rodrig58
Michael Curtiz, the director of the famous "Casablanca", with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, and many other films, different genres, Action, Adventure, Romance, Western. The man was very prolific and very inspired with his other films, but not with this "White Christmas". "The boys", Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, are not funny, the girls are not beautiful, well, Vera-Ellen she is acceptable, but Rosemary Clooney looks like a man in a dress. Irving Berlin's music is usually beautiful but not in this one, where everything is annoying, banal, uninteresting, boring. The first feature in VistaVision is a waste of time.
grantss
Okay, but only really memorable for its title song and final scene.Two former WW2 comrades, Bob Wallace (played by Bing Crosby) and Phil Davies (Danny Kaye), form a song-and-dance duo after the war. The meet a sister duo, Betty and Judy Haynes (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen respectively) and romance blossoms. In courting the girls they go to Vermont, and discover that the hotel they're staying at is owned by their former division commander, Major General Waverley (Dean Jagger). They decide to throw a Christmas show for the General...Quite disappointing, even if watched at Christmas (as I did). I'm not into musicals, generally, and this doesn't ever rise above average as far as the music goes. Most of the songs just feel shoehorned into the movie, ending up with some pretty lame lyrics and scenes. The romance sub-plots felt trite and predictable.On the plus side, the performances are pretty solid. Best of all, the final few scenes are quite emotional, and are what make it a decent Christmas movie. The title song is great too.
Matthew_Capitano
Not-so-hot remake.Danny Kaye makes Bing Crosby look like dog food in this tired Christmas contest of dullness and dance numbers. Some very misplaced arrangements, like 'Choreography', are coupled with a jumbled story about a retiring army general to bury this holiday film in a dirty stocking under a dead tree. Kaye and Vera Ellen are good, but Crosby and Rosemary Clooney thoroughly stink. Whoever told Crosby he could dance? Like the slow and sloppy Gene Kelly, Crosby's lame dancing belongs on the back of a truck to be carted out in the woods somewhere and dumped.There are much better Christmas films to watch; this one is for fans of the stars only.
Catharina_Sweden
This is one of the old famous classic movies, that one ought to have seen at least once. It is lavish with many extras, wonderful costumes, big song and dance numbers - the best of course being the very fine end number when they perform the title song - etc..Apart from that, this Christmas movie is not at all in league with the great Christmas movies that one can watch year after year without tiring, such as "The Bishop's Wife". There is no deeper message here, except I suppose some general "one should help each other out"- thing. The main story is too silly, and so are the two love-stories, the ending is too predictable, and apart from the title number there is not really much Christmas spirit to it.I find the two women entertainers very mediocre and uninteresting, and it does not surprise me that they never became great stars on par with their male co-actors. Danny Kaye is fun to look at I suppose, but I have never been a fan of him. Bing Crosby is the only one who lifts this production! He is as always very likable - he seems so decent and wholesome, and you become glad and full of hope when you see him. (Of course I have no idea if he was such a wonderful person in reality.) To sum it up: this is worth watching once, but just once, in Christmas time, except for the end number which can well be included in some kind of Christmas medley and watched every year.
AD
