Gene Kelly in a portrait by Ray Jones for the Universal Pictures/Robert Siodmak film noir crime drama Christmas Holiday, 1944. Despite the movie's cheerful title, it was adapted from a rather bleak W. Somerset Maugham novel and Gene played a seemingly charming man named Robert Manette who was actually a psychotic murderer married to Canadian songstress Deanna Durbin (aka: "The Girl Who Saved Universal" with her hit operatic movies). Christmas Holiday was a break from "type" for both stars, with Durbin playing a down on her luck New Orleans nightclub "hostess" (an ambiguous profession selected to satisfy censors of the era who objected to the novel's specific description that the character was a Parisienne sex worker). Though Deanna sang two songs in the movie, she struggled with the character and director Siodmak later stated she was "difficult" and that "she wanted to play a new part, but flinched from looking like a tramp. She always wanted to look like nice wholesome Deanna Durbin 'pretending' to be a tramp. Still, the result was quite effective." Kelly was loaned out from MGM for the film in exchange for Turhan Bey (for a part in Dragon Seed starring Katharine Hepburn) when Metro couldn't figure out what to do with Gene despite his successful starring roles in the musicals For Me and My Gal (opposite Judy Garland) in 1942 and DuBarry Was a Lady in 1943 (opposite Lucille Ball and Red Skelton). After returning from service in World War II, Gene went back to his song and dance roots at MGM, becoming an influential, innovative and highly respected leading man and director via a string of massively successful and now iconic musicals over the course of the next twenty years.
