25 days of Christmas | Holiday Inn, 1942

Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby), Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) and Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) are performers with a popular gig in New York Citu. Jim sings, Ted dances, and Lila does a little but of both, in an act in which both men play characters that are fighting for the heart of the only girl in the group (I'll capture your heart). On the stage she plays hard to get, wanting a gentleman who can sing and dance and having next to her two lads who can do one or the other. And backstage this fight continues...

Both Jim and Ted are inlove with Lila, but it's Jim that's got the honour of being her boyfriend. Jim, who's sick of the glamour of the stage and this Christmas eve (because the film starts on December, 24th), intends to give his last performance before marrying Lila and moving to a farm in Connecticut. He wants a quieter life! As a singer what happens in the holidays? He works! Christmas Eve, Easter, Independence day... Jim is sick of that. He wants to get married, move to the country and enjoy the holidays like a normal person does!

What he doesn't know is that Lila doesn't have the slightest intention of moving to a farm. She loves her life as a celebrity, and as a matter of fact, she decided that she likes Ted better than Jim and she's been cheating on the singer with their stage colleague for a while. It's Ted that she intends to marry. And it's Ted who tells Jim about the news, right after their last performance.

Heartbroken, Jim decides to follow his plans and move to Connecticut anyway. Exactly one year later, however, Jim is back. Life as a farmer proved to be much harder than he'd anticipated and he couldn't get a day's rest! 

But no matter. He's got a new idea. Jim intends to transform his farm in an Inn, the Holiday Inn, a place that only works on open Holidays, with a special show on each Holiday. That way he'll only work for about 15 days a year and have 350 to do as he pleases. When he's looking for other performers, he talks to his former manager and that's how Linda Mason is sent his way. She happens to be quite talented, and Jim falls in love with the girl (as we knew he would).

Trouble is that by this time, Ted and Lila are no longer together... Lila has abandoned the dancer for a Texan millionaire. Completely lost, Ted seeks Jim's help at Hiliday Inn, and unaware of Jim's involvement with Linda, Ted falls in love with the girl and becomes determined to make her his next dancing partner and bride.  

All of that happens for Jim's despair, and he needs to get creatice to win this competition. Holiday Inn is a musical from 1942, and it was the first film I ever saw with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire (even before White Christmas, yes). It's a nice story with the kind of aesthetics that only the 1940s had...

Besides, the film is lighthearted and rather fun. The thing is that when Ted met Linda he was completely drunk (due to Lila's betrayal), and in the next day he can't remmeber a thing, other than that he met  a woman who was his perfect dancing partner and he goes back to Holiday Inn for every possible holiday, in the hope to find that girl again. He dances with as many women as he can, but his perfect partner eludes him. It doesn't help that Jim is working very hard to hide Linda away. Later when the recognize each other, Jim gets even more creative, and the scene on Washington's day in which Jim alternates between a minuet and a jazzy rythm to keep Ted and Linda from having too much of a romantic moment on the dance floor, that scene is incredibly funny.

The story is a picture of the world in the 1940s. The suits, the ties, the shiny dresses, even the way they sing and dance reflects the sensibilities of the world in those days, and that's one of the big reasons to watch these Golden Age films. The very fact that the movie is lighthearted and fun has something to do with the fact that when it came out, the world was deeply immersed in the II World War. People needed enterteinement. 

There's something to be said about the way this movie represents the women in the 1940s. Lila is depicted as an untrustworth gold-digger, but Linda is a strong woman who knows her own mind. She can drive and she speaks her mind. And Jim appreciates all those things about her, but for a while in the middle he doesn't seem to trust that she'll make decisions for herself...  It's true that what happened with his former bride has traumatized him a little but that's no excuse for the way he struggles to keep Linda close with lies.

This musical is well known as the first time the song White Christmas was heard. The song that was supposed to be the main song was "Be careful it's my heart", from Valentine's Day, but "White Christmas' got a lot more attention. Now it's a Christmas classic, and it would appear in two more musicals by Irving Berlin, the last of which White Christmas. The song got an Academy Award in 1943... The scene in which they sing it is particularly beautiful. Linda gets to Holiday Inn on Christmas day and finds Jim by himself in the living room, playing that song on the piano. There are a lot of lovely details, like Jim playing the tiny bells above the piano. Quite beautiful.

In spite of the fact that the film shows many holidays (including some rather exotic ones, like Lincoln's day, with a black face number - and a great song, by the way), the film is a fantastic Christmas story. It begins and ends with Christmas, and it's at Christmas that the key moments in the story take place...

And once again... That scene where they sing White Christmas...

It's hard not to compare both musicals, but there's hardly any comparison... Holiday Inn is far superior, both as a film and the songs are far more interesting and just cooler than the ones on White Christmas. And the dance... The dance is much better here, no doubt on account od mr. Astaire's presence. HIs 4th of July improv is marvelous to watch...



Holiday Inn | 1942 | Directed by Mark Sandrich | Story by Irving Berlim | Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby