Rating: 
Summary: It's not Christmas without this film....
Review: Ok, I finally got tired of trying to find this film on some time when I can watch it! I grew up loving sweet Danny Kaye, and this film was my favorite as a young girl. It was made two years prior to my birth (aging myself aren't I?), but though the plot is corny, I still get a thrill when all the men stand for 'their general'. Bing Cosby and Rosemary Clooney were two of the most gorgeous voices for this type of stuff, and though I am deaf now, my memory fills in the gaps. So I am buying this beautiful movie, and introducing it to a newer generation who will love the ballerinas at the end, and maybe they will get as much joy from this movie as I have all my life. You don't often see movies made anymore with such sweetness, laughter, and music that can be a part of our holidays...there are no more Danny Kayes...Karen Sadler
Rating: 
Summary: Great Clooney Commentary
Review: Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) come together as a song and dance team after Phil saves the life of headliner Wallace on the battlefield on Christmas Eve. Anything Phil wants, he can get from Bob by making reference to the arm he injured (a phantom injury to be sure) in the saving. Now, he just wants Bob to take things slower. To that end, he is trying to get him to settle on a girl. Enter the Haynes's sisters, Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy (Vera-Ellen), one of whom forges a letter from their brother to Bob and Phil to come see their act and give some pointers as a favor to an old army buddy. It appears that Judy and Phil may have orchestrated the whole thing - Phil to get Bob to settle down and Judy to get tips from the pros. Now, Bob - though attracted to Betty - is a cynic and figures everyone's got an ulterior motive and is not surprised to find out the letter is a forgery. Betty is, however, offended that he thinks the SHE is playing an angle. Later, she will be convinced that Bob is playing an angle at someone else's expense and the resolution of the conflict makes for a wonderful and classic romance story. After getting the girls out of a jam, thanks to Phil, the foursome end up going to Vermont where they run into their old general running a ski resort. But there is no snow. Bob & Phil come up with a plan to boost the old man's spirits. There are two plot lines here - one the romance between Bob and Betty, and, two, the relationship between the general and his old troops. It is maybe not a GREAT movie/musical but it certainly is good. Songs include White Christmas (of course), Sisters, The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing, Count Your Blessings, and What Do You Do With a General. The Clooney commentary is very interesting. She points out a lot of things I would not have noticed and has a lot of funny stories about virtually every scene. For instance, the drag scene where Crosby and Kaye are performing "Sisters" ... they had already made so many mistakes that they didn't think it would be used and just really cut up. When she pointed it out, I saw things I hadn't seen before.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Christmas Movie
Review: I just absolutely adore this movie. I first saw this movie when I was 6 years old and loved it even then. I grew up listening to Bing Crosby as he was one of my mother's favorite singers and she had several of his records; I've always loved his rendition of White Christmas. I bought this movie because it's becoming difficult to find it on television during the holidays at a time when I'm able to watch it and on a channel I recieve on my TV. As far I'm concerned, Christmas just isn't complete without watching White Christmas. Now I can watch it during the holidays as many times as I want.
Rating: 
Summary: I'M DREAMING OF SOME BETTER PRODUCT FROM PARAMOUNT!
Review: I'd really like someone over at Paramount to email me and explain why all of their Vistavision "high motion picture fidelity" DVD transfers look as though they have been fed through a meat grinder. "White Christmas" is the annual holiday right-of-passage that follows the exploits of two G.I's , turned Broadway showman. Together, they bring their latest hit to a quaint inn in Vermont and save it from going out of business. The film stars Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, Vera Ellen and Rosemary Clooney and is riddled with the kind of Christmas magic that one doesn't seem to get from later film fare based around holiday themes. No! This is not the first time the world heard the title tune. That honor belongs to "Holiday Inn" a 1942 musical with Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby also from Paramount but available on DVD through Universal studios.
Paramount has done a down right injustice to this movie on DVD. Colors are not well balanced, shifting in range and consistancy from scene to scene. Just watch the 'Sisters' number to see how Clooney's and Ellen's dresses shimmer from sky blue to aqua-marine. Some colors, like the red santa uniforms used for the final production number, are orangy red and bleach out the rest of the scene in a mess of undistinguishable browns, beiges and really, really soft greens. Also, a disturbing amount of pixelization and edge enhancement really give the film a hard edged look. The soundtrack has been remixed to 5.1 but is strident, scratchy and poorly balanced. There's a featurette which basically amounts to Rosemary Clooney (the only surviving cast member at that time)spouting off about how great everybody was and what a joy it was to be in the film. Yeah, whatever! A theatrical trailer comes with it. Big whoop! What we need is a complete, frame by frame restoration to make this film come alive on DVD. Sadly we get more Paramount cost cutting with a retail price that, no kidding, doesn't reflect the quality of the transfer within.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic!
Review: This is one of our favorite Christmas movies! The music is wonderful...a "must have" for any Bing Crosby fan.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Christmas films!!!
Review: What do you say about Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen, and Rosemary Clooney appearing in a heart-warming movie, with a soundtrack by Irving Berlin? Stupendous? Marvelous? Exciting? More? Yes, all that and more. It's a lovely film to watch any time of the year. Watching Crosby and Kaye dance and sing, and especially the "Sisters" number was really fun. Then there's the scenes where Kaye and Vera Ellen dance, and watching her, in particular, is well worth the price of the film. Then there's the legendary Rosemary Clooney. Seeing her sing with Crosby, and the wonderful "Count Your Blessings" is a treasure, and much can be gleaned to teach the holiday season's best. Get this film for your permanent library and watch it year round. It's great!!!
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Summary: This may be the white Christmas you dream of...
Review: White Christmas, is definitely a classic. It's become a tradition in my family to watch this movie every year on Christmas Eve. Living in Los Angeles, I never see a white Christmas, but this movie brings me a white christmas every year. The dances are great, the whole story is well put together and it's a sweet story. Make it a tradition in your home to watch this classic movie and bring a white christmas to your family every year.
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Summary: The best things happen when your're dancing...
Review: The all-time best Christmas movie is certainly "White Christmas" staring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. They play WWII buddies who became big song-and-dance men. They meet sisters/aspiring entertainers Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, and end up following them to Vermont at Christmastime. Alas, there's no snow, and the innkeeper (who just happens to be the boys' old commanding officer) may have to go out of business. The boys and the sisters decide to put on a big benefit show, but not before misunderstandings block the path to true love for Bing and Rosemary. Never fear; it finally snows on Christmas Eve, and all ends happily in a beautiful musical finale. This movie was made when Hollywood made musicals with lavish song and dance numbers, no one was murdered or slashed, and nary a cuss word was uttered. Those were the days! This film brings us back to a nicer, simpler time, when talent and scripts were what made movies, not skin and shock-value. Crosby and Kaye and wonderfully talented and likeable as they they sing and dance their way into your heart. Rosemary Clooney is not a typical beauty, but she sings beautifully and looks suitable naive and lovelorn. Vera-Ellen is a dynamite dancer who steals all her scenes. The folksy charm of "putting on a big show" to help the "Old Man" is honest and warm. Talent and a great script combine to make "White Christmas" a perennial Christmas treasure!
Rating:
Summary: Count Your Blessings
Review: This is pure entertainment. Like so many people here, I grew up to this movie. I usually put off seeing this movie until the last because it's so WARM, I like to end up the holiday with a high note. The plot is fine, it's no "A Christmas Carol," but it's breezy. Whoever questions Bing Crosby's talent doesn't realize that here he is at his prime, just doing what he does best, being relaxed, charming and in wonderful voice. And he is hilarious in this movie for his "hipster" dialogue: "Grab the cow" when he says to Rosemary Clooney when he wants her to pick up the milk. He talks about women as "scatbacks" and "first sackers" and in my 41 years I still have no idea what he's saying but I still find funny. When Danny Kaye brings up children to the Haines sisters in a leading way, I love the way Bing whispers, "Pushing... pushing..." I feel bad for Clooney. She has a somewhat thankless role as the B - I - T - - - H sister because she completely misinterprets what Bing's up to but she comes around. She's still gorgeous, sultry and worth chasing. And the way she does "Love" is drop-dead phenomenol, even though the New York dancers that surround her are, of course, the same ones who dance with Vera-Ellen at the inn. Danny Kaye is great, a wonderful sidekick. And he's a great dancer, too! Vera-Ellen is a dish, quite a capable actress and comedian. (I like the way she says guiltily, "I'm not the kind of girl that throws herself at a man," to which Danny Kaye fecetiously replies, "No one would think that.") Or watch the movie just to see how startlingly tiny her waistline is. But I am always annoyed by the way at the end Crosby and Clooney are passionately making out and all of a sudden Kaye says "I'll join you" just unconvincingly grabs her and kisses her, like, "Oh, me too, it's part of the ending." Dean Jagger, a marvelous actor, has kind of a thanklesss role, too, playing a Sad Sack kind of figure. Yet he still delivers. In the movie, they worry about him becoming a pathetic figure but they kind of end up making him such with that song, "What Do You Do With a General?" (I still like the way Crosby does up on the end note of "un-em-ployyyyed." Can you tell I've seen THIS movie too much?) I like how they call him the Old Man even tho he and Crosby were about the same age. It's fun, it's Christmas. Great great movie.
Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous Color
Review: The color is beautiful. Best scenes are the sister act, the sister act parody, Snow, and when Rosemarie Clooney does that saltry night club number late in the movie. Vera Ellen is amazing with her skinny spider-like legs. The chemistry between Kaye and Ellen is believeable and funny while the chemistry bewteen Crosby and Clooney is like a wall of ice from the get-go, especially when Clooney's character becomes suddenly disenchanted--we noticed that when we were little kids watching this late on TV. But remember that Clooney and Crosby were the top popular vocalists at the time and the story-line was merely something to string together musical and dance performances. This movie is very entertaining if you don't take it seriously and delve for meaning. Just sit back and enjoy it. Good example of the use of Technicolor. I purchased a copy and still enjoy viewing it during every Christmas season.
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