Christmas in July - Region 0 DVD

Jimmy MacDonald (Dick Powell), an underling at the mammoth, bureaucratic Maxfield House Coffee company, dreams of his big break through an entry in his employer's radio sweepstakes for a new slogan. Jimmy's would-be tagline ("If you can't sleep at night, it isn't the coffee--it's the bunk!") may be inscrutable to all but its author, but when coworkers engineer a phony victory, even the company president swallows the bait. For a moment, at least, Jimmy and his sweetheart (Ellen Drew) are $25,000 richer. How they spend, then lose, that fortune occupies the rest of the slender story line, setting up Sturges's fable as a comment on greed and community.

Even with Sturges's hectic pacing to push characters and wisecracks at a furious clip, the feature feels more like a fast-food snack than a full meal, and specifics of the plot feel very dated. The director's fans will probably find the biggest Christmas present is the evident expansion of Sturges's still embryonic repertory company, which adds some key players in Franklin Pangborn, Ernest Truex, and Raymond Walburn. --Sam Sutherland