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Bookmark this pageWhite Christmas (1954)
Director: Michael Curtiz
Movie review
From Time Out London
‘Aww, can’t you convince him to let us work for half salary?’ Such drippy and frankly wrong-headed sentiments can only mean one thing: Christmas is upon us. Paramount’s first film in (lavender-hued) VistaVision was this pornographically soppy but, nonetheless, hearty and humorous 1954 festive romp in which Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye take their astonishingly popular two-man lounge-comedy-dance revue to rural Vermont. It’s a standard putting-on-a-show movie with swinging tunes (courtesy of Irving Berlin), harmless misogyny, and a nice line in bitching at Rogers and Hammerstein’s expense. It’s as sickly-sweet as an eggnog tsunami, but Bing’s brandy-butter baritone and Kaye’s incessant, proto-Jim Carrey clowning always manage to raise a smile. Eagle-eyed viewers might also be able to spot a US army recruitment video spliced into the final song and dance routine.Author: David Jenkins
Time Out London Issue 1999, Dec 11 - 17, 2008
Cast & crew
Director: Michael Curtiz
Producer: Robert Emmett Dolan
Cast: Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen, Dean Jagger, Mary Wickes, John Brascia, Anne Whitfield full cast
Rated: U
Duration: 120 mins
UK Release: Dec 17 2008
US Release: Oct 14 1954
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