White Christmas

Two entertainers who served together in the Second World War discover their old commanding officer's Vermont inn is failing and decide to stage a show there. Its technical significance is simple: it was the first film released in VistaVision, Paramount's widescreen format using twice the surface area of standard 35mm. The casting did not go to plan. It was meant to bring Bing Crosby together with Fred Astaire for a third Irving Berlin musical, and Astaire declined after reading the script. Donald O'Connor was cast and had to withdraw through illness. The part went to Danny Kaye, who took 200,000 dollars plus 10 percent of the gross. The title song did not originate here; it was introduced in Holiday Inn in 1942. Berlin wrote new material for this film too, and Count Your Blessings was nominated for an Oscar. It topped the box office in 1954, taking 12 million dollars in rentals and becoming the highest-grossing musical of its era. Reviews split. The scale and Berlin's songs drew praise while the story did not, with one critic calling the narrative thin to the point of emaciation and another describing it as a big fat yam of a picture. Who it is for: viewers who like the Christmas tradition and the classic musical form. Who it is not for: anyone wanting plot. The story is a pretext and the film is mostly filling the space between songs.