Review of White Christmas (1954) by Mike M — 15 Dec 2008

Berlin's songs are too hit-and-miss for this to qualify for the first rank of movie musicals: "Sisters", obviously, became a nightclub standard, but around 75% of the rest fade from memory even as you're listening to them.

Still, Curtiz applies his usual consummately professional finish, and gives it some zip besides: its one innovation was the new widescreen format VistaVision, but the colour leaps off the screen - and always comes as a shock to those more used to seeing crackly old black-and-white clips of Bing crooning about glistening treetops at the piano in "Holiday Inn".