Product Description

Narrated by Truman Capote. Emmy Award winning adaptation of Capote's recollection of his youth in the rural South during the Depression. Living with a slightly dotty but loving "cousin," Capote remembers back to when he was about 10 years old and it was suddenly decided that "it was fruitcake weather." The task of baking 30 cakes for mostly far away friends and other rituals of Christmas time are painted with such loving and nostalgic strokes, this becomes a truly beautiful Christmas experience. The pverty of the 1930s fails to stop or even slow down a loving relationship at a loving time of the year. An Emmy Award well deserved! Published under license - Genric Case - No artwork

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2286 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-07-25
• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 51 minutes

From the Studio
This is the original 1966 ABC Television Color Presentation starring Geraldine Page and narrated by Truman Capote. Unfortunately, sometime in the past 20 years the Video Yesteryear broadcast-quality master, which we license has lost the color so this Video offering is in BLACK AND WHITE. We have not been able to locate an uncut quality Master in Color, so we continue to offer this B&W version. It does not do full justice to this small masterpiece, but to the best of our current knowledge, is the best commercially available.

Customer Reviews

5 stars for the film, 1 star for the missing color.
"Whether baking a cake, prattling like two wise children or raiding a
pecan orchard, young Donnie Melvin and the remarkable Miss Page are
unforgettable. The authentic Southern setting looks so real that it
hurts, at least to one who raided a pecan orchard or two in his own
time. The color photography of the entire picture is muted and excellent."
-- from Howard Thompson's review of A Christmas Memory (in its
theatrical release) from the November 7th, 1969, New York Times.

It's a rare pleasure to watch this dramatization of a piece of great
American literature, and it has become a ritual in my home to watch
this movie with friends and family each year. Donnie Melvin and
Geraldine Page work so well together, they truly bring the story to life.
Hard to imagine, but the original short story was written while author
Truman Capote was vacationing in Hong Kong.

A Christmas Memory was filmed in direct collaboration with Mr. Capote,
and it won many awards, including a Peabody and three Emmys, after it
first aired on ABC Television's Stage67 series.

One problem: This VHS cassette is in black and white and thus offers a
diminished experience from what was created in the 1966 color original.
The story still shines through, but this small masterpiece deserves
better. A color copy of A Christmas Memory of equivalent quality to the
above can be found online elsewhere.

If you wish to someday see a restored version of this movie on DVD,
won't you please logon to The Criterion Collection site and submit a
title suggestion on their Ask Jon Mulvaney page? Maybe with enough
interest expressed to Criterion for a restoration, this dream of many
will one day come true.

Poor Quality Print
"A Christmas Memory" (ABC 1966) and the companion piece "The Thanksgiving Visitor" (ABC 1967) were films by Frank and Eleanor Perry. Geraldine Page won an Emmy for each production. The films were shot in Alabama in color and have rarely been seen since the original broadcasts.
This version is a very poor quality black and white kinescope . It does not include any special material such as Stage 67 title sequence or commercials, extras which sometime distinguish a kinescope. Excellent color prints were shown on the A&E cable network in 1993. See also "Truman Capote's Trilogy" (1969) for a slightly edited version of "A Christmas Memory" and the companion book by the Perrys (1969).

Only if You Are Desperate
If you are desperate to own this program go ahead and purchase this grainy, poor quality black and white shoddy copy of the original PBS color production and at a whopping THIRTY TWO DOLLARS to boot.What a rip off.