White Christmas is a 1954 American musical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. Filmed in Technicolor, it features the songs of Irving Berlin, including a new version of the title song, “White Christmas,” introduced by Crosby in the 1942 film Holiday Inn.
Norman Krasna had written the original story, which was intended for Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. When Astaire was ultimately replaced by Danny Kaye, comedy writers Melvin Frank and Norman Panama were hired to add special material for Kaye. Panama and Frank felt that Krasna’s entire script needed rewriting, and director Michael Curtiz agreed. “It was a torturous eight weeks of rewriting,” said Panama. Frank said that “writing that movie was the worst experience of my life. Norman Krasna was a talented man but ... it was the lousiest story I’d ever heard. It needed a brand new story, one that made sense.” They rewrote the screenplay themselves at $5,000 a week.
Principal photography took place between September and December 1953. 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.
Made on a budget of $2 million, White Christmas earned $12 million in theatrical rentals (equal to $140 million in today), making it the highest-grossing film of 1954. It was also the highest-grossing musical film at the time, and ranks among the top 100 popular movies of all time at the domestic box office when adjusted for inflation and the size of the population in its release year of 1954. Between the original release and subsequent revivals, the film grossed $30 million at the domestic box office.
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