White Christmas

directed by Michael Curtiz
Category: "Musical"
Year of Release:1954
Date Added:11/28/2006
Date Watched:12/25/1986
Description:Bing Crosby …. Bob Wallace
Danny Kaye …. Phil Davis
Rosemary Clooney …. Betty Haynes
Vera Ellen …. Judy Haynes
Dean Jagger …. Major General Thomas F. Waverly
Mary Wickes …. Emma Allen
My Rating:6

Reviews for White Christmas

Review - White Christmas

Private Phil Davis saves the life of famous singer Bob Wallace during a show in Europe during WWII. As payback, Phil demands that Bob take him on as a partner. They visit a night club to see the Haynes Sisters perform, and Phil gets the idea that Bob would be happier if he were married to Betty Haynes. When the girls reveal that they’re wanted for skipping out on their hotel bill, Phil gives them his and Bob’s tickets. The sisters have a booking at an inn in Vermont. Phil and Bob follow and discover the inn is owned by their old army commander, General Waverly. The General is on the verge of bankruptcy, and the foursome decides to help him out by putting on a show. Bob and Betty are getting serious about each other. Phil and Judy scheme to hurry things along by pretending they’re engaged themselves.

Bob goes on TV to encourage other members of the army to come to the show. Betty gets the idea that Bob is exploiting the General and takes off in a huff. But when she sees Bob on TV, she realizes she’s made a mistake and hurries back in time for the performance. The show, of course, is a big hit. There’s a large crowd of soldiers to honor the General, and Bob sings White Christmas. Bob and Betty get engaged, and Phil and Judy decide they might as well too.

The movie really has very little to do with Christmas other than the song. The plot is silly. Some of the songs are awful, particularly the one titled Choreography, which has girls in bag dresses dancing in circles around a miming Danny Kaye. I was struck by two things while watching — the impossibility of putting on such a huge show in the inn where there clearly couldn’t be enough room, and how bizarrely skinny Vera Ellen was. I looked up her biography on IMDB and discovered she had anorexia before it was even named. All her costumes in the movie hid her neck which was prematurely aged because of her disease. She also had crippling arthritis, got divorced twice and lost her infant daughter to SIDS. She spent the last several years of her life as a recluse and died in 1981 at the age of 60. Just thought you might want to know. Anyway, the next time you watch the movie, notice how skinny she is. I rated it a 6. I don’t even like the song White Christmas all that much.

Review - White Christmas

The movie really has very little to do with Christmas other than the song. The plot is silly. Some of the songs are awful, particularly the one titled Choreography, which has girls in bag dresses dancing in circles around a miming Danny Kaye. I was struck by two things while watching — the impossibility of putting on such a huge show in the inn where there clearly couldn’t be enough room, and how bizarrely skinny Vera Ellen was. I looked up her biography on IMDB and discovered she had anorexia before it was even named. All her costumes in the movie hid her neck which was prematurely aged because of her disease. She also had crippling arthritis, got divorced twice and lost her infant daughter to SIDS. She spent the last several years of her life as a recluse and died in 1981 at the age of 60. Just thought you might want to know. Anyway, the next time you watch the movie, notice how skinny she is.

I rated it a 6. I don’t even like the song White Christmas all that much.
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