What an odd opening scene. It's 1944 and in a mock-ruin not far from the WW2 frontline Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye entertain the troops with a jazzy tap-dance routine, the night sky flashing as distant bombs come ever closer. Their General (Dean Jagger) is about to be sent home with a leg injury, so they farewell him with a song that goes:

'We'll always follow the Old Man
Wherever he wants to go, wherever he wants to go..'

Then they line up to chorus :

'For we love him, we love him,
Especially when he keeps us on the ball..'

How innocent they were in the 50s; or are we getting some insight into what motivates Americans to go to war?

The rest of the plot is about how they put on a show in Vermont to cheer him up in his retirement and save his ski-lodge hotel from bankruptcy, helpred by a couple of fan-dancers played with great verve by Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen.

Having been put off by the extremely poor quality trailer they've been screening at Cineworld recently, I was very pleasantly surprised by the excellent picture and sound at the BFI Studio yesterday. Only saw it because I was too late for another film, but the pincipal actors carry it off well and it would definitely appeal to the Strictly Come Dancing fans. In the Studio the screen seems enormous.

There's a very odd number in the film called 'Choreography' that seems to be making a point about the deterioration of dance from show-style steps into dance-drama (I think).

A thousand times better than long and tedious 'Australia' on offer at Cineworld just now. Well, I liked the cattle-stampede scene.

Sheila

<Added>

White Christmas