Christmas may be a holiday, but "Christmas Holiday" is no vacation in September. Neither Durbin of the voice nor Kelly of the feet looks exactly happy in Universal's per-version of the memorable Somerset Maugham mystery.

Deanna hasn't successfully graduated from the teen-age singing sensation stage, with the possible exception of "The Amazing Mrs. Holliday." And from Mrs. Holliday to Christmas Holiday, the proof is fairly conclusive that perhaps the wistful and appealing warbler should stop trying to graduate, turn over a new leaf, and start warbling all over again. Or perhaps you like the wistful type--and maybe you like Kelly's broad Irish smile. In any event, they don't belong in a psychological chiller-diller-thriller.

Apart from the fact that Kelly looks like he's dying to break into some of his very excellent dancing, and Deanna into a tender encore of the very hummable "Always," "Christmas Holiday" has its tense and effective moments. Gale Sondergaard delivers a spine-tingling performance as the aristocratic matriarch of an old New Orleans family, trying to keep her bad little boy from going around murdering people and otherwise disturbing the Creole peace. Richard Whorf portrays the liquor-loving newspaperman in just the right tones of big-time tenderness.

And what with adroit use of the flashback technique--an extremely rare thing these days--the movie scrambles to its feet just as the referee counts ten. It's a close shave, and the five o'clock shadow's still there.