Often times considered the first movie made as part of the Christmas genre, designed to target holiday audiences, the 1942 film Holiday Inn has become a holiday film classic. Written by Irving Berlin, the film has an amazing cast of Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Virginia Dale and Marjorie Reynolds.
When the act of crooner Jim Hardy (Crobsy) and dancer Ted Hanover (Astaire) breaks up, Ted steals Jim’s fiancée Lila Dixon (Dale) and the two run off to pursue an act together. Jim retires to Connecticut. He comes up with an idea to open a nightclub that is only open on the holidays, called the Holiday Inn. Jim goes to visit Lila and meets shopgirl Linda Mason (Reynolds). Lila abandons Ted for a Texas millionaire and Ted turns to drinking. Jim persuades Linda to marry him, only for his new girl to be stolen by Ted with hopes of a Hollywood career. Joe closes the Holiday Inn and mopes around. Not to be defeated, Jim follows the advice of his housekeeper and goes to Hollywood to get back his girl.
The Thanksgiving sequence in the film is a reference to President FDR trying to change the date of Thanksgiving, which happened around the same time the film was made. The Holiday Inn chain, which was founded in 1952, took it’s name from this film. Irving Berlin was inspired to write this film while writing the song “Easter Parade”. The film White Christmas, based off of the “White Christmas” song originally written for Holiday Inn, is based off of this film. Holiday Inn and White Christmas both were written by Irving Berlin, staring Bing Crosby in the lead role, and involved performers entertaining crowds in inns open around the holiday. The same inn was used as a set in both moves. In Holiday Inn, the film is set in Connecticut whereas White Christmas is set in Vermont. During the 1980s, the “Abraham” musical sequence was cut during showings of the film because of the controversy surrounding the use of blackface. You can still see this sequence DVD and when the film is screened on Turner Classic Movies.
When the act of crooner Jim Hardy (Crobsy) and dancer Ted Hanover (Astaire) breaks up, Ted steals Jim’s fiancée Lila Dixon (Dale) and the two run off to pursue an act together. Jim retires to Connecticut. He comes up with an idea to open a nightclub that is only open on the holidays, called the Holiday Inn. Jim goes to visit Lila and meets shopgirl Linda Mason (Reynolds). Lila abandons Ted for a Texas millionaire and Ted turns to drinking. Jim persuades Linda to marry him, only for his new girl to be stolen by Ted with hopes of a Hollywood career. Joe closes the Holiday Inn and mopes around. Not to be defeated, Jim follows the advice of his housekeeper and goes to Hollywood to get back his girl.
The Thanksgiving sequence in the film is a reference to President FDR trying to change the date of Thanksgiving, which happened around the same time the film was made. The Holiday Inn chain, which was founded in 1952, took it’s name from this film. Irving Berlin was inspired to write this film while writing the song “Easter Parade”. The film White Christmas, based off of the “White Christmas” song originally written for Holiday Inn, is based off of this film. Holiday Inn and White Christmas both were written by Irving Berlin, staring Bing Crosby in the lead role, and involved performers entertaining crowds in inns open around the holiday. The same inn was used as a set in both moves. In Holiday Inn, the film is set in Connecticut whereas White Christmas is set in Vermont. During the 1980s, the “Abraham” musical sequence was cut during showings of the film because of the controversy surrounding the use of blackface. You can still see this sequence DVD and when the film is screened on Turner Classic Movies.For some fun facts on this movie, you can read these, thanks to Mahalo.com. More more information on the film, you can read this article, thanks to classicmoviemusicals.com. Several good reviews of this film can be found online. Eyeforfilm, a UK website does a review that can be read here. Another review can be found here, done by Bright Lights Film. The Foster on Film blog does another review as does Classicfilmsuite.com, which can be read here.
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