White Christmas
70 years of song and dance
This post is part of the regular feature ‘Let Me Talk To You About,’ where I ramble about creative works of any medium. As it’s December, it’s time to talk about a Christmas movie.
This year marks the 70th anniversary White Christmas, a well established member of my family’s canon of seasonal movies. So with the combination of month and year it’s only fitting that I write about it.
The musical follows a duo of entertainers/producers, Phil and Bob, and a pair of performing sisters, Betty and Judy. After some mishaps and manipulation they all arrive at a small struggling inn, which turns out to be run by Phil and Bob’s former general from World War II, General Waverly. Seeing the dire straits of the inn, partially as a result of there not being any snow, our cast of entertainers take it upon themselves to help out by putting on a show.
This isn’t a movie where the plot matters that much however, the real draw is the music, with the plot existing to go from one song to the next. You will not remember most character names after watching the movie. I had to look them up for this post, mostly you’ll identify them via phrases like ‘Bing Crosby’s character.’
I did like the contrast of Phil being a little awkward socially while also being the biggest manipulator in the cast. If you put him on the spot he’ll stutter, but also he launched his entertainment career via faking an injury and guilt tripping, he’s a natural liar. It’s a fun mix of traits.
In terms of tone the move is mostly light and breezy, it’s the kind that regularly makes call backs to its own songs, not as ironic fourth wall leaning meta humor but as the characters having fun by repeating bits of the song, like people who have just seen a musical. And the songs are indeed that fun.
One song in particular, ‘Sisters,’ has become such a running joke within my own family that if I didn’t specifically mention it somewhere in this post I know I would be approached about it. I know all the words to it by heart and not by choice. Help.
Naturally with a movie that’s now seventy years old, it has some dated moments. The movie works off a very specific moment in time, since it’s about the relationships forged serving in World War II well after the war has ended. Also at one point a character being in Alaska is described as being out of the country.
Most of the random songs with no plot importance tend to be about nostalgia for specific things, like complaining about the current state of the theater. Which brings me to an aside that I know will repulse some people from the movie and so should be brought up now.
One of the nostalgia songs is about minstrel shows. It’s a sanitized recollection that doesn’t even mention blackface, or anything racial, a deep whitewashing in both senses of the word. If you’re watching casually enough to miss or not pay attention to the lyrics (like some in my family) it’s easy to miss that it’s about minstrel shows at all if you don’t have knowledge of them beyond ‘that racist old thing with blackface.’
Thankfully the song has no plot relevance since it’s just one of several random numbers included with the excuse of being rehearsal (despite not appearing in the actual show at the film’s climax), so it’s easy to skip past if you don’t want to view it. It’s a jarring speed bump in a movie that otherwise holds up well.
On a lighter note, something that occurred to me on my latest viewing was that in one way the movie was somewhat prescient. The conflict in the latter half of the movie revolves around someone proposing that the boys televise their show for the general and make a show out of ‘playing Santa’ for him to promote themselves, which is rejected, but due to enragingly selective eavesdropping is mistakenly assumed to be the intent by others.
That sort of conversation is arguably even more relevant today. I think modern audiences can probably appreciate Bob’s refusal to turn the show for Waverly into content out of respect for him even more than contemporary audiences did. The cast are performers, but their act of kindness towards Waverly is not performative. That part is already relevant for the social media age without any sort of modern reimagining.
For me the highlight of the movie is the performance at the end, a fun sequence of three songs that wrap up the plot, beginning with Waverly seeing his former regiment gathered to cheer him up and concluding with the titular song as it finally begins to snow.
This movie is style over substance and doesn’t pretend to be something else. Which makes it difficult to say much more about it beyond discussing how certain aspects have aged. It’s simple light hearted fun, and that’s enough.