Autumnsong: 25 Days of Christmas | White Christmas, 1954

White Christmas | 1954

The poster, highlighting the fact that the
film would be made with VistaVision technology
and coloured by technicolor

Bob Wallace and Phill Davies are entertainers who made big with a huge act on Brodway. But before that, they met overseas when they were both at the front during the II World War.

A few years later, Bob and Phill’s career in entertainment (along with Phill’s crazy plans and their infatuation with a couple of young ladies) takes them to a skiing inn in Vermont, where the girls have been hired for a Christmas act. Upon arriving they discovered that the inn is owned by Major General Thomas F. Waverly, their beloved commanding officer at the front…

But the general is having a hard time. Waverly has invested all of his savings into the lodge, which is in danger of failing because there hasn’t been any snow for several winters, and thus no guests. Further more, disheartened as the general may be, his failing as an inn keeper brings up old desires to get back in the army, which prompts him to request a new post, perhaps commanding a training camp overseas. When he gets a letter back subtly telling him he is too old for such a task, the wound of not being able to find a place for himself out of the military is opened again.

Bob and Phill take it upon themselves to cheer up the general, and in order to do that they bring most of their act to the inn, in an attempt to bring more guests and avoid bankruptcy and restore the general’s Christmas spirit…

In addition to all that there’s the story of how Bob and Phill become acquainted with Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy, two sisters who are also in show business who lure them to their act with a fake letter to get some tips from the pros. Secretly, Phill hopes Bob will become interested in one of the young ladies so he can have some leisurely time.

“I haven't had one minute I could call my own. (…) I want you to get married. I want you to have nine children. And if you only spend five minutes a day with each kid, that's 45 minutes, and I'd at least have time to go out and get a massage or something.”

Bob and Phill arguing in the locker room

But Bob has no delusions of finding a girl he can get serious among the kinds of characters they get thrown at them in their trade, however… But Betty’s blue eyes catch Bob’s attention, and a large portion of the film is a simple “boy-girl girl-boy” story, with a lot of misunderstandings before the ending.

Boy girl girl boy on a train singing 'Snow'

This Irving Berlin musical came out in 1954 and it was the first film to use Paramount’s new VistaVision proccess, with colour by technicolor along with a few other innovations in term of sound editing.

Originally White Christmas was meant to reunite Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, both of whom had worked together before in Holiday Inn. But Fred refused the role after reading the script, so Danny Kaye was cast, the third choice for the role (after Donald O’Connor had to drop out due to illness). Unfortunately though, there are several moments in which it is obvious that the role of Phill was written for Fred though, in special the many dance scenes in which Judy (Phill’s romantic interest, played by Vera-Ellen) is accompanied by a variety of supporting characters (who don’t even get their names mentioned), instead of Phill. The one duet they have in the beginning, dancing to "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing", ends up with Vera Ellen tripping on Kaye’s foot. The song “A singer – A dancer” was also dropped when Fred Astaire wasn’t cast in the film.

There’s definitely chemistry between Betty and Bob, the main couple in the film, and one of the best scenes is definitely the one in which they meet after hours and Bob sings “Count your Blessings” by the fire.

The song is beautiful enough, and there’s also Bob’s theory about what foods led to what dreams which was completely improvised. As it happens, Rosemary was 25 years younger than Bing Crosby and had only signed with Paramount because she would be able to work with him, whom she had grown up listening to on the radio. After the film they remained close friends.

Bing and Rosemary in the movie and to the left, the two of them years later. They remained friends and even did a couple of projects together, although the official movie soundtrack (the album) features another female singer because Mrs Clooney was under contract with a different lable at the time

The scene in which Crosby and Kaye sing ‘Sisters’ dressed like women was also improvised… And it’s one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen.