La taverna dell'allegria

In Holiday Inn it isn't Bing Crosby or Fred Astair that makes the movie outstanding, but rather the relatively unknown "B" movie star of the time, Marjorie Reynolds. As you watch this movie you can "feel" the mood that Marjorie is portraying at the time, just by the look on her face. For example, during the the "Easter" scene, her eyes and smiles say it all, you can see she is in love, and as she sings "White Christmas" at the end you can feel the sadness of her character - throughout the entire movie she says more with her facial expressions then the most popular movie stars do today in their entire careers... If you love truly good acting, Holiday Inn will make you smile and make you cry, it will bring back memories of a time when ladies could truly dance in high heel shoes, we don't see that type of dancing these days in movies. Picture quality, sound and special effects are not of primary importance in these kinds of films, these are the kind that rely on your own imagination and feelings, much in the way you do when you read a good book.

These older movies serve up so much good feelings they could be used to replace prescription meds for those feeling bad.

I am most certainly under 70 and I absolutely adore this movie! Fred and Bing are great together. The songs are some of Irving Berlin's best. With Bing's voice together with Fred's dancing...it is a first class classic! My sister & I always looked forward to watching this at the holiday season.

"Holiday Inn" is the story of singer/dancer entertainers (Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Virginia Dale) who work together in New York. As the group splits up, one seeking a more tranquil life style, a third entertainer comes on the scene as a young aspiring singer/dancer (Marjorie Reynolds). Hoping to break into the business, she meets and begins work with one of the successful members. Relationships develop and change. This film (if it is not) should be an American classic. The music is excellent with performances of "White Christmas" and "Easter Parade." Both singing and dancing is very good (and what else could you expect with Astaire and Reynolds) and singing with Crosby. It is a warm, romantic film which depicts the celebration of many holidays. We use "Holiday Inn" as a staple, showing it several times during the Christmas season. Unlike many films from this era, it can be found is BOTH VHS and DVD. The DVD version includes both "Holiday Inn" and "Going My Way," another Crosby film. This is a great "feel good" film with a fantastic cast.

This is truly one of the great musicals to ever grace the silver screen. Between the great song, the dance numbers and the chemistry between Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, this film really is one of the the all time classics. What really makes it great is that it pretty much plays like a great Broadway review that uses the different holidays as an excuse to display the individual talents of each of the film's stars. However, the thing that this film will truly be remembered for is the fact that it introduced one of the all time classic song's to the world, "White Christmas".

Another thing that makes this film so beloved is that it came out during a time when America needed somewhat of a diversion, World War II. This film helped to give people something to put smiles on their faces as the whole world was going to hell. At least for two hours, this film helped America to forget its troubles and put a smile on everyone's faces.

It is amazing how much the world has changed in the last 58 years. 58 years? Yes!

Reviewers who fault this movie for it's patriotism and display of martial force in the midst of a "holiday" movie are obviously too young to know what the world was like when this was made. It was a time of greater innocence, greater danger and greater racial discrimination. The innocence was that of the children and the general public who could take a "standard Hollywood plot" at face value. It was a time of danger, not necessarily from within society itself (as now when crime makes streets unsafe) but from the outside with dictators killing millions while they battle for world domination. Those tanks and planes WERE freedom. Without them we would be yelling "Seig Heil" today and would not have the right to critique a simple movie. The State would have made it for you and "you Will like it"!

As the "black face" routine was showing I turned to my family and said that I was sure that despite the "classic" status of this film there were probably a lot of people wincing as they watched Bing Crosby with burnt cork all over him.

I'm sure that before he died Bing too winced a little bit at that number, but taken in the context of history it was to be expected. Al Jolson made a career of blackface and never regretted it for a minute. Most of the American population accepted that that's "the way it is". Only in the last 40 years have we learned that's NOT the way it is.

Things change and it's understandable that after almost 60 years certain depictions of society as it existed then would be out of place today. 20 years ago the movie was popular but the music was certainly out of style. With the resurgence of the "big band sound" in the last 5-10 years people are noticing that Bob Crosby and the Bobcats were participants. No doubt a certain amount of nepotism existed, but Bob Crosby was not Billy Carter to Bing's Jimmy Carter. (Anyone under 20 can now run and look up Jimmy and Billy Carter.) Bob Crosby achieved a certain amount of star status with some of his recordings. He had 4 chart topping hits and led bands for almost 50 years. He was always eclipsed by his older brother, but then Bing Crosby was THE biggest star of that time, at least among singers.

Bob's music was a Dixieland style and it lent a lightness to the big band orchestrations of Irving Berlin's songs that might have otherwise made the music ponderous, too much so for this light comedy at least.

Remember, finally that when Holiday Inn came out we were losing WW2. The Pacific was a Japanese ocean, the Atlantic was virtually controlled by German U-Boats and Allied ships were being sunk within sight of American cities. The Axis also controlled all of Europe and the Russians were being rolled back into their own homeland.

Holiday Inn was escapist entertainment from this bleak reality and it is understandable if some martial patriotism was included to hearten the home front.

For 90% of the U.S., snow at Christmas is the exception rather than the rule, but the emotions expressed by the song White Christmas hit exactly the feelings of millions of soldiers taken from their homes to fight a war. If Holiday Inn did nothing else, it gave Americans something to believe in and remember when things were at their darkest.

"May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be White."