Tag Archives: Christmas

February 1, 2011 · 12:57 am

A MASS MURDERING DOCTOR IN A SMALL VERMONT TOWN: I JUST UPDATED MY BAD MOVIE PAGE

I just updated it with my review of the comically lame telefilm Doctor Cook’s Garden from 1971 starring BING CROSBY himself as our homicidal physician. If you want additional bad movie reviews here is the link: https://glitternight.com/bad-movies/

 DOCTOR COOK’S GARDEN – (1971) – Category: Enjoyably campy bad movie elevated by kitsch-value in the casting.     Bing Crosby IS Colonel Sanders in Finger Lickin’ Good: A One- Man Show! No, actually Bing plays the title doctor in this made-for- tv movie based on a play by Ira “Rosemary’s Baby” Levin. Trouble is, with the snow-white hair and beard he wears in this telepic Bing looks like he’s supposed to be Colonel Harlan Sanders, inducing laughter in the audience in what is supposed to be a horror/thriller. Doctor Cook is the seemingly amiable physician in a small Vermont town but in reality he’s a killer with a God Complex, giving Continue reading →

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December 17, 2010 · 12:51 am

CHRISTMAS SEASON DIVERSION: STILL MORE LESSER KNOWN VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL

This is now my sixth installment of lesser-known versions of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. First up is the 1995 Read-Along Christmas Carol. It’s just 50 minutes long and is ideal for youngsters learning how to read or for the hearing-impaired to watch. The video features a series of still Continue reading →

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December 13, 2010 · 1:28 am

CHRISTMAS SEASON DIVERSION – MY REVIEW OF SANTA AND THE ICE CREAM BUNNY (1972)

We are now just 12 days from Christmas so I figured what better time to update my Bad Movie page with a review of the atrocious attempt at entertainment called Santa And The Ice Cream Bunny, a live-action clunker from the famous Barry Mahon. For more Bad Movies: https://glitternight.com/bad-movies/

Santa and the Ice Cream BunnySANTA AND THE ICE CREAM BUNNY – (1972) – Category: Bad enough and with a classically weird premise but not fun-bad enough for my highest rating       This thoroughly bizarre little holiday-themed movie will redefine the term “low-budget” for you. Normally I cut some slack to films that are clearly targeted at children but this bomb doesn’t seem targeted at children as much as it seems targeted at morons.

The opening scene of this odd movie is set in a very cramped set that is supposed to be Santa’s North Pole workshop. Some very tall children are dressed as elves and are awkwardly pretending to be working on toys that are quite obviously already completed, lending the scene a joyously inept “grade-school Christmas play” kind of feel.

The opening credits inform us that these children/elves are players from “Ruth Foreman’s Pied Piper Playhouse” as they sing a song that has been so poorly-recorded we can only make out an occassional few words. The gist of the song seems to be that the elves are wondering where Santa is since it’s only a few days until Christmas. Continue reading →

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December 11, 2010 · 3:34 am

CHRISTMAS SEASON DIVERSION: THREE OPERA VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL

In my fifth installment of lesser-known versions of A Christmas Carol I’ll look at three opera versions of the classic Dickens tale. I’ll start off with the most lauded one- the 1982 Granada TV broadcast of the Royal Opera House’s staging of the opera by THE Thea Musgrave. Musgrave has also done the libretto and music for the celebrated operas Mary, Queen Of Scots … Harriet, The Woman Called Moses … Simon Bolivar  and most recently Pontalba in 2003. The opera is fairly faithful with the most significant changes obviously being imposed by the format. For efficiency’s sake the only scene at nephew Fred’s home is at the very end so things can close on a very festive note. Every performer except the Continue reading →

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December 8, 2010 · 12:02 am

CHRISTMAS SEASON DIVERSION: THE 1947 SPANISH VERSION OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL

This is my 4th installment of lesser-known versions of A Christmas Carol. The first one I’m covering this time was produced in Spain in 1947 (and was remade for Spanish television in 1966 ) and the Spanish language title is Leyenda de Navidad ( Legend of Christmas, of course). The film was written and directed by Manuel Tamayo (who wrote the screenplay for the 1955 feature Tarde de Toros) This is a wonderful version for several reasons, not the least of which would be its well-done (for the time period) sets of 1843 London.

We’ll take the differences and similarities to other versions in order – 1. Scrooge has several people working for him for some reason, not just Bob Cratchit and NONE of them get Christmas Day off from this Scrooge  … 2.  Marley’s Ghost steps out of a life-sized portrait of the man that adorns the wall above a fireplace, and returns to that portrait after his standard warning about Continue reading →

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December 2, 2010 · 1:49 am

CHRISTMAS SEASON DIVERSION 3: A FEW MORE LESSER-KNOWN VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Time once again for some under-the-radar versions of A Christmas Carol. First up this time is the 1977 BBC TV version starring Michael Hordern as Scrooge. Hordern was better known to some people as the voice of Continue reading →

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December 1, 2010 · 12:54 am

CHRISTMAS SEASON DIVERSION: A FEW MORE LESSER KNOWN VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL

TIme for a few more under-the-radar versions of A Christmas Carol. First off is the 1970 version that was first televised on Christmas Day on England’s Anglia Television. Paul Honeyman (who also produced) narrates, or rather, reads aloud from his personally edited version of the Dickens classic while all we see on-screen are a series of beautiful watercolor paintings by John Worsley depicting scenes from the story to Continue reading →

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November 29, 2010 · 12:10 am

CHRISTMAS SEASON DIVERSION: LESSER KNOWN VERSIONS OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL

I’ll come right out and admit it – I’ve always been a sucker for any version of A Christmas Carol. Trouble is, most adaptations distort the story or are produced by people who don’t seem to “get” the story or treat it like it’s a children’s tale. Anyone who thinks that needs to read the novelette again. My love of mythology is partly why I love the story so much.

A Christmas Carol is the closest thing to an Epic Myth the Industrial Age has produced. The language Dickens uses is very close to prose poetry but precious few adaptations of the story preserve enough of it.

That brings us to Patrick Stewart‘s one-man stage presentation of A Christmas Carol. (NOT the fairly lame made-for-tv movie he did on TNT) Stewart does all the voices and pretty much all the sound effects and his Continue reading →

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