White Christmas is a 1954 American musical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen.

[4] In Europe in 1944, at the height of World War II, Broadway star Captain Bob Wallace and aspiring performer Private Phil Davis entertain the 151st division with a Christmas Eve soldier's show.

While the team performs in Florida, Bob receives a letter from an army buddy asking them to review his sisters' singing act at a nightclub there.

Learning the sisters' landlord is falsely suing them for damages and has called the cops, Phil gives them his and Bob's train tickets to New York City.

The girls persuade Phil and Bob to forgo New York and spend Christmas in Pine Tree, Vermont where they are booked as performers.

Arriving at the empty Columbia Inn, Bob and Phil are aghast to discover that General Waverly is the nearly bankrupt owner, having invested his pension and life savings.

Ed's idea would exploit the general's misfortune on national television and give free publicity for Wallace & Davis.

When Bob appears on Harrison's TV show to request the entire 151st division join him at Pine Tree to honor General Waverly, Betty realizes she misunderstood and behaved foolishly.

Panama and Frank felt that Krasna's entire script needed rewriting, and director Michael Curtiz agreed.

The film was the first to be shot using Paramount's new VistaVision process, with color by Technicolor, and was one of the first to feature the Perspecta directional sound system at limited engagements.

Crosby and Astaire had previously co-starred in Holiday Inn (1942) – where the song "White Christmas" first appeared – and Blue Skies (1946).

[7] Just before shooting was to begin, O'Connor had to drop out due to illness and was replaced by Danny Kaye, who asked for and received a salary of $200,000 and 10% of the gross.

Future Oscar winner George Chakiris also appears[9] as one of the stone-faced, black-clad dancers surrounding Rosemary Clooney in "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me".

Paramount reissued White Christmas in 1960 with an entirely new ad campaign, removing all references to VistaVision and stressing the glamorous show-business atmosphere.

(The first edition of Vera-Ellen's biography by David Soren made the mistake of suggesting that "perhaps" Clooney sang for Vera in "Sisters".

[12] Crosby and Kaye also recorded another Berlin song ("Santa Claus") for the opening WWII Christmas Eve-show scene, but it was not used in the final film.

[18] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times was not impressed: "the use of VistaVision, which is another process of projecting on a wide, flat screen, has made it possible to endow White Christmas with a fine pictorial quality.

"[19] Kate Cameron of the New York Daily News gave the film four stars, writing that "given an Irving Berlin score, a sentimental and amusing book by Melvin Frank and the two Normans, Krasna and Panama, a cast headed by Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen, not to mention Dean Jagger, Mary Wickes and dancer John Brascia in the supporting roles, and a production all wrapped up in Technicolor, White Christmas adds up to first class entertainment.

There is a lot of talent animating this VistaVision production and the principals work hard to catch the interest of the audience and hold it throughout.

"[22] William Brogdon of Variety wrote: "White Christmas should be a natural at the boxoffice, introducing as it does Paramount's new VistaVision system with such a hot combination as Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and an Irving Berlin score ... Crosby and Kaye, along with VV, keep the entertainment going in this fancifully staged Robert Emmett Dolan production, clicking so well the teaming should call for a repeat ...

"[24] A user of the Mae Tinee pseudonym in the Chicago Daily Tribune wrote that "Mr. Crosby seems a bit awkward at his romancing, but does all right with other chores.

"[26] Mildred Martin of The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that "since so far as story went, Holiday Inn was no great shakes, there's not much point in comparing White Christmas unfavorably with its celluloid parent.

[27] Jack Karr of the Toronto Daily Star remarked that "on this introductory offer [of VistaVision,] Paramount spent a mint.

"[29] Harold Whitehead of the Montreal Gazette said that "it harks back nostalgically to a former type of musical extravaganza that Hollywood used to be so fond of turning out.

White Christmas, as is fitting for the season, uses ail the traditional props and story lines and leaves Messrs. Crosby and Kaye free to work their casual magic on the big screen.

"[31] A review from Clyde Gilmour in the Canadian magazine Maclean's stated that "Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby at their best are funny enough together to deserve a sequel, although not all the production numbers in this big Irving Berlin musical are successful.

"[32] A review in The Guardian wrote that "there is, on this evidence, nothing much wrong with VistaVision; the shape of its huge screen is in accordance with the normal picture seen by the human eye (it is high as well as wide and does not.

This collection contains a Blu-ray with supplemental features, two DVDs with the film and an audio commentary by Clooney, and a fourth disc of Christmas songs on CD.

A stage adaptation of the musical, titled Irving Berlin's White Christmas premiered in San Francisco in 2004[37] and has played in various venues in the United States, such as Boston, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Detroit and Louisville.