Holiday Inn

More famous today for being an answer to a trivia question, "Holiday Inn" is actually a really fun musical comedy, with great performances from Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby and a memorable score by Irving Berlin. The question of course is, "What movie did the song "White Christmas" first appear in?" The answer, you might not have known, is "Holiday Inn" and not the commonly confused sequel with the more obvious title: 1954's "White Christmas". The plot is your typical nonsense, with Astaire and Crosby playing versions of themselves; Astaire is the restless hoofer, always looking for a new partner, on stage and off, and Crosby is the happy-go-lucky crooner, perfectly at ease sitting by the fire singing a song with his girl. Despite starring two lesser known female foils (a product of the film coming in between the two more prominent stages of Astaire's career: the Ginger Rogers 1930's and the Technicolor 1950's which found him with different co-stars, among them Judy Garland and Cyd Charisse) the film is still a delight, mostly due to the flawless chemistry between Astaire and Crosby, but it also helps that they get to sing and dance to classic songs. Again, now known merely as the answer to a trivia question, and perhaps dusted off at Christmas time for viewings on Turner Classic Movies, "Holiday Inn" is a wonderful musical that deserves recognition greater than being a nugget of trivia.

When the film opens, Ted and Jim are two thirds of a successful act. The third is Lila, who is secretly engaged to Jim, but even more secretly planning on leaving him to be with Ted. Jim has decided to give up the hectic life in show business and settle down on a farm in Conneticut. While Lila does love him, she also loves Ted (and her own career) more, and Ted promises her nothing but work. They drop the bombshell on Jim on Christmas Eve, right after their last performance together. Jim is heartbroken, but is adament about leaving show business and says his goodbyes to Ted and Lila before setting off for the rustic, simple life. Ted and Lila go on to continued success, meanwhile Jim finds that life on a farm is hardly what he imagined; over a montage covering the next year, we find that his chores around the farm are more demanding than show business ever was (and there is just something funny about watching Bing Crosby try to milk a cow and chop wood). After a year of frustration on the farm, Jim returns to New York to try and talk Ted into joining him in his next endeavor: the Holiday Inn. Since his plan was to get away from show business so that he could enjoy all of the holidays, instead of doing two shows on them, Jim decides that the Holiday Inn will only be open on holidays; giving him 355 days off each year! Ted is reluctant to commit to Jim's idea, but Jim goes ahead with it anyway, ending up with a beautiful young singer and dancer as his main attraction: Linda Mason.

Soon after Holiday Inn opens, Lila leaves Ted for a Texas millionaire, and Ted shows up at the Inn's opening night drunk. Proving the old axiom that to look good doing something bad you have to be really good at it, Astaire's drunken dance with Linda is incredible, considering he had to "act" drunk and still dance very well. The crowd loves Ted and Linda together, and naturally they assume she is his new partner. Jim has visions of Lila leaving him again, and for most of the next year he is able to hide Linda from Ted's prowling eyes. Finally he can no longer keep her hidden and when Linda finds out he had been hiding her, in essence keeping her from making "the big time" with Ted as his partner, she leaves him for Hollywood and the movies with Ted. Jim is heartbroken again, and it is only when he agrees to sell the rights to the Holiday Inn to be turned into a movie (a very rare post modern twist in Old Hollywood) that he decides to go to Hollywood and win Linda back. Arriving on the set of the "Holiday Inn" movie, Jim surprises Linda by singing "White Christmas" to her. The take is ruined, but Jim wins Linda back and she agrees to return to the real Holiday Inn with him and get married. At the big New Years Eve party even Lila returns and the new foursome performs one final number together, a reprise of the opening number "I'll Capture Her Heart Singing", which is a great comedic number. "White Christmas" is a great song, but "Holiday Inn" is also a great musical, one definitely worth visiting on any major holiday.