Holiday Inn **** (1942, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale, Walter Abel) – Classic Movie Review 2208

The pairing of Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby and a great batch of Irving Berlin songs, including the debut of the Oscar-winning best song ‘White Christmas’, are the filling in the cake of the 1942 musical film Holiday Inn.

The pairing of Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby and a great batch of Irving Berlin songs, including the first appearance of the Oscar-winning best song ‘White Christmas’ and for good measure ‘Easter Parade’, are the filling in the cake of director Mark Sandrich’s highly entertaining, diverting and amusing 1942 backstage wartime musical Holiday Inn.

Berlin became the first artist to present himself with an Academy Award when he won for ‘White Christmas’. It’s got to be the best holiday song ever.

The love triangle plot, in which singer Crosby and hoofer Astaire vie for the affections of beautiful up-and-coming dancer Marjorie Reynolds, who initially elbows out an over-zealous Crosby in favour of the cool, debonair charms of Astaire, unfolds against the backdrop of an inn that is open only on holidays, Crosby’s supper club Holiday Inn.

Reynolds plays the lovely Linda Mason, who has Crosby’s crooner Jim Hardy swooning and entranced. But Astaire’s suave dancer Ted Hanover wants Linda as his new dance (and romantic) partner after alluring Lila Dixon (Dale) brushes him off. Walter Abel plays the manager Danny Reed.

The plot is entirely serviceable, with the three stars making much out of the central love contest, and, especially considering it’s a Christmas movie, there’s much more vigour and zest than any easy sentimentality on show. Some of Berlin’s best classic songs are here, and the magnetic stars and the beautifully performed singing and dancing are all perfectly delightful. It’s a very fine show indeed. Also in the cast are Louise Beavers, Irving Bacon and James Bell.

Crosby again appears when it was remade in 1954 as White Christmas, which is a more famous but arguably less good movie, but has the advantage over Holiday Inn of being in colour. However, the three-disc collector’s set of Holiday Inn offers a new colour version, along with the original and the music CD. Paramount studios reused the Holiday Inn set for White Christmas.

The firecracker dance sequence took three days of rehearsal and two days to film. The choreography is by Danny Dare. Astaire’s shoes for the dance were auctioned for $116,000 worth of war bonds. ‘White Christmas; was the best selling music single ever until 1997 when it was passed at that time by Elton John’s ‘Goodbye, England’s Rose’ done for Princess Diana’s funeral. Reynolds‘s singing voice is dubbed by Martha Mears. Kemmons Wilson named his Holiday Inn motel chain after this movie.

Irving Berlin wrote 12 new songs for the film, though the best known is of course ‘White Christmas’. The film also includes a reuse in its entirety of the song ‘Easter Parade’, written by Berlin for the 1933 Broadway revue As Thousands Cheer, and also later reused as a highlight of the 1948 film Easter Parade starring Astaire and Judy Garland.

As well as the 1943 Academy Award for Best Original Song (‘White Christmas’), there are two Academy Award nominations for Best Score (Robert Emmett Dolan) and Best Original Story (Irving Berlin).

The cast are Bing Crosby as Jim Hardy, Fred Astaire as Ted Hanover, Marjorie Reynolds as Linda Mason, Walter Abel as Danny Reed, Virginia Dale as Lila Dixon, Louise Beavers as Mamie, Irving Bacon as Gus, Leon Belasco as flower store manager, Marek Windheim as François, James Bell as Dunbar, John Gallaudet as Parker, Shelby Bacon as Vanderbilt, Joan Arnold as Daphne, and Harry Barris as musician.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2208

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