White Christmas Christmas in Connecticut It Happened on Fifth Avenue It's a Wonderful Life Remember the Night A Christmas Carol 1938 The Shop Around the Corner Meet Me in St. Louise We're No Angels
You are absolutely right. Three Coins in the Fountain winning over The Man That Got Away is an absolute travesty! Judy is magical in that performance and was robbed.
These two episodes are excellent! Between “White Christmas” and “Holiday Inn,” “Holiday Inn” is my favorite, because Astaire has been my idol since I was a child (about 50 years ago). Of course, that “Abraham” number is horrible in “Holiday Inn.” A little of Kaye goes a long way with me. 😉 Ernie Flatt would go on to be the dance director for the Carol Burnett show.
Your “a little Kaye” line just made Adam laugh so hard. (And we couldn’t agree more!) What a cool fact about Ernie Flatt, thanks for sharing!! Astaire is so wonderful in everything he does. He would have really elevated the dance numbers in “White Christmas” and it’s really a shame he didn’t want to do it.
It’s been ages since either of us have seen those films and we are a little embarrassed to admit that we didn’t even remember them being Holiday movies! Now we can’t wait to check them out again. Thanks for the recommendations!
For a good holiday movie, try REMEMBER THE NIGHT. Also, try CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT. Both star the wonderful Barbara Stanwyck. THE BISHOP'S WIFE is worth a watch.
We have never seen REMEMBER THE NIGHT, but you had us at Barbara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray directed by Preston Sturges! CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT and THE BISHOP’S WIFE are both always on our Christmas list. Thanks for the recommendation! Write in with any more, we are always looking for new movies for our nightly double features.
Here's a question for you that I've been curious about. Vista vision almost always used an optical soundtrack which was very sonically inferior to Magnetic soundtracks that most other movies and movie processes were using at the time. Paramount had pioneered magnetic sound and won an Academy Award for doing so in 1950. So why did they switch to inferior optical sound for Vista vision? It wasn't that Vista vision couldn't accommodate a magnetic stereo soundtrack. The Ten Commandments was released with a 6-track stereo magnetic soundtrack in first run theaters because DeMille insisted on it.
I wish Donald O'Connor had done the picture. He and Vera-Ellen were so great together in "Call Me Madam" - Too bad they couldn't have waited for him to recover.
I can't stop seeing this one extra (a redheaded female wearing a blue dress) who pops up periodically throughout the film! She's in the audience at 00;11;15, at the cast party at 01;25;09 & 01;27;52, "maybe" at the Carousel Club at 01;35;39 (wearing a black dress), and "maybe" in the audience (back of her head - under "Camera 1") at 01;42;45. Timings are off the film streaming on RU-vid Movies & TV - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_iE5614fAoc.htmlsi=WePBHKCwitJD9WkV
We love how rewarding movies like this are on repeat viewings. We especially love how the young ballerinas in the “White Christmas” number forget to smile. You can literally see when someone offscreen tells them to smile and they react. It is absolutely hilarious! Thanks for pointing out the redhead. We will keep an eye out for her on our next viewing.
Sorry but I don't think it's Bob Fosse. Interesting fact John basca was a choreographer for Donald O'Connor at Universal, perhaps that's how he got onto the movie White Christmas. Another interesting fact, Danny Kaye is wearing gray dance shoes in the best things happen while you're dancing number. That was to help the audience not look at his feet since they Blended in with the color of his pants him not being a real dancer.
Yes, I think that’s exactly why John Basca got hired on White Christmas. I’ve also heard the same about Danny’s wardrobe, but let’s be honest- no one is looking at Danny when he is dancing with Vera-Ellen! Sadly I do agree with you about it probably not being Fosse. The guy we highlighted in the film seems a bit too muscular to be him, but there is definitely a slight resemblance in the face. It’s just fun to imagine that he could be in there somewhere!
Vistavision was in the works by very early 1952. Paramount shot test footage at Ringling Brothers Sarasota, Florida headquarters when DeMille was in production on The Greatest Show on Earth. I’ve see the footage. It was stored in Paramount’s film library in the 1980s. Paramount engineers called the process the ‘Lazy Eight’ system. Problem with Vistavision was it used Eastman single-strip color negative. Both Shane & Greatest Show were filmed in three-strip Technicolor. That camera ran three b&w negatives.
Thanks for the info! Charlotte is always interested in all things VistaVision. I was checking through some camera reports at the Herrick Library the other day and saw that Hitchcock was doing a lot of VistaVision camera testing in late-1952 as well. Feel free to share anything else you may know about cameras, especially VistaVision, because we are always open to new knowledge!
Using Eastman color was not a major drawback, since everyone else in Hollywood was using Eastman color also. The Cinemascope films were using Eastman color. Eastman color was much cheaper and easier to use than three strip Technicolor. Very soon films that were labeled Technicolor were shot in Eastman color (Kodak's film technology) and processed in the Technicolor imbibition process for release; these had superior color quality compared to the same film processed in the conventional photo processing way. And Technicolor processed films had a big advantage for film preservation and longterm viability, since Technicolor produced 3 black and white negatives and preservation prints, as part of their processing. Black and white film is far more stable wutg image quality maintained longterm compared to Eastman color where the colors faded and degraded quickly. The various names used for color processes used from the early 50's on, were just different studios and/or labs putting brand names on Eastman color films they processed (Deluxe, Warner Color, etc.)
If it's not Bob Fosse, then he has a twin brother out there! Also, I was wondering if y'all have any information as to why Vera-Ellen was so under-utilized in films.
That’s a good question about Vera-Ellen. I know she was married right after White Christmas was filmed, so maybe that’s why she somewhat disappeared for a few years but again, I’m really not sure. She’s so incredible to watch and she really makes everything look so effortless. It’s a shame she didn’t make more films. Happy to hear that you see the Fosse resemblance too. Hopefully one day the mystery will be solved!
