When he loses in love, a song-and-dance man retires from show business to run a country inn. Music by Irving Berlin, songs by Bing Crosby and dancing by Fred Astaire all add up to a really delightful musical that also just happened to launch the hit ‘White Christmas’.
Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire sing and dance their way into your heart in the sensational musical comedy Holiday Inn. Nominated for 3 Academy Awards, this special edition features 13 holiday songs by famed composer Irving Berlin, including “White Christmas” – one of the biggest-selling recordings in music history! Crosby plays a song and dance man who leaves showbiz to run an inn that is open only on holidays. Astaire plays his former partner and rival in love. Follow the two talented pals as they find themselves competing for the affections of the same lovely lady (Marjorie Reynolds).’Tis the season for one of the most enjoyable films of all time!
In 1942, Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby teamed up at Der Bingle’s Paramount Pictures for Holiday Inn, a black-and-white musical that proves more entertaining than Crosby’s color semi-remake White Christmas in 1954. Astaire and Crosby play partner/rival song-and-dance men who compete for the hand of their performing partner, played by Virginia Dale. After Crosby loses, he moves to the Connecticut countryside where he creates a resort that is only open on holidays and puts on the shows with the help of Marjorie Reynolds. Dumped by Dale, Astaire makes a drunken arrival at the inn on New Year’s Eve and dances with Reynolds. He decides she’ll be his new partner, but doesn’t remember what she looks like, setting off a frenzied search at every subsequent show while the once-bitten Crosby does his best to steer him off track. The theme gives Irving Berlin an excuse to craft or recycle a number of holiday-themed songs, such as “White Christmas,” which became one of the bestselling songs of all time and the title song of Crosby’s 1954 film. -David Horiuchi
Loaded with a wealth of songs, it’s meaty, not too kaleidoscopic and yet closely knit for a compact 100 minutes of tiptop filmusical entertainment. – Variety
Although all the holiday’s are covered, this is really a Christmas movie at heart. The plot is simple and sappy in an old Hollywood kind of way. It’s also quite funny in places. What I personally enjoy the most about Holiday Inn is the sheer coziness of it all. The majority of the film takes place in a country Connecticut Inn and often draped in snow. This is a perfectly old fashioned, patriotic holiday film to watch. Turn on the Christmas lights, wrap yourself in a comfy throw and escape to a time long past, when love came with a song and a joke was punctuated by a change in tempo. – Three Movie Buffs
Starring Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale, Walter Abel.