Don’t let the title fool you – there is not a single mention of the namesake Yuletide festivities anywhere in Christmas in July, and the decision to name it as such is quite bewildering since audiences will likely enter into this film under the belief that they are going to be receiving a charming and heartwarming winter parable about family and friendship, set in some snow-capped part of the world, and featuring an abundance of those familiar carols that define the period. Whether this was a studio decision, or the result of Preston Sturges’ wicked sense of humour remains to be seen, but what we do know, without any hesitation, is that this is a wonderfully upbeat and very funny film that serves as both a heartwarming comedy and a biting satire on capitalism, which was a somewhat controversial concept, considering the country had only recently emerged out of the Great Depression. Sturges adapted his play, previously titled A Cup of Coffee (a far more appropriate name for this film, which lay unproduced for over half a century before finally seeing a production put together in the late 1980s), and tells the story of a lovable young man who grows tired of the middle-class malaise and actively pursues a grand prize in a slogan-writing contest, which would set him and his girlfriend up for life – and a prank by a few curious co-workers deludes him into thinking that he emerged victorious, which sets off a chain of misadventures that see our hero going from zero to hero and back again in record time, learning many harsh lessons along the way. It is a charming and very funny film with a lot of heart and a sense of impeccable humour and proves that even at the start of his career as a director, Sturges was a master of his craft.

One of the key features of Sturges films, whether those that he is writing or directing (if not both) is that they don’t function like traditional comedies from this era – they’re very often slightly more complex, both in the themes they explore and the dialogue expressed by the characters, and they tend to have a very distinct rhythm that is so distinctly the product of his creative career, which saw him compose some of the most poetic and brilliant comedies of their era and films that would make him one of the most influential writers and directors in Hollywood. However, this did not emerge out of nowhere – he mainly worked as a writer, and by the time he had developed enough of a reputation to helm a film, he had already worked on some of the most brilliant films of the 1930s. The Great McGinty was his debut, but it was Christmas in July (or rather the film that came to be titled as such) that was his passion project – and while it may seem slighter than many of his later films, it does have a lot of fascinating commentary that was wildly ahead of its time, which was another recurring concept in the director’s work, in which he refused to retread the same tired stories in favour of meeting demands of the studio, and chose to instead pursue deeper stories that were just as funny, but not nearly as conventional. In retrospect, this film seems almost inconsequential – we’ve seen many films about the rapid rise of a young upstart in corporate America many times (and one has to wonder whether Sturges’ work served as an inspiration for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which has many very similar themes), but this was an almost pioneering example of this story, at least in terms of offering a slightly more complex critique of capitalism, which was a bold choice for this particular period. Sturges was nothing if not consistent in his perpetual belief that one has to unsettle narratives before one can truly be considered a great writer, and even in a relatively small project like Christmas in July, he delivers on this promise.

Part of the charm of Christmas in July is how it is relatively paltry when it comes to massively recognizable names in terms of the stars. Sturges did work with some exceptionally famous actors in his career (and his technique was to put them in a position where they are often riffing on their career, or playing against type), but its the feeling of seeing lesser-known actors in leading roles that make several of his films so enticing. Not necessarily obscure (and some of them were more notable at the time than they are today), this film is led by Dick Powell (who did have quite a decent career prior to this film, but had yet to start his ascent to being one of the more intriguing members of Hollywood at the time) and Ellen Drew, both of them exceptionally gifted at both the comedic and dramatic moments, the balance of which is vital to the overall experience of the film. There isn’t much time to make an impression, and considering how much of the plot depends on the characters to make it believable, both actors are doing excellent work that is far deeper than we may expect, handling Sturges’ rapid-fire dialogue with nothing but ease, which is quite an achievement considering how his work often challenged his actors to do far more than just deliver the lines with some degree of emotion. There are several moments where the humour comes to a halt and the actors have to deliver more serious commentary (specifically Drew, who is the emotional heart of the film, beyond just being the love interest of the main character) and manage to be quite profound, which is not something we may have anticipated based on a cursory glance, being one of the many pleasant surprises lingering beneath the surface of this otherwise very charming film.

Unfortunately, Christmas in July is relatively underdeveloped in comparison to some of his other works and is ultimately viewed as a footnote in his otherwise influential career. However, this is not a criticism so much as an observation, since a lot of what prevents this film from having a significant amount of cultural cache is how it felt limited from its brilliance, mainly through the shorter running time, with 67 minutes being far too little time for a comedy of this scope. This was unfortunately parred for the course for B-movies at this time, and there were already challenges in bringing this film to life, so it’s likely that the director accepted any conditions thrust on him purely to have this film made, which is surprising considering how ambivalent many of his devotees are when it comes to this film, which is surprisingly much deeper than it seems. Sturges is certainly not one to blame for this – all the material was there, and he was simply only given a limited amount of time in which to use it, which essentially meant many cuts to what would have been a much more polished film with some more attention to detail and a bit more space in which to develop its themes, which are prescient and surprisingly resonant, even to contemporary viewers, who will undoubtedly be taken by the fresh and insightful level of humour presented throughout the film, which is far more refreshing than some of the slightly dated comedies that were made around this time. Length is the primary reason we may not think too much of this film, despite the wealth of intriguing ideas that motivated its creation. A further twenty minutes would have elevated this to a place of being a genuinely brilliant satire, but as it stands, it’s an unexpectedly thought-provoking comedy that uses its time well, at least in terms of creating a scenario from which many captivating ideas can spring.

Christmas in July is a clear case of a film being marketed as something that it is not, and instead of being a charming and endearing comedy about the festive season, it is instead a deeply thought-provoking satire on consumerism, delivered by one of the great masters of his craft, who takes many bold ideas and fashions them into this meditation on the role of capitalism in a society that depends on it but is also secretly being harmed by the constant flow of money, especially towards those who don’t have too much of it. Several of its ideas needed further time to be fleshed out and developed properly, and it is overall a film that ends just as fast as it started, which is never enough for a Sturges production, which usually takes place in worlds that we all wish we could luxuriate in. As a whole, despite these shortcomings, there is a lot of potential for greatness in Christmas in July and the only reason that it doesn’t quite work as well as it should was out of the director’s control, since he did the very best he could with the little time he was given. This ability to take obstacles and make them seem almost insignificant in comparison to the wealth of ideas embedded in his work is enough to qualify Sturges as one of the greatest comedic filmmakers of all time – and the fact that he had the skillfulness as both a writer and director only sweetens the experience, and makes nearly everything he touched an absolute delight, which film most certainly included amongst the many charming comedies that defined his career.