The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Here's a Christmas story that I had not thought of in ages! I read the book by Barbara Robinson ages ago and I'm pretty sure I saw the movie at least once because I definitely remember the scene where Imogene smokes a cigar in the washroom. My brother found the full movie on YouTube and we watched it while waiting for dinner to cook.
The book was made into an extremely low budget one hour Canadian TV special in 1983. It features such notable Canadian actors such as Jackson Davies (the RCMP officer on Beachcombers) and Janet Wright (Emma on Corner Gas). The big name star is Loretta Swit who must take up the pageant production after a fall takes out the previous director.
In some ways the movie is quite charming and free of the zany antics that would no doubt happen if it was made today. The children's performances are sweet and earnest and only a few of them had acting careers afterwards such as Fairuza Balk and Ocean Hellman.
The movie creates more questions than answers about the Herdman children, especially when they run off into the night after the play. I want to re-read the book now :-)
The book was made into an extremely low budget one hour Canadian TV special in 1983. It features such notable Canadian actors such as Jackson Davies (the RCMP officer on Beachcombers) and Janet Wright (Emma on Corner Gas). The big name star is Loretta Swit who must take up the pageant production after a fall takes out the previous director.
In some ways the movie is quite charming and free of the zany antics that would no doubt happen if it was made today. The children's performances are sweet and earnest and only a few of them had acting careers afterwards such as Fairuza Balk and Ocean Hellman.
The movie creates more questions than answers about the Herdman children, especially when they run off into the night after the play. I want to re-read the book now :-)
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