The Christmas That Almost Wasn't
Another odd Christmas Tale that would probably make those 'Santa Claus Village of Madness' shorts seem normal.
Here's the Holiday Spiel, Famille, the Grinch in this 1966, is a guy named Phineas Prune (no kidding, guys). Apparently it seems he's got the deed to Santa's residence in the North Pole (never really explained how this happened, perhaps Santa need to mortgage his house during the bad financial years), and unless the fat guy forks over the dough, Prune will foreclose.
Strangely enough, Santa gets help from a former child, Sam Whipple, who though his father hated people squeezing toilet paper in stores, is now an attorney, who Santa asks to help him out of this jam.
Besides odd musical moments, the strange part is the fact Santa having to work to pay off his mortgage to Prune. And they way the series ends, amazingly enough the animated beginning looks like what a child had composed. And the beginning sounds more like 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance," than a Christmas tune.
Then again, if you guys recall, "The Magic Christmas Tree" was also supposed to be a holiday film...
Anyway, I love to see this riffed for the fact it's also one of those films which could even make "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" enjoyable.
"Prune, Prune, the man they called Prune..."
Fangarius
shared this idea
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John Bladel
commented
There is a trailer on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUhVvEFMnsM&ab_channel=BallyhooMotionPics
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Anonymous
commented
I know ive seen this movie with a riff by someone....
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Joe
commented
My girlfriend and I just found this film and spent the whole time wonderfully baffled and wishing our Rifftrax friends were adding their commentary. Aside from the amazingly nonsensical "The Name of the Song is Prune" song and the photo-montage present-delivery scene, one of the most baffling details was the lawyer's decision that the best way to help Santa was to work as a janitor to earn money, a job that probably kept him away from his regular job of BEING A LAWYER. (Bonus holiday classic connection: Glenn Yarbrough sings the movie's theme song and the theme song to Rankin-Bass's "The Hobbit," and those guys made at least 75% of the holiday classics we watch every year.) Please riff this movie!!!
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Anonymous
commented
This film is the rough around all those Christmas Diamonds you've enjoyed year after year. Phineas T. Prune suffers from misopedia and plans to ruin Christmas by demanding back rent on the North Pole. Santa, facing eviction, turns to attorney Sam Whipple. My favorite part was Santa realizing he'd never seen an awake child! An Italian classic adorned with gibberish songs and semi-cartoonish antics.
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Sharon aka Penny commented
OMG! I remember being taken to the movie to see this as an 8 year old. And had a number of what the heck just happened moments even at that age.
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ghostwriter56
commented
Rosano Bratzi......need we say more? Kevin would have a field day out singing him!