Frame: Channeling Elizabeth Lane

liz lane tries to flip flapjacks

My favorite holiday movie is Christmas in Connecticut (1945). It’s the story of Elizabeth Lane, a woman who writes a Martha Stewart-esque column and is known to the public as America’s best homemaker, wife, and mother. In reality, she is a single girl living in a tiny apartment in the city, relying on her best friend to bring her omelets because she can’t even boil water. Her editor, who knows nothing of her fraud, demands that she invite both he and a local war hero to her (imaginary) family’s (imaginary) country home for Christmas. In a desperate attempt to save her job, Elizabeth begrudgingly agrees to marry an old friend who can provide both a country home and a family for the holidays, but winds up falling head over heels for the Navy hero she is hosting (and deceiving). Hilarity ensues.

I love movies from the 1940’s – you can’t get away with this kind of plot anymore. You can try, but then you end up with something terrible like The Proposal.

We’ve all felt a little bit like Ms. Lane, in one way or another, at some point in our lives. Take a page from Liz’s book – she eventually comes clean about who she really is – consequences be damned – and gets the happy ending that we all deserve.