MOVIE REVIEW: WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954)

It was only a matter of time before I got around to viewing this film, seeing as it is hailed as one of the greatest Christmas films of all time. In an age where sentimentality, kindness, and empathy are rapidly falling out of style, it’s nice to see the power of those concepts shine through, strong as ever, 70 years later. While this may not be a film that I feel the need to watch with any sort of regularity around the holidays, its runtime, and a little reflection afterward, is time well spent.

Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye star as Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, respectively, a duo of World War II veterans who turned their skits during the service into a hit performance act almost a decade later. After helping a sister duo (played by Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen) out of a jam, all four wind up in a quaint vacation town in Vermont. When the men discover that their beloved senior officer from the war owns the inn they’re booked for but is on the verge of bankruptcy due to a lack of snow for the season, they hatch a plan to make things right.

There are a few pieces of this film that can be rightfully nitpicked. At 50 years old, Bing Crosby seems too old to have served as an enlistee in World War II just 10 years prior. The 25-year age gap between Crosby and his love interest in the film (Clooney) also carries a bit of an ick factor in the 21^st century. The unlikeliness of Bob and Phil’s flight to Vermont with the gals is also the stuff of Hollywood fluff convenience as well.

Against all odds, however, this film clears each of these hurdles because of the overwhelming power and charm of the sentimentality it wields. While it is held up as a top-tier Christmas movie, I would argue that the enduring success of this film has very little to do with Christmas at all.  Rather, this film reminds audiences of the spirit of human decency. The bonds of brotherhood forged in World War II compel Bob and Phil to use their notoriety to engage in an act of such selflessness for one of their own. This is the kind of compassion and brotherly love that has grown absent in modern times when convenience and power are the foci of society.

And yet, don’t the best Christmas movies reach the heights they attain because their stories transcend the Christmas season and its pageantry? Sure, this film almost cynically recycles (and takes its name) from a hit song from a decade prior (an Oscar-winning song written for another movie no less!), but the remarkable display of decency among men blurs all of that out and wins you over. We yearn for a return to that kind of common good (if it ever truly existed outside of the movies), and that’s the sauce that makes White Christmas so endearing. In lesser hands, this could have been little more than the Hallmark holiday slop we’re subjected to ad nauseam each Christmas season, but kudos to the writers for tapping into something greater.

FINAL RATING: 4 out of 5