GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

John austin Holiday Inn crosses my mind at least once during every major holiday, and even some of the more minor ones as well. In fact, it's the first thing that pops into my head on Washington's birthday, (even though they call that President's Day now).It's a great musical that uses the talents of Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire to the fullest, as Bing Crosby tries to run an inn that's only open on holidays. Fred Astaire plays his romantic rival, as they both try to romance Marjorie Reynolds. There's terrific chemistry between the two stars and the other players as well. The songs are great. This movie took an Oscar for White Christmas, and that song has remained a standard to this day. If you've never seen it, make a point to watch it when it pops up around Christmastime. It's wartime Hollywood at its creative peak. If you wonder why they can't make them like this anymore, this movie will show you why there's no substitute for the talent of Crosby, Astaire, Berlin and the rest of the folks behind this movie and the other classics of the 1940s.

sakurapottery This is the movie that White Christmas is very loosely based on. The only real similarities are two guys, one of which is Bing Crosby, two girls, the white Christmas song, and an inn. It pretty much stops there.Now let me say this, I kind of get that a movie from 1942 might have some racist things in it. I understand it was a different time, and I can deal with the small stuff, but this movie doesn't have just small stuff. It has a musical number with a full on BLACK FACE routine by Bing Crosby, Marjorie Reynolds and half the wait staff. Not to mention the mammy character.The movie isn't all that bad otherwise, but I really feel like when you go searching for holiday films, there should be a note in a review somewhere clearly warning you about these things, so you don't spend your money renting or buying something as purely awful as this.

SimonJack What's not to like about this movie? "Holiday Inn" fits in many film genres -- comedy, musical, romance, drama and Christmas. It's one of the best efforts of Hollywood to make a musical revue with a plot. It succeeds marvelously in that and gives us some of the best song and dance routines of the day. The film is a showcase of Irving Berlin music, dancing by the greatest dancer of the silver screen (Fred Astaire), and singing by the top male singer of the early decades of filmdom (Bing Crosby). Crosby and Astaire together are a sure fire combination for entertainment. Crosby plays Jim Hardy and Astaire plays Ted Hanover. While they dominate the film, a small supporting cast fills in the details, mostly in the plot aspects. Virginia Dale and Marjorie Reynolds are the romance interests of both Jim and Ted, as Lila Dixon and Linda Mason, respectively. They both dance very well with Astaire. Linda has some songs with Jim, but her voice is dubbed by Martha Mears. Walter Abel as Danny Reed, Louise Beavers as Mamie and Irving Bacon as Gus are nice window dressing in the plot mostly with comedy. Astaire has two first time and exceptional dance numbers in this film. The first is the firecracker dance and the second is a soused Ted Hanover who gives a funny but superb drunken dance. Work on the film began before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and with its release to be early in the war, the studio added a patriotic number with some films clips. Of course, Irving Berlin's music holds sway with this great piece of entertainment. The master composer wrote a dozen songs that were used for this film. Some were originals (i.e., "Happy Holiday" and "White Christmas"), and others were reprisals (i.e., "Easter Parade"). Most were recorded separately before being used in the film. If for no other reason, "Holiday Inn" will be remembered as the movie that brought "White Christmas" to a worldwide audience. Crosby sang Berlin's "White Christmas" for its first ever performance on the radio broadcast of the Kraft Music Hall show of Christmas Day, 1941. He subsequently was the first to record the song, on May 29, 1942, for Decca Records. After "Holiday Inn" came out in August 1942, the song got worldwide attention. It was wildly popular among American GIs and others serving during World War II.The history of that single song is interesting. No one at first thought of it as a sure-fire top hit song. Berlin and Crosby liked it, but they and the people at Paramount thought that the hit number of "Holiday Inn" would be, "Be Careful, It's My Heart." According to the Guinness World Records, Bing Crosby's rendition of "White Christmas" is the best-selling single song of all time. It had more than 100 million sold (by 2010). All versions of the song, including Crosby's, have sold more than 150 million copies. Guinness states that there are more than 500 versions of the song recorded in various languages. Besides Bing Crosby, many other top singers have recorded "White Christmas" over time. They include: Frank Sinatra in 1944, Perry Como in 1947, Elvis Presley in 1957, Johnny Mathis in 1958, Andy Williams in 1963, Doris Day in 1964, Barbra Streisand in 1967, Tony Bennett in 1968, John Denver in 1975, Willie Nelson in 1979, Dolly Parton in 1984, Neil Diamond in 1992, Linda Ronstadt in 2000, Bette Midler in 2003, Dionne Warwick in 2004, and Ray Stevens in 2009, "Holiday Inn" is a wonderful movie that the whole family should enjoy.

weezeralfalfa The MGM musical is said to have peaked in the early '50s. but my favorite show biz-themed musicals were released in '41 and '42, with Fox's "Sun Valley Serenade" and Paramount's "Holiday Inn", respectively. They both feature snow and riding in sleighs, which adds to their charm. There's lots of humor in both, especially this one. Unfortunately, both were shot in B&W by their miserly studios. It's particularly galling that Paramount filmed the forgotten "Dixie", reuniting stars Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds, in color, but chose B&W for an obvious classic film! Now that the present film has been released in a colorized version, it can more legitimately be compared with later color films, such as "Singing in the Rain". It's far more interesting than the second pairing of Crosby and Astaire, a few years later, in "Blue Skies". In addition to a better selection of songs and sets, and a much better comedic interaction between the male stars, their female costars in Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale were much more appealing than Joan Caulfield, in the latter film. Marjorie is my favorite dance partner for Fred, if not the most technically proficient.Berlin was infamous for recycling his better songs in subsequent films. For this film, only 3 songs were previously composed, and probably only one of those: "Easter Parade", had been sung in a film(Fox's "Alexander's Ragtime Band"), and would serve as the title song in a third film, 6 years later. Bing's rendition, while driving Marjorie in a horse and buggy,with beautiful fruit tree blossoms in the background, is my favorite of these 3. "Lazy", which Bing sings when he is contemplating an easy life, 'retiring' to run a farm, would later be redone by Marilyn Monroe, in a very different(sexy) style! Even the seemingly specialized, though good, song "Abraham" was recycled in "White Christmas", along with the title song.In addition to "White Christmas", "Happy Holidays" is still a standard of the winter holiday season. The former is featured twice: once not far into the film, and again, just prior to the finale. Both renditions are essentially private affairs between Bing's and Marjorie's characters, who alternate in its singing. The first occurs in a very romantic setting of an isolated farm house, with a cozy fire, and it's snowing. The second involves Marge singing it on a Hollywood set, with a surprise appearance of an unseen Bing chiming in, come to reclaim her as his runaway girlfriend(She was furious because he first hid her from Fred, who wanted her for a dance partner, then from a Hollywood agent who wanted her and Fred for Hollywood stardom).The long "Abraham" performance was done in blackface by Bing and Marjorie, along with the orchestra, dancers and waiters, with Lincoln's freeing of the slaves as the theme. Noted African American actress Louise Beavers, as Bing's maid, and her two children, sing a small part. Bing's understood plot reason for doing this in blackface was to make Marjorie unrecognizable to the snooping Fred and his business partner, Danny, who are hooked on her as Fred's potential new dance partner. They don't know her name or where to find her, since Fred was very drunk when he danced with her at Danny's Christmas party, having just lost his former girlfriend and dance partner, played by the lovely Virginia Dale, to a Texas millionaire. Ironically, Ms. Dale left Fred because of a mere jealousy spat over an unseen Marjorie, whom he hadn't even yet met and was connected with by a misunderstanding(Yes, "The lady must have been willing", as Fred would later quip when Margie suddenly abandoned Fred for Bing, at the end).Fred's unique 'firecracker dance' for the July 4 show reportedly needed 38 takes to get the synchrony between the explosions and his dancing just right!. Marjorie isn't in this show, due to Bing's dastardly trick to keep her away from Hollywood scouts. She and Fred, nonetheless, become a Hollywood sensation. Thus, Bing spends Thanksgiving alone(except for his maid), his inn closed, just playing his record "I've Got Plenty to be Thankful For", with sarcastic remarks. Thanks to a sound scolding by Ms. Beavers, he goes to Hollywood to try to win back Marjorie. It didn't take much, as I previously detailed. Yes, the women were fickle.Among the many musical highlights, I should mention the "I'll Capture your Heart Singing/Dancing", "You're Easy to Dance With" and finale-modified reprisal of these, with the 4 stars reunited. Bing and Marjorie's alternating singing of "Come to Holiday Inn", with Marjorie in a sparkling gold evening gown, is great. But, perhaps my favorite is Fred and Marjorie dancing to "Be Careful, It's My Heart", while Bing sings it at the piano, unaware of Fred's presence, briefly reprised in their Hollywood montage.....I give it 20 stars.