White Christmas is a 1954 American Christmas musical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Filmed in Technicolor, it features the songs of Irving Berlin, including a new version of the title song, "White Christmas", introduced by Crosby in the 1942 film Holiday Inn.
Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film is notable for being the first to be released in VistaVision, a widescreen process developed by Paramount that entailed using twice the surface area of standard 35mm film; this large-area negative was also used to yield finer-grained standard-sized 35mm prints.
White Christmas was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry's class of 2025 by the United States Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Plot
In Europe in 1944, at the height of World War II, Broadway star Captain Bob Wallace and aspiring performer Private Phil Davis entertain the 151st Division with a Christmas Eve soldier's show. Major General Thomas F. Waverly, who has been reassigned, delivers an emotional farewell. Shortly after Waverly departs, enemy bombers attack. Phil is slightly wounded when he pulls Bob away from a collapsing wall. While recuperating in the camp infirmary, Phil suggests he and Bob form a double act; Bob dislikes the idea but feels obliged to try.
After the war, the two become famous as song-and-dance team Wallace & Davis. Success follows in nightclubs and radio, prompting Phil to pursue their producing musical shows for the Broadway stage. While the team performs in Florida, Bob receives a letter from an army buddy asking them to review his sisters' singing act at a nightclub there. The two watch the Haynes Sisters' act and meet elder sister Betty and younger sister Judy after the performance. Phil, wanting to marry off Bob, hopes he and Betty are mutually attracted. While Phil and Judy are dancing, Betty apologetically confesses to Bob that Judy actually wrote the letter. Bob humorously admires Judy's resourcefulness though Betty thinks he is being cynical.
Learning the sisters' landlord is falsely suing them for damages and has called the police, Phil gives them his and Bob's train tickets to New York City. The group flees to the train station. The girls get Phil and Bob's sleeping compartment while the guys sit up all night in the club car, much to Bob's chagrin.
The girls persuade Phil and Bob to forgo New York and spend Christmas in Pine Tree, Vermont where they are booked as performers. In Vermont, they discover that the lack of snow is keeping tourists away. Arriving at the empty Columbia Inn, Bob and Phil are aghast to discover that General Waverly is the nearly bankrupt owner, having invested his pension and life savings. Phil and Bob decide to stage a large musical at the inn, hoping to attract guests. Betty and Judy are included with the other performers. Meanwhile, Betty and Bob's romance starts to bloom.
Later, Waverly tries to rejoin the army but is rejected. To cheer up the crestfallen general, Bob hatches a secret plan to reunite their old army regiment. He calls TV personality Ed Harrison (suggested by actual columnist and TV host Ed Sullivan) to ask his help. Ed's idea would exploit the general's misfortune on national television and give free publicity for Wallace & Davis. Bob strongly rejects his suggestion, insisting there is to be no personal advantage. Unfortunately, housekeeper Emma overhears only Harrison's end of the phone conversation and believes Bob is indeed exploiting the general's misfortune. She tells Betty, who rebuffs Bob. Her sudden distant coolness baffles him.
Phil and Judy stage a phony engagement, hoping it will release Betty from looking after Judy and thus reunite Betty and Bob. However, this backfires when Betty leaves for a solo singing gig in New York. When Phil and Judy confess the truth to Bob, he rushes to New York to tell Betty. They partially reconcile, but Bob runs into Harrison before he can fully explain everything to Betty. When Bob appears on Harrison's TV show to request the entire 151st division join him at Pine Tree to honor General Waverly, Betty realizes she misunderstood and behaved foolishly. She returns to Vermont to make amends and in time to join the show.
On Christmas Eve, the soldiers surprise General Waverly. During the performance, Betty and Bob reconcile, and Judy and Phil realize they are in love. As everyone sings "White Christmas", a thick snowfall at last blankets Vermont.
Cast
Bing Crosby as Bob Wallace Danny Kaye as Phil Davis Rosemary Clooney as Betty Haynes Vera-Ellen as Judy Haynes Dean Jagger as Major General Tom Waverly Mary Wickes as Emma Allen John Brascia as John/Johnny, Judy Haynes' dance partner Anne Whitfield as Susan Waverly, granddaughter
Uncredited: Johnny Grant as Ed Harrison Percy Helton as train conductor I. Stanford Jolley as railroad stationmaster Barrie Chase as Doris Lenz, showgirl George Chakiris as Betty Haynes' background dancer Sig Ruman as hotel landlord Grady Sutton as hopeful dancing partner Herb Vigran as Novello Leighton Noble as Novello's (Florida) bandleader Dick Stabile as Carousel Club bandleader
Production Irving Berlin suggested a movie based on his song in 1948. Paramount put up the $2 million budget and only took 30% of the proceeds.
Norman Krasna had written the original story, which was intended for Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. When Astaire was ultimately replaced by Danny Kaye, comedy writers Melvin Frank and Norman Panama were hired to add special material for Kaye. Panama and Frank felt that Krasna's entire script needed rewriting, and director Michael Curtiz agreed. "It was a torturous eight weeks of rewriting", said Panama. Frank said that "writing that movie was the worst experience of my life. Norman Krasna was a talented man but ... it was the lousiest story I'd ever heard. It needed a brand new story, one that made sense." They rewrote the screenplay themselves at $5,000 a week.HOLIDAY FILMS A GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PASTWilson, John M. Los Angeles Times 25 Dec 1984: h1.
Principal photography took place between September and December 1953. The film was the first to be shot using Paramount's new VistaVision process, with color by Technicolor, and was one of the first to feature the Perspecta directional sound system at limited engagements.
Casting
White Christmas was intended to reunite Crosby and Fred Astaire for their third Irving Berlin showcase musical. Crosby and Astaire had previously co-starred in Holiday Inn (1942) – where the song "White Christmas" first appeared – and Blue Skies (1946). Astaire declined the project after reading the script and asked to be released from his contract with Paramount. Crosby also left the project shortly thereafter, to spend more time with his sons after the death of his wife, Dixie Lee. Near the end of January 1953, Crosby returned to the project, and Donald O'Connor was signed to replace Astaire. Just before shooting was to begin, O'Connor had to drop out due to illness and was replaced by Danny Kaye, who asked for and received a salary of $200,000 and 10% of the gross. Financially, the film was a partnership between Crosby (30%), Irving Berlin (30%), Paramount (30%), and Kaye (10%)
Within the film, several soon-to-be famous performers appear. Dancer Barrie Chase appears unbilled, as the character Doris Lenz ("Mutual, I'm sure!"). Future Oscar winner George Chakiris also appears as one of the stone-faced, black-clad dancers surrounding Rosemary Clooney in "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me". Ensemble dancer John Brascia leads the dance troupe. Because there was no time for dance director Robert Alton to prepare Danny Kaye for all of the dance specialties, Brascia was pressed into service as Vera-Ellen's dancing partner throughout much of the movie, particularly in the "Mandy", "Choreography" and "Abraham" numbers. The photo Vera-Ellen shows of her brother Benny (the one Phil refers to as "Freckle-faced Haynes, the dog-faced boy") is actually a photo of Carl Switzer, who played Alfalfa in the Our Gang film series, in an army field jacket and jeep cap.
A scene from the film featuring Crosby and Kaye was broadcast the year after the film's release, on Christmas Day 1955, in the final episode of the NBC TV show Colgate Comedy Hour (1950–1955).
Paramount reissued White Christmas in 1960 with an entirely new ad campaign, removing all references to VistaVision and stressing the glamorous show-business atmosphere.
Music "White Christmas" (Crosby) "The Old Man" (Crosby, Kaye, and Men's Chorus) Medley: "Heat Wave" / "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy" / "Blue Skies" (Crosby & Kaye) "Sisters" (Clooney & Vera-Ellen) "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" (Kaye with Vera-Ellen) "Sisters (reprise)" (lip synced by Crosby and Kaye) "Snow" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Vera-Ellen) Minstrel Number: "I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show" / "Mister Bones" / "Mandy" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Chorus) "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)" (Crosby & Clooney) "Choreography" (Kaye) "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing (reprise)" (Kaye & Chorus) "Abraham" (instrumental) "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me" (Clooney) "What Can You Do with a General?" (Crosby) "The Old Man (reprise)" (Crosby & Men's Chorus) "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney & Vera-Ellen) "White Christmas (finale)" (Crosby, Kaye, Clooney, Vera-Ellen & Chorus)
All songs were written by Irving Berlin. The centerpiece of the film is the title song, first used in Holiday Inn, which won that film an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1942. In addition, "Count Your Blessings" earned White Christmas its own Oscar nomination in the same category.
The song "Snow" was originally written for Call Me Madam with the title "Free", but was dropped in out-of-town tryouts. The melody and some of the words were kept, but the lyrics were changed to be more appropriate for a Christmas movie. For example, one of the lines of the original song is:
A composer's demo of the original song can be found on the CD Irving Sings Berlin.
The song "What Can You Do with a General?" was originally written for an unproduced project called Stars on My Shoulders.
Trudy Stevens provided the singing voice for Vera-Ellen, including in "Sisters". (The first edition of Vera-Ellen's biography by David Soren made the mistake of suggesting that "perhaps" Clooney sang for Vera in "Sisters". The second edition of the biography corrected that error by adding this: "Appropriately, they sing "Sisters" with Rosemary Clooney actually dueting with Trudy Stabile (wife of popular bandleader Dick Stabile), who sang under the stage name Trudy Stevens and who had been personally recommended for the dubbing part by Clooney. Originally, Gloria Wood was going to do Vera-Ellen's singing until Clooney intervened on behalf of her friend.") It was not possible to issue an "original soundtrack album" of the film, because Decca Records controlled the soundtrack rights, but Clooney was under exclusive contract with Columbia Records. Consequently, each company issued a separate "soundtrack recording": Decca issuing Selections from Irving Berlin's White Christmas, while Columbia issued Irving Berlin's White Christmas. On the former, the song "Sisters" (as well as all of Clooney's vocal parts) was recorded by Peggy Lee, while on the latter, the song was sung by Clooney and her own sister, Betty.
The film's original soundtrack recordings were finally issued on CD by Sepia Records in 2022, and subsequently on vinyl records.