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White Christmas (1954)
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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:09 pm    Post subject: White Christmas (1954) Reply with quote

I thought I'd give this film a mention because I spoke of it in the Oklahoma! thread as the other "reference" title for old movies on home video.

But long before home video, WHITE CHRISTMAS was my favorite Christmas movie and it remains so.



White Christmas benefits tremendously from Paramount's then new VistaVision filming process. VistaVision was a large format process in which the film moved horizontally through the camera. The primary purpose of VistaVision was to provide large negatives which would yield fine-grain 35mm prints for theaters. Full size large format VistaVision size prints were very rarely projected since this required highly specialized projection equipment. But, today, we still reap the benefits of the fine-grain reproduction process.





One of the things that most appeals to me about this movie is that it's a film for grown-ups. It's sentimental but not preachy. It's a story that depends on individuals finding the best in themselves without resorting to good guys, villains and Santa Claus (not that I have anything against Santa Claus). The music is by Irving Berlin and the star power of the cast helped make this a huge hit in '54.

Check out these spectacular production numbers. I'll often pop the Blu-ray into my player in the middle of summer just to watch these clips.

In my mind, this is me and my favorite girl out on the town (I fear reality is a lot different...but who wants reality?):

https://youtu.be/ax66QU8pvtA

The following is my absolute favorite dance scene of all time. The video editing here has an odd anomoly with vertical transitions but it's currently the best video available. Vera Ellen is spectacular. She suffered from an eating disorder which manifested itself as a "turkey neck" and thus her neck is covered in the ENTIRE movie. Really, search the images and her neck is always covered. Her dancing partner John Brascia died very recently. He was up for a part in one of the Godfather films. Can you spot the future Oscar winner who was discovered in this very production number?


https://youtu.be/SRmWJ1_dZKk
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 9:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah-ha, yes, my other favorite musical!

I watch this one every Christmas, as I did for years with my kids when they where growing up. Last Christmas I realized how bad my old DVD was when I saw how much better it looked on TCM, so I bought the Blu-ray and watched it again a few days later when it arrived.

Then I watched it again with the commentary by Rosemary Clooney turned on. She did a terrific job, especially in view of the fact that they made her do the commentary all alone, without the help of a personable film historian or someone involved in the film. I can't imagine why the commentary was done that way, but it certainly wasn't Rosemary's fault.

Yes, Vera-Ellen is to die for. The dance number with her and Danny in the YouTube video you provided, Brent, is the pinnacle of that marvelous art form (along with the fantastic production number in the other YouTube video). Every move the lovely lady makes -- right down to her elegant hand gestures -- is thrilling to watch.

Pairing Danny Kaye with Bing Crosby was sheer genius, and their on-screen chemistry is both rib-tickling and heartwarming (which sounds a little like part of the recipe for Christmas goose. Ah, but I digress).

As for the rumors that a sequel was planned, with the title Wet New Years (to be set in Seattle), I'm sure that was just a quip some silly guy on a message board made up to end his post with a joke.

People do stuff like that, I guess.

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:35 pm    Post subject: Re: White Christmas (1954) Reply with quote

Brent Gair wrote:
Can you spot the future Oscar winner who was discovered in this very production number?

George Chakiris?
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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 2:57 pm    Post subject: Re: White Christmas (1954) Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
George Chakiris?

We have a winner!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 4:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow, I knew he was prominently featured in the Rosemary Cloony solo with all the guys in black outfits, but I'd never noticed him in the big "Mandy" stage number until I watched that clip.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

WC is one of my favorite holiday films. Loaded with charm, dancing, singing, fine performances with a touching story.

Fred Astaire was intended to be Bing's original co-star but had planned to retire at that time.

Next up was Donald O'Connor. Donald became ill & was unable to do the movie. So Danny Kaye finally got the role.

I'm a huge fan of Danny but I think O'Connor would have done just as great in the role. His age would have been better too. Danny's character is supposed to be younger than Bing. He's supposed to look upon Bing as a mentor/older brother. Crosby & Kaye look like equals in WC.

The picture of the Haynes sisters brother is indeed Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer from the Little Rascals.
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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 6:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
I'm a huge fan of Danny but I think O'Connor would have done just as great in the role...

I agree. I'm a big fan of the underrated Donald O'Connor and White Christmas certainly would not have sufferred if he had Danny Kaye's role.

The only proviso is that it's hard for me to see anybody other than Danny in that "Best Things..." dance scene with Vera Ellen. That number required some very adult elegance and 29 year old Donald O'Connor may have been a bit too "boyish" (being even younger than Vera Ellen).
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 10:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I might be wrong about this, but in "Anything Goes" (1956) there's a duet with Donald O'Connor and Mitzi Gaynor on the deck of an ocean liner (set) that looks a lot like "Best Things . . . " in several ways.

The song is "It's De-Lovely", a nice tune, and the two stars are dynamic -- but it just doesn't work nearly as well as "The Best Things . . . " The two attractive performers don't really dance with each other the Danny and Vera-Ellen did — they dance around each other and beside each other and in front of each other.

And instead of an off-screen chorus doing the singing, Donald and Mitzi deliver the song. That's nice . . . but not as nice as the "White Christmas" number.

I know it wasn't intended to copy "The Best Things . . . ", and for that reason the number should be praised. I'm sure there are lots of folks who would say it was (in its own way) every bit as good as the number in "White Christmas".

Here's the YouTube link.



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Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Dec 24, 2022 1:13 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 10:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Donald & Vera were love interests in the Ethel Merman movie Call Me Madam. Like White Christmas, CMM is a fun romp with a terrific cast & wonderful dancing & singing.

I don't know if there were legal issues but CMM was rarely ever aired on television until a few years ago.

Vera & Donald show real chemistry onscreen together.
He does a funny dance routine about being in love while he's inebriated. I think the number is called Look At What Love Has Done to Me.

The film even has one of my very favorite tropes: A secret panel.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 8:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I watched my Blu-ray of White Christmas tonight, on Christmas Eve. Good Lord, the color and clarity is astounding!

Love this movie.

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 11:58 pm    Post subject: Re: White Christmas (1954) Reply with quote

Brent Gair wrote:
The primary purpose of VistaVision was to provide large negatives which would yield fine-grain 35mm prints for theaters. Full size large format VistaVision size prints were very rarely projected since this required highly specialized projection equipment. But, today, we still reap the benefits of the fine-grain reproduction process.

Now why would grain be an issue, when we have people today getting upset with Disney for removing grain from their animated classics?

(Side note: The classic animations used hand-painted "cells", which were painted on the reverse side so the edge of the paint would be hidden by the outlines on the front side. Hence, looking at the original cell art, you would see no surface texture.)

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Custer
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 25, 2015 9:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Let us not forget the 1942 black & white movie "Holiday Inn" on which the later film is loosely based, which also starred Bing Crosby and featured the song "White Christmas" - I watched that one a year ago. Very Happy
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Brent Gair
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 25, 2015 12:41 pm    Post subject: Re: White Christmas (1954) Reply with quote

orzel-w wrote:
Now why would grain be an issue, when we have people today getting upset with Disney for removing grain from their animated classics?...

I recognize your tongue-in-cheek smiley...but this might be a good time to address the issue as it applies to film.

The problem with grain removal is that it is an electronic process which doesn't really "understand" what it is removing. Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) was designed, obviously, to remove electronic noise which appears in digital images. Noise is almost like a visual "static" which appears as tiny dots of aberrant color in an image.

Unfortunately, DNR doesn't know if the tiny dots is sees are really useless noise or part of an image's fine detail. Noise reduction will simply start removing all tiny dots and specs down to a certain degree...depending on the setting used during the process. There is no such process as grain removal. DNR cannot distinguish between grain or the fine pores on a person's skin. That is why images with a lot of DNR are said to look "waxy" because images of people will have pores and fine hair removed by DNR.

It's not that film lovers like grain for the sake of grain...but the absense of grain is an indication that film has undergone excessive electronic processing that will have also removed other details. That's where the arguments ensue. People will say, "Well, I don't care what you like, Brent, I prefer my pictures with no grain". I can only reply, "OK, as long as you are happy to lose the fine detail that has been scrubbed away in the process".

So everybody who likes a grain free image has to understand that other detail has been electronically erased from the film. I've tired of the arguments over the years because there are people who are so opposed to natural film grain, that they would rather see natural detail erased as long as the grain is gone. I can't change their minds. I can only inform them that their smooth, waxy, grain-free image comes with a price.

Vistavision saves us from many such arguments. Grain builds up during the film reproduction process. That only makes sense since (in the days before digital production), making prints for theaters basically meant photographing the original source material. So the prints would photograph the grain of the original source material and they would also have their own grain...so the grain was even more prominent.

Because Vistavision used a very large negative, it effectively had much finer grain over the size of the image. Therefore, when prints were made, the grain in the original source was very minimal so there was significantly less grain build up in the reproduction process.

This keeps everybody happy (more or less). The grain-haters are happy because there is very little grain. Film aficionados are happy because they can see an image with full detail and no electronic tampering.

It's only too bad that the various large format processes have seen limited use compared to standard 35mm.
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 25, 2015 1:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here-Here!!!

The best argument yet!

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 25, 2015 10:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Now apply that reasoning to the inked and painted animation cells I mentioned.
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