Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly are marvelously cast in this story loosely basedon a Somerset Maugham novel. The title is deceptive-it's hardly aChristmas story and certainly not a holiday. In true film noir flashbackstyle, Durbin recounts her marriage to a New Orleans gentleman (Kelly)whose violent nature came to light only after the wedding. With Durbinas a voluptuous torch singer, Kelly as a misogynist locked into anobsessive mother-son relationship with homosexual undertones (andMother, Gale Sondergaard at her most threatening), the strange castingworks so well we have a whole new appreciation of Durbin and Kelly asactors, not to mention the effectiveness of Siodmak's direction.Siodmak, whose roots are in German Expressionism, here locates the noirethos in the home: with a classic American triangle-mother, son anddaughter-in-law-he paints sinister moustaches on a Rockwellian familyportrait. Yes, Deanna, "Spring Will Be a Little Late ThisYear."