THE WORST WE CAN FIND - Christmas Advent Calendar: Day 15 - THE CHRISTMAS THAT ALMOST WASN'T

 

Day 15 of The Worst We Can Find Christmas Advent Calendar and we’re digging into a dubbed Christmas movie from the Netflix version of MST3K.  It’s The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t!

The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t (November 1966)

Program: Mystery Science Theater 3000

Air-Date: April 14, 2017

 

Original U.S. movie poster and the MST3K streaming art.

Plot: Santa Claus (Alberto Rabagliati) is being run out of his workshop at the North Pole by a landlord by the name of Phineas T. Prune (Rossano Brazzi) as part of a scheme to stop Santa from giving toys to children. Sam Whipple (Paul Tripp) tries to help Santa out by getting him a job at a department store, but Prune buys out the store and charges them for toys he and his butler broke. The children of the town find out about the rent due and collect money to give Santa. Santa has discovered a new racket and become a powerful overlord of the country, crushing his enemies with his power over the youth of the nation.

Actually, he pays the rent with the kids’ money and everyone is seemingly happy that the kids essentially bought their own toys that year. Santa then gives a present to Prune; a toy boat he asked for when he was a child. Prune is filled with the joy of Christmas and becomes a happy man. This story was later ripped off for an episode of Night Court.  Honest.

 

Favorite Riff: “And could you possibly sync up my dialogue with my lips, please?” (Sam when asking Santa for help with decorations)

Thoughts:  Also known by its Italian title, Il Natale CheQuasi Non Fu, which makes sense since it was made in Italy using Italian talent. Italy was well-known for filming movies without sound, since so many of their features were released dubbed in other languages anyway; thus, explaining the general sync issue in the movie. Rossano Brazzi, the star of South Pacific, came into the project as not only a means to get away from playing the “hot foreign lead” in movies, but also because he wanted to direct. He’s also known to Cinematic Titanic fans for his starring role in Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks. Brazzi’s real-life wife, Lydia Brazzi, played Mrs. Claus in the movie.

Paul Tripp, who played Whipple in the movie, was an American songwriter, scriptwriter, and actor, who hosted children shows and is probably best remembered for creating the musical piece “Tubby the Tuba” for children. Besides co-starring in the movie, he wrote the book on which the movie was based as well as the final script. Sonny Fox, who played the owner of the department store, was another American in the film and he hosted the series Wonderama for years. There was also the familiar face of Micha Auer, Jonathan the Elf in the film, who had played Carlo in My Man Godfrey (1936).

Prune being a dingus. What a jerk, man.

The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t is in no way, shape, or form related to the popular Ogden Nash story of the same name published in the 1950s, dealing with a miser nephew of a King who cancels Christmas, nor an earlier school play of the same name from the 1930s where toys in a household go on strike because the children are refusing to play with their older ones. Tripp’s story is rather pedestrian in comparison and dealing solely with Claus finding money to pay the rent by taking one job and then … well, giving up, really. It’s only thanks to a child offering to throw money at him that his crisis is over.

For some, it’s a beloved movie for people of a certain age who grew up watching it every year on HBO in the early 1980s and onward, but if you’re not of the right age group, you are left wondering where the magic is in this thing. The effects are pretty bad, the sets are drab, the directing is functional but uninspired, and thanks to the dubbing there’s no emotional feel to the characters. As mentioned, Santa’s dilemma is resolved out of the blue by the children without any effort on his part, while Prune’s villainy is based solely on a clinical error (making his story a rather sad one, having wasted decades of his life being denied happiness because Jonathan lost his postcard to Santa and he was deemed unlovable … yeesh). Even the music, which is never set up as it should be for a musical, comes out of nowhere and – seemingly embarrassed – ends just as rapidly. One can see why MST3K went after this.

The film was released in November 1966 in the New York area and spread out over the country the following six weeks, playing theaters and even drive-ins for half-a-week to a full week here and there. There was a soundtrack album released for the movie released, but the film never really built up steam in the U.S. and it was only after HBO began playing it yearly that it gained a following.

 

Jonah and the bots discussing the lameness of the toys always seen in Santa movies.

The Riffing:  This was late in the first Netflix season of 2017, and a bonus episode created when the crowdfunding for the season found the group with enough additional funds to create a holiday episode.  It would be the third Christmas episode in the entire series, after Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Santa Claus, and the first for the revival of the series. One can even hear a callback to the “Patrick Swayze Christmas” song at one point during the commercial breaks.

By this point the writing had settled down from the frantic nature of the early handful of episodes and beyond a couple of points where so many jokes are pouring in that it somewhat gets in the way of the movie, the episode is a solid entry into the season. Joel, already appearing as Ardy at the beginning of the episode, also pops up as Santa (along with series writer-director Elliott Kalan as Mr. Whipple) for a few minutes during one of the host segments. Speaking of those segments, we see continuity here as Kinga prepares to wed Jonah in the upcoming final episode (a storyline that was immediately abandoned in the subsequent Gauntlet season), and the other segments play off the theme of the movie well, especially the final segment where they reproduce the “photo still” climax of the movie.

Everything appears to be moving smoothly for the series at Netflix, with one more episode to go before the first season of the revived series ends. Little would anyone realize that shifting sentiment at Netflix was on the horizon. For those interested in watching, you can still find it on Netflix if you have the service, while it is also available for sale on the Gizmoplex and online sources like Amazon and Hulu.