White Christmas (1954)

My Review

“White Christmas” is one of the most popular Holiday musical films of all time. Director Michael Curtiz (“Casablanca” 1943) filled the movie with great production values, Irving Berlin songs, top-rate sets and costumes, and outstanding performances from some of Hollywood’s top stars. The story is about two singers who plan a Christmas show in Vermont, and turn it into a benefit for their World War II commander, who they find out is having financial difficulties caused by his failing country inn.

The star of the show is Bing Crosby, who performed one of his signature numbers “White Christmas,” which he introduced in the 1942 picture “Holiday Inn.” His co-stars include Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagger, Mary Wickes, John Brascia, Anne Whitfield, Percy Helton, George Chakiris, Herb Vigran, Barrie Chase, I. Stanford Jolley, Sig Ruman, Grady Sutton, and Johnny Grant, who would later be famous as the Honorary Mayor of Hollywood (1980-2008).

The very watchable “White Christmas” was the highest grossing film of 1954 for Paramount Pictures. It was filmed entirely in Southern California, at Paramount Studios in Hollywood and at 20th Century Fox Studios in Century City. “White Christmas” was the first film to be shot in the VistaVision process, with color by Technicolor.