To some, the question may hearken to the classic query “who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?” When someone asks “in what film did the song ‘White Christmas’ first appear?”, the reply often comes back as “White Christmas - duh!”

However, that wasn’t the case, as “White Christmas” initially bowed in 1942’s Holiday Inn. The song’s enormous popularity led to its inclusion in 1954’s White Christmas, a semi-remake of the older film.

I refer to White as a “semi-remake” because its connections to the earlier movie feel mildly tenuous at times. In Holiday, a couple of performers tussled over mutually interesting women.

One of them retires from showbiz to open his own lodge in the northeast US. Eventually he combines the two lives and turns it into the Holiday Inn, a showplace that only opens for different celebratory occasions.

Right off the bat, White seems like a completely different film, as it starts during World War II. Our soldiers enjoy Christmas Eve entertainment during their ongoing battles with the Hun, a production that stars hotshot performer Captain Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) as well as wannabe song-and-dance-man Private Phil Davis (Danny Kaye).

Wallace and Davis start a connection as partners, and we also meet their beloved chief, General Waverly (Dean Jagger). Over the next decade, Wallace and Davis become a successful musical team, although their lives lack romance.

Well, Wallace’s does, at least, and Davis tries to change that when they meet performing sisters Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy (Vera-Ellen) Haynes. Through some meddling by Davis, he manipulates Wallace into following them to Vermont, where the sisters are to perform at a lodge.

By an amazing coincidence, this inn just happens to be owned by one General Waverly. It seems the joint isn’t doing too well - largely due to unseasonably-warm weather - and the old man’s come upon semi-hard times. Romance and helpfulness combine through the rest of the movie as we head toward the inevitable happy ending.

On its own, I suppose that White doesn’t offer a bad piece of work, but as someone who’s well acquainted with Holiday, I find it much less interesting. The “newer” film seems so inferior to the original that it just can’t compete.

Despite the presence of all that performance talent plus director Michael Curtiz, the result never delivers anything more than a joyless attempt to rehash the same territory that worked so well twelve years prior. The filmmakers really should have ventured into something new.

Clearly they wanted to capitalize on the value of “White Christmas” as a song, but there’s no reason why the story itself needed to stick so closely to the plot of Holiday. I recognize that it alters the material to a degree, but it remains the same framework.

Everything about White pales in comparison with the first film. Crosby and Kaye make a decent team, but they can’t approach the marvelous chemistry displayed by Crosby and Astaire.

It seems unsurprising to learn that Kaye was actually the producers’ third choice for the role after Astaire and Donald O’Connor passed on the part. Kaye always was an engaging performer, but he adds little zip to the role. Both female leads are competent, but the relative lack of spark found in the film makes them less effective.

Probably the area in which White suffers most when compared with Holiday stems from the many musical numbers. In Holiday, these production pieces were quite entertaining, even for someone not so fond of showtunes like myself.

The same positive sentiment did not apply to these parts of White. Frankly, I found the singing/dancing scenes to be interminable and just wanted them to end.

On the positive side, the movie looks lovely and lavish, and all of the performers are always likable, even if they often lack much pizzazz. For those who enjoy that kind of music, Irving Berlin’s tunes remain solidly melodic and winning.

At least this picture’s production numbers lack the less-than-politically-correct atmosphere found in some parts of Holiday Inn. You’ll find no blackface performance of “Abraham” here.

Nonetheless, White Christmas is not a film that I can recommend. It delivers a passably entertaining work at times, but there are many other holiday movies that offer much greater pleasure.

White Christmas appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Expect a largely solid Dolby Vision presentation.

Sharpness usually worked fine, but a smattering of soft anomalies popped up at times. Despite those, overall delineation impressed.

Moiré effects and jagged edges created no concerns, and I noticed no edge haloes or digital noise reduction. The movie came with a nice sense of light grain and it lacks print flaws.

Colors displayed vibrant and vivacious hues. Typical of Technicolor, skin tones could lean brown, but the hues otherwise looked vivid and dynamic, with a good boost from HDR.

Black levels felt deep and dense, while shadows seemed appropriate. HDR gave contrast and whites added impact. The image held up well.

I felt less impressed by the muddy DTS-HD MA 5.1 remix. The soundfield seemed like glorified mono, as the imaging rarely strayed too far from the center channel.

Mainly it was the movie’s songs that emanated from the side speakers, but don’t expect stereo, as the track lacked noticeable separation. Some effects cropped up from the back speakers – mainly during the early war sequences – but these weren’t especially impressive. They added a little breadth but not in a natural manner.

Audio quality seemed acceptable but unspectacular. Dialogue appeared fairly natural and distinct with no concerns related to intelligibility.

Effects were similarly bland but reasonably clear and realistic. When they popped up in the surrounds, they didn’t come across as particularly accurate, though, so they worked better from the front speakers.

The music had a few more concerns, unfortunately. Songs seemed slightly distorted at times. This remix seemed mediocre at best.

The disc also provides the movie’s original monaural soundtrack, and I examined it to determine if it sounded better than the 5.1 mix. It did – by a little, at least.

This was mainly because the songs sounded a bit clearer and more natural. They could still show some distortion, but they weren’t as muddy. While not a great track, the mono version was the one I preferred.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the ”Diamond” Blu-ray from 2014? Audio seemed identical.

As for the UHD’s Dolby Vision image, it offered a cleaner, brighter and tighter presentation. Expect a vast upgrade over the inconsistent BD.

No extras appear on the 4K disc itself, but a bunch show up on the included Blu-ray copy, where we start with a running audio commentary from actress Rosemary Clooney. Although I didn’t much enjoy the movie, I looked forward to this track because I thought Clooney would provide a unique perspective on the film and the era.

Unfortunately, the resulting commentary becomes deadly dull and adds extremely little in the way of useful information. The vast majority of the track passes without any remarks from Clooney, as her statements are few and far between.

Even when Clooney does speak, it’s rarely to offer any details about the production or anything insightful. Instead, she usually just laughs or echoes what the characters in the movie say, so she doesn’t seem to understand that she’s supposed to tell us stories or details and not just mutter an occasional phrase as she watches the picture.

Every once in a while, Clooney gives us some nice information, usually about Bing Crosby and her relationship with him. For serious fans of White Christmas, Clooney’s commentary may merit a listen, but anyone less than crazy about the movie or its cast should skip this dull and frustrating track.

The disc also includes a slew of featurettes. Backstage Stories from White Christmas lasts 11 minutes, 57 seconds and provides notes from film critic DX Feeney, USC Film Professor Dr. Drew Casper, film historian Larry Billman, Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams author Gary Giddins, and dancer George Chakiris.

“Stories” looks at the film’s roots and development, cast and performances, the VistaVision process, what director Michael Curtiz brought to the project, the movie’s release and legacy. The featurette emphasizes a perky tone – with lots of praise involved – but it delivers enough good details to succeed.

In the 13-minute, 28-second Rosemary’s Old Kentucky Home, we hear from Rosemary’s brother Nick Clooney, museum owners Steve Henry and Heather French Henry, singer/daughter-in-law Debby Boone, sister Nina Clooney, niece Mica Darley, and Paramount archivist Randall Thropp.

We learn a little about Rosemary Clooney’s life in Kentucky as well as her home there and its use as a museum. This occasionally feels like an ad for the museum, but it throws out some interesting notes about Rosemary’s background.

Under Bing Crosby: Christmas Crooner, we get a 14-minute, 17-second piece with remarks from Giddins, Bing’s widow Kathryn Crosby, son Harry, Hofstra University Professor Ruth Prigozy, and Crosby Curator Stephanie Plowman.

“Crooner” gives us a general look at Bing but emphasizes the “White Christmas” song and his work on the film. Like “Kentucky”, this is a fluffy piece, but it gives us some useful tidbits along the way.

Danny Kaye: Joy to the World lasts 13 minutes, 12 seconds and find notes from Billman, Kaye’s daughter Dena, Feeney, actor Robert Wagner, composer/lyricist/writer Leslie Bricuse, actor/producer/director Robert Spiotto, and UNICEF Special Projects Producer David Koch.

“World” acts as a complement to “Crooner”, as it covers aspects of Kaye’s life and career. It’s another warm ‘n’ fuzzy piece with decent informational value.

We look at the title song via Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”. It goes for seven minutes, 25 seconds and features Boone, Casper, Giddins, Prigozy, Berlin’s daughter Linda Emmet, RHO President Theodore S. Chapin, White Christmas: The Stage Musical producer Kevin McCollum and RHO Director of Music Bruce Pomahac.

This one mixes some notes about Berlin’s life/career with specifics about the song “White Christmas”. Like its predecessors, it gives us a frilly but generally interesting program.

Next comes the four-minute, 23-second White Christmas: From Page to Stage. It features McCollum, Chapin, Pomahac, White Christmas: The Stage Musical co-author Paul Blake, and director Walter Bobbie.

They provide some notes about the stage adaptation. This is essentially just an advertisement.

A Look Back with Rosemary Clooney lasts 16 minutes and 46 seconds. This program works much better than the commentary, mainly because it condenses the information into one neatly-packaged piece.

I dislike Clooney’s commentary mostly because we hear so little over such a long period. Clooney provides as much information during the commentary as she does here, but the format made it unwieldy.

That’s not a problem during the retrospective, as Clooney adds some nice details about her career, her costars and the production. None of her statements are absolutely fascinating, but they provide a positive complement to the film – and becomes a satisfactory substitute for the boring commentary.

The disc includes two trailers, one of which comes from the movie’s original theatrical release. It’s distinguished mainly by the fact it often touts the use of VistaVision back when widescreen films were new.

There’s also a re-release trailer. It seems to have come from a period not too many years after the movie’s original 1954 issue, but I couldn’t establish exactly when it appeared.

Sing-Along offers a standard Karaoke presentation, as it displays song lyrics across the bottom of the screen. The presentation allows the viewer to run this through the entire movie or to jump to specific tracks. I have no use for this feature but some may enjoy it.

Under Classic Holiday Moments, we get excerpts from five different TV broadcasts. Most provide songs, so we get these performances: “White Christmas” (Bing Crosby, 12/1/76 – two minutes, 18 seconds), “White Christmas” (Bing Crosby and Michael Buble, 12/10/12 – 4:11), “Silent Night” (Bing Crosby, 12/12/48 – 2:37), and “Jingle Bells” (Danny Kaye and Nat King Cole, 12/25/63 – 3:39).

We also find “Danny Kaye Reads from A Christmas Carol” (12/22/65 – 7:23). All are fun to see, as even the Buble piece - which uses digital technology to allow him to “duet” with Der Bingle – offers some charm.

For another vintage piece, we find 1954’s Assignment Children. In this 17-minute, 11-second documentary, we follow Danny Kaye’s efforts for UNICEF and his visit to India, Japan, Burma and Thailand.

“Children” exists as promotion, of course, and much of it feels awfully dated. Still, it becomes a nice archival piece.

“Assignment” can be viewed with or without an Introduction from Michael Buble. I thought his one-minute, 25-second chat would set up “Assignment”, but it mostly just tries to get our support for UNICEF. I have no problem with that, of course, but it means the intro seems superfluous.

The disc finishes with Photo Galleries. These split into four areas: “Rehearsals” (11 shots), “Behind the Scenes” (15), “Filming” (19) and “Publicity Shots” (9). All offer some nice images, and I appreciate the captions that accompany most of them.

Many consider White Christmas to be a holiday classic, but I don’t think it deserves that designation. At best, it’s a moderately watchable rehash of a superior movie, 1942’s Holiday Inn. The Blu-ray provides strong visuals along with a fluffy but informative set of supplements and mediocre audio. Given its superior picture, this becomes the best version of the film on the home video market.

To rate this film, visit the 2012 review of WHITE CHRISTMAS