My wife and I are love watching classic Christmas movies this time of year, but even with a set list of go-tos like Holiday Inn, White Christmas and Miracle On 34th Street, we keep an eye out for new ones to watch. Enter: Christmas In Connecticut, a film neither of us had ever seen before. We popped it on last weekend and gave it a watch in the glow of our Christmas tree, but also with two very noisy children so we didn’t quite catch everything.

In fact, I completely missed the set-up while getting something for my daughter and my wife missed other parts so we had to fill each other in, but here are the basic details of this madcap holiday comedy. Like a lot of the movies that came out around this time, this one starts out in WWII as a wounded soldier named Jones (Dennis Morgan) flirts with a nurse in an attempt to get better food in the hospital. The plan works, but backfires when she falls for him and wants to get married. He says he’s not the marrying type so she writes a letter to magazine publisher Mr. Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet) to ask if Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck), an advice column writer who lives on a farm with her husband and baby will put the soldier up during the holidays so he can get a true sense of home.

The problem? Elizabeth is actually a single woman living in New York City, but if Yardley finds that out, she and her editor will get fired for lying to him and the public. So, she agrees to marry this dude who’s been after here for years that also happens to have a farm. They get engaged and almost get married several times, but then Elizabeth meets Jones and clearly they have chemistry. Oh and Yardley shows up to make matters even worse.

My wife and I basically spent the whole movie wondering how Elizabeth would get out of the various holes she kept digging for herself thanks to fill-in babies, burgeoning romances and other wacky conflicts. I don’t think CIC will oust any of the other favorites, but it makes a great addition to the line-up!

While looking around Google for the above poster, I also discovered a 1992 TV movie version of CIC starring Dyan Cannon, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Roundtree and Tony Curtis! Even crazier? It’s directed by Arnold Schwarzenegger! I don’t think I’ll have time to get that one from Netflix before Christmas actually hits, but here’s hoping I remember to add it to the top of the ol’ queue next season because that thing sounds BONKERS.