Christmas in July (film) Christmas in July (film) Christmas in July is a 1940 comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges based on his 1931 play "A Cup of Coffee". It was Sturges' second film as writer-director, after "The Great McGinty", and stars Dick Powell and Ellen Drew. Dr. Maxford (Raymond Walburn) is thoroughly exasperated. He is supposed to announce on national radio the winners of a slogan contest for his Maxford House Coffee; the first prize is $25,000. Maxford's jury is deadlocked by the stubborn Mr. Bildocker (William Demarest). As a result, the program ends without an announcement. One of millions of
Max Wagner the 1940s, Wagner was part of Preston Sturges' unofficial "stock company" of character actors, appearing in six films written and directed by Sturges, beginning with "The Palm Beach Story" In 1940 during the filming of "The Mad Doctor", Wagner was credited for driving 50,000 miles as an on-screen taxi driver on the studio back lots of Hollywood. Since his appearance as a cab driver in "Charlie Chan in Shanghai" (1935), producers often cast him as a wise-cracking or henchman taxi driver. "I was cast as a taxi driver about five years ago", Wagner told a reporter. "And I was typed."