Holiday Inn is a 1942 musical comedy film directed by Mark Sandrich, and it features songs written by Irving Berlin. The film stars Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, and Marjorie Reynolds. Holiday Inn is known for being the first film to feature the song “White Christmas,” written by Berlin and performed by Crosby.
Director: Mark Sandrich
Production Company: Paramount Pictures
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale, Walter Abel
US Box Office: $9,500,000 ($336,700,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Black & White
Genre: Musical, Comedy
Release Date: August 4, 1942
Plot Summary: Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) is a stage singer who recently retired to a Connecticut farm after feeling betrayed by his former stage partner Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) who stole the heart of Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale), the girl that Jim was in love with. Jim decides to turn his farm into “Holiday Inn”, a song and dance venue that only performs show on holidays. Jim falls in love with aspiring singer Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds) who works at Holiday Inn. However, a down on his luck Ted comes to Holiday Inn, and also sets his sights on Linda, much to the chagrin of Jim.
Production: In May of 1940, composer Irving Berlin signed an exclusive contract with Paramount Pictures to write songs for a new musical film. Berlin devised the idea for the film, based around the concept of an inn that was only open on holidays. The screenplay for Holiday Inn was written by Claude Binyon and Elmer Rice based on Berlin’s story for the film. Paramount chose Mark Sandrich to direct Holiday Inn, Sandrich was under contract with the studio at the time, and had previously directed several musicals.
Paramount chose actor/singer Bing Crosby for the lead role of singer Jim Hardy. Crosby collaborated with Berlin on the songwriting process for Holiday Inn. Fred Astaire was chosen for the secondary lead role of dancer Ted Hanover. Sandrich and Berlin had previously worked together with Astaire on the films: Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet (1936), and Carefree (1938), and Sandrich additionally directed Astaire in Shall We Dance (1937). Mark Sandrich originally wanted to cast Rita Hayworth and Ginger Rogers as the two female leads, but Paramount vetoed this idea. Crosby and Astaire were already two of the studio’s highest paid stars, and Paramount didn’t want the film to become too expensive. Instead, two lesser known actresses were chosen: Marjorie Reynolds for the part of Linda Mason and Virginia Dale for Lila Dixon.
Although the song “White Christmas” has since become iconic, this was not Berlin’s original intention. The song “Be Careful, It’s My Heart,” which Crosby sings during the Valentine’s Day segment, was originally planned to be the “big hit” of the film’s soundtrack. Berlin originally conceived the melody for “White Christmas” while working on Top Hat, but ended up scraping it. Berlin decided to reuse this melody, with new Christmas-themed lyrics, for Holiday Inn. During rehearsals Bing Crosby thought that “White Christmas” was fine, but nothing spectacular, and just told Berlin, “I don’t think we have any problems with that one, Irving.”
Filming on Holiday Inn went began in November of 1941 and went until late January of 1942. Interior scenes were primarily shot on set at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. Some of the exterior scenes in Holiday Inn were shot on location at the real-life Village Inn Resort in Monte Rio along the Russian River in Sonoma County, California. Fred Astaire was actually drunk during the New Year’s Eve scene where a heavily drunk Ted dances with Linda for the first time! Astaire was instructed to drink two bottles of bourbon before the first take and an additional one for every following take, the seventh take ended up being used in the film. The Attack on Pearl Harbor occurred midway through filming, so Paramount decided to expand upon the film’s Fourth of July scene and added a montage paying tribute the US Military.
Fun Facts and Trivia: Holiday Inn is the namesake for Kemmons Wilson’s “Holiday Inn” hotel chain. Wilson’s architect Eddie Bluestein came up with the name “Holiday Inn” in the late 1940s or early 1950s as a reference to Sandrich’s film. Singer Harry Barris has a bit part in Holiday Inn as the nightclub orchestra leader. Barris and Bing Crosby had previously worked together as members of the singing trio “The Rhythm Boys” from 1927 to 1930, before Crosby had gotten his start in Hollywood as an actor and solo artist.
Many of the musical segments in Holiday Inn are preceded by a quickly shot of the calendar including a visual symbol for each holiday. The calendar shot before the Thanksgiving segment featured a cartoon turkey running back and forth between the third and fourth Thursdays, before finally shrugging its shoulders in confusion. This is a reference to the “Franksgiving” controversy: in 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the Thanksgiving holiday up a week earlier than usual (Thanksgiving was traditionally held on the last Thursday of November) to expand the holiday shopping season, which became a highly controversial change. In 1941, Congress passed a joint resolution that permanently set Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November. This was designed to be a compromise between Roosevelt and his opponents.
Reception: Holiday Inn was released in the United States on August 4, 1942. The film was a major success at the box office and was one of the top ten highest grossing films of the year. Holiday Inn was released less than a year after America had entered World War II, and the film provided audiences with fun and light-hearted escapist entertainment during its release. In September of 1942, the shoes that Fred Astaire wore during his “Let’s Say It with Firecrackers” dance number were sold at an auction for $116,000 worth of war bonds. One of the shoes was later resold for $22,000 worth of war bonds. Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire later re-teamed with Irving Berlin for the musical film Blue Skies (1946).
Although Berlin intended “Be Careful, It’s My Heart” to be the biggest hit of the soundtrack, “White Christmas” ended up becoming far more popular. “White Christmas” first topped music sales charts in October of 1942, and remained there for eleven weeks. The song was later prominently featured in the film White Christmas (1954), which starred Crosby. As of 2013, Bing Crosby’s version of “White Christmas” has sold over 25 million copies.
Holiday Inn received strongly positive reviews from critics when it was first released. The staff at Variety praised the film for its great songs, and noted that while the film featured a large amount of content it was compact enough to avoid overstaying its welcome. Theodore Strauss of The New York Times praised the film for its “affectionate and light-hearted spirit,” and noted that the film never tired too hard to dazzle audiences. Elena de la Torre of the Spanish-language Cine-Mundial thought that Holiday Inn was very entertaining and she praised the musical numbers. Harrison’s Reports and Film Daily additionally praised Holiday Inn for its acting, music, and overall entertainment value.
Though not as popular today, Holiday Inn still continues to receive generally positive reviews from critics. In a positive review, Scott Nash of ThreeMovieBuffs.com stated that Holiday Inn was superior to the more well-known White Christmas (1954) and that it deserved to be more popular in modern times. Steven D. Greydanus of Decent Films praised the acting and musical numbers. Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress also spoke positively about the acting and songs, and also praised the film’s story. In 2004, the American Film Institute ranked “White Christmas” as the fifth best film song on their list of the 100 best American film songs of all time. Holiday Inn itself was also one of the films nominated for AFI’s list of the top 25 musicals in 2006.
Oscars: Holiday Inn was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Original Story (Irving Berlin), Best Score (Robert E. Dolan), and Best Original Song (Irving Berlin for “White Christmas”). Holiday Inn received one Oscar, which Irving Berlin won for “White Christmas.” Yankee Doodle Dandy received the award for Best Score, and 49th Parallel received the award for Best Story.
Why You Should See It: Holiday Inn is a charming and delightful musical comedy. Irving Berlin’s songs are fantastic. Aside from the highly popular “White Christmas,” I thought that “Happy Holiday,” Be Careful, It’s My Heart,” “Easter Parade,” and “Song of Freedom” were all quite good. All the lead actors are very good in their roles, especially Bing Crosby. Holiday Inn also has some very funny moments as well: such as the scene with Jim’s exploding peach preserves, and the scene where Gus (Irving Bacon) intentionally drives his car into a river.