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Directed by Don Hartman, Holiday Affair (1949) centers on Connie Ennis (Janet Leigh), a young war widow deeply devoted to her six-year-old son, Timmy (Gordon Gebert), and the memory of her deceased husband, Guy. She works as a comparison shopper, going from store to store purchasing certain items to secretly analyze competitors' prices and product quality. One day, just before Christmas, after buying and returning an expensive toy train, Connie's cover is blown by a handsome store clerk named Steve Mason (Robert Mitchum). Steve threatens to report her to the store detective, which would lead to her firing, but takes pity on her once he learns of her financially precarious situation. Since he fails to turn Connie in, Steve ends up losing his own job. Steve and Connie become friends and he finds himself attracted to her, although he lectures her for trying to turn Timmy into the image of his dead father. During a walk on Central Park on Christmas morning, Connie tells Steve tha...

This week on «Film Friday» I want to tell you about my favourite Alfred Hitchcock film. It is also the first Hitchcock film I ever saw, and the first time I saw James Stewart in colour. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window (1954) follows L.B. «Jeff» Jeffries (James Stewart), a professional photographer confined to his Greenwich Village apartment after breaking his leg while on a job assignment. During a summer heat wave, Jeff passes the time by watching his neighbours from his apartment rear window. He observes a skilled dancer he nicknames «Miss Torso» (Georgine Darcy), a single middle-aged woman he calls «Miss Lonelyhearts» (Judith Evelyn), a couple of lecherous newlyweds (Rand Harper and Havis Davenport), a lonely middle-aged songwriter (Ross Bagdasarian), a female sculptor with a hearing aid (Jesslyn Fax), and Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), a travelling jewellery salesman with a bedridden wife.   James Stewart, Grace Kelly and Thelma Ritter in Rear Window . One evening, a...