Holiday Affair

Just before Christmas, department store clerk Steve Mason encounters Connie Ennis, a customer whose purchases are part of a quiet job as a comparison shopper for a rival store. He sees through her, yet lets her keep the toy train she bought, a decision that costs him his job. The two spend the day together, a development that unsettles Carl, the steady suitor Connie has agreed to marry, while her young son Timmy warms to Steve almost at once.

Holiday Affair is a romantic comedy-drama from RKO Radio Pictures, released in December 1949 and running eighty-seven minutes. It was directed and produced by Don Hartman, with a screenplay by Isobel Lennart, and it stands first among the two features Hartman directed, ahead of Mr. Imperium in 1951. Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh lead as Steve and Connie, with Wendell Corey as Carl and Henry O'Neill among a credited cast of forty-nine. On TMDB the film holds a rating of 6.9 out of 10 from ninety-four votes, which suggests a modest but appreciative audience. Its blend of Christmas setting and gentle romantic rivalry has kept it in seasonal viewing rotation.