2024 Introduction
In 2022 I wondered whether the 1954 Christmas movie musical “White Christmas” was on the way out of the Christmas movie canon as anti-white racism took root during “The Great Stupid.” It is, after all, about as white as a movie can get, even for the Fifties. The movie has been sort of “cancelled,” it seems, and we will see if it has a resurgence as the anti-woke backlash many think has arrived does its duty. If it is canceled, the loss will matter. “White Christmas” is an entertaining Christmas romantic comedy and family film with an excellent Irving Berlin score, a brilliant cast and an effectively sentimental and moving climax.
That should be enough; it certainly is better than any Christmas since, although an argument can be made for “The Santa Clause.” In 1954 the movie was a critical and box office hit. If “White Christmas” doesn’t mesh with the cynicism of our current culture, well, maybe that’s our problem less than it is the movie’s. In 2022, I said, “As for the film losing popularity because it isn’t ‘diverse’ and ‘inclusive,’ I will posit this: if there comes a time when an innocent fable about kindness toward an old hero down on his luck no longer resonates because of the skin-shades of the characters, the values and priorities of American arts and society will have reached a dangerous level of confusion.”
In 2024, I must state that American arts and society have reached a dangerous level of confusion (I’m looking at you, Disney!)
I also wrote, “If your children can’t enjoy music, laughter and sentiment expertly inspired by some of the greatest talents this nation has ever produced, you’ve raised them wrong.” I should backtrack a bit on that. Of the four stars only the women are at their best. Rosemary Clooney, who shortly thereafter had a breakdown that sent her into near retirement for more than a decade, never looked or sounded better, and Vera-Ellen does what she always did in a tragically short career: she danced marvelously, and moved her mouth while someone else sang for her.
Bing Crosby sings wonderfully as he always did, but Bing was best when that’s all he was doing, though he was a deft straight man and actor when the need arose. What he wasn’t was a dancer, and he has far too much moving around to do in “White Christmas.” Bing wasn’t even a hoofer: he could dance passably enough not to be a complete embarrassment, but even so, his feet were community theater level at best. I am in the minority camp that fervently believes that Bing was superior to his successor Frank Sinatra as a vocalist and also as a dramatic actor and comic. Frank could really dance, however.
Danny Kaye, as I will explain in more detail below, was underutilized in “White Christmas.” The movie doesn’t give him much opportunity to display his unique talents.
My commentary on this movie, in contrast to the tone of the ethics guides to “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street,” has been criticized by some commenters. Just this month someone ran across one of the earlier versions and wrote that such “nitpicking” misses the point: “White Christmas” is just supposed to be a light-hearted, feel-good move and it doesn’t have to be ethical or make sense. (Two very close friends who love the film get mad at me every year for posting this.) I confess: I am not the right audience for “White Christmas.” As a stage director and critic I prize narrative clarity and consistency; as an ethicist I find the usual ethics short-cuts the protagonists in movies often stoop to more distracting than the typical audience member. The film also seems to radiate a certain “we know this movie can’t miss, so we can blow off a lot of stuff” vibe, and that’s unethical—unprofessional and disrespectful of the audience. I expect better of director Michael Curtiz, who, after all, directed “Casablanca.”
But the producers knew they had a hit in the making: a remake of the very successful “Holiday Inn”; a Christmas movie (and also a ridiculous one); a film built around the best-selling record of all time (then and now); a star, Bing Crosby, whose films seldom missed and who was identified with Christmas; a score by one of the most successful and popular song-writers of his generation in Irving Berlin; a sui generis performer with his own fan base in Danny Kaye, and a very popular Fifties chanteuse at the peak of her popularity and talents in Rosemary Clooney. “White Christmas” was certain to be good enough, but as Bing Crosby groused years later, it could have been great, and should have been. I admire Bing for admitting that. For all his flaws, he was a perfectionist, and had great integrity as an artist. Would that those who wrote and made the film devoted to as high standards. (That reminds me: the other Bing Crosby musical remake, “High Society,” was also a disappointment, and also was the hit movie musical of the year when it was released.) The film-makers were satisfied with making it just good enough, and were confident that the audience wouldn’t notice or care. That ticks me off in the arts and in any other field. It really ticks me off when that cynical approach works.
I also believe that popular culture does effect societal ethics, and movies who portray their heroes as charmingly unethical do real, if unmeasureable damage. I did not find Jim Carey’s “The Mask” funny in the least, because we were supposed to cheer on the hero’s “Mask” alter-ego, and he was a psychopath.
One of the most ethical features of “White Christmas” was behind the scenes, an ethical act that allowed it to be made, undertaken by one of the most unlikely people imaginable, Danny Kaye. Kaye was a major factor in launching my interest in performing, musicals, and comedy, but my research into the real man, when I was in the process of collaborating on a musical about his relationship with his wife and muse, songwriter Sylvia Fine, revealed that the real Danny Kaye was a miserable, paranoid, selfish, mean and insecure sociopath when he wasn’t playing “Danny Kaye,” which could be on stage or off it. In this case, however—and nobody know why—the abused Jewish kid went to unusual lengths to save a Christmas movie.
“White Christmas” had been conceived as a remake of “Holiday Inn” with the same stars as that black-and-white musical, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Fred couldn’t do the project, so his part was re-written for Donald O’Connor, who became ill so close to shooting that there was no time to retool the whole script and have the film ready for its target holiday release. In desperation, the producers asked Kaye if he would play Bing’s sidekick even though it meant 1) playing a support, which Kaye had never done in a movie since becoming a star 2) playing a role that didn’t’ highlight his special talents (for those, watch “The Court Jester”), and 3) subordinating himself to Bing Crosby, who was indeed the bigger star and box office draw, and 4) most daring of all, exposing his own limitations by doing dance numbers created for Donald O’Connor. Kaye was not a trained dancer, just a gifted mimic and athlete who could do almost anything he tried well. Danny demanded $200,000 and 10% of the gross to rescue the project, but he still was doing so at considerable personal risk…and he didn’t need the money, because Sylvia was a financial whiz.
Everyone around Danny Kaye was shocked that he agreed to all of this. Not only did he agree, he also amazed everyone by not playing the under-appreciated star on set, by doing O’Connor’s choreography as well as he did, and by knowing how not to steal focus from the star, something he infamously refused to do on Broadway when he was in “Lady in the Dark” with Gertrude Lawrence. “White Christmas” was the top grossing film of 1954 and the most financially successful movie musical up to that time. Kaye’s uncharacteristic unselfishness and characteristic versatility made that level of success possible. The secret of why Danny was on his best behavior was another one of his pathologies from an abused childhood: he was always in awe of the superstars like Bing Crosby, and felt inferior to them. (He wasn’t.)
The movie works (even I get choked up at the end); you just have to turn off your brain to fully enjoy it the way it was meant to be enjoyed. It has many high points, musical and comedic, for most viewer they justify the flaws, and we will never see the likes of Crosby, Kaye and Clooney again (and Vera-Ellen was no slouch). I miss all of them, which adds an extra bit of wistfulness to my annual viewing
And whatever faults “White Christmas” may have, it’s whiteness isn’t one of them.
Last year I wrote that “White Christmas” brought back memories of happier holidays, which I needed. 2024 said, “Hold my beer!” Once again there will be no Christmas tree that takes me five hours to decorate, no festive banquet at a table surrounded by family and friends, no stockings or presents…just a big empty house with a needy dog and a lot of scary problems to solve and ticking time bombs to defuse. The sappy Christmas movie that ends with two happy couples, an old man being reassured that his life had meaning and Bing singing “White Christmas” is, as it was last year, just what the psych ward prescribed. I’m trying to count my blessings. What choice do I have?
1. The First Scene
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