A 1942 American musical film directed by Mark Sandrich, starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby and featuring music by Irving Berlin, Holiday Inn is most likely best remembered today for introducing Bing's most famous song, "White Christmas".
Jim Hardy (Crosby), Ted Hanover (Astaire), and Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) form a musical act together in Manhattan. Jim wants to retire with Lila, to whom he's engaged, and live happily on the farm that he's purchased in Connecticut. However, Lila loves both Ted and show business, so Jim retires alone to his farm... or attempts to.
After nearly a year of attempting to run the farm – followed by a nervous breakdown and a brief stay at a sanatorium – Jim returns to Manhattan to see his old friends on Christmas Eve. He has what he thinks is a brilliant, lucrative idea: Jim wants to convert the farm into an entertainment venue called Holiday Inn which will be open only on holidays.
A Screen-to-Stage Adaptation premiered in 2014 and hit Broadway for the 2016 holiday season. This version is very faithful to the film; notable differences include making Linda the farm's previous owner, giving Mamie a Race Lift by replacing her with a Girl Friday very much in the mold of Emma from White Christmas, and dropping both Washington's & Lincoln's birthdays.
Incidentally, the hotel chain Holiday Inn was named for this movie.
This Movie is the Trope Namer For:
- Dreaming of a White Christmas: Due to the song debuting in this movie.
Tropes:
- Accidental Pervert: Danny, Jim and Ted's agent, says he would recognize the girl Ted danced with if he saw her from the back. He starts checking out each of the ladies at the Inn, much to the annoyance of their escorts.
- Baby New Year: Mamie's children feature in the New Year's Eve sequence, one dressed as Baby New Year and the other as Father Time.
- Blackface: In the Lincoln's Birthday number. Now often cut when the movie is shown on American TV due to
Values Dissonance. Airings on Turner Classic Movies keep the scene intact for historical integrity. - Bookends: The movie starts with Ted "stealing" Lila from Jim just before their wedding and ends with Jim "stealing" Linda from Ted just before their wedding.
- The Bro Code: Violated left and right (see Bookends above). A passing remark early on by Jim about "the girls we've swiped from each other" suggests this is typical behavior for them.
- Call to Agriculture: At the beginning, Jim leaves show business for a Connecticut farm, naively thinking it'll be an easier life. The Failure Montage rids him of that notion pretty quickly.
- Dance of Romance: Self-inflicted in-universe: when Ted declares his intention of finding the girl he danced with while drunk and making her his partner, Jim notes sourly that Ted always falls in love with his partners.
- Jim sabotages it during the Washington Day song. Every time Ted and Linda start to get close during their minuet, Jim prompts the band to play fast jazz instead.
- Department of Redundancy Department: In Danny Reed's words, Lila ran off to marry "some Texan from Texas."
- Didn't Think This Through: Danny tries to keep Jim away from Linda by locking him in Ted's closet—forgetting that Ted still needs to get clothes from that same closet, and that it's a walk-in closet with another door... which Jim promptly escapes from.
- Drowning My Sorrows: When Lila leaves him for a millionaire from Texas, Ted gets drunk enough to bring down the house with his dancing, then forget everything the morning after.
- Exact Words: While Ted is talking to Linda in their first encounter, he mentions that he is considering Ted and Lila as an act at "his place," but they might not be suitable, considering "how large a place it is." Well, an unused farm in Connecticut is pretty large...'
- Failure Montage: Used to depict Jim discovering the hard way that a farmer's life isn't for him, either. His attempts to haul firewood, milk cows, and herd pigs all end in embarrassment and pain.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: When Danny sees Linda leaving the Inn, he tries to get Ted and Jim to catch her. She leaves before they can get to her so Jim tells them now he (Danny) can look for someone in an overcoat. Danny asks him how does he know that the girl had an overcoat. Ted scrambles for a sec before stating, quite logically, that any girl would need an overcoat outside in a Connecticut February.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Jim is amazed at how accurately they reproduced his farmhouse for the movie set. And from just a few photos, too!
- Love Triangle: First, Ted and Jim are both in love with Lila, who is also in love with both of them. Then, Jim and Ted both love Linda, who loves Jim and likes Ted.
- Magical Negro: Jim's housekeeper, Mamie, is endlessly loyal and patient. Her biggest plot-related function is giving Jim a motivational speech in the Thanksgiving scene.
- Mood Whiplash: Haha, the funny turkey is running around because Thanksgiving Day keeps changing. Oh look! He just stamped his foot and shrugged! How funny! What's this somber music? Oh, the inn is closed? Oh, Jim is depressed and miserable? I forgot about the turkey already.
- Pair the Spares: Jim and Linda are back together at the end—and Lila reappears, to get back together with Ted.
- Patriotic Fervor: Made during the first years of America's involvement in World War II, the movie is sprinkled with patriotic tidbits. The initial ad for the opening of Jim's club ends with "...just go and God Bless America."
- Pimped-Out Dress: Linda gets to wear several.
- Pretty in Mink: Linda wears a mink coat and muff in part of the finale.
- Self-Deprecation: Jim, who thinks he's lost Linda and feels bitter over it, listens to his own recording of "I've Got a Lot to Be Thankful For", mocking the lyrics and criticizing his own singing.
- Self-Plagiarism: Irving Berlin recycled a few songs for the soundtrack (notably "Easter Parade," whose tune dates from 1914) in addition to writing new ones.
- Show Within a Show: They actually used the movie's sets as the movie within the movie's sets.
- Single Tear: Linda has one while recording "White Christmas" on the movie set at the end.
- Spanner in the Works: After overhearing Ted's plan to woo Linda away with an offer from Hollywood, Jim attempts to sabotage it. He bribes Linda's driver to "get lost" on the way to the Inn, and invites Lila to take Linda's place for that night's performance. Jim doesn't anticipate Linda hitchhiking once she realized her driver was lost, winding up in Lila's car, and figuring out exactly what Jim tried to pull.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: The opening song-and-dance. Jim and Ted, a singer and a dancer competing for Lila's affection, perform a routine with Lila about a singer and a dancer competing for the attention of a girl.
- Take That!: When the calendar page shows Thanksgiving, an animated turkey moves back and forth between the 20th and the 27th, referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt changing the holday's date from the last Thursday of November to the one the week prior in the last three years (Democratic states would honor the change, Republican ones wouldn't). A joint Congressional resolution was signed during filming that finally set the date of Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November nationwide.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: In-universe. The movie Ted and Linda are making in Hollywood is loosely based on the story of Jim founding Holiday Inn. (Presumably Ted plays the Jim character.)
- Visual Pun: At the end of "Be Careful, It's My Heart", Linda and Ted literally break Jim's heart.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Ted starts drinking after Lila leaves him. While drunk, he travels all the way to Holiday Inn, stumbles onto the dance floor, dances with Linda, wows the entire house with his skill, and then collapses. The morning after, he can't remember any of it.