White Christmas
Short description
White Christmas follows two American servicemen, Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, who meet during the Second World War and later pair up as a successful song-and-dance act. Their lives change when they encounter the Haynes sisters, Betty and Judy, a singing duo, and the four performers travel to a Vermont inn for the Christmas season. They discover that the struggling establishment is run by their former commanding officer, General Waverly, and decide to use their show-business skills to help him.
The film was directed by Michael Curtiz and released in 1954. It is the twentieth of the twenty-five features he directed in chronological order, coming after The Breaking Point and before The Egyptian. Melvin Frank, Norman Panama and Norman Krasna wrote the screenplay, and Robert Emmett Dolan produced it for Paramount. Bing Crosby stars as Bob and Danny Kaye as Phil, with Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen as the Haynes sisters. Dean Jagger plays General Waverly and Mary Wickes appears as Emma Allen, among a credited cast of thirty-five.
The film runs two hours and blends comedy, music and romance. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.6 from around 58,000 votes, while on TMDB its rating is 7.2 from roughly 594 votes. A critics' rating of 6.6 from 46 reviews places it somewhat below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The hotel in Vermont was filmed using sets from a hotel in Connecticut, preserved after filming an earlier film with Bing Crosby, "Holiday Inn" (Mark Sandrich, 1942).
- The scene where Bob Wallace discusses which foods inspire which dreams was almost entirely improvised.
- The first film shot in the widescreen cinematic system VisaVision, which used standard 35mm film moving horizontally through the camera, and spherical optics. The longitudinal arrangement of the large-area frame allowed for a high-quality image.
- Asbestos was used instead of snow in the film.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
