ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

In the scene where Vera & Danny are performing their terrific number "The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing" watch the very end closely.

As Vera circles around a kneeling Kaye you can see her foot barely nick Danny's foot.

Rosemarry Clooney said in an interview that Bing & Danny got along very nicely while making the film. Danny wanted to become a good friend to Bing but Crosby wasn't interested.

Clooney was proud of the film and said that if they could have dubbed her dancing it would have been a perfect movie.

In one of the musical numbers towards the end of the film we see all 4 leads on stage as mannequins rise up covering the bodies of the leads.

Danny Kaye's is one that depicts a shoe maker.

In his film "Han Christian Anderson" Danny played HCA who was a shoe cobbler.

[Gord Green]

Bing was a very strange man....and very hard to get close to. Even in his LITTLE DRUMMER BOY duet with David Bowie he had no idea who David Bowie was and didn't speak to him before or after the filming.

Yet, the two of them sang such a perfect blend of the old and the new. Bing was an unperfect person capable of such perfection. WHITE CHRISTMAS was a film that captured Bing, Danny, Vera, and Rosie at just such a node of perfection.
_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Pow]

Yeah, I've read that Bing was a complicated gent, Gord.

He admitted he was too tough on his first 4 sons. Gary Crosby wrote the same about his father in his autobiography "Going My Own Way." Although Gary does admit that he and his brothers could be a handful as they became older.

Bing's twin sons, Dennis & Lindsey, committed suicide.

Crosby was an aloof character with many folks. Was this just his nature, or was it a way of protecting himself in a harsh business?

Bob Hope said in an interview that if Crosby cut you out of his life then that was it, no second chances.

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

Who knows why the Crosby twins took their own life, Bud?

People aren't all alike.

Perhaps other variables factored into the suicides such as bipolar issues, alcohol, other health issues, finances, lack of family or friends support. I can only feel compassion that they reached a point of no return in their minds and took this drastic act.

Dennis Crosby (July 13,1934~May 07,1991) was the father of Denise Crosby who played Tasha Yar for the first season of ST: TNG.

Wonder if she ever regretted leaving the series?

I realize she was frustrated with not having as much screen time and character development as she'd have liked on the show.

It is said that she saw that Captain Picard & Data were fast becoming fan favorites and her character wouldn't have the writers giving her as much development.

My thoughts are she had to know ahead of time that she was being hired as part of an ensemble cast consisting of nine and that she was going to have to split her time on screen with a lot of people.

However, being Chief of Security would most likely involve Tasha in many of the plots for the series. It did for Worf who took over COS after Yar's death.

Perhaps she needed to be more patient. She might have had a job for the 7-year run of the show, plus the 4 feature films.

I suppose actors are by their nature risk takers. So leaving a hit TV show might seem acceptable for them. Pernell Roberts thought so for Bonanza.

I guess I see it if I were them as having a steady paycheck in a profession that's notorious for not having regular paydays.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Turning this thread back to a happier note . . .

Last evening i got too sleepy to watch the third Christmas feature I'd planned for Christmas Eve, White Christmas on the great Blu-ray I acquired last year.

The first two features I watched were It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.

I went to bed around 10:00 and slept well, but I woke up at 6:30 and realized there was no point in staying in bed. So, I got up bright and early on Christmas morning, took a shower, made pot of coffee, and watched the feature I'd planned for Christmas Eve!

I'm pleased to report that I enjoyed this amazing movie so much I think I'll make this an annual event from now on!

Watching White Christmas at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning turned out to be the perfect way to enjoy this special day. It was like being a kid again and waking up to discover a living room filled with presents!

I hope the rest of you guys enjoyed Christmas morning as much as I did!
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

Merry Christmas., Bud, and here's to a Blessed New Year.

All the Christmas movies you mention are also favs of mine.

Some other holiday-themed films I enjoy are : "Scrooge (1951)" with Alastair Sim, "Come to the Stable," "O' Henry's Full House," "Apartment for Peggy," and I always enjoyed "The Andy Griffith Show" Christmas episode they did.

M*A*S*H did some wonderful Christmas episodes too.

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

I'm an ardent fan of Alister Sim, but I haven't seen his 1951 version of A Christmas Carol — which is called Scrooge. But YouTube has a watchable version of it!

I think I'll watch it today and pretend it isn't one day AFTER Christmas!

Merry Post-Christmas, everyone!

_____________Scrooge/A Christmas Carol 1951


__________
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

IMDB has 52 trivia items for this movie. Here’s a few of the ones I found the most interesting, in the blue text.
________________________________

~ According to Rosemary Clooney, the "midnight snack" scene in which Bob Wallace expounds on his theory of what foods cause what dreams was almost entirely improvised.

Note from me: That explains why that scene displays the charm of Mr. Crosby so effectively.

~ Third of three films to feature Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas". The other two are Holiday Inn (1942) and Blue Skies (1946).

Note from me: I watched Holiday Inn recently for the first time and really liked it. In view of the fact that much of the movie takes place at Bing's unique inn in Connecticut which is only open on holidays throughout the year, and White Christmas is set in a Vermont inn, the two films make a great Christmas double feature.

~ The Vermont inn is the remodeled Connecticut inn set from Bing Crosby's earlier movie Holiday Inn (1942). In White Christmas, the recycled hotel set is very gray, and appears not to have been repainted in new colors. Since Holiday Inn was a black & white film, the sets were probably originally painted in grayscale, as color palette schemes would have been a waste of resources in 1942.

Note from me: Well, my goodness! Not only do the two films work well together as a Christmas double feature, the sets are actually the same in both films!

~ According to Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye's "Sisters" performance was not originally in the script. They were clowning around on the set, and director Michael Curtiz thought it was so funny that he decided to film it.

In the scene, Crosby's laughs are genuine and unscripted, as he was unable to hold a straight face due to Kaye's comedic dancing. Clooney said the filmmakers had a better take where Crosby didn't laugh, but when they ran them both, people liked the laughing version better.

Note from me: The fact that the routine was improvised and the producers decided to film it is wonderful. And the fact that the reactions of test audiences convinced the filmmakers that Bing's laughter made that version the best one is delightful!

When Bing laughs it makes it more convincing that the two men came up with the funny routine just to delay the police while the two ladies leave the club and head for the train station!

~ When General Waverly is preparing to "inspect the troops", the bugler sounds off with "Ruffles and Flourishes." This is traditionally played to announce the appearance of a flag officer (generals or admirals); the number of times it is repeated corresponds to the number of stars on the officer's collar. The bugler plays it twice, signifying General Waverly as a major general (two stars).

Note from me: I love that highly emotional scene every time I see this great movie. And now that I know the significance of the bugler's salute, I'll enjoy it even more.

This next item shown below is interesting, because all the info was provided on the commentary by Miss Clooney herself, and also because she provided the DVD commentary all alone, with no one there to ask her questions or respond to anything she said!

I appreciated the marvelous job Rosemary did by enhancing the DVD/Blu-ray, but I think it was very inconsiderate of the people who produced the commentary to make her do it all by herself.

~ In supplemental information on the DVD, Rosemary Clooney revealed that —

1. She took the role mostly so that she could perform with Bing Crosby.

2. Danny Kaye caused many retakes when his antics made everyone laugh when they weren't supposed to.

3. She considered "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me" as "her" song since it was her only solo.

4. After the final shot they were informed that they would be redoing the finale because the King and Queen of Greece would be visiting the set and the producer wanted to "give them something to remember". They "reshot" the sequence with no film in the camera and without Bing Crosby who had skipped out to play golf. In later years she and Bing recorded several record albums together.

Note from me: For the record, Miss Clooney's solo commentary is wonderful. I've never heard one done by an actor without any support whatsoever that compares to hers.

~ Vera-Ellen's singing voice was dubbed. Numerous sources mistakenly assume Rosemary Clooney sang Vera-Ellen' s part in "Sisters" thus dueting with herself, but Trudy Stevens (who was Trudy Stabile at the time) was Vera-Ellen's voice double in all of her songs, namely "Sisters", "Snow" and the "White Christmas" finale.

Note from me: This movie is a good example of a production which dubs a star's voice with someone who sounds the way we expect the actor or actress to sound. That isn't always the case.

~ The first film released in Paramount's wide-screen process "VistaVision".

Note from me: Interesting. About a year ago I threw away my old DVD of White Christmas and bought the Blue-ray because the old DVD's picture was so grainy it detracted from my enjoyment of the movie.

There's a spirited discussion on All Sci-Fi about the fact that VistaVision was originally developed to reduce film grain. The discussion was a debate between members who objected to film grain (like I do) and one member who said that true film fans shouldn't be bothered by such trivial details.

~ White Christmas (1954) was the first film photographed in Paramount's widescreen VistaVision process. A radical departure from the other widescreen formats of the era, VistaVision did not extend the width of the screen as much as it raised the height, which produced a significantly clearer image.

Not surprisingly, the hundred or so films shot in VistaVision (notably High Society [1956], North by Northwest [1959] and White Christmas) have provided the most vivid clarity when transferred to high definition home video formats, as VistaVision applied the same principle and was, in effect, the first experiment in high definition.

Note from me: Like I said above . . . film grain sucks.

~ Many of Bob Wallace's more unusual turns of phrase were lifted straight from Bing Crosby's own speech patterns.

Note from me: That was a smart move on the part of the screenwriters.

~ Audiences have long been struck by dancer John Brascia's curious lack of integration into the film's plot, despite his partnering with Vera-Ellen on three of the more strenuous dance numbers ("Abraham," "Mandy" and "Choreography").

The film was heavily into pre-production when an injury forced Donald O'Connor to withdraw from the role of Phil Davis, the initial idea having been to re-team O'Connor and Vera-Ellen following their memorable pairing in the previous year's Call Me Madam (1953).

Note from me: As much as I like Donald O'Connor, I think Danny Kaye was the right man for the role.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

__________________________________________

To download a high definition copy of White Christmas, just click on the title below, then click on the Download button when the WeTransfer window opens. The movie will be saved in your download file!

Merry Christmas from All Sci-Fi!
___________________________________________

White Christmas (1954) Link is NOW active!

_____________
__________________________________________
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I'm a fan of both Danny & Donald. I could easily see Donald do the role just as fine as Danny did do it. They were both gifted and talented gents.