ABOUT WHITE CHRISTMAS: THE MOVIE
Music and Lyrics: Irving Berlin Screenplay: Norman Krasna, Norman Panama, Melvin Frank Produced by: Robert Dolan for Paramount Directed by: Michael Curtiz Choreography: Robert Alton Photography: Loyal Griggs (Technicolor; VistaVision) Cast: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger, Grady Sutton, Sig Rumann, Barrie Chase, George Chakiris Songs: “White Christmas,” “The Old Man,” “Blue Skies,” “Sisters,” “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing,” “Snow,” “Mandy,” “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” “Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me” Released: August 1954; 120 minutes Currently available on Paramount Home Video and DVD
Planned as the third Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire-Irving Berlin musical, White Christmas suffered the loss of Astaire when Fred took sick and had to be replaced by Donald O’Connor. Then O’Connor took sick and had to be replaced by Danny Kaye. None of the changes affected the box office: grossing $12 million in theatre rentals, the movie held the No. 1 position as the top money-making picture of 1954, and it also ranks fifth among the highest rental musicals of the decade. The story easily shows its Holiday Inn-Blue Skies roots, with Crosby and Kaye as successful Broadway partners who become romantically involved with sisters Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen. On vacation in Vermont, they stay at a ski resort owned by Bing and Danny’s former Army General (Dean Jagger) where they are the only guests because there is no snow. The boys help out the General by staging their Broadway-bound revue at the resort, and Crosby makes a television appeal to his army buddies to show up on Christmas Eve. They do, it snows, and everyone sings “White Christmas.”
[Source: Green, Stanley. Hollywood Musicals Year by Year. Hal Leonard Corp., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1990.]
For more information, contact: Meghan McDonald (312.428.2408) [email protected]