Upon punching “Christmas” into the Netflix search bar, I noticed that there was one classic title I had yet to address.  In hindsight, I am not sure this was a good thing, but such was my eagerness to put off the likes of Christmas on Mistletoe Farm (2022) that I readily opted for White Christmas (1954).  Before starting White Christmas, there were a few things I already knew about it, namely that it is a musical.  I rationalized my decision by telling myself that it will be okay since it has Bing Crosby in it as Bob Wallace, one of the two male leads.  I like Crosby, and it is this time of the year that I most often listen to his work.  While watching the film, as I so often do, I began trying to think of how to describe what I saw unfolding.  The movie is what you get when you have the military industrial complex enter show business, and throw in the title song for good measure.  Will my synopsis lead you to the same conclusion?  Probably not, but I hope you have fun reading it all the same.

Why did I mention the military industrial complex in connection to White Christmas?  There are two reasons for this insertion.  First, the film begins in Europe in the winter of 1944 with American troops on Christmas Eve.  A unit of Major General Thomas F. Waverly’s (Dean Jagger) 151^st Division is being entertained by then Captain Bob Wallace and Private First-Class Phil Davis (Danny Kaye), singing the title song.  General Waverly is being replaced by a new commander, and the next person in charge does not appreciate his men making merry before they are to go into battle, no matter the day on the calendar.  General Waverly sends his replacement on a circuitous route back to headquarters, which gives him enough time to let Captain Wallace and Private Davis finish their routine and for the general to say his goodbyes.  Shortly thereafter, an attack on their position comes, and during it Private Davis saves the life of Captain Wallace by getting the officer out of the way of a falling wall, though getting hurt in the process.  Private Davis later is not above trading on his heroics to get the already famous Captain Wallace to look at some of the music the soldier has written, and leveraging that into a post-war partnership.  Indeed, they become one of the most successful and well-known musical acts in the country upon completion of their service.  Their notoriety means they are on tour a lot, and it is while performing in Florida that they get a letter from an old army comrade telling them about the Haynes sisters.  They are Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy Haynes (Vera-Ellen), Bob and Phil are asked to watch their performance and give advice as needed.  Bob is hesitant to do so, but Phil sees it as an opportunity for his work obsessed partner to live a little, namely in regards to finding a woman with whom to settle down.  Phil believes that this event would allow him to finally relax.  Despite his desire to get on the road for their next appearance, Bob is taken with Betty.  However, when they sit down to talk while Phil eagerly dances with Judy, Betty takes Bob’s business-like manner as uncouth.  All the same, the men help the women escape from the police trying to extort money.  Without telling Bob, Phil gives the ladies the guys’ train tickets.  Betty and Judy have a gig booked for the Columbia Inn in Pine Tree, Vermont, and Phil is able to prevail on Bob for them all to go to this destination together.  Unfortunately, they seem to arrive during the warmest December in state history.  The lack of snow for an avowed ski lodge is making for slim bookings, and the girls are about to be sent home with half their contract value.  The person who saves the day is General Waverly, who happens to own the Columbia Inn, and insists on Betty and Judy getting their full due.  The one sparsely attended show the Haynes sisters put on convinces Bob and Phil that they need to do something for their beloved former commanding officer.  Betty, Judy, and Phil come up with the idea of them collaborating on a show they believe will bring in paying crowds, but Bob is thinking even bigger.  He decides to bring to tiny Pine Tree the entire production staff involved with Bob and Phil.  From here, the musical portion of the movie takes over as they work through a series of numbers intended for their big production.  Thankfully (for me) I only had to sit through it once.  As this goes on, relations between Betty and Bob soften, much to Phil’s delight.  Yet, the budding romance is just as quickly derailed when the Columbia’s manager, Emma Allen (Mary Wickes), overhears a conversation Bob has with an on-air television host.  She thinks Bob and Phil are trying to turn the benefit for General Waverly into a publicity stunt for their act, and relays her feelings on the matter to Betty.  Just as easily, Betty is back to thinking that Bob is heartless, and decides to leave.  To salvage the situation, Judy and Phil fake an engagement, thinking that would free Betty from any obligation she might feel to Judy, but it does not work.  Instead, Betty takes a job as a solo act in a New York City nightclub.  Before going on television to get people to come to Pine Tree for the show, Bob makes one last attempt to get back Betty.  What ultimately convinces her is seeing what he has to say about his former commanding officer.  Thus, she surprises him by returning to Pine Tree to be in the production, and they do so with a grateful General Waverly in the crowd.  The movie concludes basically as it began, though with a snowy Vermont for a backdrop.

Whenever I watch a movie like White Christmas, I begin wondering if this was what entertainment was actually like at this time.  My theory, which I hope carries a little more weight given my education, is that television killed the kind of lifestyle you see portrayed.  It is not just how you see the four main characters living, but the army of staff that invade the quaint Vermont hamlet in which this is set.  All these people leave behind the relative comfort of New York City in order to live in New England for a few weeks, and for a few minutes of time on stage, never mind those working behind the scenes.  It seems exhausting.  Show business aside, I still must confess to wishing that, culturally speaking, we still did some things like they were done in the 1950s.  I am not sure this is precisely a Catholic argument, though the appearance of propriety certainly jives with much of what the Church teaches.  We know that when the cameras stopped rolling and the stage lights were switched off, Hollywood carried on behind closed doors in a manner all too familiar today.  This includes Crosby, who I admire as a fellow Catholic.  So, society was not perfect, but there seemed to be a greater fidelity to the cause of perfection, at least in some sections of the culture.  Of course, there was a great deal of regressive mores that had to be overcome, if you get the significance of my use of the word “overcome.”  What we see on film, and this one is no exception, is a lack of sexualization in the interactions between men and women.  Ironically enough, critics of the period look at the treatment of women and claim male hegemony, though I see Betty as nobody’s fool and willing to go off on her own.  At the same time, those same activists celebrate the so-called liberation of women through causes like the sexual revolution, which, at least as it is portrayed in various outlets like film, has only led to further objectification (Betty Friedan would call it commodification) of women.  Catholicism has been against these ideas from the beginning, and I would submit to you that the women we see in the movie fit more with the Catholic conception of womanhood, especially Betty, than you might expect.

As much as I was frustrated with White Christmas for the musical interludes that do not seem to do anything for the plot, I would take it over many other Christmas movies.  At the same time, I almost forgot while watching it that it is supposed to be a seasonally appropriate film.  If you enjoy classic musicals, then this is for you.  If it is Christmas fare you are after, I would choose something else.