Holiday Inn

Starring: Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Virginia Dale, Marjorie Reynolds, Walter Abel
Directed by: Mark Sandrich
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Musical
1942

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A singer (Bing Crosby) and a dancer (Fred Astaire) both try to woo a talented singer/dancer (Marjorie Reynolds) at the Holiday Inn, an inn that is only open on holidays.

Review:

Tim: Holiday Inn is an interesting film- one that feels like its legacy and influence are stronger than the actual film itself. Now, I'm not suggesting this is a bad movie. On the contrary, I really enjoyed it, and I think it is a solid, fun movie. However, the movie is influential for some pretty impressive reasons. First, the Christmas classic, "White Christmas" was written for this film. That song is known by pretty much everyone who celebrates Christmas, so the movie's influence is pretty big. Secondly, this movie inspired Kemmons Wilson to name his hotel chain "Holiday Inn", which most people in the United States can say they've stayed at. Perhaps these influences aren't all that important, but I found them fascinating.

The movie itself is pretty good, too (although it does have a few flaws). First, I love the idea of the Holiday Inn- an inn that is only open 15 times each year, on every holiday. Each opening features a spectacular party, along with holiday-themed songs, decorations, and costumes. If this was real, I'd certainly want to book a room for one of the holidays. That's just a cool idea. Secondly, I like the basic story. It's really a friendly rivalry between a singer and dancer. They even sing (and dance) a song about it. Their on-stage rivalry carries over into real life, as they compete for various women. One is luckier than the other with the ladies, and both eventually set their sights on an extremely talented, wonderful woman. This creates some good conflict and intriguing relationships between the various parties. That was fun to watch.

The cast is quite good, too. This was actually the first Bing Crosby movie I ever watched. While I knew of Crosby, I loved actually getting to see him on screen. He's not exactly what I expected, but the guy can truly sing, and he's a pretty good actor, too. I liked him in this role. However, his performance is a bit overshadowed by Fred Astaire. Astaire just had an impressive flair on screen. This probably comes from his amazing, jaw-dropping dance moves. The guy was just an incredible dancer, and I found myself unable to tear my eyes away from the screen when he was doing his thing. He was a pretty charismatic actor as well. I really liked the back-and-forth between Crosby and Astaire. These two actors worked quite well together.

The supporting cast was not quite as strong. Marjorie Reynolds was fairly good, although her acting came across a bit dull and flat. She has a few terrific moments, but overall, I felt like her performance was a bit forgettable. I also didn't love the fact that Reynolds' singing was dubbed for the film. That can sometimes be forgivable, but compared to truly talented people like Crosby and Astaire, she seemed a bit weak. Virginia Dale was average, and Walter Abel was pretty good, except for an occasional bout of over-acting.

Now, this film features some stunningly good musical numbers. The highlight is obviously "White Christmas", which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song (the film was also nominated for Best Music and Best Original Screenplay, but lost on both of those). The problem with the film is that not all of the songs are spectacular. There are a few that were less than stellar, and they bog the film down because they tend to run on and on. At 100 minutes, the movie isn't long, but a lot of time is spent on the musical numbers.

There are some great scenes throughout the film. The "White Christmas" scene is terrific, and not just for the song (although Crosby just kills it, perfectly hitting every note). I absolutely loved Astaire's fireworks dance near the end. It was amazing. I thought the cars in the river scenes were quite hilarious. Astaire's While not every scene is excellent, this film has quite a few strong ones.

This film does have some flaws. The most controversial aspect of the film is undoubtedly the blackface scene during the "Abraham" musical number. I know the 1940s were a different time period, but it is impossible not to watch this scene and cringe. Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds are both dressed up in blackface, and it is just awful to watch. It didn't help that the "Abraham" song felt like it went on and on. It was just a very hard scene to watch, and to make matters worse, the script calls for Crosby to brag about how great the blackface was a few scenes later. I know that I shouldn't judge the film too harshly for something that was somewhat appropriate at the time, but it really hurts the movie in my eyes.

The overall story felt strong until the third act. I just had a hard time staying focused, when everything felt a bit too predictable, but took quite a while to resolve itself. The whole thing with the Hollywood agents, the cover up, the broken relationships, and the eventual reconciliation felt a bit too Hollywood for me. I thought the ending was decent, but not up to the standard set by early parts of the movie.

So, while I really liked this movie, I think the flaws here hurt it a little too much. I'd still consider this a strong, good movie, and I really did enjoy it. Holiday Inn is a very, very influential movie, and one that I am really, really glad I watched.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Going My Way, Singin' in the Rain, The Bells of St. Mary's