This year for Christmas, in addition to the compliment of Christmas movies I already have, I'm seeking out a few I haven't seen for my rentals this month. The first being this 1942 classic.
An Irving Berlin production featuring Bing Crosby. This time paired up with Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds, and Virginia Dale. As I understand it, this movie introduced the classic song White Christmas to the masses, which quickly became a favorite of the men serving in WWII, which we had just entered in to when this movie was finishing production. As a nod to the war effort they quickly added a few brief snippets of military footage in a patriotic number.
I have read that this is often compared to the movie White Christmas which I absolutely love, so I was looking forward to seeing this one. It's even said that White Christmas was a remake of Holiday Inn. Well, I don't know about that. There is a New England Inn involved, and the 2 boys-2 girls romance, and the singing and dancing, but I see very little else that resembles the story line of White Christmas. I found the story/production to jump around in this movie making it a little rushed and loose in maintaining the plot. There was great singing and dancing throughout. And this one didn't focus on Christmas so much as just holidays in general.
Over all I like White Christmas far better from a story line and production standpoint. Maybe the idea of a remake was more about Berlin's improved writing as reflected in the 12 years between the two films. Holiday Inn is a nice movie, well worth watching to be sure. I wouldn't call it a Christmas movie though.
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