I have watched Holiday Inn a couple of times. After the first viewing it was difficult to get through it due to the gagging and wanting to throw up. I see reviews knocking White Christmas (1954) as a bad copycat of Holiday Inn. Well, if White Christmas is a copycat, it shines so far above Holiday Inn that it is a CopyTiger, CopyLion, CopyLeopard. It is my opinion that while Fred Astaire can sing, he can not act his way into or out of a mud puddle. The chemistry between Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in White Christmas is beyond the Best. I find absolutely no chemistry in Holiday Inn. I watch White Christmas several times every year as the movie brings me great Joy~!~!~!~!~!~! Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen are fabulous icing on the cake in White Christmas. They enhance the chemistry between all of the characters magnificently. I have thought about writing this review for several years.

I don't care when this film was made its wrong to perform in black face. Yes we are in a more politically correct society but that this is still insulting. I am sure it was insulting to black people when this film was made. Saying the "N-Word" was okay at one time but now its not! Just because things were once okay doesn't mean its okay now. I am not for censorship and I think this film should be seen by people who want to see it but I think a warning should of been put on the DVD before we started watching. I had no idea there was a "Black Face Number". Maybe there was more? I had to turn it off. My Grand children are black.

This is the movie that White Christmas is very loosely based on. The only real similarities are two guys, one of which is Bing Crosby, two girls, the white Christmas song, and an inn. It pretty much stops there.Now let me say this, I kind of get that a movie from 1942 might have some racist things in it. I understand it was a different time, and I can deal with the small stuff, but this movie doesn't have just small stuff. It has a musical number with a full on BLACK FACE routine by Bing Crosby, Marjorie Reynolds and half the wait staff. Not to mention the mammy character.The movie isn't all that bad otherwise, but I really feel like when you go searching for holiday films, there should be a note in a review somewhere clearly warning you about these things, so you don't spend your money renting or buying something as purely awful as this.

Singer/composer Jim (Bing Crosby) has the modest ambition of a combination hostelry/show venue, open for just 15 days a year: the public holidays, where there will be a show for each holiday. As the act breaks up, he discovers that his more ambitious partner, dancer Ted (Fred Astaire) has successfully lured away dance partner Lila who Jim had expected to accompany him. After a while starting his establishment alone, Jim finds himself in the company of talented singer/dancer Linda (Marjorie Reynolds) and romance develops. Then Ted arrives back on the scene...Holiday Inn is a slight romantic musical comedy featuring the pairing of Crosby and Astaire, and a bunch of songs by Irving Berlin. What could go wrong? Not much, actually. This monochrome period piece (a nicely colourised version is available) trundles along exactly as expected, with songs, dances, chuckles and music in all the right places, and winning performances from all concerned. It almost seems a shame to raise criticisms.Apart from the picky point of "No wonder he's losing money when you look at the cost of the production value he's putting on stage for a single night," there are two main criticisms. One, the songs (many of which are themed for a particular holiday) come from the weaker end of the Irving Berlin songbook. And, two, the Lincoln number, delivered in blackface, demonstrates the casual and more or less inadvertent racial attitudes of the era fairly embarrassingly.Against this, of course, the film introduces the monumental White Christmas, against which no criticism can stand!