The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood (1965)

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The acting in this movie is really good.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

I read all of the previous reviews of this Made for TV Movie and IMO only a few folks "got it". This is not going to be as much of a review as it is "background" information.First, it was not seen LIVE. It was pre-recorded in a Studio in Brooklyn, NYC. I was there during the shooting.At the time my dad was "General Manager of Institutional Advertizing" for General Electric, and this was a GE Theater Production.I'm not going to refute any of the individual criticisms, such as the effeminate Ritchard...he was effeminate, but I didn't see this as the negative that the reviewer did. "Female" wolves also eat.Liza was brilliant! Not only is she extremely talented, coming from Minelli/Garland genes, but I got a chance to meet her at the shooting and spend quite a bit of time with her...so I AM somewhat biased. I fell in love with her.Being a son of a GE Marketing Bigwig did have its benefits back during that time period. As one of the Managers of the GE Pavilion at the NY World's fair in '64-'65 I was treated as a VIP not only at the GE Pavilion, but everywhere else as well getting back-door passes to all other Pavilions. Another benefit was being invited to the TDCoRRH shooting. I was 15 at the time, old enough to appreciate meeting Liza and Burden. From that experience I became a life-ling Minelli fan and never played another Burden or "The Animals" record again. Unfortunately, I also spent some time with Burden, and I learned that he will never experience a time where he is not loved, and he is loved best while he's alone.Fortunately I was able to get a hold of the DVD, however unfortunately it was never remastered. It is still the grainy quality of the original SD release. Yet, occasionally I still pop it in the player and enjoy it just as much with each viewing. I only wish that my father was still around to enjoy it with me.

The title sounds as if this is some bad horror but this is a quite charming little Christmas special from 1965, starring the teenager Liza Minnelli in her first leading role.With this movie Minnelli goes into her mother's footsteps. She dances and sings her way through this movie. She of course had a great example and teacher to look up at in the form of her mother Judy Garland, who starred in dozens of musical movies. Also her father Vincente Minnelli was no stranger to the genre and was an acclaimed and well known musical movie director.Yes, Liza Minnelli is good and enjoyable in her role in this movie and shows that she can sign and dance. Something that would eventually even get her an Oscar 8 years later for her role in the movie version of "Cabaret". She is however not the most attractive person within the genre. She is not attractive no and she even wasn't in 1965. It's perhaps a reason why she never became such a big musical star as her mother was, even though she also wasn't among the best looking actresses of her time.The movie is quite cheerful and therefore also charming. It features some good songs and characters that pop up. Cyril Ritchard is really great in his role as the Big Bad Wolf.But how exactly is this a Christmas special? Just because there is a Christmas tree in the back doesn't make the story of Red Riding Hood really feel fitting for a Christmas special. An original attempt to try and re-tell the famous story but also a bit of a silly one.The movie obviously looks as if it was filmed on a stage and it of course most likely also was but this feels sort of fitting for a TV special and actually suits the movie its atmosphere and overall cheerfulness quite well.It's a good watch and basically just a fine simply enjoyable 50 minutes.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

The wolf pack being The Animals. I found this in a greeting card store about 10 years ago in the discount video rack for about 2 bucks so, yes it does exist on video. You end up hitting the fast forward button till you reach Eric Burdon & the boys (they are featured doing one or two songs) unless you are a Vic Damone or Liza fan. I was hoping someone would post the Animals bits on Youtube so the whole world could enjoy it for free. I would not recommend anyone paying more than a couple dollars for this. As other reviews have said, the story is really thin. Why the Xmas theme is beyond me. It has been pointed out that the reason ABC did this was so they could link it with the holiday season so they could show it again & again every year, but something has to be really special & strike a chord with people for that to happen. Boy were they wrong. Cyril Ritchard is great though.

'The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood' was originally aired on ABC-TV on 28 November, 1965 ... almost a month before Christmas. The material really has nothing to do with Christmas, and it's obvious that a few Yuletide details have been bunged in just to make it likelier that this production would be optioned and scheduled as a 'Christmas' special (which it really isn't) so as to be more commercial and get higher ratings. The script by Robert Emmett isn't very good ... but the score is by the great Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, the same team who wrote the songs for 'Funny Girl'. This isn't one of Styne's best scores (nor Merrill's), but anything written by Jule Styne is worthy of notice.This is a musical retelling of the Red Riding Hood story ... told from the viewpoint of the wolf! That's a very clever idea; unfortunately, it's the only really clever idea in this production. The wolf (renamed here Lone T. Wolf) is played by Cyril Ritchard, which is part of the problem. Ritchard was an extremely effeminate performer. His effeminacy was an asset in some roles, such as when he played Captain Hook (on a ship at sea with all those pirates, whoops!) or when he starred as Kreton the alien in 'Visit to a Small Planet'. But here, his prissy demeanour makes the big bad Wolf seem merely ridiculous. As the wolf, he wears a frock coat and gloves plus a furry headpiece that makes him look like something out of 'Cats' ... plus a long bushy tail that makes him look like Basil Brush gone grey. Even worse are the scenes in which Ritchard's wolf gets dressed up in Granny's nightdress. Drag humour isn't funny if the man wearing women's clothes is just as effeminate WITHOUT the women's clothes.Worse luck, the story is told in flashback. Lone Wolf (Ritchard) is describing his version of events to the other wolves ... who are played by Eric Burdon and the Animals. Get it? The wolves are played by the Animals. Ha bloody ha. It might have been amusing if the Animals had got out their instruments and played 'The House of the Riding Hood', but no such luck.Red Riding Hood is played by Liza Minnelli. I've always disliked this performer due to her extreme archness, but I recognise her talent without enjoying it. In flashbacks, Ritchard's wolf explains that Red Riding Hood was the actual villain, and that everything which happened was her fault, not his. The woodsman (Vic Damone) turns out to be Prince Charming, making this production seem like an early version of 'Into the Woods'.The best things in this production are the Styne/Merrill songs, especially "You'll Need a Song" (sung by Damone) and 'Ding-a-Ling' (sung by Minnelli and Ritchard while the wolf is pretending to be Granny). I'll rate this production 3 points out of 10, and most of that's for the score.