White Christmas (film)

White Christmas is a 1954 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen, loosely based on the 1942 film Holiday Inn. Filmed in Technicolor, it features the songs of Irving Berlin, including a new version of the title song, "White Christmas", introduced by Crosby in the earlier film.

Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film is notable for being the first to be released in VistaVision, a widescreen process developed by Paramount that entailed using twice the surface area of standard 35mm film; this large-area negative was used to yield finer-grained standard-sized 35mm prints.

Plot

A Broadway entertainer, Captain Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby), the other an aspiring entertainer, Private Phil Davis (Danny Kaye), perform for the 151st Division. But word has come down that their beloved commanding officer, Major General Thomas F. Waverly (Dean Jagger), is being relieved of command.

When the train arrives in Pine Tree, there's not a snowflake in sight, and chances of it falling appear dim. He decides to prove to the General that he isn't forgotten.

Bob calls Ed Harrison (Johnny Grant), an old army buddy, now a successful variety show host, to arrange a televised invitation to all the men formerly under the command of the General to come to the inn on Christmas Eve as a surprise.

Mistakenly believing that her beloved boss will be portrayed as a pitiable figure in a nationwide broadcast, Emma reveals what she heard to a shocked Betty. The misunderstanding causes Betty to grow suddenly cold toward a baffled Bob. Meanwhile, Judy becomes convinced that Betty will never take on a serious relationship until Judy is engaged or married. She pressures a reluctant Phil to announce a phony engagement, but the plan backfires when Betty abruptly departs for New York City to take a job offer.

Phil and Judy reveal to Bob that the engagement was phony, and Bob, still unaware of the real reason behind Betty's coldness, follows Betty to New York. Phil fakes an injury to distract the General so he will not see the broadcast of Bob's announcement.

Bob and Betty declare their love for one another, as do Phil and Judy.

Cast

Songs

"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 & Vera-Ellen)
"The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" (Kaye with Vera-Ellen)
"Sisters (reprise)" (lip synced by Crosby and Kaye)
"Snow" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Vera-Ellen)
Minstrel Number: "I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show"/"Mister Bones"/"Mandy" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney,& 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)

All songs were written by Irving Berlin. The centerpiece of the film is the title song, first used in Holiday Inn, which won that film an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1942. In addition, Count Your Blessings earned the picture its own Oscar nomination in the same category.

The song "Snow" was originally written for Call Me Madam with the title "Free," but was dropped in out-of-town tryouts. The melody and some of the words were kept, but the lyrics were changed to be more appropriate for a Christmas movie. For example, one of the lines of the original song is:

A composer's demo of the original song can be found on the CD Irving Sings Berlin.

The song "What Can You Do with a General?" was originally written for an un-produced project called Stars on My Shoulders.

Trudy Stevens provided the singing voice for Vera-Ellen, except for "Sisters", where Rosemary Clooney sang both parts. When the time came to record the soundtrack album, Clooney's contract with Columbia Records made it impossible for her to participate, therefore Peggy Lee stepped in. A soundtrack album with Crosby, Kaye, Clooney, and Stevens was not released until the recent CD anniversary reissue, in which the songs were taken directly from the film.

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

Berlin wrote "A Crooner â€" 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.

Production

Casting

White Christmas was intended to reunite Crosby and Fred Astaire for their third Irving Berlin showcase musical. Crosby and Astaire had previously co-starred in Holiday Inn (1942) â€" where the song 'White Christmas' first appeared â€" and Blue Skies (1946). Astaire declined the project after reading the script and asked to be released from his contract with Paramount. Crosby also left the project shortly thereafter, to spend more time with his sons after the death of his wife, Dixie Lee. Near the end of January 1953, Crosby returned to the project, and Donald O'Connor was signed to replace Astaire. Just before shooting was to begin, O'Connor had to drop out due to illness and was replaced by Danny Kaye, who asked for and received a salary of $200,000 and 10% of the gross. Financially, the film was a partnership between Crosby and Irving Berlin, who shared half the profits, and Paramount, which got the other half.

Within the film, a number of soon-to-be famous performers appear. Dancer Barrie Chase appears un-billed, as the character Doris Lenz ("Mutual, I'm sure!"). Future Academy Award winner George Chakiris also appears as one of the stone-faced black-clad dancers surrounding Rosemary Clooney in "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me". John Brascia leads the dance troupe and appears opposite Vera-Ellen throughout much of the movie, particularly in the "Mandy" and "Choreography" numbers. The photo Vera-Ellen shows of her brother Benny (the one Phil refers to as "Freckle-faced Haynes, the dog-faced boy") is actually a photo of Carl Switzer, who played Alfalfa in The Little Rascals, in an army field jacket and helmet liner. A scene from the film featuring Crosby and Kaye was broadcast the year after the film's release, on Christmas Day 1955, in the final episode of the NBC TV show Colgate Comedy Hour (1950â€"1955).

Filming

Principal photography took place between September and November 1953. The film was the first to be shot using Paramount's new VistaVision process, with color by Technicolor, and also introduced the Perspecta directional sound system which used three inaudible tones in order to pan the monaural sound into either left, center or right.

Sound

As with Easter Parade but unlike many other musicals of the 1950s which have been able to be remixed to stereo or 5.1, it is impossible to do this for White Christmas, due to the fact that although the picture was released in an extremely limited fashion with a full three-channel stereo mix carried on 4-track mag release prints, no complete true stereo print has ever been able to be assembled from all known elements.

All the original separate recording angles for both the pre-records and post-records for the picture were destroyed in a fire, and all that remains is a magnetic high-fidelity monaural music master, prepared for international release, and a low-fidelity optical mono composite master which includes all dialogue, sound effects and other elements. These were restored and combined for the Criterion Collection LaserDisc release; however, on the newer releases the monaural composite occupies the front center and the magnetic music-only track is fattened up a bit and placed in the surrounds by itself.

Sound track

It was not possible to issue an "original soundtrack album" of the film, because Decca Records controlled the soundtrack rights, but Clooney was under exclusive contract with Columbia Records. Consequently each one issued a separate "soundtrack recording": Decca issuing Selections from Irving Berlin's White Christmas, while Columbia issued Irving Berlin's White Christmas. On the former, the song "Sisters" (as well as all of Clooney's vocal parts) was recorded by Peggy Lee, while on the latter, the song was sung by Rosemary Clooney and her own sister, Betty.

Release

White Christmas was enormously popular with audiences, earning $12 million in theatrical rentals â€" $102.7 million in 2012 dollars, adjusted for inflation â€" making it the top moneymaker of 1954 by a wide margin. The second highest moneymaker of that year, The Caine Mutiny, earned $8.7 million. Overall, the film grossed $30 million at the domestic box office.

Home media

Paramount Home Media Distribution released this holiday film on video November 7, 1996. Paramount released it as part of the "Classic Christmas Collection" two-disc set along with It's a Wonderful Life on October 31, 2006.

Stage adaptation

A stage adaptation of the musical, titled Irving Berlin's White Christmas premiered in San Francisco in 2004 and has played in various venues in the US, such as Boston, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Detroit and Louisville. The musical played a limited engagement on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre, from November 14, 2008 until January 4, 2009. The musical also toured the United Kingdom in 2006 - 2008. It headed to the Sunderland Empire in Sunderland from November 2010 to January 2011 after a successful earlier run in Manchester and has continued in various cities with a London West End run at the end of 2014.

White Christmas (film)

Thursday, April 2, 2015