White Christmas (film)

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White Christmas
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Produced by Robert Emmett Dolan
Written by Norman Krasna,
Norman Panama,
Melvin Frank
Starring Bing Crosby,
Danny Kaye,
Rosemary Clooney,
Vera-Ellen,
Dean Jagger,
Mary Wickes
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) October 14, 1954
Running time 120 min.
Country Flag of United States United States 
 music          = Irving Berlin
Language English
IMDb profile

White Christmas is a 1954 movie starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye that featured the songs of Irving Berlin, including the titular White Christmas. Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen co-starred. It was directed by Michael Curtiz.

Filming took place between September and November 1953. The movie was the first to be filmed in the new VistaVision process and its lush Technicolor cinematography has ensured that it has had a long shelf life on TV, video and DVD. Released in 1954, it became the top grossing film of that year.

The movie was supposed to reunite Crosby and Fred Astaire for their third Irving Berlin extravaganza of song and dance—the first two being Holiday Inn (1942) and Blue Skies (1946). However, Astaire bowed out after reading the script. Donald O'Connor was selected to replace Astaire, but he, too, had to pass because of a back injury. O'Connor was replaced by Danny Kaye. The choreography was done by Bob Fosse, although he was uncredited.

Vera-Ellen's singing was dubbed by Trudy Stevens.

The title song was first used in Holiday Inn, released in 1942, when it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The song Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep garnered this film an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

Rosemary Clooney was not allowed to record her voice for the soundtrack album because it was being released by a record company (Decca) other than hers (Columbia). She was replaced on the soundtrack album by Peggy Lee.

Dancer Barrie Chase appears unbilled, as the character Doris Lenz. Future Academy Award winner George Chakiris also appears, and has a notable appearance in two musical numbers, but is unbilled. John Brascia is the lead dancer who appears opposite Vera-Ellen throughout the movie, particularly in the Mandy numbers.

Academy Award-winning character actor Dean Jagger reportedly wore a toupee in the film.

Also appearing were Tony Butala, Bea Allen, Johnny Grant, and a large supporting cast.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story is based around two World War II U.S. Army buddies, one a former Broadway entertainer, Bob Wallace (Crosby), and a would-be entertainer, Phil Davis (Kaye). It begins on Christmas Eve, 1944, somewhere in Europe. In a forward area, Captain Wallace is giving a show to the men with the help of Private Davis. Major General Thomas F. Waverly (Dean Jagger) arrives for the end of the show and has a field inspection prior to being relieved of command by General Harold G. Carlton (Gavin Gordon). During an enemy artillery barrage, Davis saves Wallace's life from a toppling wall, wounding his arm slightly in the process. Using his "wounded" arm and telling Bob he doesn't expect any "special obligation," Phil convinces Bob to join forces when the war is over. Phil using his arm wound as a way to get Bob to do what he wants becomes a running gag throughout the movie.

After the war, they make it big in nightclubs, radio, and then on Broadway. They become the hottest act around and eventually become producers. They subsequently have a big hit with their New York musical, Playing Around. In mid-December, after 2 years on Broadway, the show is in Florida. While at the Florida Theatre, they receive a letter from "Freckle-Faced Haynes, the dog-faced boy", a mess sergeant they knew in the war (according to Rosemary Clooney on the DVD commentary the picture of him in the film is that of Carl Switzer, better known as Alfalfa in the Our Gang series.), asking them to audition his two sisters. When they go to the club to audition the act, Betty (Rosemary Clooney) reveals that her sister, Judy (Vera-Ellen) sent the letter. Bob and Phil help Betty and Judy escape their landlord and the local sheriff. The boys do the song "Sisters" to a record as the girls escape to the train. Phil gives Betty and Judy the train tickets that he and Bob were intending to use. When Bob and Phil arrive on the train, they have no tickets. Using "his arm" again, Phil gets Bob to agree to travel with the girls to Vermont for the holidays. They discover that the Columbia Inn in Pine Tree, Vermont, is run by their former commanding officer, Major General Tom Waverly, and it's about to go bankrupt because of the lack of snow and consequent lack of patrons. The general has invested all his savings and pension into the lodge.

Deciding to help out and bring business in, Wallace and Davis bring Playing Around with their entire Broadway cast up and add Betty and Judy where they can. Bob discovers the General's rejected attempt at rejoining the army, and decides to prove to the General that he isn't forgotten.

Bob calls Ed Harrison (Johnny Grant), an old army friend, now host of a successful variety show (intentionally similar to Ed Sullivan's). When Bob wants to make a pitch on the show to all the men under the command of the General in the war, Harrison suggests they go all out and put the show on television, resulting in lots of free advertising for Wallace and Davis. Overhearing only this, the housekeeper, Emma Allen (Mary Wickes), tells Betty. Bob tells Ed that isn't the idea and that he only wishes to make a pitch to get as many people from their division to Pine Tree for the show on Christmas Eve. The misunderstanding causes Betty to leave for a job at the Carousel Club in New York, after Phil and Judy fake their engagement in the hope of bringing Betty and Bob closer together.

On the Ed Harrison Show, Bob asks all the veterans of the 151st Division living in the New England area to come to Pine Tree, Vermont on Christmas Eve.

All is set right when Betty sees Bob's pitch on the Ed Harrison show. She returns to Pine Tree just in time for the show on Christmas Eve. Believing all of his suits had been sent to the cleaners, General Waverly concludes that he'll have to appear in his old uniform. When the General enters the lodge where the show is to take place, he is greeted by his former division to a rousing chorus of "We'll Follow the Old Man", and moments later is notified that snow is falling.

In a memorable finale, Bob and Betty fall in love, as do Phil and Judy. The background of the set is removed to show the snow falling in Pine Tree. Everyone raises a glass, toasting, "May your days be merry and bright; and may all your Christmases be white."

[edit] Songs

All songs were written by Irving Berlin.

  • White Christmas (Crosby)
  • The Old Man (Crosby, Kaye, and Men's Chorus)
  • Medley: Heat Wave/Let Me Sing and I'm Happy/Blue Skies (Crosby & Kaye)
  • Sisters (Clooney)
  • The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing (Kaye & Stevens)
  • Snow (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Stevens)
  • Sisters (reprise) (Clooney)
  • Minstrel Number: I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show/Mister Bones/Mandy (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney, Stevens & Chorus)
  • Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep (Crosby & Clooney)
  • Choreography (Kaye)
  • The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing (reprise) (Kaye & Chorus)
  • Abraham (instrumental)
  • Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me (Clooney)
  • What Can You Do with a General? (Crosby)
  • The Old Man (reprise) (Crosby & Men's Chorus)
  • Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Stevens)
  • White Christmas (finale) (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney, Stevens & Chorus)

There are brief renditions of other Berlin songs ("Heat Wave", "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy" and "Blue Skies").

Berlin wrote "A Crooner — A Comic" for Crosby and his planned co-star Donald O'Connor, but when O'Connor left the project so did the song. Crosby and Kaye also recorded another Berlin song ("Santa Claus") for the opening WWII Christmas Eve show scene, but it was not used in the final film; their recording of the song survives, however.

The song, "What Can You Do with a General?", which Leonard Maltin calls Berlin's least memorable tune, was originally written for an unproduced project called Stars on My Shoulders.

[edit] Errors and Inconsistencies

Several minor errors in editing and inconsistencies exist in the film, and can be noticed by anyone watching closely. For example, in the scene where Bob comes to see Phil in the hospital tent, Bob can be seen alternately sitting closer to and then further away from Phil, even though the camera switches viewpoints for only an instant — while at the same time the truck with the red cross on it is visible in the background. In another apparent error in editing, when the general and his granddaughter take their first steps forward arm-in-arm during the final birthday celebration, the camera angle shifts, and you can see them step forward again from the original location. None of these errors or inconsistencies (and there are several others as well) detract from the film, but they are interesting to watch for, particularly for devoted fans of the movie.

Other Mistakes:

  • The two sisters are in their room backstage. One sister is holding a coffee pot and pours a cup of coffee, and then puts the coffee pot down. The camera cuts away and cuts back and now she is holding the coffee pot again.
  • When the letter arrives from Washington Bob says the return address is the War Department. The War Department ceased to exist in 1947 with the creation of the Department of Defense. (Although perhaps Bob called it the War Department because that was what he was used to calling it.)
  • The pitcher of buttermilk and the tray of sandwiches move around sporadically in the Count Your Blessings scene in the inn.
  • During the 10th Anniversary of the 151st Division cake scene, the camera follows the general into the room, and the candles on the cake are lit. The camera angle changes to the left, and as he continues to walk, the candles are out. The camera angle shifts once more, and the candles are lit yet again.
  • The cake is decorated with a tank appropriate for an armored division, yet the fictitious "151st Division" is infantry, as implied by the division number, as well as the blue piping on the men's garrison caps. (It could be, however, that the cake was decorated by someone who didn't know or care about the difference.)
  • The shoulder patch worn by the soldiers in the military reunion scene is either a mistakenly inverted Army Ground Forces crest, or more likely, an ad hoc patch designed for the movie and the fictional 151st Division.
  • In the scene where Mary Wickes' character eavesdrops on Bing Crosby's phone call, her button-down blouse shows at one point that a button has come undone. Before and after that, all the buttons are fastened securely.
  • During the scene in the train's club car, every time the camera angle changes the salt & pepper shaker, the ashtray and other items move around on the table.
  • When Bob and Phil accidentally open the sleeping car in which Betty and Judy are sleeping, it looks very different from the sleeping car they are in the next morning when Bob and Phil meet them. It is possible they changed trains overnight, but then if so, why would they have a sleeping car and be in their pajamas? (In fact, they would have most likely changed trains in NYC, and would probably have resorted accommodations at that point. The sisters look like they are in a berth car when they get to Vermont.)

The change in cars would make sense. The girls used Bob and Phil's tickets to New York, but they had their own tickets to Vermont. Bob and Phil purchased the best beds on the train to NYC, while the girls purchased what they could afford.

  • In the finale, a horse-drawn sleigh is shown approaching the inn as it snows outside. Given that it had not been snowing for very long, it is somewhat difficult to believe that a horse-drawn sleigh could have navigated the freshly-fallen snow successfully. (However, it does add to the intended Currier and Ives image for the final scene of the film.)
  • In the finale, there is a scene shot from the right side that clearly shows the center "ballerina in white" with a beautiful smile on her face. An instant later — in a shot that is supposed to be seamless as it shifts to frontal view — she is serious and grave-looking.

[edit] Trivia

  • Vera-Ellen did not actually sing any of the songs for the movie. Trudy Stevens sang all her songs (with the exception of the song "Sisters", on which Rosemary Clooney sang both parts). Vera's own voice is heard singing only in the "arrival in Pine Tree" scene at the railroad station where the quartet reprises the opening lines of "Snow".
  • The TV camera in the Ed Harrison Show scene is a real classic RCA monochrome camera; the cameraman is hiding the telltale logo with his hand. The call sign on the camera was real as well — it was that of Channel 4, NBC's (and therefore RCA's) station in New York, WNBT-TV which changed its call sign to WRCA-TV the year of the film's release.
  • The photo Vera-Ellen shows of her brother (the one Phil refers to as the dogface boy) is actually a photo of Carl Switzer, who played Alfalfa in The Little Rascals, in an army field jacket and helmet liner. Rosemary Clooney verified this in her narration of the film on the DVD release.
  • Even though Judy is the younger Haynes sister, Rosemary Clooney was actually seven years younger than Vera-Ellen.
  • Every single costume worn by Vera-Ellen in the film — including her nightclothes — has a high neckline, as Vera-Ellen was battling anorexia at the time the movie was made, which caused her neck to look very aged. The actress struggled with anorexia throughout most of her career.
  • Much of the movie's dialog — particularly extended scenes with Bing Crosby — was ad-libbed and improvised.
  • The Pine Tree Inn may look familiar — it was actually the remodeled set from the movie Holiday Inn, which was set in Connecticut.
  • Dean Jagger won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor 1949 as Major Harvey Stovall in Twelve O'Clock High.
  • General Waverly's war time adjutant, Captain Joe (Richard Shannon) continues to serve the General at the show in Vermont. He informs the General it is snowing.
  • A piece of the movie with Bob Wallace (Crosby) and Phil Davis (Kaye) was re-broadcast the year after the film's release, on Christmas Day 1955, in the final episode of the NBC TV show Colgate Comedy Hour (1950-1955).
  • The song Snow was composed by Irving Berlin, but originally was titled Free, and had nothing at all to do with snow. It was written for Call Me Madam. The melody and some of the words were kept, but the lyrics were changed by Berlin into a song more appropriate for a Christmas movie. For example, one of the lines of the original song is Free — the only thing worth fighting for is to be free. Free — a different world you'd see if it were left to me. This song can be found on the CD Irving Sings Berlin, and a song clip can be heard at The CD Universe site.
  • Rosemary Clooney is the aunt of actor George Clooney.

[edit] External links

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