Holiday Inn
Director: Mark Sandrich
Year Released: 1942
Rating: 2.0
Not-very-magical musical about a gimmicky "inn" started by Bing Crosby that only comes alive during the various holidays - and yes, there is a disarmingly bad number done in blackface for Lincoln's Birthday (made all the more egregious because the film thinks it's honoring the freed slaves). The soundtrack is admittedly luscious, but that's exactly it: this is a filmed record, with only a show-stopping number by Fred Astaire much later (in which he uses firecrackers to accentuate his dance routine) to warrant watching - I personally got the impression that the cast was simply going through the motions for the barely-there premise.
