The combination of Frank Loesser, Irving Berlin, Gene Kelly, and a movie titled 'Christmas Holiday' suggests a predictable story filled with sentimental holiday romance. However, the actual film offers something quite different, which I found to be a pleasant surprise. The narrative begins rather harshly when Lieutenant Mason (Dean Harens), who is deeply in love, is abruptly broken up with by his fiancée on Christmas Eve, right before he was planning to fly to San Francisco and propose. Overcome with sadness, he gets on the plane, but a storm forces it to land in New Orleans. He's put up at a hotel for the night where he meets a local journalist who introduces him to Jackie/Abigail (Deanna Durbin). He’s not interested in drinking or anything of that nature, but he does agree to go with her to midnight mass, and that’s when she begins telling him about her true identity and marriage to Robert (Gene Kelly). She wasn't always honest, but upon discovering that her new husband was also untrustworthy—he is later convicted of murder—she finds herself unable to continue living with his mother (Gale Sondergaard) and must struggle to survive. When the news spreads that Robert has escaped from prison, everyone wonders what he will do next. While the story becomes quite engaging once it gains momentum, we spend too much time establishing the initial situation; there are simply not enough scenes between Durbin and Kelly. Although the ending contains a rather melancholy turn of events, that feels hurried. Irving Berlin composed 'Always,' which is instantly recognizable, and Deanna Durbin performs it with assurance. Overall, this is a reasonably good film noir.

Source on TMDB