Film Review
A perennial favourite for over a half a century,
White Christmas remains one of the
most cherished of yuletide-related film offerings, even if its yuletide
content is frantically concertinaed into its last five minutes and
looks almost like an afterthought. The pairing of Bing Crosby and
Danny Kaye isn't so much inspired as almost indecently obvious, the
former's treacly old-fashioned charm perfectly complemented by the
latter's mischievous sense of fun. Crosby and Kaye sing, play and
dance together so naturally that you'd think they were two halves of a
Gestalt entity, even if their screen personas are very different.
Their glamorous co-stars, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, hardly get a
look-in - this is the Bing and Danny show right from the off.
There are a few scenes in which the Crosby-Kaye double act does begin
to grate a little, but such moments of mild discomfort are easily
assuaged by the instantly uplifting Irving Berlin numbers, particularly
the title song (originally written twelve years earlier for
Holiday Inn, another Crosby
vehicle),
The Best Things Happen
While You're Dancing, and the Oscar-nominated
Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep.
Such toe-tapping delights help to distract us from the ludicrous plot
and make it easier for us to cope with the volley of high-grade
schmaltz that the screenwriters lob into our faces with something of the psychopathic
zeal of a pie-flinger from a Mack Sennett comedy.
White Christmas has the distinction of being the first film
to have been recorded using Paramount's revolutionary VistaVision widescreen colour process,
which would account for its garish use of colour and unconvincing studio exteriors.
Admittedly, the film does occasionally veer towards the patently
ridiculous (Crosby and Kaye gaily performing
Sisters - possibly the campest
thing committed to celluloid in the 1950s) and the downright
pretentious (the slightly hideous
Choreography
dance number), but these are minor sins when set beside the film's
occasional outbursts of tacky sentimentality. It may not be
Bing's finest hour, and Michael Curtiz really ought to have known
better, but there's something irresistible about this gratuitous slush
fest.
White Christmas
has become as much a part of the fabric of the festive season as
mince pies, mulled wine and eye-watering bank overdrafts, and it will
doubtless continue to earn its place in the Christmas TV schedules long
after the
Harry Potter films
and such like have all faded into total obscurity. Christmas
wouldn't be Christmas without Bing crooning lovingly about treetops and
sleighbells, now would it?
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Michael Curtiz film:
Das Spielzeug von Paris (1925)
Film Synopsis
Christmas Eve, 1944 - somewhere in Europe. After staging a show
in honour of their departing commanding officer, Major General Waverly,
a platoon of U.S. troops comes under heavy artillery fire.
Phil Davis saves the life of fellow soldier Bob Wallace, a popular
Broadway entertainer who, to show his gratitude, agrees to form a
partnership with Phil after the war. Despite Bob's initial
misgivings, the double act proves to be a great success. Whilst
the duo are performing in Florida, Phil decides to take an interest in
Bob's love life and introduces him to two sisters of an old army pal,
Betty and Judy. Pursued by their aggrieved landlord, the latter
hastily leave town, with Phil and Bob's help, and the four end up at a
skiing lodge in Vermont run by General Waverley. Having learned that
the General is facing financial ruin because he is unable to attract
enough business, Phil and Bob decide to put on a glitzy show at his
hotel. When Betty suspects that Bob intends to use the event for
his own financial gain, she walks out on him and heads back to New
York, just as Bob realises she is the only girl for him...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.