A Christmas Memory (1966) User Reviews (20)

Simply gorgeous-- writing, production and acting!! Where's a DVD??

[jhb-4 · 10/10 · 30 April 2006]

I cannot believe this wonderful program, "A Christmas Memory," has received no votes or comments. But, then, it probably hasn't been seen or available for years. One of Capote's finest short stories, his TV adaptation was an annual small-screen event in the late 60s.

"A Christmas Memory" autobiographical-- concerns the sad little boy who was Truman Capote-- who is shuttled from relative to relative (he's also "Dill" in "To Kill a Mockingbird.") For several winters he stays with these particular relatives-- including the rather simple Sook. The piece is narrated by Capote (sans most of his "preciousness") and just beautifully performed by the wonderful Geraldine Page and a fine youngster named Donnie Melvin. I believe the work was filmed on location in Alabama. I don't remember its being in color but the black & white film was fine-- particularly for the late fall crispness depicted in the enchanting sequence in which Sook and Buddy go to the cabin of the local bootlegger-- a forbidding old Indian named "Ha-Ha"-- to obtain Whisky for the fruit-cakes Sook bakes that they send out to unknown and famous folk-- including the residents of the Roosevelt White House.

The most endearing moment occurs on the morning of December 25th when Buddy and Sook can't contain themselves and make just enough noise to wake the other "aunts"-- the household. As the two grumpy women slip into the room and the conspirators barely contain their delight, the inimitable voice of Capote drolly states: "They'd like to kill us... but it's Christmas, so they can't!"

Ten Stars indeed!!! Find this one if you can!

Beautiful love story! What a crime it is so hard to find!

[frogboy · 10/10 · 14 November 2006]

Vastly superior to the more recent version with Patty Duke, based on Truman Capote's autobiographical piece of the same title (originally published in conjunction with Breakfast at Tiffanys).

Geraldine Page is absolutely magnificent as Sook, the simple but loving companion of Buddy, Capote's young self, a lonely boy not yet corrupted by the realities of life. This moving story of their special relationship revolves around the annual event of baking large numbers fruit cakes to give as Christmas presents to everyone from friendly passing acquaintances to the president of the United States.

Living as they do in near poverty, dependent on the seemingly grudging support of uninterested (?) family members, they must scrounge and forage for the necessary ingredients to make the cakes. Particularly touching is their visit to the local bootlegger to purchase a bottle of whiskey. Frightened tho they are of approaching this intimidating character, they screw their courage to the sticking place to achieve their goal, with a surprising result.

As a young teen, I happened to read this story shortly before seeing the television presentation. It was a real emotional double whammy to experience the sensitive story of the love between these two 'outcasts', first on the page and then upon the TV screen. Surprisingly, I also got to see it on the movie screen several years later, 1972 or 1973, in a southern CA movie theater, where it was, if I recall correctly, shown before a screening of The Devils. Strange, very strange, double bill!

Page, of course, was brilliant in her portrayal of this 'cracked teacup', her ability to allow a character to be as vulnerable, yet strong in some surprising ways, has never in my opinion seen its equal in any actor. And the young actor, Donnie Melvin as Buddy, delivers a performance of heart aching innocence so fine that it cannot help but thaw the meanest Christmas Scrooge.

Also loved this short movie- Spoilers!

[FrodoFan35 · 10/10 · 14 May 2006]

I still remember enjoying this years ago, and believe we actually videotaped a rerun of it so I have it somewhere. The 1990s remake, though longer, just isn't as good. The story is a childhood memory of Truman Capote, narrated by the author himself. It describes a period when he lived with several aunts, including the sweet, naive Aunt Sook, who called Truman "Buddy." Living during the depression in Alabama and unable to buy fancy gifts, Buddy and Aunt Sook always give each other kites every year, then enjoy going out to fly them with Sook's little dog Queenie.

Loved the story and the performances, and used to get choked up at the end as Capote narrates about the death of the dog Queenie and the decline and eventual death of Aunt Sook. Such interesting characters and a lovely story, probably my favorite special during the entire holiday season. I really miss Geraldine Page...and even Truman, for that matter.

The story of a young boy who spends Christmas with his aunts in the rural south during the depression

[VAGNTLMAN · 22 March 2006]

A Christmas Memory and the companion film The Thanksgiving Visitor, both starring Geraldine Page, are two films which should be seen by every family during the holidays. The story of a young boy who spends Christmas with his aunts in the rural south during the depression is a warm and touching story. Unable to afford to buy Christmas presents for each other, Sook and Buddy make each other a present, which ends the film in a wonderful surprise. It is too bad that this is unavailable for the public to view for both films should be a staple for the holidays much as It's A Wonderful Life. Geraldine Page gives a touching and loving performance. The Direction, performance, Photography, locations, Production Design, are first rate.

Is it ever on TV any more?

[winstonnc-1 · 8/10 · 15 December 2006]

The late Geraldine Page is simply wonderful in this film, made by Frank and Eleanor Perry for ABC TV in 1966. (Sadly, the boy who plays young Truman isn't very good.) But it's a pity this version, which Capote narrates, has been buried or driven off the market by the regrettable, badly written, late 1990s remake with Patty Duke. I haven't seen this adaptation, which was also theatrically released in "Trilogy" with other Capote stories, on television since the mid 80s. Thankfully, it was still on local TV stations at Christmas time then (though in sadly battered prints), and I was able to record it for future years. No Christmas Eve is complete without a showing. It never fails to bring smiles and tears.

Perfection itself!

[davindaire · 10/10 · 13 December 2007]

How typical of our crass, brash world that this quiet, enchanting film is all but forgotten. The Christmas Memory referred to is Truman Capote's own backward glance at a depression-era Christmas in small-town America. Based on his short story of the same name, Capote's holiday memory has been filmed twice but for many of us, this 1966 version is the classic, indispensable telling of the tale. Sparely told-it runs under an hour--the effect is entirely un-Hollywood, instead it feels charmingly handmade, and homespun. Sadly, this version is all but forgotten except by the fervent few. Sadder still, it's impossible to even find a copy for purchase except for the poor black and white print roaming around the internet.

Still, when you've played through Alistair Sim's Christmas Carol, Jimmy Stewart's It's A Wonderful LIfe, and all the other holiday perennials and you long for something a little gentler, where the baking of fruit cakes and the choosing of a Christmas tree are not incidental but climactic events, this tender-hearted film is waiting for you. Exquisite performing led by the incomparable Geraldine Page, sensitive direction by Frank Perry, with a heart-tugging score by composer, Meyer Kupferman. Truly in this era when Capote has been rediscovered a resurrection of this little holiday confection would be most welcome. Help us out ABC if you're the entity to help! And what other ABC Stage 67 treasures may be mouldering away in some vault? Best wishes, Peter

I miss you "A Christmas Memory".

[MustangDragon · 10/10 · 16 December 2007]

This short TV play, with the incredible Geraldine Page as Sook, the somewhat daffy and naive cousin of Buddy (Capote as a boy), and narrated by Capote himself (not in his sweet and obnoxious voice), used to appear on television every Christmas season. Alas, no longer. Have we outgrown innocence? It's the story of two delightful people living in a house with two stiff necked aunts who can't stand their play, dancing and general enjoyment of life.

Every year, Sook searches out pecans, fallen from local orchards, to make her fruitcakes which are the only gift she can afford to give for Christmas. And give she does, to everyone she knows, people she admires but doesn't know, including the President. She and Buddy must save their pennies all year to afford the flour and sugar, dried fruit and most importantly the rum for the cake.

I would go on, but it is best for you to discover this gem. Don't take the later version with Patty Duke to be superior or even the equal of this one. No one will ever be able to touch Page's performance; she owns "Sook" forever.

This treasure needs to be released on DVD, with other Capote plays that starred Page.

Home is where my Friend is

[middleburg · 10/10 · 20 May 2009]

As good as everyone says! Beautiful-poignant-a Gem. It is so true that this should be shown again and again during Holiday time--so that the general public can treasure it's beautiful, heartfelt simplicity--its charm, its delight at life. Frank and Eleanor Perry had directed some other gems right around this time--"David and Lisa" and "Last Summer" very different--but with a way at looking so very close to the characters, going to the very core of their beings--examining their hurts, their yearnings. The fragile/strong Sook and the fragile/strong childhood Capote are joined at the hip--they are portrayed with loving detail by the great Geraldine Page and a youngster named Donnie Melvin. This almost seems to anticipate "Harold and Maude" where there are equal amounts of knowing laughter, profound statements said off the cuff by Sook and Maude, which resonate so deeply, tenderness, and heartbreaking sadness as life and inevitability, the march of time and the inexorable presence of death announcing that "all good things must come to an end". But in dreams and memories, those good things live on--and this long-forgotten masterpiece deserves to be one of those. The music score is by Meyer Kupferman, who I actually had the great pleasure of knowing. He was a great bear of a man, a respected contemporary composer, clarinetist and teacher. I only found out that he wrote the beautiful, colorful film score while recently watching a DVD I purchased from Amazon. (Expensive--probably because it is so rare--but worth its weight in gold). Now I so wish I had known that he was the composer of this lovely, touching film score--I wish I could have talked to Mr. Kupferman about his experience writing this gorgeous score! But instead, like this fragile film of a brief, treasured Christmas Memory, it will remain an elusive dream. The people die, life moves on--but the art, the magic, the memory lives on.

Home is where my friend is, and there I never go.

[budmassey · 10/10 · 24 December 2010]

The immense beauty of this film derives in no small part, of course, from the brilliance of Capote's flawless writing. Capote wrote magnificent prose, not all of which translated well to the screen. This is a delightful exception, as it comes together into the quintessential adaptation of Capote and a holiday experience that is unlikely ever to be equaled.

The fragile narration by Mr. Capote himself floats like a dried leaf above this tender and intimate tale. The story itself is a lyric remembrance by Capote of the almost rhapsodic beauty of his holidays with his beloved Aunt Sook in the midst of his desolately poor Alabama childhood.

Perhaps the centerpiece of this treasure is the dazzling performance of Geraldine Page as Sook. She sets the tone and provides the driving force behind the story with a gentleness and innocence that infuse it with an undeniable genuineness.

The delicate affirmations the two friends share, the loss and longing, the foolish dreams that sustained them, and their moving holiday tradition; all are Capote at his best, long before he became his worst. The closing monologue is one of the most moving moments in cinema, not cheaply so, nor contrived, but earnest and real the way movies, and yes, the Holidays, should be.

A Christmas Memory is based on a written reminiscence by Truman Capote of a Christmas in his childhood.

[franceshugg777 · 10/10 · 24 December 2012]

I saw this wonderful movie when I was just a teen, but I had already read the short story on which it was based. The film has haunted my Christmas memories ever since. Geraldine Page was a consummate actress who never really got the recognition I think she deserved until her Academy Award for The Trip To Bountiful shortly before her death, when she portrayed a character rather similar to Sook in this and the Thanksgiving Visitor. Her acting in all three just shines! How poignant when Sook says that she's just old and funny and Buddy replies, "Not funny, FUN!" This is really a beautiful film for the whole family. It is a good lesson for children in this age of electronic abundance to see how Christmas was in the poorer times of the Depression, and the joy that could come from smaller gifts given with the greatest gift of all--love.

Early brief TV movie based on Truman Capote's 1956 short story

[SimonJack · 6/10 · 16 December 2020]

This 1966 TV movie is the first production made of Truman Capote's 1956 short story of the same title, "A Christmas Memory." There isn't much of a plot in this short TV film. It has some opening and closing narration by Capote, who describes the events of just a couple days of the last year he lived as a young boy with distant relatives in rural Alabama. A full 96-minute Hallmark film was made with much more plot in 1997. In that film, Patty Duke plays Buddy's favorite cousin, Sook. Piper Laurie and Anita Gillette play his other elderly cousins, and there are more people in the story.

But here, the focus is mostly on Buddy, who represents Capote, and Sook. In this film she is just credited as "Woman." The other two cousin characters appear just briefly as unnamed aunts. This 51-minute TV film focuses exclusively on Sook and Buddy during a couple of days that would be their last Christmas together. Sook makes her own special fruit cakes and sends them off to friends. These are mostly people she likes or has heard of. Each year she sends a cake to Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. So, the two friends collect pecans, obtain a quart of bourbon from a bootlegger, get the rest of the goods from the general store and then make 30 fruit cakes. They then wrap, address and mail them. Finally, they go into the woods for a Christmas tree. They make homemade ornaments for it and then make a gift for one another.

Geraldine Page gives a very good performance as "Woman" or cousin Sook. Page won an Emmy in 1967 for this role as best performance by an actress in a TV drama. Young Buddy is played by Donnie Melvin. This is a nice, heartwarming picture that is mostly about two friends spending time together. For a superb, fuller plot based on Capote's story, be sure to see the 1997 film of the same title. It's among the best of the annual holiday films that Hallmark makes.

The reason it was his last year with the rural Alabama relatives is because Capote went to New York after that to live with his mother who was an actress. His parents had divorced years earlier, which is why he had lived a few years with his mother's Faulk cousins. Capote was born Truman Persons in 1924 in New Orleans. He took his last name, Capote, from the surname of his stepfather.

Beautiful, touching story, a classic

[Mid12nt · 9/10 · 13 May 2009]

Like many others I remember seeing this on television, and I've always remembered it because of Capote's narration and Geraldine Page's portrayal of Cousin Sook.

Recently I purchased a color version of the movie on DVD and watched it again for the first time in decades. It is as good as I remembered and very faithful to the original story, and also just like the story, it is short, less than an hour.

Some have posted that the color version is better, but it's the story and the acting that make this film special, not whether it is in b/w or color, so if you can't get it in color (which is difficult) get it in b/w and share this wonderful classic with those you love.

Well made but pretty depressing at the end of the story.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 19 December 2020]

"A Christmas Memory" is a very nostalgic Christmas television special...the type thing they don't make any more. To make it more unusual, it's not only based on a story by Truman Capote but is narrated by him as well. This surprised me a bit, as Capote was a very talented writer but didn't exactly have a voice you'd expect in a narrator. However, considering the story is from his life, you certainly can understand why they asked him to narrate. This special also took both Emmy Awards as well as a Peabody Award.

The story is set during the Great Depression, so folks seeing it nowadays might wonder why the folks were so poor and had so little for Christmas...but that was simply how it was with about a third all all workers out of work In the midst of this sad time, Nanny Foulk and Truman ( Geraldine Page and Donnie Melvin) spend time together working on Christmas presents for friends and loved ones...homemade fruit cakes. The story is extremely nostalgic and sad at the end, as Capote's childhood was pretty sad...being passed from relative to relative and ultimately ending up in military school. Because of this, if you watch, you might want to have some tissues handy...just in case.

The story is very well made---with some nice acting by Page, some very lovely music and a nice pace. It's NOT filled with excitement and intrigue....some folks might even find it a bit dull. But it is a great insight into the past...something we never should forget.

If you want to see it, the film is on YouTube. Admittedly, the quality of the footage isn't great (it's taken from a videotape recording).

Easily the finest Christmas movie ever!

[kingsnorky · 14 May 2006]

For many years, this 1966 production of "A Christmas Memory" (don't be fooled by the very marginal 1997 Patty Duke re-make) was broadcast annually on PBS. I recorded one of those broadcasts a long time ago and the tape has deteriorated considerably. So I looked on Amazon for a DVD; no luck. But Amazon listed a VHS format of it in black and white; why black and white, I'm not sure. According to the information on Amazon, the company which produced the b&w VHS has sole rights to sell the movie. So I bought it. The quality is fine but I'd much rather have it on DVD and in color. If you ever have a chance to see the movie on TV or buy it on home video, be sure to do so. Geraldine Page's performance and Capote's narration make it worth the hunt.

There's also a sequel of sorts: "The Thanksgiving Visitor." ( http://imdb.com/title/tt0324218 ) Another adaptation of a Capote short story with Page reprising her role as Sook.

I love it and it's in color!

[WillaCronkite · 10/10 · 11 October 2009]

I was fortunate to find a good DVD of the original version in color searching Yahoo. This production is the one and only as far as I'm concerned. There's a little piece of all of us in Truman Capote's gentle holiday tale, and Geraldine Page has never been better. Capote's narration adds much to the overall experience, the language being so simple, so true, and yet so poignant. Did we not most of us feel like we were an "outsider" to some extent when we were growing up---or forever a child, like Sook? Yet, through Sook, Buddy (Capote's character) discovers the frugal, pure pleasures of the season and of the heart, along with the unmeasurable value of a true friend. I remember when this version used to air every Christmas, along with Capote's The Thanksgiving Visitor at Thanksgiving time. But no more it seems. This is a program and DVD my family treasures.

If you like The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote then you will like A Christmas Memory

[climbingivy · 10/10 · 7 July 2011]

If you liked The Thanksgiving Visitor with Geraldine Page as Sook,then you will like A Christmas Memory.A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote is probably a little more well known than A Thanksgiving Visitor.Patty Duke did a wonderful remake of A Christmas Memory.I watched the latest version of A Christmas Memory with Patty Duke first.I then watched the movie on a DVD that is made from an A & E television recording from many years ago.I enjoyed both versions very much.Patty Duke's Sook is much more comprehensive because the movie was close to two hours long.Geraldine Page's Sook was different from Patty duke's version in so many ways.Geraldine Page as Sook is more delicate and more of a surprise.The best part for me is the brief narration from Truman Capote himself.They don't make em like this anymore.I have this movie.

AFI PLEASE remaster!

[mamasan41-829-175553 · 10/10 · 24 November 2018]

Color OR black and white or both!!! Thank you........I notice that George Clooney is one of the Trustees with AFI!!!! PLEASE, somebody!!!

Masterpiece

[JonnyDR75 · 10/10 · 20 June 2020]

It's become a tradition to watch this film every Christmas Eve. I was lucky to find a black and white copy which I prefer over the colorized version. Geraldine Page's performance is honest and heartfelt and matches the writing and tone of the film. There is also some beautiful imagery filmed and a wonderful score to accompany those images. Overall it's an excellent story that is well-told in this medium.

A real Christmas treasure

[northernpine · 10/10 · 22 December 2019]

🎄What a wonderful Christmas story. One of my Mom's favorites...wish she was watching with me again🎄

A Rural Christmas Tale

[jfgibson73 · 12 November 2012]

I did enjoy this short TV movie about a boy's Christmas with his elderly relative. It was a simple story, set in the Depression, about how they celebrated even though they didn't have much money. Almost the entire play focuses on the two main characters, the boy Buddy and Sook. Played by Geraldine Page, she is a folksy, drawling character who puts her hand to her face a lot to either reminisce or talk about how she would like things to be. A line at the beginning of the story tells us that "she is still a child." It may have been meant to suggest that she is a child at heart, but I wonder if it might mean she is developmentally disabled. They make fruitcakes for gifts, pick out a Christmas tree, and give each other kites for gifts. I liked hearing Truman Capote's actual voice provide the narration, but it did get a little schmaltzy. That, along with the slightly over-the-top performances, made it a little less genuine than some fans remember.