As we enter the season, we face the old question-- which star-studded Irving Berlin song and dance fest is the better choice? Let's look at some of the key points...
Score vs Score
WC actually has more songs than you remember, with many flitting by as incidental scene music. Even "Blue Skies" makes a brief appearance. HI sticks to the holiday catelog, which gets you Easter Parade, but also the somewhat mediocre "Singing a Song of Freedom." But WC is stuck with "Choreography."
Kaye vs Astaire
I love Danny Kaye in his own filmic universe, but his hyperkinetic high strung style simply grates against the laid-back charm of Crosby and, well, everybody else. Plus he comes across as the kid brother who is trying way too hard to hang out with the big kids. He's great-- but he doesn't belong in this movie. Astaire, on the other hand, is perfectly placed. He is exactly to dancing what Crosby is to singing-- relaxed, debonaire, and willing to get out of the way of the material. Kay sucks up way too much oxygen in WC.
Ladies
Tell the truth-- you can't even remember who that woman in HI is. Vera Allen is some anatomical freak of nature, and Clooney's acting seems to be saying, "I should NOT have eaten that enchilada." But if all she did was walk out and sing "Love You Didn't Do Right By Me" she'd have earned her spurs.
Other Support
WC saddles us with Generic Geezer, Life-Sucking Wench and a Billy deWolfe wannabe. Let's face it-- with Astaire and Crosby, how much support do you need. Oh, and Magic Negro maid and her cute children. Yikes. WC wants Kaye to be a leading man AND supporting cast, but it does give us the awesome Mary Wickes and Dean Jagger's surprisingly subtle and touching general. We'll just ignore his aggressively plain 25 year old granddaughter. And some guy who serves as Vera's nameless smiling gay dance partner.
Embarrassments
Oh, blackface number. Oh, Kaye's ridiculous stalling tactics layered on top of a protracted manufactured plot of misunderstanding. A toss up.
Heart Tugging
The one arena in which WC shows a commanding lead. The HI romance is intriguingly nuanced-- Crosby's manipulations should be appalling, but it's hard not to forgive his desperation. But anyone who claims not to feel even a little lump when the troops finally salute the general on Christmas Eve is simply a big lying Grinch.
Other
HI rips along with style and pace, while WC seems to last ten or twelve lugubrious plot-free hours. HI has some great Astaire dancing; WC has Vera Allen and the guy with some Kaye thrashing around. In other words, not so much. HI may be black and white, but WC is almost a technicolor assault
Special conservation note. If you will watch both, notice that Berlin steals the bridge from "Holiday Inn," slows it down and re-installs it as the bridge for "Count Your Blessings."
In the end, I declare Holiday Inn superior entertainment, even if it doesn't deliver the weepy finish of White Christmas.
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