finances if necessary. So the judge agrees to return at that time before he makes the decision whether or not to make the nephew the executor of the estate.

What follows are three separate stories that seem to illustrate that the three grown adopted sons (George Brent, George Raft and Randolph Scott) are a bit flaky. Brent spends money he doesn't have, Raft is living abroad because he's wanted for a crime in New Orleans (and, unbeknownst to him, his girlfriend is an ex-girlfriend of a wanted Nazi) and Scott seems like an overgrown 8 year-old. Eventually, though, despite their strangeness, you learn that they aren't quite as bad as you'd think (especially Raft) and they all return for a Christmas Eve reunion.

All three of the stories vary from annoying to exciting to comedic--leaving me feeling a bit confused. What also confused me was how poorly written and executed some of the characters were. For example, why Joan Blondell follows Brent around annoying him is rather unclear and her character seems desperate and stupid--and you wonder why Brent doesn't just get a restraining order against her! So naturally, when the film ends, he asks her to marry him! Also, Randolph Scott's segment is supposed to be funny as he stumbles into a baby selling racket(!). Along the way, he meets a pretty young lady and only a few hours later, they are making plans to marry!! Only the Raft story, though confusing, seems to work--though its mood and style doesn't at all fit in with the fluff that makes up the other two stories.

Now I can see that many of the reviewers really liked the film--probably because of the cast. As for me, the fact that this film has a very good cast actually makes me like the film less--as they should have been able to do a lot more with what they were given. I should have realized this was a sub-par film because I had never heard of it before it came on AMC this year--it's obviously a rather forgotten film--and with good reason. The writing was poor (too much sticky sentimentality and low comedy) and the overall product was just too choppy and disjoint. There are many, many better older Christmas films out there waiting to be discovered--such as "A Holiday Affair". This one, on the other hand, should stay obscure and forgotten.

In a reworking of the plot of Beau Geste, imagine if you will the Geste brothers leaving the Foreign Legion and coming home to save their the lady who raised them as wards from the depredations of her blood nephew and you've got Christmas Eve. Ann Harding took in three orphans and they all went out on their own and haven't really kept in touch with Harding. They've all chosen three different roads of life and they haven't made a great success in any way.

Which leads us into three different stories as each foster son hears about what Harding is going through and her public call for help. The strongest of the stories is Raft's who is leading a Lucky Luciano like exile in South America where he owns a club, has his hands in the local rackets, but can't return to the USA. Of course he gets back as do the others, but the story is in the how.

George Brent is a part time playboy, part time conman who is ready to marry a bankroll in Molly Lamont to the chagrin of longtime girl friend Joan Blondell. The weakest story and silliest is Randolph Scott's who is a rodeo cowboy who while on the way home gets himself involved with Dolores Moran who is a reporter trying to break up a baby adoption racket run by Douglass Dumbrille.

Reginald Denny is the nephew and that's another weakness in the plot. He's actually shown at first to be sincerely concerned about his aunt and truth be told Harding's getting a bit dotty. In the end he's revealed rather suddenly to be not at all as he seems, but it comes from out of nowhere, a bad script weakness.

Despite glaring plot weaknesses, Christmas Eve does survive on its own special brand of charm and I've seen worse during the Holiday season.