Holiday Inn (1942) directed by Mark Sandrich, stars a laid back, crooning Bing Crosby, and a suave, dancing Fred Astaire. Without question Holiday Inn is a genuine, universally admired classic film, specifically created to showcase music from composer Irving Berlin. The prolific Berlin wrote twelve original songs for Holiday Inn, with the best known being his mega hit tune, "White Christmas." Holiday Inn, in unsophisticated black and white, may arguably be the "Film Everest" of all musicals past and present. Indeed, the song, "White Christmas," is still one of the most recorded, played, and performed songs in music history.
The charming, straightforward plot, is quite simple. Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) has decided he's had enough of show business, nightlife, and endless travel. Hardy then purchases a small farm in Midville, Connecticut, and though he feels he made the right decision to leave show biz for a life on the farm, this kind of rural retirement Nirvana doesn't last long. After a series of "farm failures," Hardy converts his project into a nightclub that is only open on holidays, and hence, "Holiday Inn." Hardy's novel concept is fairly simple: You work 15 days of the year (with some time thrown in for rehearsals, arranging music, setting up the proper holiday theme at the Inn), essentially doing the kind of things you truly enjoy. This is actually an ingenious concept when you stop and think about it, so much so that the real Holiday Inn chain of hotels was intentionally named after this film.
Hardy soon falls in love with aspiring actress Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds), who is also being aggressively pursued by dance celebrity Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire). Yeah, forget that Ted and Hardy are best friends, and forget that Ted has routinely stolen all of Hardy's former girlfriends. This is all about love, and this kind of subtle, "gentlemanly combat" means that the girl can only go to the winner. Bing, Astaire, and Reynolds become featured at the Inn where they perform heart thumping dance and song, the likes of which, will probably never be surpassed. Holiday Inn is a solid testimony to the kind of classic fare that a more artistic yet conventional Hollywood used to generate with apparent ease in the 1930s and 1940s.
Twelve years later, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen would team up for White Christmas (1954) in what would ironically become the "better known" perennial holiday film. And though this "loose remake" of Holiday Inn would be filmed in blazing Technicolor instead of stark black and white, and would again include a bevy of Irving Berlin hit compositions (with Bing reprising "White Christmas"), it lacks the essential cast chemistry and charm of its predecessor.
But Hollywood never stands still, and every now and then, we see flashing glimpses of that beautiful era in more contemporary musicals such as La La Land (2016). My personal hope is that film history will, at least in this genre, repeat itself, again . . . And again . . . And again.
The charming, straightforward plot, is quite simple. Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) has decided he's had enough of show business, nightlife, and endless travel. Hardy then purchases a small farm in Midville, Connecticut, and though he feels he made the right decision to leave show biz for a life on the farm, this kind of rural retirement Nirvana doesn't last long. After a series of "farm failures," Hardy converts his project into a nightclub that is only open on holidays, and hence, "Holiday Inn." Hardy's novel concept is fairly simple: You work 15 days of the year (with some time thrown in for rehearsals, arranging music, setting up the proper holiday theme at the Inn), essentially doing the kind of things you truly enjoy. This is actually an ingenious concept when you stop and think about it, so much so that the real Holiday Inn chain of hotels was intentionally named after this film.
Hardy soon falls in love with aspiring actress Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds), who is also being aggressively pursued by dance celebrity Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire). Yeah, forget that Ted and Hardy are best friends, and forget that Ted has routinely stolen all of Hardy's former girlfriends. This is all about love, and this kind of subtle, "gentlemanly combat" means that the girl can only go to the winner. Bing, Astaire, and Reynolds become featured at the Inn where they perform heart thumping dance and song, the likes of which, will probably never be surpassed. Holiday Inn is a solid testimony to the kind of classic fare that a more artistic yet conventional Hollywood used to generate with apparent ease in the 1930s and 1940s.
Twelve years later, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen would team up for White Christmas (1954) in what would ironically become the "better known" perennial holiday film. And though this "loose remake" of Holiday Inn would be filmed in blazing Technicolor instead of stark black and white, and would again include a bevy of Irving Berlin hit compositions (with Bing reprising "White Christmas"), it lacks the essential cast chemistry and charm of its predecessor.
But Hollywood never stands still, and every now and then, we see flashing glimpses of that beautiful era in more contemporary musicals such as La La Land (2016). My personal hope is that film history will, at least in this genre, repeat itself, again . . . And again . . . And again.