Rhapsodies

One of the many things I find funny about all of the culture warriors and their precious war on Christmas is that they do the most brutal attack of all by ending Christmas on the 25^th… It’s twelve days, people! This has become increasingly obvious to me while doing these holiday marathons for a couple of years is that in a lot of these classics the story may start in Christmas Eve, they go through the entire twelve days with the climax of the story on New Year’s. 

Because of this, I decided to continue my Christmas marathon just a little longer, focussing on the end of the holiday season ending on New Years… And to keep things interesting stick to musicals.

The first film on my list was the classic Irving Berlin film, Mark Sandrich’s Holiday Inn.

Holiday Inn tells the story of Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby), Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire), and Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) a popular song and dance team working the broadway circuit. Jim is planning to retire from show business and go with his fiancé, Lila to start a farm in Connecticut. Unfortunately, Lila has no interest in the plan and also loves Ted, and ends the engagement. 

Tim moves to the farm anyway and discovers that he’s terrible at it. As a way to recoup his losss he turns the failing farm into “the Holiday Inn” a venue that is only open on holidays, with a new dance partner, Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds) 

I can’t say I really liked this film. Make no mistake the music’s great and the talent of our performers are top notch, and the songs are great. For example, the original version of White Christmas is in this film and it’s a lot better than the version in the movie that bears its name.  However, that’s pretty much all there is to it. Holiday Inn is pretty much just a jukebox musical of Irving Berlin holiday-centric songs. 

It doesn’t help that it has aged extremely badly. The worst example being the minstrel number “Abraham” for Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. I’m embarrassed to say, since I still have at least one foot still stuck in my white bubble, I caught myself rationalizing with myself saying things like; “It’s a product of its time”, “It’s a good song and it shows off Crosby’s Bass range”, (in story excuse) maybe Jim couldn’t find enough black performers’… and then Linda comes on stage dressed like the most offensive rag doll you ever saw. 

The next film on my list, Norman Taurog’s Bundle of Joy, is a remake of the screwball comedy Bachelor Mother (1939) done as a musical. 

Debbie Reynolds plays Polly Parrish a flighty and overenthusiastic clerk working in the Millinery Department at J.B. Merlin & Son’s department store. She’s fired in the middle of the Christmas rush. On the way home, she sees someone leave a baby at the door of an orphanage. The Baby is about to fall off the steps, so she rushes to save it. It’s at this point the door of the orphanage opens where everyone sees the baby in Polly’s arms. 

Now everybody believes Polly is the mother no matter what she says. She essentially gets blackmailed into keeping the child when the orphanage guilt trips Dan Miller (Eddie Fisher), the Son in J.B. Merlin & Son’s, into giving her her job back with a raise attached, and soon hilarity ensues. 

I wish I’d known about Bachelor Mother when I was picking out this film because I suspect I would have liked it a lot better. Once again, the songs are good even though the way they’re squeezed into the narrative are pretty forced. Otherwise, it mostly didn’t impress me. 

Like Holiday Inn, this film dates itself badly. In this case, it drags down the entire plot most notably how no one ever believes Polly, no one even bothers to corroborate her story one way or other, just assuming this is something all “young mothers” say to escape their responsibility. Heck even the people who’ve known her for over a year and might notice things like… you know… the absence of a pregnancy, don’t believe her.