And We Love Having You. When Are You Leaving?

An early Merry Christmas to you!

In keeping with the season, I am going to attempt to watch and review one Christmas movie every day leading up to Christmas. I have received numerous suggestions, and if you have a favorite you'd like me to watch and talk about, please let me know in the comments.

I started with Holiday Inn, since it was randomly sent to me as a (surprise!) fourth DVD from Netflix in November. It had been on my queue, as I've been meaning to watch it for some time. I discovered while watching it that it is indeed not only a Christmas movie, but actually a holiday movie - for several different holidays in the year. So I hope you'll forgive that discrepancy.

Holiday Inn was released in theaters in 1942, and was directed by Mark Sandrich (who directed 74 films in 20 years, and died of a heart attack), starred Bing Crosby (of White Christmas fame), Fred Astaire (of several films, including Shall We Dance [which I have seen]), and Marjorie Reynolds (who has apparently done much work in TV and film, though none that I have seen). The music and story idea come from Irving Berlin, who won an Academy Award for his song "White Christmas," which originated in this film.

The film tells the tenuous story of a song-and-dance partnership between Jim Hardy (Crosby) and Ted Hanover (Astaire). The two have a history of stealing women from each other - Jim with his singing, and Ted with his dancing. After Jim's fiancée leaves him for Ted, Jim decides to leave show business and go live on a farm. Finding himself discontented by all of the work and all of the loneliness of farm life, Jim decides to start up a Holiday Inn at his farm - an inn/club that is only open on holidays. He seeks entertainers, and discovers Linda Mason (Reynolds), and immediately takes a liking to her. Just after he asks her to marry him, Ted shows up, and dances his way into Linda's heart as well. Though she decides to stay with Jim, she goes to Hollywood with Ted when given the opportunity to be in movies. Jim, depressed and miserable, closes the Inn for Thanksgiving, and is ready to give up on all, until his housekeeper, Mamie (played by Louise Beavers) tells him that he can still have Linda if he tells her how he feels. Indeed, by Christmas, Jim wins back Linda's heart, and Ted contents himself with the old dancing partner that had been engaged to Jim in the first place.

Like I said, it is a pretty paper-thin plot to carry the music by Berlin. Some of those tunes are wonderful - "White Christmas," for example, or "Be Careful, It's My Heart" (for Valentine's Day), but some are a bit of an embarrassment - "Abraham" (for Lincoln's birthday), or "I Can't Tell a Lie" (for Washington's birthday). Indeed the true embarrassment is the costuming for "Abraham," as all of the dancers and singers (including Crosby and Reynolds) appear in blackface. In the current day and age, it makes me cringe, but this appears to have been common practice in early films. Turner Classic Movies (a television cable channel that plays entirely uncut movies without commercials) plays this movie without censoring that scene. I can appreciate the respect for the movie as made, but I wish it hadn't been made that way.

Astaire has an amazing dance for the Fourth of July, in which he takes small firecrackers and throws them down on the stage in timing with his tap dancing and the music. It's very fanciful, and probably one of two of the best parts of the movie. It's brilliantly done, and took three days of rehearsal and two days to film, according to www.imdb.com.

The other best part of the film was during Jim's lonely Thanksgiving dinner for one, as he puts on a record of him singing, "I've Got Plenty to Be Thankful For," and makes wry, unenthusiastic comments at his singing self.

Other than that, this film is really not worth your while. Crosby can sing amazingly, and Astaire can surely dance up a storm, but the so-called plot ruins the whole concept.