It’s Christmas Eve in Amherst. Amherst native John Sparrow (Lloyd Bridges) returns to town to visit his wife, who has been institutionalized for the past five years. Affluent Californian Katherine Johnson (Shirley Jones) comes to town to send her son from boarding school to London for the holidays to be with his father (her husband) and his long-term mistress. Will these two lonely travelers break through their sexual tension to spend Christmas Eve in each other’s arms?
OF COURSE they will. Just look at the cover of the VHS release above. Normally I wouldn’t give away the ending, but kind of the whole point of the film is to see if these two will put aside the reservations they have about being in loveless marriages and spend the night together. If you watched the movie in December, 1969, you might wonder the outcome, but they gave away the ending on the VHS cover art. (And for what it’s worth, the image of Bridges and Jones in bed together as it’s shown on the VHS box does not appear in the movie).
But beyond that, there are a few other storylines weaved throughout. The story behind why Sparrow’s wife is in a long-term mental health facility and attempts suicide when Sparrow visits is unexpected. There is also the story of a local theater worker (Cloris Leachman) who wants to sleep with the returning Sparrow. And there is a flashback sequence where schoolboy John Sparrow is played by his son Jeff Bridges that’s frankly a bit weird. On to the snaps…
Looking north on Pleasant Street, downtown Amherst.Both John Sparrow and Katherine Johnson spend their nights in Amherst at the historic Lord Jeffrey Inn. Due to Lord Jeffrey Amherst’s history of genocidal practices against Native Americans, his name has been removed from many Amherst College institutions. The inn is scheduled to be renamed in early 2019.John convinces Katherine, who is a San Franciscan, to spend Christmas Eve day with him doing Amhersty things. For instance, he takes her to the most treacherous winter sports park one can imagine, where snowmobilers, downhill skiers, and cross country aficionados crisscross the hill together, oblivious to the risk of permanent injury or death.Shirley Jones in the parking lot at the snow park, wondering who will die in a fiery collision with a snowmobile.Riding home from the snow park. Apparently sometime on the drive back to the inn John realized that his inspection sticker had expired: in the previous photo the car has a red sticker that expires in 1968, here the sticker is a blue one expiring in ’69. Also note in the upper right the sign for “9, WORCESTER, BOSTON, NEXT RIGHT”. That sign has long been replaced.Looking across to Main Street at the intersection with Pleasant Street.Bridges and Jones on Christmas Eve. One of the difficulties I had when watching the movie was trying to get my head around the idea that the 56-year old Bridges and the 35-year old Jones were both playing characters that were roughly 40. That and because Airplane! is my all-time favorite movie, I kept expecting John Sparrow to lament that Christmas was a bad day to quit sniffing glue.
Mass Flicks 
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