1h 40min | Comedy, Drama, Musical | 4 September 1942
Director: Mark Sandrich
Stars: Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds.
Daniel Dare ... dance ensembles staged by (as Danny Dare)
George King ... assistant dance director (uncredited)
Sam Ledner ... dance director (uncredited)
Al Mann ... dance assistant (uncredited)
Hazel Noe ... dance secretary (uncredited)
Babe Pearce ... assistant dance director (uncredited)
An Irving Berlin songfest, including White Christmas, Happy Holiday, Easter Parade and Holiday Inn; 17 songs/medleys in toto.
This is the home of FA dancing solo with firecrackers. He has 3+ numbers with MR (the + is a medley/montage), 1+ with Virginia Dale (the + is the finale), and the opener with BC & VD (although it's mostly singing.) In the Tap! Appendix for FA, MR, VD.
BC, MR and onstage band perform Abraham (re: Lincoln) in blackface (supposedly to hide her from FA). The rest of the songs are sung without dance.
Both women look fine dancing with FA, but nothing I'd want to see in another film, and H'wood agreed. Per the dvd's Production Notes, both women were cast at the last minute, since all the preferred partners (Ginger R, Rita H, Eleanor P & Mary Martin) were committed elsewhere. (Also in the PN: the motel chain Holiday Inn was founded in '52, named after the film. Wikipedia says the name was a joke that stuck.)
Because both romances are triangular rivalries, this is less enjoyable than when one man pursues one woman. If rating it today, I'd probably land on 7, if only for the firecracker dance. It may be that I hadn't seen many BC movies when I rated this; I own a lot of them now. Hmm... I rated this on the same day as 11 other favorite movies in the early days of my IMDb membership, so I was likely trying to generate some recommendations. But I'll keep the prior rating for now.
Paramount, dir. Sandrich; 8-
