THE FIVE BEST BING CROSBY MOVIES

Five years ago I published a list of my five favorite Bing Crosby movies, and in honor of what would have been Bing's 116th birthday, I figured I would update my list. I did not look at the 2014 list when writing this to see if there are any changes...

5. JUST FOR YOU (1952) - This Crosby film is not widely remembered today, but it should be. It is probably the closest Bing ever got to a biographical film about himself. In the film, Bing is a father to two children (Natalie Wood and Robert Arthur), but he is also trying to juggle fame and stardom. This was the second pairing of Bing with actress Jane Wyman, and the duo got to introduce the new song "Zing A Little Zong", which is a personal favorite.
2011 ranking:#7     2014 ranking: NA

4. HOLIDAY INN (1942) - This movie cemented Bing Crosby as a Hollywood movie superstar. This film was destined to be a classic with Bing, Fred Astaire, and an Irving Berlin song track. Bing got to sing countless Irving Berlin standards like "Easter Parade", "Be Careful It's My Heart", but it was in this movie that Bing got to introduce his signature song "White Christmas". This movie would be the first movie Bing would make with Fred Astaire, and it was also his first movie with songs by Irving Berlin.
2011 ranking:#3     2014 ranking:#3

3. BLUE SKIES (1946) - This was the second pairing of Bing, Fred Astaire, and Irving Berlin. It almost did not happen because Broadway dancer Paul Draper was supposed to be in the Astaire role, but due to his stutter and his disagreements with Bing, Draper was replaced. This was also supposed to be Fred Astaire's "swan song" from movies. Bing got to sing countless great Irving Berlin tunes like: "Blue Skies", "All By Myself" and the new "You Keep Coming Back Like A Song". The story was corny spanning the time between two World Wars, but this has always been one of my favorite Crosby films.
2011 ranking:#2     2014 ranking#2

2. HIGH SOCIETY (1956) - After Bing would leave Paramount Studios in 1956, after 24 years he moved to MGM for this great Cole Porter musical. Bing was paired with Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm, and Louis Armstrong, and the result is film magic. Bing had a hit with Grace Kelly on the song "True Love", and I named my daughter after the Grace Kelly character and Cole Porter song "I Love You, Samantha". Bing and Sinatra were great together, and they got to duet on the great number "Well, Did You Evah". In my opinion, this is one of the last truly great MGM movie musicals made.
2011 ranking:#4     2014 ranking:#4

1. THE COUNTRY GIRL (1954) - I would always have a debate with my Grandfather about this movie. He hated this movie, because Bing played a different role that he was used to. The film was dark, and Bing played an alocholic actor who gets one last chance to make a comeback. Bing was nominated for the third time for this film, but lost to Marlon Brando. Grace Kelly won though for playing Bing's lost suffering wife. Reportedly for the one drunken scene, Bing paced and stayed up all night to get a more haggard look. Watch this movie, and I dare you to say that Bing Crosby was not a great actor!
2011 ranking:#1     2014 ranking:#1

GRACE KELLY AS BING'S WIFE

Grace Kelly won an Academy Award for her role as Georgie Elgin, wife of an alcoholic, played by Bing Crosby, in 1954’s “The Country Girl.”

She was cast against type as long-suffering wife wearing spectacles and dowdy cardigans, and some doubted whether she could pull off the role. Yet her performance earned her an Oscar against Judy Garland in “A Star Is Born” and Dorothy Dandridge in “Carmen Jones.”

What did people have to say about Kelly’s iconic role?

1. “ ‘The Country Girl’ comes along fitly as one of the fine and forceful pictures of the year,” a New York Times review said in December 1954.

2. Not everyone was so complimentary. Bushy-browed wise-cracker Groucho Marx called Kelly’s Oscar win over Garland “the worst highway robbery since Brink’s,” according to the New York Daily News.

3. Kelly herself told her biographer, “High Society” author Donald Spoto, that Bing Crosby was not thrilled about her being cast in the role: “He almost withdrew from the picture when he heard that I was going to play the part,” the Independent quoted her. The actress said Crosby told producers she was “too pretty” for the role of a frumpy wife.

4. But Kelly said Crosby changed his mind when he saw her drab wardrobe: “She was to play a woman who had been married for 10 years and has lost interest in clothes, herself – everything,” Paramount’s costumier Edith Head said of the character in The Independent.

5. The movie may have given Kelly a little more grit. “Prior to her nomination, she was known as a Hitchcock blonde,” author Bronwyn Cosgrave wrote in the book Made for Each Other: Fashion and the Academy Awards (Bloomsbury, 2007).

6. For all of the heat the Oscar contest drew that year, some of the best quotes came from the movie itself:

Bernie Dodd (played by William Holden): “Does your wife really want you to play this part?

Frank Elgin (played by Crosby, Kelly’s on-screen husband): “Yeah, she’s all for it.”

Bernie Dodd: “I was just wondering. The day I met her, she seemed a little difficult about terms and rather domineering, I thought.”

Frank Elgin: “She wasn’t always like that.”

Bernie Dodd: “Oh, I know, I know. They all start out as Juliets and wind up as Lady Macbeths.”

7. “The de-glamorized Grace Kelly, dressed matronly in frumpy garb, won Best Actress for playing the long-suffering wife, in a performance that I believe she was not suited for and left me scratching my head to wonder what the Academy saw that I didn't (she never got inside the intense angst of her character),” wrote reviewer Dennis Schwartz.

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SPOTLIGHT ON WILLIAM HOLDEN

William Holden was one of the biggest box office draws of the 1950s. A combination of good looks and acting ability made him a sought after actor. His association with Bing came in a few ways. He starred with Bing in the tense drama The Country Girl in 1954. Like Bing, Holden dated his co-star from the movie Grace Kelly. Then after Bing died in 1977, Bill Holden narrated a documentary on Bing a year later. Like Crosby, Holden was one of the leader movie actors. However, personal demons derailed his career in the 1960s and caused him to have a tragic end in 1981. 

Holden, eldest of three sons (brothers were Robert and Richard), was born William Franklin Beedle, Jr. in O'Fallon, Illinois on April 17, 1918, the son of Congregationalist parents Mary Blanche (née Ball), a schoolteacher, and William Franklin Beedle, Sr., an industrial chemist. Holden's first starring role was in Golden Boy (1939), in which he played a violinist turned boxer. That was followed by the role of George Gibbs in the film adaptation of Our Town.

After Columbia Pictures picked up half of his contract, he alternated between starring in several minor pictures for Paramount and Columbia before serving as a 2nd lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, where he acted in training films. Beginning in 1950, his career took off when Billy Wilder tapped him to star as the down-at-the-heels screenwriter Joe Gillis who is taken in by faded silent-screen star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Sunset Boulevard, for which Holden earned his first Best Actor Oscar nomination.

Following this breakthrough film, he played a series of roles that combined good looks with cynical detachment, including a prisoner-of-war entrepreneur in Stalag 17 (1953), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, a pressured young engineer/family man in Executive Suite (1954), an acerbic stage director in The Country Girl (1954), a conflicted jet pilot in the Korean War film The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), a wandering braggart in Picnic (1955), a dashing war correspondent in Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), an ill-fated prisoner in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and a WWII tug boat captain in The Key (1958).

He also played a number of sunnier roles in light comedy, such as the handsome architect pursuing virginal Maggie McNamara in the controversial Production Code-breaking The Moon is Blue (1953), as Judy Holliday's tutor in Born Yesterday (1950), as a playwright captivated by Ginger Rogers' character in Forever Female (1953) and as Humphrey Bogart's younger brother, a playboy, in Sabrina (1954), which also starred Audrey Hepburn.

Holden starred in his share of forgettable movies — which he was forced to do by studio contracts — such as Paris When It Sizzles (1964), also co-starring Audrey Hepburn. By the mid-1960s, his roles were having less critical and commercial impact. According to the Los Angeles County Coroner's autopsy report, on November 12, 1981, Holden was alone and intoxicated in his apartment in Santa Monica, California, when he slipped on a throw rug, severely lacerated his forehead on a teak bedside table, and bled to death. Evidence suggests he was conscious for at least a half hour after the fall but may not have realized the severity of the injury and did not summon aid, or was unable to call for help. His body was found four days later.

Holden dictated in his will that the Neptune Society cremate him and scatter his ashes in the Pacific Ocean. No funeral or memorial service was held, per his wishes...

THE FIVE BEST BING CROSBY MOVIES

Bing had so many facets to his career. He started out as a band singer with such bands as Paul Whiteman and Gus Arnheim. Then he moved on a recording contract first with Brunswick, and then a long term contract with Decca Records. In the early 1930s radio was the king, so Bing would conquer and dominate that genre for the next 30 years. Finally, Bing became full blown Hollywood movie star. He first starred in a string of Mack Sennett shorts, and then he moved to Paramount Studios where he would remain one of their biggest actors for the next twenty five years. To celebrate his remarkable life and what would be his 110th birthday, I wanted to spotlight my five favorite Bing Crosby films...

5. GOING MY WAY (1944)
The film Going My Way marked the high point of Bing's movie career. In the film Bing played Father Chuck O'Malley, and in the beginning he had some reservations playing a Catholic priest. However, the role won Bing an Academy Award, and it proved that Bing was not just a movie crooner. His take on Father O'Malley made priests seem more human and approachable. The chemistry that Bing had with his co-star Barry Fitzgerald also helped. The movie is full of everything from laughter to tears, and in the foreground is Bing's great role in the timeless film.

4. HIGH SOCIETY (1956)
Bing's first major rival to his status as head crooner was the boy from Hoboken Frank Sinatra. Sinatra rose to super stardom when he left the Tommy Dorsey band in 1943, and he wanted to follow in Crosby's footsteps and become a movie star. In the 1940s there was a fake rivalry that was stirred up between Crosby and Sinatra, but they both admired each other greatly. It would not be until 1956 that they would join forces for a movie. The MGM musical High Society is often considered Bing's last great movie, and it definitely was his last great musical. Bing starred as a lazy songwriter CK Dexter Haven, and Sinatra was a magazine photographer. Thrown in the mix was the beautiful Grace Kelly and the jazz genius Louis Armstrong. Do I need to list any more examples why this is one of Bing's best movies?!

3. HOLIDAY INN (1942)
I hope whatever genius decided to pair up Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, and Irving Berlin songs got a bonus at Paramount, because it made a wonderful film. Of course, the film introduced the timeless Christmas classic "White Christmas" to the world, and it helped to secure Bing's place as Father Christmas, but also made audiences forget about the horror of a world war that we just entered. Bing sang wonderful songs like "White Christmas", "Easter Parade", "Be Careful, It's My Heart", and "Song Of Freedom" while Fred Astaire danced the quickest tapping ever put on film with his number "Say It With Firecrackers". The black face "Abraham" number may seem dated and some cable channels even delete the number now, but it is a wonderful number that shows that in 1942 the world was much more different than it is now 70 years later. A supporting cast of Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale, and Walter Abel help to make this movie one of my all-time favorite holiday films - even though most of the film does not take place at Christmas!

2. BLUE SKIES (1946)
The movie Blue Skies was unique because it reunited Bing, Fred Astaire, and Irving Berlin on film. During the making of the film, Astaire also announced that it would be his last film he made. He wanted to retire from Hollywood. As we know that was not to happen. When Gene Kelly broke his ankle during rehearsals for another Irving Berlin film Easter Parade in 1948, Astaire was lured back to movie making and never stopped. Fred was not even supposed to be in Blue Skies as it was. Dancer Paul Draper was originally cast as Bing's co-star, but Bing had not chemistry with Draper, and he had him removed from the film. There is also a rumor that Paul Draper disliked the leading lady Joan Caulfield, but Bing was having a relationship with her at the time and was very protective of the novice actress Caulfield. Whatever the reason, I am glad that Fred Astaire signed on.

Again the movie featured a slew of great numbers, and this time they were all filmed in glorious technicolor. Bing had the opportunity to croon such great songs as "Blue Skies", "All By Myself", "You Keep Coming Back Like A Song" and "I've Got My Captain Working For Me Now", while Astaire had career toppers with terrific numbers like "Puttin On The Ritz" and "Heat Wave". The film like Holiday Inn is about two guys and a girl. Most of the film is spent with them fighting over the girl, but in the end happiness prevails. Many consider the plot of Blue Skies corny by today's standards, but years later the film can always bring a smile to my face or a tear to my eye.

1. THE COUNTRY GIRL (1954)
By the 1950s the music scene was changing, and Bing tried branching out to more dramatic roles. Like Going My Way a decade earlier, The Country Girl was Bing's role of a lifetime. He played a drunker washed up singer so convincingly that some bios of Bing in recent years erroneously say that he was an alcoholic. For some of the scenes that required Bing to look tired and completely hung over, he had his sons walk with him all night and keep him up so he would have a believable haggard look for the scene the next morning. At first the film was going to have no music, but Bing insisted that a few songs would be in the film so he would not alienate his regular movie fans. The one song that has always stuck with me is "The Search Is Through. Written by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin, the song is used throughout the film to not only show his downfall but also to show his rise from the bottom. It is one of Bing's most underrated recordings in my humble opinion.

The cast is not huge in The Country Girl, but rounding out the film was Grace Kelly and William Holden. Kelly played Bing's long suffering wife, and it would win her an Academy Award. William Holden played a director that was giving Bing his last chance resurrect his career and his life. I don't want to give away the plot, but I have not been able to watch the film since having children. However, it remains my favorite Bing Crosby film. It is a great movie to demonstrate Bing's fine voice as well as his underrated acting ability. It is a prime example of why Bing should always be fondly remembered as one of our greatest entertainers...

BING'S 108TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

On May 3, 2011 the 108th birthday of Bing Crosby will be celebrated with "Classic Movies at the Bing." The celebration is put on by the Advocates for The Bing Crosby Theater. The great theater is located at the corner of Sprague and Lincoln in Spokane, Washington. (I sometimes hate being an Easterner!) A $5 donation is suggested with all proceeds go to supporting future movies:

Country Girl Screening & Bing’s Birthday Bash
Tuesday, May 3

-Free cake and punch starting at 6 p.m.
-Assortment of Bing Crosby short features on the screen.
-Feature starts at 7 p.m.

The Country Girl was unlike any movie Bing Crosby had made before -- a serious study of a man in crisis. For his performance as an alcoholic actor wilting under the pressure of trying to re-establish his career, Bing was nominated for an Oscar. His character is bolstered by a devoted wife with the strengths he does not have. Grace Kelly -- also playing counter-type as a doughty housewife -- won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance. She finds in William Holden the strengths Bing’s character does not have. Who wins her?

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GUEST REVIEWER: THE COUNTRY GIRL

Bruce Kogan is an avid classic movie fan and a huge supporter of Bing Crosby. I am proud and honored to be able to publish his take on THE COUNTRY GIRL (1954) here...

THE COUNTRY GIRL(1954) by Bruce Kogan Bing Crosby's career reached its dramatic heights in The Country Girl. In fact the trio of Crosby, Grace Kelly, and William Holden all hit incredible highs with this one. Clifford Odets's play was a good backstage drama without any great political statement that characterized his earlier work It would be another three years before Bing Crosby would do a film without singing at all. But for those who've never seen the Odets play, the story is one without any music. Crosby's role on Broadway was originated by Paul Kelly.

When Paramount bought the screen rights they had Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin write the songs that Crosby sings in The Country Girl. Curiously enough none of them, good that they were, became any kind of hit for Bing. Also this was Ira Gershwin's last score for either the stage of screen. It's fitting that Grace Kelly won her Oscar for this part. Uta Hagen who played Georgie Elgin on Broadway won a Tony for her performance. Kelly was up against some stiff competition that year and upset the betting favorite Judy Garland for A Star Is Born. Other nominees included Dorothy Dandridge for Carmen Jones, Jane Wyman for Magnificent Obsession and Audrey Hepburn for Sabrina. I suppose it was the fact that Kelly was cast against type in her portrayal. Usually playing chic blonde princesses, she's almost dowdy looking in this film.


Crosby plumbed some dramatic depths also and was nominated for Frank Elgin. However after three successive years of being nominated and not winning, Marlon Brando was not going to be denied in 1954. The rest of that field included Humphrey Bogart for The Caine Mutiny, James Mason for A Star Is Born and Dan O'Herlihy for Robinson Crusoe. Not a shabby field there either and Crosby's personal best came up against Brando's consolation for not winning for Streetcar Named Desire. Oscar politics at its finest. Bill Holden's part of Bernie Dodd was originated on Broadway by Steven Hill who today's audiences know as DA Adam Schiff from Law and Order. After years of playing what he called "Smiling Jim" roles, his acting took on some bite with Sunset Boulevard. He's a cynical man here also, but there was an additional edge here.

One of the plot elements was alcoholic Crosby knowing about Holden's bad marriage and using that knowledge to blame his bad behavior on Kelly. Holden was in the midst of a bad marriage himself, the only one he ever had. Marked by bitterness, recriminations, and mutual infidelities, he and Brenda Marshall stayed married for over 20 years for the sake of their children. When Holden's Bernie Dodd talks about his former wife there's an edge that I'm sure came from personal experience. The only other role of any size is that of producer Phil Cook and it's played Anthony Ross. Another plot element is Holden's championing Crosby going head to head a few times with Ross who never really wanted him in his show. One of Ross's condition to using Crosby is that he given a contract with a two weeks notice clause and not a run of the play contract. Ross gets hoisted on his own petard for that one. Sadly this was Ross's last film, he died the following year. The Country Girl is mature and intelligent and avoids the usual Hollywood clichés concerning show business stories. Even if you're not a fan of any or all of its three stars, this can be enjoyed on its artistic merits...