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From Amazon.co.uk
Holiday Inn is a perennial, Christmas-season favourite from 1942 teamed Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire as entertainers (and rival suitors of Marjorie Reynolds) running an inn that is only open on holidays. It's a great excuse for lots of singing and dancing, seamlessly wrapped in a catchy story, and Astaire's frequent director Mark Sandrich (Top Hat, Shall We Dance?) doesn't let us down. The Irving Berlin numbers (each one connected to a different holiday) are winners. Crosby's warm performance of "White Christmas" is a movie touchstone. --Tom Keogh
Product Description
With music by Irving Berlin, songs by Bing Crosby and dancing by Fred Astaire, Holiday Inn is one of the most delightful and memorable musicals of all time. Crosby plays Jim Hardy, a song and dance man who leaves showbiz to open a Connecticut Inn. Astaire plays Ted Hanover, Hardy’s former partner and rival in love. And, of course there are girls (Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale), an agent (Walter Abel) and plenty of lavish song and dance routines with spectacular production numbers. It contains all your favourite Irving Berlin hit songs, including the one and only "White Christmas" .
Disc 1: Black & White Version
Special Features:
Special Features:
Disc 1: Black & White Version
Special Features:
- A Couple of Song and Dance Men featurette, containing an interview with Ava Astaire-MacKenzie
- All Singing, All Dancing: Before & After
- Audio Commentary by film historian Ken Barnes with archive audio comments by Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby and John Scott Trotte
- Cast and Crew Profiles
- Theatrical Trailer
- Production Notes
Special Features:
- Colouring a Classic - learn how Holiday Inn was colour-designed using amazing new technology that transformed the black and white classic to colour with the help of Jan Mucklestone, personal sketch artist of famed costume designer
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
51 of 51 people found the following review helpful
By B. Westenra
Format:DVD
Just thought I ought to point out that one of the extras - the documentary "A Couple of Song and Dance Men" - features Astaire's otherwise unavailable "Puttin' On The Ritz" from Blue Skies, COMPLETE and UNEDITED. Seeing as it is, in my opinion, the greatest dance number he ever did - which is saying a LOT - it makes the DVD worth buying for that alone. Watch it and weep.
...oh, and Holiday Inn is fantastic too.
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Always thought of as a Christmas film, and seen mostly at Christmas, this film stands watching at any time of the year. Watch it when you need a lift, want to watch something you know will end well, or just want that warm fuzzy feeling inside. On a wet Sunday afternoon, with a bar of chocolate, this films is a must!
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I bought the special version of this in B&W before I realised there was a colourised copy and bought this. It is SO much better. Can't beat colour in a musical. I'm very happy with this.
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't mind the plot; it's the singing, dancing, songs and charm that count, and they're great
2 Aug 2007
Format:DVD
Few things are as enjoyable as watching the two old smoothies, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, at the top of their game doing what they do best, and doing it better than anyone else. With Holiday Inn, make it three old smoothies: Crosby, Astaire and Irving Berlin. In fact, the only thing to get in the way of the movie is the plot. It's boy meets girl, boy loses girl to his best friend and partner. Repeat with another girl. Then bring back the first girl. Do another roundelay until boy and second girl and partner and first girl all have a happy ending.
What makes the movie work so well and is such a pleasure to watch, of course, is Crosby singing, Astaire dancing, and both doing their charming best with songs, some new, some old, by Irving Berlin. Berlin was one of the great American song writers who hit their peak from the late Twenties through the late Forties. Many of the cognoscenti sniff their noses at him as corny or just too popular. Berlin was, in fact, a highly skilled and immensely talented song writer. He wrote songs which were original, catchy, varied and inevitable...that rare quality in a song that hits a listener with a melody never heard before yet which seems as if each note could never have been placed in any other way. He also was a shrewd businessman. Holiday Inn is one of several movies Berlin personally pitched to Hollywood. The stories were never much, but Berlin would mix hits from his catalogue and write new songs. In addition to Holiday Inn, think of There's No Business Like Show Business, Blue Skies, Alexander's Ragtime Band, This Is the Army and White Christmas. The genesis in each case was Berlin.... Read more ›
What makes the movie work so well and is such a pleasure to watch, of course, is Crosby singing, Astaire dancing, and both doing their charming best with songs, some new, some old, by Irving Berlin. Berlin was one of the great American song writers who hit their peak from the late Twenties through the late Forties. Many of the cognoscenti sniff their noses at him as corny or just too popular. Berlin was, in fact, a highly skilled and immensely talented song writer. He wrote songs which were original, catchy, varied and inevitable...that rare quality in a song that hits a listener with a melody never heard before yet which seems as if each note could never have been placed in any other way. He also was a shrewd businessman. Holiday Inn is one of several movies Berlin personally pitched to Hollywood. The stories were never much, but Berlin would mix hits from his catalogue and write new songs. In addition to Holiday Inn, think of There's No Business Like Show Business, Blue Skies, Alexander's Ragtime Band, This Is the Army and White Christmas. The genesis in each case was Berlin.... Read more ›
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By William Taylor
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
If as a purist you have been discouraged from watching colourized versions of black and white films, I urge you to buy this! The colourization effects in "Holiday Inn" are quite simply breathtaking, the range of colours employed is consisitently impressive and of 100% realistic nature. The quality of the image is crystal clear, there is no colour "bleed" and in each frame everything is perfect. The early attempts at colourization were quite frankly pretty appalling, but this is something else.
So - do buy this - you won't be sorry - and if on occasion you prefer to watch it in b&w, you can still do so - this is a two disc set.
I've no idea how much it costs to colourize a film to this standard, but it makes you wish more could be done! Not film noirs obviously, but some 30s/40s films that screamed for technicolour and were yet filmed in b&w - The Sea Hawk with Errol Flynn, Betty Grable and Alice Faye in Tin Pan Alley, even King's Row possibly - we could all suggest our favourites. Not all of these are even available on DVD. Imagining them coloured to this standard would be truly marvellous.
So - do buy this - you won't be sorry - and if on occasion you prefer to watch it in b&w, you can still do so - this is a two disc set.
I've no idea how much it costs to colourize a film to this standard, but it makes you wish more could be done! Not film noirs obviously, but some 30s/40s films that screamed for technicolour and were yet filmed in b&w - The Sea Hawk with Errol Flynn, Betty Grable and Alice Faye in Tin Pan Alley, even King's Row possibly - we could all suggest our favourites. Not all of these are even available on DVD. Imagining them coloured to this standard would be truly marvellous.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By J. Lovins
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
Paramount Pictures presents "HOLIDAY INN" (4 August 1942) (100 mins/B&W/Color) (Dolby digitally remastered) -- Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire were the stars of Holiday Inn with support from Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale --- Produced and directed by Mark Sandrich, filming took place between November 1941 and February 1942. Holiday Inn had its premiere at the New York Paramount Theatre in August 1942. It was a runaway success both in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, proving to be the highest grossing film musical up to that time --- The big song had been expected to be "BE CAREFUL, IT'S MY HEART" --- While that song did very well, it was "WHITE CHRISTMAS" that topped the charts in October 1942 and stayed there for eleven weeks.
Story line and plot, In the first of two films the other being "Blue Skies" (1946), Astaire and Crosby did together the characters are remarkably the same --- Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) is the elegant and charming show business professional who's ambitious for success --- Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) is the talented, but lazy partner who just wants a life of ease and comfort and not to work more than he has to --- Small wonder that their double act broke up --- But now enter a complication --- They both get interested in the same girl who in this film is Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds) --- Plus Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale, who becomes Fred's dancing partner with some wonderful routines in fine fashion.... Read more ›
Story line and plot, In the first of two films the other being "Blue Skies" (1946), Astaire and Crosby did together the characters are remarkably the same --- Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) is the elegant and charming show business professional who's ambitious for success --- Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) is the talented, but lazy partner who just wants a life of ease and comfort and not to work more than he has to --- Small wonder that their double act broke up --- But now enter a complication --- They both get interested in the same girl who in this film is Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds) --- Plus Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale, who becomes Fred's dancing partner with some wonderful routines in fine fashion.... Read more ›
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4.6 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic!
HUGE fan of the old musicals and this is a real must for anyone looking for an entertaining Christmas movie. Read more
Published 21 days ago by AG
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Festive Film
This is an enjoyable film. So far we have only watched the colour version and were impressed at how good it looked. Read more
Published 1 month ago by The Big Orange One
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enter the era of authentic movies
Enchanted settings, joyful songs, marvellous dance steps by Fred Astaire and one very famous song on its debut..."White Christmas" !
Published 3 months ago by Manue
4.0 out of 5 stars
Still a good evening's entertainment seventy years after it was made
This film has been a favourite of mine since I was a child. Fred Astaire's dancing in this is as good as any film he made and the 'firecracker' solo routine is particularly... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Stephen
4.0 out of 5 stars
Takes you back in time
It took me back to when I watched films with my nan and grandad. Easy watching. Lovely story.
May not suit everyone.
May not suit everyone.
Published 4 months ago by SandraLaw
5.0 out of 5 stars
perfect christmas
I love this film, and now it's in colour what more could you ask for. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Holiday Inn !!!!!
Published 4 months ago by mrs sheena jones
5.0 out of 5 stars
put this on your Christmas list !
this is a must have Christmas film..and it will be watched every year...several times over the festive season ! enjoy !
Published 4 months ago by MON
3.0 out of 5 stars
Holiday Inn (Special Edition) (1942) DVD
The service was excellent. The film did not turn out to be the one I wanted, but that was my fault.
Published 4 months ago by Mrs W Rogers
5.0 out of 5 stars
XMAS FUN
Really enjoyed old Bing and Fred in their frolicking Festive gigs. It was lovely to enjoy such old-fashioned simplicity - and the dancing and music was, of course, amazing
Published 5 months ago by FRANCES.LEAHY
5.0 out of 5 stars
Christmas down memory lane
Excellent dvd.great story had seen it before in b/w and wanted to see it in colour. Very true to life and excellent price.worth watching and worth having.
Published 5 months ago by Mrs karen Wilson
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