White Christmas (1954)/ Holiday Inn (1942)

White Christmas is often described as being a remake of Holiday Inn, but, in truth, they  only have two things in common;  both star Bing Crosby and feature the song “White Christmas.”  I am a bit perplexed at how White Christmas has been elevated to classic status over the years– it’s an entertaining movie, to be sure, and has two dynamic leads in Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, but it’s also terribly contrived and has an unappealing leading lady in Rosemary Clooney. I don’t know if it’s Clooney’s performance, or if it is just the way her character, Betty Haynes, is written, but she is a complete stick in the mud.  Granted, the plot is just a framework to hang all the song and dance numbers on, and Holiday Inn is just as contrived, but here it is just grating. 

I like the first hour of White Christmas a lot; Crosby and Kaye are a fun team to watch, there are some good song and dance numbers, Vera-Ellen is likable as Judy Haynes, and Dean Jagger gives a nice understated performance as Tom Waverly, the boys’ former commanding officer who now runs an inn in Vermont.  Best of all is Marry Wickes as Waverly’s nosy housekeeper, Emma Allen.  Then, unfortunately, the plot kicks in; after having successfully coupled up Bob Wallace (Crosby) and Betty Haynes, the screenwriters contrive to, briefly, separate them, and, as usual, this is accomplished by having it all be one big misunderstanding:

Bob and his stage partner, Phil (Danny Kaye), are disheartened to see just how sad General Waverly is in his current situation - the inn is struggling and he misses army life. They want to rectify this by letting him know that he is not forgotten by his men, so they decide to hold a show in his honor and have the men that served under him come up to the inn for Christmas.  However, the only way to reach all the men is by having Bob appear on the popular television Ed Harrison show and plead his case.  Bob places the call to Ed Harrison, while Emma Allen eavesdrops on the other telephone, however, she only hears half of the conversation, and assumes that Bob and Phil are exploiting Waverly’s situation for publicity. She tells Betty this, and Betty, rather than giving Bob the benefit of the doubt, is angered by this and starts to give him the could shoulder.  This part of the movie absolutely irritates me – it could easily be settled if Betty simply asked Bob, instead of giving him the silent treatment. It also makes you wonder why Bob would even be interested in pursuing a relationship with Betty given how quick she was to judge him. Rosemary Clooney’s cold exterior doesn’t help matters; she is a great singer, but there is very little chemistry between her and Crosby. 

Holiday Inn, of course, also briefly separates Bing Crosby’s character, Jim Hardy, from his love interest, Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds), but does a much better job with the story line and feels far more natural to the plot – it is Jim’s jealous actions that drive away Linda, rather than a silly misunderstanding.  This is actually nicely set up in the movie’s beginning when Jim’s fiancée, Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale), leaves him for his stage partner, Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire).  Jim wants to leave show business behind and live on a farm, which doesn’t go over well with Lila, who wants to remain on the stage.  She forms a dance partnership with Ted, while Jim fritters away on the farm.  Realizing he is not much of farmer, Jim, instead, opts to turn his farm into a Holiday Inn; a night club that is only opened on holidays and closed for the rest of the year. Inevitably, Jim finds a new lover in Linda Mason, who becomes a regular performer at the Inn. After Lila leaves Ted for a Texas millionaire, he sets his eyes on Linda, and hopes to lure her away from Jim; a Hollywood producer is going to be at the Holiday Inn and if all goes well, she and Ted will be offered a contract.  

However, Jim manipulates things so that Linda won’t be there by bribing the hired hand, Gus, to drive the inn’s car in circles – it eventually ends up in a creek.  Jim also contacts Lila, who has left the Texas millionaire when tax problems are revealed, and arranges for her to appear at the Inn with Ted. While walking back to the Inn, Linda is picked up by Lila and learns all about Jim’s plans. She is, justifiably, irate with Jim. It never even occurs to him that she might have turned the contract down. The Hollywood producer is, nonetheless, impressed with Ted’s solo routine and offers both of them a contract; Jim throws in the towel and let’s Linda go to Hollywood.  The producer also wants to use Jim’s songs and make a movie about the Holiday Inn, a deal he reluctantly accepts.  Linda and Ted become big stars in Hollywood, while Jim closes down the Holiday Inn and becomes a recluse.  After a few words of encouragement from his maid, he goes to Hollywood to steal Linda back.

The characters in Holiday Inn are truly repellent at times, yet they remain likable due to the charming screen presences of Crosby and Astaire. Certainly, Jim is wrong in his attempt to deprive Linda of a great opportunity, but his actions are understandable – he clearly loves the woman and is afraid of losing her to Ted, and show business.  He lacks confidence and is completely convinced that Linda would never choose a life with him over Hollywood stardom.  Linda, however, really has no desire at being a star, and only agrees to the Hollywood contract because she is convinced that her life Jim is over. Jim Hardy is a much more interesting character than Bob Wallace, who is practically a saint.

Marjorie Reynolds is a much better actress than Rosemary Clooney, and that Linda Mason is a far more appealing character than Betty Haynes. For one thing, Linda is a much more relatable than Betty – she begins the movie toiling away at an airport flower shop, hoping to break into show business. When Ted’s manager, Danny, comes into shop to buy flowers for Lila, Linda uses this to her advantage and tells her about the Holiday Inn.  When we first meet the Haynes sisters in White Christmas, they are already a show business act, albeit an obscure one.  Judy wants to make the next leap to stardom, so she tricks Bob and Phil into seeing the act by writing them a letter and signing it as Benny Haynes, who was the boys’ mess hall sergeant during World War II.  Bob, out of a sense of loyalty, figures they should check out the act, despite Phil’s initial protests.   What reallydifferentiates the two characters is Linda’s sense of humor and overall cheerful demeanor; Betty is a complete wet blanket about everything.  I like that Linda, when learning about Jim’s manipulation, manages to foil his plans by giving Lila faulty directions to the Inn, which leaves her stranded in the creek.  It is also easy believe that Jim would miss a girl like Linda – he spends all of Thanksgiving sulking, depressed at having lost her.  I just don’t buy that Bob would ever want to settle down with Betty, given her self righteous indignation about everything.  Holiday Inn also has the advantage in that the story unfolds over the course of a year, so we get to see Jim and Linda’s romance naturally blossom, whereas, the main story of, White Christmas takes place over a couple of weeks. 

Holiday Inn is certainly not without its own faults; modern audiences will probably groan at the character of Mamie, Jim’s wisdom spouting black maid, and cringe at the sight of Crosby doing a musical number in black face.  It is always a joy to watch Fred Astaire dance, but I find the pairing of Crosby and Kaye in White Christmas to be much more inspired; Crosby is the perfect straight man to Kaye’s highly eccentric personality. There is a nice give and take between the two actors – I especially love the moment, at the end of the “Sisters” number, where Crosby begins to crack up at Kaye’s antics. It also helps that Bob Wallace and Phil Davis are best friends in White Christmas, whereas Jim Hardy and Ted Hanover are friendly rivals in Holiday Inn; the former team is far more fun to watch. While Astaire had a likable screen personality, he was a fairly limited actor; Bing Crosby, on the other hand, was a very naturalistic actor, and could hold his own with likes of Ingrid Bergman

Vera-Ellen’s Judy Haynes is the perfect love interest for Danny Kaye’s Phil Davis; both of them are schemers and have pleasant personalities. Sure, they may be manipulative in their approach, but they don’t mean any harm, and are usually right - Phil usually gets his way by reminding Bob of the arm injury he sustained when he saved Bob’s life in the war; Judy uses her brother Benny’s military service with the boys as a ruse to get them to see her and Betty’s sister act. They are a fun couple to watch and help breathe life into the proceedings when the movie hits its lull at the midway point.  Thankfully, the contrived plot can’t ruin the good will the movie has build up in the first half, and White Christmas manages to regain its footing in the last twenty minutes that we can forgive its flaws. 

There are a lot of memorable scenes in White Christmas; Crosby singing the title song to a platoon of soldiers outside the battlefield; Danny Kaye’s and Vera-Ellen’s song and dance number, “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing”; Crosby and Kaye lip syncing to the girl’s musical number “Sisters,” to give the girl’s time to escape from their sleazy landlord, who wants them to pay $200 for a rug they supposedly burned;  the dining room car scene where the four of them sing “Snow”, it’s not a great song, but it sure sounds great; and the heart warming finale.  Oddly enough, my favorite moment in the movie doesn’t involve either Crosby or Kaye, but Anne Whitfield, who plays General Waverly’s granddaughter, Susan. At the end of the movie, the camera goes into a close up of Susan’s face as she sees her grandfather in his general uniform for the very first time – her face literally lights up and one can genuinely feel the affection she has for the old man. It makes me wish that the movie would have given Susan more to do, instead of just standing quietly in the background – she has an appealing screen presence and just radiates warmth every second she is onscreen.

These are all a great moments, but none of them can hold a candle to Astaire's drunken dance routine in Holiday Inn, or Crosby's crooning of "White Christmas" to a wide eyed Linda by the Christmas tree. I also like the opening number with Crosby, Astaire, and Virginia Dale, "I'll Capture Your Heart," in which Crosby tries to win her heart with singing, while Astaire tries with dancing.

If had to give White Christmas a rating, it would probably give it three (out of four) stars; I don’t believe it to be a classic, but it is a fun movie too watch, and absolute treat to watch at Christmas time.  In fact, one of my favorite Christmas memories is seeing the Times Cinema in Wauwatosa; it is a movie that really comes alive on the big screen and great fun to see with a huge crowd – the laughter and applause was truly infectious.  Holiday Inn is the superior movie of the two, but White Christmas still remains an audience pleaser sixty years after its initial release. 

Credits

White Christmas
Cast:  Bing Crosby (Bob Wallace), Danny Kaye (Phil Davis), Rosemary Clooney (Betty Haynes), Vera-Ellen (Judy Haynes), Dean Jagger (Major General Tom Waverly), Mary Wickes (Emma Allen), Anne Whitfield (Susan Waverly), Johnny Grant (Ed Harrison).

Director: Michael Curtiz
Screenplay: Norman Krasna, Norman Panama, Melvin Frank.
Running Time: 120 min.

Holiday Inn
Cast: Bing Crosby (Jim Hardy), Fred Astaire (Ted Hanover), Marjorie Reynolds (Linda Mason), Virginia Dale (Lila Dixon), Walter Abel (Danny Reed), Lousie Beavers (Mamie), Irving Bacon (Gus).

Director: Mark Sandrich
Screenplay: Claude Binyon. Elmer Rice (adaptation).
Running Time: 102 min.