Holiday Inn

Director: Mark Sandrich Mark Sandrich

Overview

Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire star in Holiday Inn as a popular nightclub song-and-dance team. When his heart is broken by his girlfriend, Crosby decides to retire from the hustle-bustle of big city showbiz. He purchases a rustic New England farm and converts it to an inn, which he opens to the public (floor show and all) only on holidays. This barely logical plot device allows ample space for a steady flow of Irving Berlin holiday songs (including an incredible blackface number in honor of Lincoln's Birthday). Oddly enough, the most memorable song in the bunch, the Oscar-winning "White Christmas," is not offered as a production number but as a simple ballad sung by Crosby to an audience of one: leading lady Marjorie Reynolds. Fred Astaire's best moment is his Fourth of July firecracker dance. Ah, but what about the plot? Well, it seems that Astaire wants to make a film about Crosby's inn, starring their mutual discovery Reynolds. Bing briefly loses Reynolds to Astaire, but wins her back during the filming of a musical number on a Hollywood soundstage (eleven years earlier, Bing enjoyed a final clinch with Marion Davies under surprisingly similar conditions in Going Hollywood). As with most of Irving Berlin's "portfolio" musicals of the 1940s, the song highlights of Holiday Inn are too numerous to mention. This delightful film is far superior to its unofficial 1954 remake, White Christmas.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/16/2018
UPC:	0191329069738
Original Release:	1942
Rating:	NR
Source:	Universal Studios

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Bing Crosby	Jim Hardy
Fred Astaire	Ted Hanover
Virginia Dale	Lila Dixon
Marjorie Reynolds	Linda Mason
Walter Abel	Danny Reid
Louise Beavers	Mamie
Marek Windheim	Francois
Jacques Vanaire	Waiter
Judith Gibson	Cigarette Girl
Shelby Bacon	Vanderbilt
Joan Arnold	Daphne
Edward Arnold	Man
Oscar G. Hendrian	Doorman
Reed Porter	Director
Irving Bacon	Gus
James Bell	Dunbar
John Gallaudet	Parker
Harry Barris	Orchestra leader
Leon Belasco	Flower Shop Owner
Karin [Katharine] Booth	Hatcheck Girl
Laurie Douglas	Girl
June Ealey	Specialty dancer
Lynda Grey	Girl
Bud Jamison	Santa Claus
Kitty Kelly	Drunk
Lora Lee Michel	Girl
Barbara Slater	Girl
David Tihmar	Specialty dancer
Robert E. Homans	Pop
Louise LaPlanche	Girl
Ronnie Rondell	Orchestra leader
Bob Locke Lorraine	Dancer

Technical Credits

Claude Binyon

Elmer Rice

Mark Sandrich	Director,Producer
Dave Abel	Cinematographer
Roland Anderson	Art Director
Irving Berlin	Score Composer
Claude Binyon	Screenwriter
Charles C. Coleman	Asst. Director
Daniel Dare	Choreography
Robert Emmett Dolan	Score Composer,Musical Direction/Supervision
Hans Dreier	Production Designer
Edith Head	Costumes/Costume Designer
Ellsworth Hoagland	Editor
Elmer Rice	Screenwriter
Wally Westmore	Makeup

Editorial Reviews

Holiday Inn has one of the more ludicrous plots in a 1940s musical, but the Irving Berlin songs are first-rate, and it's tough to beat Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire for music-and-dance star power. Berlin is perhaps the film's real headliner: his "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade" would become cultural standards, and each song would inspire its own eponymous motion picture. Though the production numbers don't quite match the splendor of say, Busby Berkeley's, most are well-staged. The film's best moment is its simplest -- Crosby singing "White Christmas" sans accompaniment. Berlin won a songwriting Oscar for "White Christmas," and the film was also nominated for Best Original Story.

All Movie Guide - Richard Gilliam