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Streaming Holiday Inn Online.
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I’ve watched both the spotless B&W version with commentary and the graceful color version of the Universal 3-disc (including CD) edition of « Holiday Inn » and I am very impressed.
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If you haven’t seen the film for a while, the very high points are the song « White Christmas » and its reprise and two of Fred Astaire’s more unforgettable numbers: a solo dance with firecrackers and a falling down drunk number that has to be seen to be believed. But to be lovely, all the numbers are memorable, from the classic « You’re Easy to Dance With » to the 18th Century-influenced « I Can’t Disclose a Lie » and the blackface hommage to Abraham Lincoln, « Abraham », one of Irving Berlin’s best « unknown » songs. The two underrated female counterparts (Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale) are also quite nimble and copacetic.
This edition has kept all the extras of the 2006 Special Edition: « A couple of Song and Dance Men », a 50 min double biography of Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire that has a lot of animated footage from many of their movies not yet on DVD, hosted by represent producer Ken Barnes and Ava Astaire; « All Singing – All Dancing », a 7 min demonstration of how the dance numbers were filmed and do together (dancing to a pre-recorded soundtrack + live recording of the tapping sound with hidden microphones) ; a very thorough multiple commentary with input from vintage Crosby and Astaire interviews; and a well-preserved theatrical trailer.
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It also includes a 12-band CD collection of the film’s songs with Crosby and Astaire (from Geffen Records) presented in a cute tiny cardboard 78-RPM sleeve – a expedient collector’s item, and a 7 min making-of docu of the color version with Barry Sandrew.
The Chronicle Films color version, in my plan, reaches yet another summit in verisimilitude, the skin tones having been somehow improved upon and the indoor/outdoor sets and costumes being handled with the same level of maniacal authenticity as in « It’s a Extraordinary Life ». It actually looks better than a lot of color films of the era and really strives for that saturated Technicolor inspect, but in a somehow more « relaxed » presentation, as B&W films obviously didn’t have to try as hard to dazzle the gaze in every department and every second. Composed, I had to search for and leer at a scene where Astaire is hurriedly packing a tangled bunch of vari-colored neckties, wondering at the complexity of the colorization process alive to in such a runt but mind-bogling detail. The whole film – with the nicely contrasting exception of a patriotic B&W documentary montage of the USA’s entry into WWII shown at the Inn – is bathed in the warm glow of intimate indoor lighting alternating with more gaudy flood-lit and heart-stopping dance numbers. You have absolutely no belief what « oomph » means until you’ve seen Virginia Dale’s sequined night-blue dress shimmy and shake in the « You’re Easy To Dance With » number. I found it really hard to near help to the B&W version after that, except for the commentary and the other extras on Disc 1. Yes, I am that shallow.
Both versions are dazzling remarkable at the maximum bitrate throughout. The whole experience can only be described as sheer, unadulterated joy and an unparalleled time-travel portion.
Universal Studios Home Entertainment, in association with Epic Films, Inc., honored Bing Crosby on the 31st anniversary of his passing this October 14th by releasing the definitive DVD / CD package of one of Crosby’s most beloved films, Paramount’s sizable 1942 Irving Berlin musical masterpiece, Holiday Inn.
Universal digitally remastered the classic b/w film for it’s 2006 release, with pristine narrate and sound quality. They augmented it with bonus features including a video interview with Fred Astaire’s daughter Ava conducted by Crosby & Astaire portray producer Ken Barnes, a making of documentary, and archive audio commentary featuring the stars Bing Crosby & Fred Astaire recorded in the 1970′s.
Now, Universal has gone a step further and made it a 3-disc box region, featuring the novel b/w version complete with the bonus features aforementioned, an audio CD housed in a nifty ’40s retro-looking paper sleeve of the commercial soundtrack recordings by Crosby and Astaire, as recorded for Decca Records in 1942 (including Bing’s current hard-to-find 1942 recording of White Christmas), and now, finally, a striking fresh COLOR version of the film! Myth Films has done justice to this perennial approved by painstakingly colorizing the film, utilizing the encourage of Jan Mucklestone, who was the personal sketch artist for Paramount costume designer Edith Head. This was obviously a labor of esteem, and Legend’s attention to detail makes for a splendid visual.
Colorization has always been a controversial subject, with those for and against it equally passionate in their beliefs. However, colorization has arrive a LONG intention since it’s inception in the early 1980′s. The tedious 1980′s colorization of another of Bing’s classic films, The Bells of St. Mary’s, was a slop-shod embarrassment enough to turn anyone off to the process. So it was with a bit of horror when I first heard of someone bold to tamper with a national appreciate like Holiday Inn. I snappy learned that this was different, something special, after viewing Account Films’ 2007 colorized version of the 1946 Frank Capra masterpiece It’s A Astounding Life. Then came a little camouflage video trailer for Holiday Inn on the Anecdote Films website. This in itself was impressive, but by no means does justice to the brilliance of Yarn Films work.
The colors on Holiday Inn are vibrant and fleshy, without being garish or obtrusive. The visual impact is breathtaking, particularly on the Easter Parade number, with Bing’s sea-blue eyes all aglow in the close-up. This is how the film was meant to be seen, in all it’s color glory. After decades of viewing it from grainy b/w prints on the slow exhibit, it’s like seeing the film for the very first time! The colors in your mind reach to life on the cover, fair as you imagine them to be. Bing’s corduroy sport jacket during the White Christmas scene is, as you would question, a rich shade of beige. The curtain tedious Bing during the 4th of July production number is spectacular in red, white and blue, as it should be. Not to mention those firecrackers pretty in orange and red hues during Fred Astaire’s dance-ode to Independence Day! Once you gawk this film in color, you’ll never want to examine it in b/w again!
You can’t go sinister with this DVD status. Those who catch the modern b/w print, can have it, and those who buy seeing it in color have that too, all together in one graceful package. It’s a win-win status. And to all those purists and nay-sayers who are dead-set against the colorization process, give Holiday Inn a chance. If seeing this improbable film, in all the rainbow of colors each scene portrays, doesn’t change your mind to what colorization can do, then chances are you’d rather not notice ANYTHING in color, if it can be viewed in b/w! Bravo Universal Home Entertainment, and Bravo Chronicle Films! Let’s watch more of Crosby’s classic films done up suitable in color!
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