The wise writer-director Vince Waldron favors my e-mailbox with some additional comments on the movie we were just discussing here…
That film's been a requisite part of the Christmas holidays since NBC Saturday Night at the Movies dragged it out for an annual airing some time after Thanksgiving for seemingly every year of my childhood. And, you're right, the continuity errors are legend. But you really have to see it in a packed house to truly appreciate the unintentional comedy of some of those blunders. I had the privilege of watching White Christmas on the big screen for a number of years at Chicago's Music Box theatre, where pre-Christmas Day screenings of Der Bingle's cinematic holiday card have become a Chicago tradition. And ever time a coffee cup gets magically refilled between cuts, there's always a big laugh. The other moment guaranteed to elicit a gasp is when unbilled dancer George Chakiris' face is revealed. In other W.C. trivia, I didn't know until recently that Vera-Ellen's vocals were performed by Trudy Stevens.
As to the question of how so many obvious continuity errors crept in, my guess — based on nothing more than a hunch — was that Der Bingle couldn't be bothered doing a bunch of takes to cover for something as minor as fixing a continuity error involving a pitcher of buttermilk.
Hot on the heels of that e-mail, Vince sent a P.S. with another thought…
Also remember that White Christmas was the first movie shot in the wide screen Vista Vision, and thus may well have been a working rehearsal for all involved. Shooting a film in an untested screen ratio may well have presented economic or other practical reasons that prevented the director, A.D. or script supervisor from insisting on retakes where needed, even if they were aware of them during the shoot.
That sounds a bit more logical…though I don't recall hearing that Mr. Crosby was that pissy about doing an extra take of something. There are some pretty unflattering anecdotes around about him but none that I can recall in that category. But you may be right. The crew may been so busy mastering the intricacies of Vista Vision that they didn't have time to think about unfilled coffee mugs. Or maybe the A.D. was just drunk a lot.
Not only did Trudy Stevens do those uncredited vocals but her husband, Dick Stabile, played the orchestra leader in the scene where Rosemary Clooney is off in New York doing a solo performance. (Talk about odd continuity: Clooney's character has been doing a sister act for years. Then she abruptly quits the show in Vermont and a few days later, she's doing a fully-produced act of her own — complete with back-up dancers — in one of Manhattan's top night clubs. Not only that but they're some of the same dancers who are still appearing in the show in Vermont. And then the next day, she just quits the New York gig and goes back to the one in Vermont.)
Thanks, Vince. And I should mention that I'm still intrigued by these claims that Bob Fosse was an uncredited choreographer on the film. If so, I think it would have been the first time he ever choreographed something in which he was not a performer. Does anyone know if there's any believable source for this? I'm not saying it's not possible, of course, but you'd think it would have been mentioned in one of the Fosse bios or somewhere.