From Idea to Script to Sale
Musicals—10
Looking at musicals of the 1950s wouldn’t be complete without looking at White Christmas [1954] by Norman Krasna, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank. The film actually came from a song title! The song White Christmas was originally sung in the 1942 film Holiday Inn—here’s the trailer from that film: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=kgxObbIqubE. It’s an interesting trailer, because all it does is play bits of all the songs from the movie. You don’t really get the story at all!
The story of Holiday Inn, by Claude Binyon and Elmer Rice, is great fun. A performer is tired of the grind, the routine of being on the road with his act. He has an act with a man and a woman, the three of them sing and dance, playing all the big nightclubs in the best locations. He thinks the woman is going to marry him but she’s actually about to run away with his partner. So, cut adrift, he decides to go live in the country—get back to his roots.
But getting back to his roots is… boring and time consuming as he repairs this old house he’s bought. So he gets the idea to open up the place as an inn—“Holiday Inn”—and the gimmick? It’s only open on holidays. They have a big nightclub type show, but only a total of about 15 days a year! And one of those holidays is, of course, Christmas. And that’s when Irving Berlin wrote his famous song. Berlin says it was inspired when he was living in Beverly Hills at Christmas and there were palm trees and sunshine… and he missed the Christmas he’d have if he was back East.
The song, White Christmas, was so popular that it spawned its own film. And that film has become a classic—like many people, I watch it every year around Christmas. It’s the simplest of stories, a misunderstanding keeps our main couple apart and when it’s solved, there’s a happy ending. But the B and C stories keep us interested, there are terrific stage numbers as the characters are all part of a show troupe.
What more could you ask for? Here’s a peek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n3-UtakD3I. And if you haven’t seen Rosemary Clooney [George’s aunt] sing before, you’re in for a treat! It’s formulaic, sure, but it works—and that’s all you want from a film like this.
AND ON A SIDE NOTE…
This is the 3rd year anniversary of The Screenwriter’s Path blog. It’s been fun contemplating writing from all these different perspectives and I look forward to the next year of blogs, too. If you have topics you’d like me to discuss that you haven’t seen raised, don’t hesitate to drop me an email. And the best advice I can give you—of anything I’ve said in the past three years—is to just keep writing.
Copyright © Diane Lake
29Sep19
Email
Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com