The House Without a Christmas Tree (1972)

Wonderfully Nostalgic!

This is one of my favorite Christmas movies from my childhood. It was shown annually on television for several years and I tried never to miss it. Having a copy of it on DVD is great. If you haven't seen this one, you are really missing out. It is a very "Christmasy" experience. I mean, it just has that "feel" of years past (it took place in the 40's). The little girl in the movie, Addie, lives with her Grandmother and very moody father (Jason Robards), who refused to let her have a Christmas tree because he has never gotten over the grief of losing his wife (Addie's mom) after Addie's birth. That's all I'll say for now (don't want to ruin it for you), but it is very good. October 8, 2008

A gem--don't miss it.

There is a quiet dignity here--missing from many Christmas programs, a dignity bolstered by the superb mise en scene of a mid west Christmas in 1946, a time in America of self sufficiency, a time when the body politic did not blame the government for natural disasters or acts of God, and a time when people still presumably were able to save "six thousand dollars" on a limited income.

The domestic focus here, on a 10 year old bespectacled girl named Addie who lives with her widowed father and paternal grandmother amply demonstrates not only these characteristics but the small pleasures (which can dwarf expensive pleasures) of that day and time: of an extra quarter for the movies, sewing one's own costume for the Christmas pageant, baking cookies, buying a gift for the schoolteacher at the local pharmacy, and most importantly, erecting a Christmas tree to celebrate the birth of the Christ child.

What's refreshing here is the refusal of the script to sugar coat, and it is the undeniable sadness of a man bereft of his deceased wife, which casts a pall over the entire household that constitutes both the stories subtext and its principal conflict.

The cast is superb! The youngster playing Addie avoids the fatal cuteness that afflicts many child actors, and delineates a character of both gumption and vulnerability. Who can not smile over the way she conceals a crush on a school mate by claiming all she admires about him are his new cowboy boots? Jason Robards Jr. is just as good here as he was in a "Thousand Clowns," and his taciturnity does not prevent our more than once glimpsing into his broken heart.

And Mildred Natwick! What a treasure she was. It is her performance you may savor most of all, a woman of love and compassion, but one firmly grounded by the limitations of this life, who has that seasoning, that sense of recollection that the years bring to the best of us, and which is known as wisdom.

And a special accolade to the young actress playing the schoolteacher, who also contributes a memorable job, (and who also does the voice over during the prologue it sounds like).

The production design team does excellent work here, and is to be commended on snowy mid-Western exterior locations which beautifully match the school and domestic interiors, (with hook rugs, Eastlake settees, cabinet radios and an engraving of Millais' "The Angelus") which will bring back warm memories of all those who shared in that place and time.

This is family entertainment in the best sense--genuinely moving without an ounce of schmaltz.
September 24, 2008

One of the Best Christmas Videos Ever Made

I remember watching this every Christmas on television as a kid growing up. It took me many years to find it on video, but I am so glad I did! It is one of the best Christmas programs ever made. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is as big a Christmas "fan" as I am. You will cherish this for a life time. August 25, 2008

Holiday Classic

It's a little disheartening to see that so many reviewers diminish this film for its low-budget quality. I think that that is part of its appeal and adds to the story's authenticity. This isn't a typical holiday story about the spirit of giving or the "meaning" of Christmas. This is a bleak little tale about Addie (Lucas), a girl with an emotionally shut down father (a monstrously cold Robards) who denies his family Christmas because he's determined to shut out the past. The story is structured around Addie's various gambits to convince her father to buy a Christmas tree for their house, depicted here with its big warm kitchen run by Addie's grandmother (the brilliant, sturdy Natwick) and it's cold living room where Robards escapes with his newspaper waiting for dinner. At school, Addie is pugnacious and defensive of her home life--single-parent, no Christmas tree, eccentric grandmother. The only thing keeping Addie's story from spiraling into complete pathos is a classmate who's worse off than she is--a poor, tired-looking girl who doesn't have a tree either and whose mother is too sick to make her Christmas pageant costume. What's at stake here is Addie's childhood as we watch her come perilously close to turning into her hard, bitter father.

The story is told in a frame: Addie who has grown up and lives in the big city is looking back on her childhood in a small town in Nebraska. At the intro and at the breaks, the mature Addie narrates as she constructs paper silhouettes that cross-fade into or out of the filmed story. This is particularly effective when the story cross-fades for a "break" and we see Robards's haunted, empty face turn into an even more haunted and emptier minimalist silhouette created by the adult Addie. We see memory transformed into neat, unsettling impressions that come to life again or just go cold.

When the film comes to its uneasy resolution, it threatens to tug at our hearts, but we know that things will never be right between Addie and her father and the adult Addie tells us that much in the final voice-over. The story transcends sentimentality.
August 22, 2008

These are such charming movies, finally have all 4!

As a child I always enjoyed these wonderful heartwarming TV movies with such an incredible writing and cast including Jason Robarts & the legendary Mildred Natwick. I'm so glad "The House Without A Christmas Tree" has findly been released on DVD. I recently got the seldom seen 4th movie, "Addie & The King Of Hearts" which shows Addie's struggles of growing up, coming to terms with her father dating again and her crush on her teacher. Diane Ladd appears as the love interest to Addie's dad. These charming films are from a time that will never be recaptured on TV again! August 19, 2008

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