Truthfully speaking, this is my first encounter with White Christmas. I didn’t really appreciate musicals when I was in college (which is regretful, so many missed Rocky Horror Picture Show moments), especially when I worked at Suncoast during the Christmas season. If you’ve ever been inside a Suncoast during Christmas you will understand the thick saturation of the season within the store. Anyway, so once this musical came in I was more interested in seeing how well the 1954 film was cleaned up and upscaled into HD. The purpose of Blu-ray is HD and if you (the consumer) don’t get that quality then you shouldn’t be paying the price for it.
Here’s what I found….
If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s pretty simple. Two army buddies, Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) meet up after the war to put together a duo act, which springs them into producer/performer roles. They are highly successful and pretty much well off for the rest of their lives. They get a letter from one of their friends asking to go check out his sister’s act. They do and end up finding two very beautiful ladies, Betty Haynes (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy Haynes (Vera-Ellen) that can sing their butts off. Impressed, they follow the ladies to Vermont to sing with them, but soon discover their old army general owns the inn they’re going to sing at. Regretfully, the inn isn’t doing so hot, so to help out the boys call on all their connections in show biz to try and help out the general that saved their lives in the war.
It’s a classic Christmas film that has a predictable storyline, but it’s something that you can certainly enjoy. Thanks to a great set of musical numbers which include, “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep”, “Sisters”, “Mandy” and “White Christmas”. Beth Barnes, one of our reviewers, and Jonathan Hall, another reviewer, know these songs by heart. The songs are catchy and truly are the things that make the film the most memorable. The songs are well done by the four actors who sing them, with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye leading the way as the best singers onscreen.
Music aside, what’s great about this story is that it’s just charming from beginning to end. The chemistry between Crosby and Kaye onscreen is smooth as silk. You’ll swear you’re watching a Robert Altman film with how natural the duo speaks with each other. As for the ladies, Rosemary Clooney is very dominant with her onscreen presence and equally as charming as the boys. I’ve never seen much with Vera-Ellen, but her dance numbers are just outrageously beautiful (not to mention she’s a hottie). The story is simple, but the actors certainly make it better with their playful personalities and beautiful musical numbers.
Are there any flaws? Other than it’s predictable, no flaws here. The movie is a classic for a reason. Anyway, see this film if you haven’t yet; it’s worth your time.
Now, for the real reason you’re reading this review; the Blu-ray. Paramount has done an admirable job with transferring this 56-year old film to High Definition. When you see the ocean blue eyes of Bing Crosby’s character you will be flabbergasted. They’re so crystal clear you can see in some scenes where his blood vessels in his eye had burst a bit (probably lack of sleep); it’s that detailed. The real beauty of HD doesn’t come out until you get to the stage scenes where the dancing goes on. You’ve got lavish sets with gorgeous costumes sparkling beautifully in HD. The vivid colors of the Christmas sets mixed with the spectacular fake Vermont backdrop really are something to see. Paramount probably did the best that they could with the cleaning up of the original film because you don’t just put lackluster effort on a classic like this.
With all of this said, there are some moments where graininess rears its head. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “You’re being too harsh on a film like this!”, but no I’m not. The 1933 King Kong was nearly flawless when it was cleaned up. I’m not sure what process Warner Home Video used for that film, but it was damn good. The only graininess that you see in White Christmas is when you’ve got some low light close-ups of the actors. For some reason the low light brings out the grain really well and there are quite a few scenes where this occurs. Still, the overall quality of this Blu-ray is really high, despite the grainy areas, and it’s very impressive what it looks like in comparison to the DVD version.
The music sounds spectacular, as it’s been mastered in DTS-HD, so no worries on the audio side.
The other big portion of this Blu-ray is the features. Here’s what you’re looking at:
– Commentary by Rosemary Clooney (absolute classic)
– Backstage Stories from White Christmas (HD)
– Rosemary’s Old Kentucky Home (HD)
– Bing Crosby: Christmas Crooner (HD)
– Danny Kaye: Joy to the World (HD)
– Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (HD)
– White Christmas: From Page to Stage (HD)
– White Christmas: A Look Back with Rosemary Clooney
– Two HD Theatrical trailers
Folks, I’m impressed more by the fact that most of the features are in HD then with the features. Don’t get me wrong, I think all of these features will certainly satisfy every White Christmas fan out there, but the fact that Paramount took the effort to actually make sure most of what you get is HD is nothing short of amazing. I think you’ll particularly like the Rosemary Clooney stuff, especially the tour of her home by the river. You couldn’t ask for a more extensive collection of special features for this movie.
