The Creation of The Christmas Party was one of those peculiarly early-sound Hollywood tales in which studio custom, instinct for publicity, and simple good will combined to create a low-keyed but revealing seasonal artifact.
By Allan R. Ellenberger
Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Charles Reisner, The Christmas Party was not intended as a conventional narrative short film, but rather as a filmed extension of MGM's own yearly Christmas celebration. Throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s, MGM threw an extravagant holiday party for its contract players and staff--part pep rally for the studio's talented ranks during the bleak early years of the Great Depression. Somehow the idea occurred to someone in the MGM power structure to film that party spirit, to publicize for the general public an event created to publicize the studio's own good will.
In 1931 MGM had wanted to reaffirm itself as "the Tiffany studio of Hollywood", a company where glamour, stability and star power could still be found in the midst of economic despair. The short was intended to be a genial, almost documentary look at a Christmas party thrown for MGM's contract stars, with light staging and an air of informal intimacy. The idea was simply to assure fans that their idols were real people who grouped around Christmas trees, exchanged gifts and sang carols just like other people.
Charles Reisner, a veteran hand at light comedy and star vehicles, was an ideal choice for the director's chair.
The film's assignment was less dramatic and more logistical: directing stars into a movement through space that would look unplanned and still be camera readable. Sound recording was still unwieldy in 1931, so scenes were heavily blocked for microphones, and dialogue was sparse. In its place was warmth from the eyes and gestures, smiles, and the titillation of hearing stars' famous voices, even for a few moments, speak or sing.
The casting of The Christmas Party was its true selling point. The short featured appearances by some of MGM’s most recognizable faces of the era, including Marion Davies, Clark Gable, Lionel Barrymore, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Norma Shearer, Ramon Novarro, and Anita Page, among many others. Some stars spoke, some merely smiled or waved, and others appeared in fleeting but memorable moments. The point was not performance but presence. Seeing so many MGM contract players together in one relaxed setting was, for contemporary audiences, a rare and irresistible novelty.
Internally, of course, the short also had a more quiet institutional use. MGM, led by its production chief Irving Thalberg, worked very hard to present itself as a harmonious and benevolent company. The Christmas Party was a continuation of the idea that MGM was a family, a potent idea at a time when studios had nearly complete control over the careers of their performers. The film quietly reminded viewers that the most glamorous studio was also the most humane.
The Christmas Party was not reviewed with the gravity typically given to feature films, but it was received as a delightful novelty. Trade papers and exhibitors saw it as the ideal holiday filler – a short that could lead features around Christmas time and send audiences away with smiles on their faces. For audiences of the Depression, it provided escape and comfort: the stars were still there, Hollywood was still bright, and Christmas was still on time.
Today, The Christmas Party is of interest primarily for what it encapsulates. The film affords a glimpse of MGM's star system at the very peak of its power, preserved in a moment of innocence before scandal and war and shifting public tastes would change Hollywood irrevocably. The film is also an important document of early sound filmmaking, an era when the industry was still learning how to capitalize on the introduction of voices without sacrificing the visual magic of the silent era.
Most importantly, the short stands as a rare holiday document from inside the studio gates—less a movie than a moving postcard. In just a few minutes of screen time, The Christmas Party preserves something fragile and fleeting: a moment when Hollywood paused, gathered around its own Christmas tree, and invited the world to look in. You can watch the short below:
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