White Christmas (not rated)
AFI Catalog; Christmas Specials Wiki; IMDb; Paramount; Rotten Tomatoes; TCM; TV Tropes; Wikipedia
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; iTunes; Vudu; YouTube

Caution: potential spoilers.

This came out in 1954 (21 years before I was born). I first saw it on DVD in 2018, on Christmas Eve. But I really couldn't manage to think of it as a Christmas movie. I also can't think of it as a musical, since it always makes sense for the characters to be singing... though it certainly felt like a musical, so I might change my mind about where to put my review, someday. For now I'm just going with "classics." I thought I read somewhere that many people consider this a virtual remake of Holiday Inn, which came out in 1942 and introduced the song "White Christmas," but while there are some similarities, I certainly don't see it as even remotely a remake. I will say that I can't remember "Holiday Inn" in much detail (despite having watched it only two years before this one), nor can I remember how much I liked it, at the time. I'm giving this movie a lower rating than that one, which suggests I liked "Holiday Inn" more than this movie, but I don't really feel sure of that at all. It's possible I liked this one more. So... I dunno how that works, but whatever.

Um... so, it begins on Christmas Eve, 1944, during World War II. There are two soldiers, a singer named Captain Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Private First Class Phil Davis (Danny Kaye), who are putting on a show for their unit that night. Their beloved commanding officer, Major General Thomas Waverly is being replaced, but the incoming general gets delayed long enough so that he can't put a stop to the show (which he clearly intended to do.) Just as the show is ending, the enemy attacks, and everyone starts scurrying off to fight or take cover or whatever. Phil saves Bob's life when a building wall nearly collapses on him, which Phil later uses to guilt Bob into letting him join his musical act, after the war. And the two of them become a huge hit.

Ten years after the war, Phil is constantly trying to set Bob up with women, believing he can't be truly happy without one in his life. But Bob always dismisses the idea. Then they get a letter from a soldier they'd known, asking them to come check out a sister act. The sisters are Betty Haynes (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy Haynes (Vera-Ellen). After seeing their act, Phil believes Bob and Betty would make a good couple, while Phil himself takes an interest in Judy. The four of them eventually end up in Vermont together, where the Haynes sisters had been booked to perform at the Columbia Inn. But when they get there, they find there is unexpectedly no snow, which is usually a major tourist attraction at that time of year. Without it, the inn doesn't have enough guests, so they plan to cancel the performance. But Bob and Phil end up doing whatever they can to help, especially after they learn the the inn is owned by the retired General Waverly. So, they want to help him keep his business open as much as they want to help Betty and Judy. All the while, both Phil and Judy play matchmakers to Bob and Betty. There's also an employee of the inn named Emma (Mary Wickes), who eventually becomes the catalyst for a rather sitcom-y misunderstanding between Bob and Betty. I guess the only other character I want to mention is Waverly's granddaughter, Susan. I don't think anything was ever mentioned about her parents, but I assume they must be dead or something, since she seems to live with her grandfather at the inn. Anyway, the character isn't given much to say or do, and seems totally superfluous to the story, which I found a shame, because I liked her.

The movie ends with a big televised production at the inn, which doubles as a tribute to Waverly and a way to advertise the inn. And of course it happens on Christmas Eve, so the holiday does bookend the movie, even if the vast majority of it has nothing to do with Christmas. Anyway, there were good songs, good dance numbers, reasonable (if not great) humor, and I guess the romantic story was okay. Although I will say I thought it would have been a more interesting story if it had turned out that Bob and Phil were actually both gay, and in love with each other, but they each thought the other was straight. I suppose one can't expect that kind of story in a major film from the 1950s, though. (But I thought there were any number of hints that it could have gone in that direction.) In any event, I'm glad to have finally seen the movie, and I guess Christmas probably is the best time of year to watch it. But I don't feel a particular need to ever see it again.