MovieChat Forums > Holiday Affair (1949) Discussion > I thought for sure Steve Mason was

I thought for sure Steve Mason was


I thought for sure Steve Mason was going to end up being Mr. Crowley. So she really did end up with a jobless and poor guy at the end. Usually movies would have them be secretly humble millionaires, something the characters joked about with the homeless guy in the park. It was sort of refreshing to see Steve Mason was just as he was portrayed, no twist.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

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That's an interesting and fun thought. You have a good mind for story- and I agree, it's so much nicer that the reward in this movie is love instead of money. Too many romantic films end with someone hitting the jackpot.

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Choosing love over a stable, but loveless marriage--I guess she sort of did win the jackpot after all.

Does that really, truly happen? I like to think so, but....I don't know.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

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Yeah, by "jackpot", I meant money- finding out that the guy posing as the butler is really the millionaire, etc. But you're right. This ending is more fairy tale to me, and the train- especially that final pull-out shot- just makes it a home run.

It's also interesting that "wrong man" Carl, while no prince, isn't such a wrong guy at all (as long as he avoids talking about the weather!). He just represents settling for less than a dream, which is what fairy tales ask you not to do...

It'd be interesting to see more fairy tale-type stories in which someone walks away from the Prince (or Princess).

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I know what you mean. But, 'Wrong man' Carl did litter...and wears bad ties. He doesn't deserve a happy ending. In fact, that's almost unforgivable.

I'm actually trying to think of another movie that ends like this. All I can think of is in 'Begin Again' when she chooses herself over a bad idea.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

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Also, he's a lawyer, so there's that. The bad ties were his only hope, in my humble opinion, of turning into a real boy, like Pinocchio.

Having missed the train with Janet Leigh, I'm thinking Carl eventually marries someone named Midge and spends most of the fifties listening to Guy Lombardo, suspecting his co-workers of being communists, and boring his neighbors into a coma about the weather.

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And don't forget, building a very expansive train set in his basement, when, at three in the morning he puts on his conductor's cap, rests his sagging jowl on his wrinkled hand and sadly watches the train go by, thinking of the one who got away, Steve Mason and his brooding sense of self, of course.

~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~

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I'm sitting here reading the first words of your post and I'm thinking "don't forget the conductor's cap- he definitely wears that while operating the electric train set in the basement..." when there it is- you nailed it, my friend.

Poor ol' Carl. Later on he was a Toastmaster, collected Kingston Trio records, and hid three Playboys from Midge in the garage; a sad shadow of the man who once almost got to second base with Janet Leigh.

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Didn't Carl and Midge build their dream home, a modern ranch with a pool, just outside the city? They threw fabulous cocktail and dinner parties, and their three children were the most popular in their school. It seems their son was accepted into West Point, if I remember correctly. Midge was a lovely brunette who was active in the Red Cross, PTA and Garden Club. (How am I doing so far? ;-) Merry Christmas!

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That's what they want you to believe! All that you said is technically true- it was right there on their Christmas cards- but they didn't mention that the son who went to the Point (Buzz) was fragged by his own men in Vietnam (he survived and voted for Wallace in '72), the youngest (Chopper) sniffed model airplane glue, and the daughter (Doreen) joined Scientology and doesn't speak to any of them. Too much of Carl's discipline, if you ask me.

There was some talk about Midge, too, but we won't go into that.

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Carl was a really nice guy, and had a good career going. He met a nice, beautiful woman who loved him and they were married happily for over fifty years.

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I am formerly known as HillieBoliday....Member since May 2006

Forgive me...I'm a little confused...You said...'Carl did litter...? What does that mean?
And as for the bad ties statement; men's ties from that era were known to be pretty bad...Just like some women's hats... Lol!

"OOhhhooo....I'M GON' TELL MAMA!"

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