By Rick Anderson
For Grays Harbor News Group
Few movies divide audiences and critics more than “White Christmas.”
Detractors regard the musical as a schlocky retread of 1942’s “Holiday Inn,” which also starred Bing Crosby and featured the music of Irving Berlin.
But it has always been a crowd-pleaser. It was the biggest box-office success of 1954 and in most quarters is still considered a Christmas classic — filled with good humor, good music and holiday cheer.
Harbor audiences can decide for themselves when “White Christmas” is shown this weekend at Hoquiam’s 7th Street Theatre.
For what it’s worth, I tend to side with the majority of viewers in my assessment of this film. While “Holiday Inn” features a more original story and the dancing wizardry of Fred Astaire, “White Christmas” is livelier, funnier and boasts a stronger supporting cast. Shot in wide-screen color, it is easily the more visually appealing of the two films.
Those attributes are necessary to overcome a plot that, even by movie musical standards, is pretty far-fetched.
Army buddies Bob Wallace (played by Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) team up for a successful nightclub act following World War II. Fame and fortune isn’t enough, however, for the good-hearted but conniving Phil. Believing Bob to be a “lonely, miserable man,” he wants to set up his older partner with a woman.
To that end, he cons Bob into checking out Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy (Vera-Ellen) Haynes — sisters who are performing a song-and-dance act, first at a club in Florida and later at a financially strapped resort in Vermont. By remarkable coincidence, the resort is owned by General Waverly (Dean Jagger), the beloved former commanding officer of the men’s Army unit.
With Phil and Judy enthusiastically playing matchmakers, romance starts to bloom between Betty and Bob. The latter also hopes to resuscitate Waverly’s faltering fortunes by combining an elaborate show with a surprise Christmas Eve reunion of his old unit.
All appears to be going well until the inn’s nosy housekeeper/room clerk (played by Mary Wickes) eavesdrops on a phone conversation between Bob and the host of a network TV program on which he intends to unveil the reunion plan. Her misinterpretation of that conversation threatens both the romance and the big show.
To put it mildly, several elements of this story don’t hold up under close scrutiny. There’s literally no room at the inn to accommodate the entire performance troupe plus a large contingent of Army veterans. Betty could immediately clear up the climactic misunderstanding by simply asking Bob to clarify his plans.
For that matter, Betty breaks so many performing contracts (three in the span of about an hour) in this film that she’d probably do well to keep a high-priced attorney on speed dial.
Fortunately, there’s enough quality music to keep the audience’s mind off the plot. The title song (earlier introduced by Crosby in “Holiday Inn”) is reprised a couple of times. Berlin’s original score for this film includes the Oscar-nominated “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep.”
Although he was the third choice to play Phil (Astaire declined the role and Donald O’Connor withdrew due to illness), Kaye provides the type of zany humor the film needs to prevent it from descending into sentimentality. Wickes, who spent more than 50 years in films playing essentially the same sharp-tongued busybody character, has some good comic moments as well.
At 51, Crosby was a little old to be romancing a 26-year-old co-star. But he was still in good voice and maintained his effortless charm.
He and Kaye reportedly improvised the scene in which they perform “Sisters” in drag. According to Clooney, Crosby also ad-libbed much of the dialogue when Betty and Bob share a late-night snack in the inn’s dining room.
Clooney and Vera-Ellen are stronger performers than their counterparts in “Holiday Inn.” Sadly, this was Vera-Ellen’s final American big-screen appearance. A first-rate dancer, she left show business in her mid-30s. Family members have debunked the popular legend that her retirement was caused by eating disorders.
Although set primarily in New England, “White Christmas” has a couple of Northwest ties.
As most of his fans know, Crosby was a native of Washington — born in Tacoma and raised in Spokane.
Anne Whitfield, who has a small role as Waverly’s teen-aged granddaughter, spent several years in Olympia working for the State Department of Ecology after leaving show business. At last report, she was living in the Seattle area operating a bed-and-breakfast establishment.
It’s doubtful, in that profession, that she spent much time eavesdropping on her guests’ telephone conversations. That’s one lesson she might have learned from “White Christmas.”
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“White Christmas” will be shown Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the 7th Street Theatre, 313 Seventh St. in Hoquiam. Tickets are $6 per person.
Rick Anderson, retired sports editor of The Daily World, now is a contributing columnist. Reach him at rickwrite48@gmail.com.
