Yikes! What a strange yet wonderful movie. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Holiday Inn (1942) before, but it’s not quite like I remembered it. I’ve clearly projected too much of White Christmas (1954) on to it. And with good reason, as both films star Bing Crosby, who sings “White Christmas” in both films as well, the Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin, י׊ר×�ל ביילין) song Crosby introduced in the earlier film. That’s not all. Both films involve two pair of entertainers where, both involve a farm or inn somewhere remote from New York City, and both involve standard romantic complications no doubt dating at least to Shakespeare, if not to ancient Rome.
I could go on and on about the similarities, but I won’t. This is not that kind of note. I mainly want to register my shock at seeing Bing Crosby performing a song about Abe Lincoln in black face. I did not remember that at all. That certainly sheds new light on the idea of a white Christmas.