Set Time Again Song White Christmas Sisters

1954 film directed by Michael Curtiz

White Christmas
Theatrical release affiche
Directed by	Michael Curtiz
Written by	Norman Krasna Norman Panama Melvin Frank
Produced by	Robert Emmett Dolan
Starring	Bing Crosby Danny Kaye Rosemary Clooney Vera-Ellen Dean Jagger
Cinematography	Loyal Griggs
Edited past	Frank Bracht
Music by	Irving Berlin (music and lyrics) Gus Levene Joseph J. Lilley Van Cleave (music score)
Production company	Paramount Pictures
Distributed past	Paramount Pictures
Release date	October 14, 1954 (1954-10-xiv)
Running fourth dimension	120 minutes[1]
Country	Us
Language	English language
Upkeep	$ii million[2]
Box office	$30 meg[3]

White Christmas is a 1954 American musical flick directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Filmed in Technicolor, it features the songs of Irving Berlin, including a new version of the title vocal, "White Christmas", introduced by Crosby in the 1942 film Vacation Inn.^[4]

Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the moving-picture show is notable for being the beginning to be released in VistaVision, a widescreen process developed by Paramount that entailed using twice the surface surface area of standard 35mm film; this large-area negative was also used to yield finer-grained standard-sized 35mm prints.^[5]

Plot [edit]

On Christmas Eve in Europe in 1944, at the height of Globe War II, erstwhile Broadway star Captain Bob Wallace and aspiring performer Private Phil Davis entertain the 151st division with a soldier'south show. The men accept just received give-and-take their dear Major Full general Thomas F. Waverly has been relieved of his command. Waverly arrives and delivers an emotional farewell. The men send him off with a rousing chorus of "The Old Human". Later on Waverly departs, enemy bombers attack the surface area and everyone takes cover. Davis shields Wallace from a collapsing wall and is wounded by debris. Wallace asks how he can pay back Davis for saving his life, and Davis suggests they become a duo deed. Bob is not fond of the thought, but feels obliged to agree.

After the war, the two make it large, first equally performers, then as producers, launching a hit musical, Playing Around. They receive a letter supposedly from their old Mess Sergeant, Ben "Freckle Face" Haynes, asking them to view his sisters' act. They sentry Betty and Judy sing at Novello's, a Florida nightclub. Phil, who likes to play matchmaker, notices Bob is interested in Betty. After the performance, the 4 meet, and Phil and Judy immediately hit it off. Betty and Bob, however, debate most Bob's cynicism, and the fact information technology was actually Judy who wrote the letter instead of Ben.

Bing Crosby equally Bob Wallace and Danny Kaye as Phil Davis

Finding out from Judy that the girls' landlord is falsely suing them for a damaged rug, and has even gone so far as to phone call the police to get his money, Phil gives them tickets he and Bob had purchased to spend Christmas in New York City. Bob and Phil improvise a performance to purchase the girls fourth dimension, and then flee to the railroad train, where they now have to sit up in the Society Car, much to Bob's chagrin.

The girls convince Phil and Bob to forgo New York and spend Christmas with them in Pine Tree, Vermont, where they are booked equally performers. Upon arriving in Vermont, they find all the tourists have left due to no snowfall and unseasonably warm weather. They arrive at the empty Columbia Inn and are balked to discover that General Waverly is the landlord of the hotel, has sunk his life savings into it, and is on the verge of defalcation. Phil and Bob make up one's mind to invite some of the bandage of Playing Around to Pine Tree to stage a evidence to draw in the guests, and include Betty and Judy in the prove. Betty and Bob'south romance starts to bloom.

After, Bob discovers Waverly received a humiliating rejection alphabetic character to his asking to rejoin the ground forces. Bob determines to prove to the General he is non forgotten, and calls up Ed Harrison, another old Army buddy who now has his own multifariousness show, for help. Ed suggests they put the general on the prove and brand a big scene of his misfortune and Bob's kindness, which would be complimentary ad for Bob and Phil. Bob strongly rejects the thought. Unfortunately, the housekeeper Emma eavesdrops on the other phone for the first one-half of the conversation. She relays Ed's idea to Betty, who becomes suddenly common cold towards a baffled Bob.

Phil and Judy stage a phony appointment, thinking Betty is trying to avoid romance because she does not desire to go out Judy unprotected. Yet, this backfires when Betty accepts a gig in New York and leaves. Phil and Judy admit the truth to Bob, who becomes enraged and hurries to New York to tell Betty. They partially reconcile, merely he meets upwards with Harrison before he has a chance to discover out what really was bothering her. Betty sees Bob keep Harrison'south evidence and invite the entire 151st sectionalization to secretly bring together him at Pine Tree to surprise General Waverly, at Bob and Phil'southward expense. Realizing she was mistaken, Betty returns to Vermont just in time to exist in the testify.

Once again on Christmas Eve, the soldiers surprise General Waverly with another rousing chorus of "The Sometime Homo" when he arrives at the show, bringing him to tears. During the performance, Betty and Bob get engaged, and Judy and Phil decide to go through with their own engagement. Every bit everyone sings "White Christmas", a thick snowfall at final blankets Vermont.

Bandage [edit]

Bing Crosby as Bob Wallace and Danny Kaye as Phil Davis

• Bing Crosby as Bob Wallace
• Danny Kaye as Phil Davis
• Rosemary Clooney as Betty Haynes
• Vera-Ellen as Judy Haynes
• Dean Jagger equally Major General Tom Waverly
• Mary Wickes every bit Emma Allen
• Johnny Grant equally Ed Harrison
• John Brascia every bit John/Johnny, Judy Haynes' dance partner
• Anne Whitfield every bit Susan Waverly
• Percy Helton as Train conductor
• I. Stanford Jolley as Railroad stationmaster
• Barrie Hunt as Doris Lenz
• George Chakiris every bit Betty Haynes' background dancer
• Sig Ruman every bit Landlord
• Grady Sutton as General's guest
• Herb Vigran equally Novello
• Leighton Noble as Novello'south (Florida) bandleader (uncredited)
• Dick Stabile as Carousel Club bandleader (uncredited)

Songs [edit]

• "White Christmas" (Crosby)
• "The Erstwhile Man" (Crosby, Kaye, and Men's Chorus)
• Medley: "Heat Wave " / "Permit Me Sing and I'thou Happy" / "Blue Skies" (Crosby & Kaye)
• "Sisters" (Clooney & Trudy Stevens)
• "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" (Kaye with Trudy Stevens)
• "Sisters (reprise)" (lip synced by Crosby and Kaye)
• "Snow" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Trudy Stevens)
• Minstrel Number: "I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show" / "Mister Basic" / "Mandy" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Chorus)
• "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)" (Crosby & Clooney)
• "Choreography" (Kaye)
• "The Best Things Happen While Y'all're Dancing (reprise)" (Kaye & Chorus)
• "Abraham" (instrumental)
• "Love, You Didn't Do Correct By Me" (Clooney)
• "What Can You Do with a Full general?" (Crosby)
• "The Old Man (reprise)" (Crosby & Men's Chorus)
• "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Ground forces" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Stevens)
• "White Christmas (finale)" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney, Stevens & Chorus)

All songs were written past Irving Berlin. The centerpiece of the film is the title vocal, first used in Vacation Inn, which won that moving picture an Oscar for All-time Original Song in 1942. In add-on, "Count Your Blessings" earned the picture its own Oscar nomination in the aforementioned category.

The song "Snowfall" was originally written for Call Me Madam with the title "Gratis", but was dropped in out-of-boondocks tryouts. The tune and some of the words were kept, but the lyrics were inverse to exist more appropriate for a Christmas movie. For instance, one of the lines of the original song is:

Free – the only thing worth fighting for is to be free.
Free – a unlike earth you'd encounter if it were left to me.

A composer's demo of the original song can be establish on the CD Irving Sings Berlin.

Rosemary Clooney as Betty Haynes and Bing Crosby as Bob Wallace

The song "What Tin You lot Exercise with a Full general?" was originally written for an un-produced project chosen Stars on My Shoulders.

Trudy Stevens provided the singing voice for Vera-Ellen, including in "Sisters". (The first edition of Vera-Ellen'southward biography by David Soren made the fault of suggesting that "perhaps" Clooney sang for Vera in "Sisters". The second edition of the biography corrected that error by adding this: "Appropriately, they sing "Sisters" with Rosemary Clooney actually dueting with Trudy Stabile (married woman of popular bandleader Dick Stabile), who sang under the stage name Trudy Stevens and who had been personally recommended for the dubbing part past Clooney. Originally, Gloria Woods was going to do Vera-Ellen's singing until Clooney intervened on behalf of her friend."^[six]) It was not possible to event an "original soundtrack album" of the moving picture, because Decca Records controlled the soundtrack rights, but Clooney was under exclusive contract with Columbia Records. Consequently, each company issued a divide "soundtrack recording": Decca issuing Selections from Irving Berlin's White Christmas, while Columbia issued Irving Berlin's White Christmas. On the sometime, the song "Sisters" (likewise as all of Clooney's vocal parts) was recorded by Peggy Lee, while on the latter, the song was sung by Clooney and her own sister, Betty.^[seven]

Berlin wrote "A Singer, A Dancer" for Crosby and his planned co-star Fred Astaire; when Astaire became unavailable, Berlin re-wrote it as "A Crooner – A Comic" for Crosby and Donald O'Connor, only when O'Connor left the projection, so did the song. Another song written by Berlin for the moving-picture show was "Sittin' in the Sun (Countin' My Money)" but because of delays in production Berlin decided to publish it independently.^[8] Crosby and Kaye likewise recorded another Berlin song ("Santa Claus") for the opening WWII Christmas Eve show scene, only information technology was not used in the final film. Their recording of the song survives, nonetheless, and can be constitute on the Behave Family Records 7-CD set titled Come up On-A My House.^[ix]

Casting [edit]

Danny Kaye as Phil Davis and Vera-Ellen as Judy Haynes

White Christmas was intended to reunite Crosby and Fred Astaire for their tertiary Irving Berlin showcase musical. Crosby and Astaire had previously co-starred in Holiday Inn (1942) – where the song "White Christmas" starting time appeared – and Blueish Skies (1946). Astaire declined the projection after reading the script^[10] and asked to be released from his contract with Paramount.^[11] Crosby also left the projection shortly thereafter, to spend more fourth dimension with his sons after the death of his married woman, Dixie Lee.^[11] About the end of January 1953, Crosby returned to the project, and Donald O'Connor was signed to supervene upon Astaire.^[eleven] Simply before shooting was to begin, O'Connor had to drop out due to illness and was replaced by Danny Kaye, who asked for and received a salary of $200,000 and 10% of the gross.^[ten] Financially, the film was a partnership between Crosby and Irving Berlin, who shared half the profits, and Paramount, which got the other half.^[11]

Within the film, a number of soon-to-be famous performers appear. Dancer Barrie Chase appears unbilled, as the character Doris Lenz ("Mutual, I'm sure!"). Time to come Oscar winner George Chakiris besides appears^[12] every bit one of the rock-faced black-clad dancers surrounding Rosemary Clooney in "Dear, You Didn't Exercise Right past Me". John Brascia leads the dance troupe and appears contrary Vera-Ellen throughout much of the movie, particularly in the "Mandy" and "Choreography" numbers. The photo Vera-Ellen shows of her brother Benny (the one Phil refers to as "Freckle-faced Haynes, the dog-faced boy") is really a photo of Carl Switzer, who played Alfalfa in the Our Gang picture series, in an army field jacket and helmet liner.

A scene from the flick featuring Crosby and Kaye was circulate the year subsequently the moving picture's release, on Christmas Day 1955, in the final episode of the NBC Tv testify Colgate Comedy Hour (1950–1955).

Production [edit]

Berlin suggested a flick based on his song in 1948. Paramount put up the $ii million budget and only took 30% of the gain.^[2]

Mel Frank and Norman Panama were hired to add fabric for Danny Kaye. They felt the whole script needed rewriting, and Curtiz agreed. "It was a torturous eight weeks of rewriting", said Panama. Frank said "writing that motion-picture show was the worst feel of my life. Norman Krasna was a talented man but... it was the lousiest story I'd ever heard. Information technology needed a brand new story, i that made sense." They did the job at $v,000 a calendar week.^[xiii]

Principal photography took place between September and Dec 1953. The film was the showtime to be shot using Paramount'due south new VistaVision process, with color by Technicolor, and was one of the offset to feature the Perspecta directional sound arrangement at limited engagements.

Release and reception [edit]

White Christmas was enormously pop with audiences, earning $12 million in theatrical rentals – equal to $121 meg in 2021 – making it the top moneymaker of 1954 by a wide margin^[xiv] and the highest-grossing musical at the time.^[15] Overall, the film grossed $xxx meg at the domestic box function.^[3] At that place was a US theatrical re-release by Paramount in 1961.^[xvi]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the pic holds a "Certified Fresh" 77% critical blessing rating based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of half-dozen.6/10. The website's consensus reads "It may exist too sweet for some, just this unabashedly sentimental holiday favorite is too cheerful to resist."^[17] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was not impressed: "...the utilise of VistaVision, which is another process of projecting on a wide, apartment screen, has made information technology possible to endow White Christmas with a fine pictorial quality. The colors on the big screen are rich and luminous, the images are articulate and precipitous, and rapid movements are got without blurring—or very little—such every bit sometimes is seen on other large screens. Manager Michael Curtiz has made his picture look good. It is too bad that it doesn't hit the eardrums and the funnybone with equal force."^[18]

Diverseness liked it: "White Christmas should be a natural at the boxoffice, introducing as it does Paramount'southward new VistaVision organisation with such a hot combination as Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and an Irving Berlin score...Crosby and Kaye, along with VV, proceed the amusement going in this fancifully staged Robert Emmett Dolan product, clicking then well the teaming should call for a repeat...Certainly he [Crosby] has never had a more facile partner than Kaye against whom to bounciness his misleading nonchalance."^[xix]

Home media [edit]

White Christmas was released on United states of america VHS in 1986 and again in 1997. The first U.s.a. DVD release was in 2000. Information technology was subsequently re-released in 2009, with a commensurate Blu-ray in 2010. The nigh recent US issue was a 4-disc "Diamond Anniversary Edition" in 2014. This collection contains a Blu-ray with extras, two DVDs with the film and extras, and a 4th disc of Christmas songs on CD. These songs are performed individually by Crosby, Clooney, and Kaye.

Stage adaptation [edit]

A stage accommodation of the musical, titled Irving Berlin's White Christmas premiered in San Francisco in 2004^[20] and has played in diverse venues in the US, such as Boston, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Detroit and Louisville.^{[21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]} The musical played a limited engagement on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre, from November 14, 2008, until January four, 2009. The musical also toured the Britain from 2006 to 2008. It then headed to the Sunderland Empire in Sunderland from November 2010 to January 2011 after a successful before run in Manchester, and continued in various cities with a London West Finish run at the finish of 2014.

See likewise [edit]

• List of Christmas films

References [edit]

1. ^ "WHITE CHRISTMAS (U)". British Lath of Film Nomenclature. September thirteen, 1954. Retrieved December four, 2014.
2. ^ ^{a b} Thomas Wood, "'White Christmas': From pop tune to movie", The New York Times, eighteen October 1953: X5.
3. ^ ^{a b} Box Office Information for White Christmas. The Numbers. Retrieved April xv, 2013
4. ^ Curtiz, Michael (October xiv, 1954), White Christmas , retrieved May 7, 2016
5. ^ "The VistaVision Story". www.widescreenmuseum.com . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
6. ^ Soren, David (2003). Vera-Ellen: The Magic and the Mystery. p. 145. ISBN9781887664486.
7. ^ "Discogs". Discogs.com . Retrieved January 26, 2016.
8. ^ Reynolds, Fred (1986). Road to Hollywood. Gateshead, United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland: John Joyce. p. 231.
9. ^ "Barnes & Noble". Barnes & Noble . Retrieved January 26, 2016.
10. ^ ^{a b} Arnold, Jeremy. "White Christmas". TCM. Archived from the original on Feb 3, 2012. Retrieved January viii, 2013.
11. ^ ^{a b c d} "White Christmas (1954) - Notes - TCM.com". Turner Archetype Movies.
12. ^ "Biography for George Chakiris". Turner Classic Movies.
13. ^ Holiday FILMS A GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PASTWilson, John M. Los Angeles Times 25 Dec 1984: h1.
14. ^ "1954 Boxoffice Champs". Variety. January 5, 1955. p. 59. Retrieved June 28, 2019 – via Annal.org.
15. ^ Arneel, Factor (January 5, 1955). "'54 Dream Picture show: 'White Xmas'". Diverseness. p. 5. Retrieved June 28, 2019 – via Annal.org.
16. ^ (www.imdb.com/title/tt0047673/combined)
17. ^ "White Christmas (1954)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved Oct 7, 2021.
18. ^ Crowther, Bosley. "The New York Times". The New York Times . Retrieved January 26, 2016. ^{[ dead link ]}
19. ^ "Diversity". Variety. September one, 1954.
20. ^ Jones, Kenneth."Merry and Vivid? Producers Hope White Christmas Volition Play Broadway This Year" Archived June 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, playbill.com, June 25, 2008
21. ^ Jones, Kenneth."White Christmas Volition Make Broadway Debut in November, Playing to Early 2009" Archived August 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com August 4, 2008
22. ^ Review of San Francisco product talkingbroadway.com November fourteen, 2004
23. ^ Byrne, Terry. Review of Boston product The Boston Earth Nov xxx, 2007
24. ^ Snow in L.A.! Irving Berlin's White Christmas Begins November. 22 in City of Angels Archived December 27, 2008, at the Wayback Auto playbill.com Nov 22, 2005
25. ^ "Berlin musical comes to life: 'White Christmas' stays true to form" Louisville Courier-Periodical, November 15, 2008
26. ^ White Christmas theatrelouisville.org

External links [edit]

smithprefor.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Christmas_(film)

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