A perennial favourite that grows more endearing with age, Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn (1942) is the film that introduced the world to the immortal carol, 'White Christmas', was loosely remade as a glossy Technicolor musical in the mid-1950s and has had a hotel franchise named in its honour: all fascinating footnotes to an otherwise remarkable pedigree that began with a story scripted by Claude Binyon and directed by Mark Sandrich. Reportedly, it was Berlin who thought up the idea of an out of the way lodge open holidays only. To this scant concept Berlin also contributed the film's memorable score, drawing on his own song catalogue that stretched all the way back to hits written in the teens as well as several new songs penned especially for the film.
Of this latter ilk, Berlin had pinned his hopes on having a new hit single with 'Be Careful It's My Heart' - the melodious ballad used for the Valentine's Day sequence in the film to establish a romantic rivalry between the three principle players. But it was another, less dramatic ditty that captured the public's fascination instead and almost instantly.
Today, one forgets that Berlin wrote a curious verse preceding the chorus we have come to know and love as 'White Christmas'; one that firmly establishes the locale of the number as Los Angeles - not Connecticut - and speaks to the anomaly of celebrating the winter holidays without the luxury of snow. However, with this intro removed - a suggestion reportedly made to Berlin by Fred Astaire - the song took on more prescient meaning in the film, particularly since many who first saw the movie instantly thought of their loved ones fighting in Europe.
Holiday Inn stars Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as a couple of fair weather song and dance men, Jim Hardy and Ted Hanover. Seems Jim was all set to retire to the country with dancing partner, Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) when she decided she would rather stay on the circuit with Ted, as she says to Jim “…the two of us, dedicating our lives to making people happy with our feet.”
Resigned to a more simple, albeit lonely life, Jim moves to the country inn he bought for Lila but discovers that farming is relentless and gruelling hard work. Suffering a temporary mental breakdown, Jim rebounds quickly with an idea that simply can’t miss. He turns his rustic home into a swanky nightclub open only on holidays. The idea appeals to Ted whose relationship with Lila is not going smoothly.
Enter Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds); a girl working nights at a flower shop but who really wants an opportunity to sing and dance. After being given the polite brush off by Ted’s agent, Danny Reed (Walter Abel) Linda becomes ‘queen of Holiday Inn’ and Jim’s romantic love interest. Unfortunately, Lila has left Ted for a Texas millionaire and he, having consumed a bottle of scotch, arrives at the inn decidedly snookered to perform a drunken dance routine with Linda at the end of which Ted passes out.
Unable to recall what Linda looked like, Ted and Danny resign themselves to return to the inn for each subsequent holiday - convinced that Linda will turn up there as a creature of habit. They have no way of knowing that Linda is actually working at the inn. Jim, however, is determined not to let Ted have his way with Linda. For Lincoln's birthday, Jim disguises Linda in blackface for their number. The rouse is successful, but when Ted and Danny arrive early for the Valentine's Day celebration they discover Jim serenading Linda with 'Be Careful It's My Heart'. Ted hijacks the orchestral portion of Jim's song to do a graceful pas deux with Linda, declaring at the end of the number that he has decided to work each subsequent show at the inn to remain closer to his 'old' friend.
All does not run smoothly, however. For Washington's Birthday, Jim sabotages Ted and Linda's dance routine and for the 4th of July Jim plots to reunited Ted with Lila while having Linda suffer an accident to prevent her from dancing in front of some Hollywood agents who have come to the inn via Danny's invitation. Linda learns too late of Jim's plan but manages to sabotage Lila's arrival at the inn anyway. Ted performs an electrifying firecracker solo dance, and, although the Hollywood agents are mildly interested in Ted and his new partner, they are head over heels crazy for doing a movie based on the concept of 'Holiday Inn'.
Jim reluctantly sells the idea to the studio, with Ted and Linda promptly whisked to Hollywood to begin shooting the film. During this brief interlude Ted and Linda become engaged and Jim - having completed the final song in his score for the project - sulks at the real inn as the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaches. Jim is tended to by his devoted housekeeper, Mamie (Louise Beavers) who encourages him to stand up for himself once and for all and reclaim his stake on Linda's true love.
Arriving in Hollywood on the eve that Ted and Linda are bound for Yuma, Jim sneaks onto the set - an exact replica of his inn - and watches as an unhappy Linda shoots the final takes for the movie. As Linda sings 'White Christmas' her feelings for Jim are rekindled. Jim takes over singing the song and Linda realizes what a mistake it would be to marry Ted. In the final moments, Ted returns to the real Holiday Inn with Lila who has left her Texas millionaire to return as his partner.
Part of the enduring appeal of Holiday Inn has to do with Paramount’s design of the inn itself – so cozy, rustic, yet charming that it at once introduces itself as a major character in the narrative; as Jim puts it "A simple little layout where we could do the best with the work we know without having any delusions of grandeur." From the moment we arrive at the inn it immediately becomes the ultimate fantasy destination that most anyone would want to either own or at least visit.
As a matter of record, Holiday Inn contains two interesting anomalies. The first is that it inadvertently showcases the then time honoured tradition of blackface that today is widely and justly regarded as racist. Meant as an homage to President Lincoln’s freeing of the slaves, the song features Crosby and Reynolds in campy blackface delivering decidedly overblown caricatures of the black race.
It is important, however, to place the concept of 'blackface' into proper context. Considered an art form from roughly 1830 to 1940 in the U.S., blackface perpetuated the stereotype of the simple-minded, happy-go-lucky 'darky' and was a main staple of both travelling minstrel shows and the Vaudeville circuit.
As a natural extension of its popularity on stage, many movies from the early to mid-1930s had blackface routines as part of their repertoire, with Holiday Inn's being one of the last. At the time of the film's premiere no one thought any better or worse of having blackface as part of the film's narrative. If Holiday Inn does have a flaw when viewed from our more contemporary vantage, it is this Abraham sequence - if not acceptable - then at least, illustrative of just how far race relations have evolved since its time.
The second anomaly in the film has to do with then President Franklin Roosevelt's desire to expand the Christmas shopping season by declaring that the holiday of Thanksgiving be pushed back by a week. As each segment of Holiday Inn begins with a stylized calendar with the holiday from that month clearly marked, the Thanksgiving calendar features a confused turkey that aimlessly wanders back and forth between the two dates proposed for the 'new' Thanksgiving. In the end, Roosevelt lost his bid and Thanksgiving's permanent date was established by law as Nov. 26th.
Holiday Inn was an enormous critical and financial success when it premiered. Today, it remains a cherished and celebrated Christmas memory perennially resurrected over a hot cup of cocoa or open fire during the holiday season.
Universal Home Video has previously made Holiday Inn available as part of a single-sided double feature disc with Leo McCarey’s Going My Way (1944). The transfer of both films on that disc was severely flawed with edge enhancement and excessive shimmering of fine details.
Universal’s reissue of Holiday Inn: The Special Edition as a stand alone with extras is a marked improvement on its first incarnation. For the most part, the aforementioned shortcomings have disappeared, although the window panes at the inn occasionally show slight indications of being visually unstable. Film grain is perhaps a bit more evident than one might expect, but age related artefacts are kept to a bare minimum. Contrast levels are fairly accurate with an overall smoothly balanced gray scale. Whites are generally clean. Blacks are, for the most part, black. The audio is mono and well represented.
As for the extras, they include an audio commentary by Ken Burnes with pre-recorded excerpts of Crosby and Astaire reminiscing about their participation on the film and two fairly dull featurettes: ‘A Couple of Song and Dance Men’ and ‘All Singing, All Dancing Before and After’. The first is a poorly edited and contrived bit of scripted nonsense in which Ava Astaire (Fred’s daughter) and Burnes wax about information readily expressed in the audio commentary.
The second makes short shrift of the history of the Hollywood musical with still images and bootlegged clips from several films that Universal does not own the rights to (most noticeably ‘Top Hat’). It would have meant so much more if Universal had actually taken the time to give us a ‘making of’ documentary with archival footage.
As a matter of record, there is also a 'three disc' incarnation of Holiday Inn currently available from Universal Home Video. The first disc in that offering is identical to the materials reviewed herein. The second disc in that set contains the notoriously colourized version of the film - painful to watch under any circumstance. The third disc is a CD advertised as 'original soundtrack recordings'. However, none of the tracks on that CD are those originally recorded for the film, rather re-recordings and extended cuts made at the studio with alternative orchestrations.
Even so, this reviewer cannot deny that Berlin’s infectious score and Astaire and Crosby’s professionalism worked their magic on this reviewer once more. Holiday Inn: The Special Edition comes recommended. It captured my heart…singing.
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
4.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
4
EXTRAS
2
Deserves to be on Blu-Ray?
YES!
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