The Christmas Tree (1969) User Reviews

Tears Guaranteed

[nicholas.rhodes · 7/10 · 13 October 2005]

Pascal is a little boy who lives with his father, his mother is dead. His father, played by William Holden, takes him off on holidays to the island of Corsica, in the Mediterranean Sea. During the trip, they take a small boat out to sea and whilst William Holden is diving to free a trapped fishing line, Pascal remains in the boat and gets exposed to radiation from a nuclear bomb which accidentally falls from a passing plane. Hospital tests confirm that following this incident, Pascal's days are numbered and his life expectancy is not expected to be longer than six months.

Confronted with such a terrible perspective, Pascal's father is determined to let Pascal pursue his interests to the fullest extent during the remaining short time imparted to him by God to remain on this earth. He goes to live in a country house ( I'm not sure where ) but it's snowy for most of the film, and there's also a peasant living in this house called Verdun ( played by great French actor Bourvil ) who befriends Pascal. Pascal has a special way with wolves and is able to communicate with them. He enjoys driving the tractor. He knows he is going to die and is far more at ease speaking about it than his father who cannot accept the fact and is secretly hoping a miracle will occur all the time.

Pascal will die on Christmas day whilst opening his presents and the wolves will howl throughout the house to mourn his passing ! Before this fateful day however, he will have spent many happy moments with his dad, with Verdun and with Catherine his dad's lady friend.

The film is extremely emotional and if you have seen it when young, you will never forget it ! I did not have that privilege and only saw it for the first time in 1992. It passes occasionally on French television and is in the French language, surprising when you consider that William Holden was an American. I have it on a VHS cassette and enjoy occasional viewings but have to prepare psychologically for the end each time ! Most of the film is made in snowy surroundings, and this remains in your mind after the initial viewing, rather like with "Love Story" and "Dead Zone", both of which also have sad endings. Is there a correlation between snowscapes in film and an unhappy ending ? Food for thought, to be sure. Anyway, emotion guaranteed for "L'Arbre de Noël".

A movie just as it's described

[wolfcariusm · 7/10 · 12 August 2005]

There is nothing bad about this movie, it is typical of the time it was made. I cannot imagine anyone who knows the plot and then decided to watch could expect or want anything else than that which was shown. Obviously some critics have issues. I wonder if they saw it v.o. or dubbed into English. All film d'époque are OTT and nothing is so subtle that any child could not understand it. This is not an intellectual adult movie, anyone who cannot see why actors did the movie should at least have the courage to ask before accusing them. There are also more messages (social and political criticism) than meet the eye and in this respect it is certainly more daring than the less subtle similar criticism Spielberg tried to shove into War of the Worlds which obliviously passed a hundred miles above the heads of the people it was directed at.

The cry of the wolves

[dbdumonteil · 7/10 · 18 August 2010]

Terence Young,even if he never was considered an "author" ,was one of the most eclectic directors I had known :spy thrillers ("thunderball" etc)suspense drama ("wait until dark" ) fantasy ("corridors of mirrors" ,arguably his best movie) sword and sandals (Orazio E Curazio) costume drama ("Mayerling" ).....

Based on Michel Bataille 's moving novel ,it's very faithful to it ,including the famous scene in the zoo .A barrel of laugh ,it isn't ,but it avoids the clichés of melodrama and depicts a real tragedy.The cast can be questionable ,for William Holden had to be dubbed in French and as for Virna Lisi,I'm not sure it's her voice although she is fluent in this language .Both are excellent but are out-shadowed by Bourvil -who sadly was to die the following year-as Verdun.The last scene is one of the saddest I know and if it succeeds without falling into the trap of sentiment,it's due for Young's amazing feeling for economy and sparseness which preclude all forms of cinematographic sentimentality.The last scene might be the saddest of all Christmas scenes.

I love this movie.

[createdn65 · 8 December 1999]

I remember seeing this movie when I was a kid. We watched it every year. It has been about 10 years since I have seen it, if not longer. I always check the listings this time of year but never seem to see that it is on. This has got to be one of the best holiday movies I have ever seen. My kids have never seen this movie and I am sure they would just love it as much as I did when I was their age. A definite thumbs up for me!

THE Christmas TREE (Terence Young, 1969) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 31 December 2011]

This was shown at Christmastime on local TV in the late 1980s, back when Leslie Halliwell's conservative Film Guide was the 'Bible' of movie-reviewing tomes – and, since he had disparagingly labelled this "the most lachrymose film of the sixties", I missed out on it! Mind you, this does provide the double threat of being an all-stops-out 'weepie' with child interest – of which quite a few, oddly enough, were made in Europe around this time (including MISUNDERSTOOD {1966} and THE BALLOON VENDOR {1974}, which was a big hit when released in theaters locally)!

By the way, I now caught up with this on Italian TV and, incidentally, in spite of a British director and an American star (William Holden), this is a Franco-Italian co-production, with those countries represented in the principal cast by Bourvil and Virna Lisi respectively. Actually, only the last act deals with the titular decoration and the period itself and, given the subject matter, I am sure it was chosen with ironic intent: in fact, here we have a boy who is fatally stricken with leukemia when exposed to radiation – in a scene virtually replicating the one in the sci-fi classic THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957)! – on the coast of Corsica (where he had gone ostensibly to spend the summer holidays with the industrialist father he barely knew). The latter was nearby (albeit safely underwater) when a plane exploded on top of the child (sitting in a dinghy) and, while killing its occupants, managed to release a parachute containing an atomic bomb into the sea!

Upon learning of this condition (which he naturally keeps from his son at first, by pretending he is the sick one!), the star dedicates himself to the boy unconditionally by taking up residence at a French country-side château he owns (with widower Holden's new girlfriend Lisi coming to visit from time to time). Looking after this property, then, is well-meaning but cantankerous handy-man Bourvil – in fact, it is during an argument with his boss (which is unwittingly overheard by the boy) that the latter gets wind of the true nature of their isolation! Anyway, at this point, Holden cannot refuse the kid anything – even when he requests a wolf for a pet. Since his father and Bourvil had served in WWII together, they were no strangers to dangerous missions – and so it is that they infiltrate a zoo and steal a male and female wolf (Bourvil having read in a book they would not survive apart!). The scene of their capture itself is pretty vivid, as the beasts do not take kindly to the intruders and fight back (injuring Holden) – later, there is a suspenseful moment while transporting the stolen 'cargo' at a gas-station as a couple of policemen want to inspect their vehicle and the men have to use their wits in order to get out of this scrape!

Speaking of animal violence, another strong scene involves the vicious attack by the wolves on a 'mad' steed (who has run away from under his own master, a Holden acquaintance, played by Friedrich Ledebur) – with the horse being eventually put down, actually an act of empathy, by the star! To be honest, though, it is this element above all else which renders the film palatable (though Henri Alekan's cinematography and the score by Georges Auric also help in this regard). The anti-nuclear message, on the other hand, is laid on too thick – with recurring noises of jets flying overhead, at which Bourvil utters accusingly (but also rather desperately), "Assassins"! – ironically enough, the actor would himself die the very next year, at just 53, of a rare disease! As for the child's inevitable death scene (surprisingly, he is not shown to be suffering all that much considering, but I should point out here that the copy I watched ran for just 97 minutes against the film's official length of 110!), this thankfully occurs off-screen – with Holden alerted to the tragedy by the howling of his two loyal pets (for the record, the film was released on VHS in the U.S. under the title WHEN WOLVES CRY!).

Sad almost beyond endurance

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 22 November 2017]

For tax reasons and to be nearer his beloved African game preserve William Holden spent a lot of time in Europe during the sixties working. At the end of the decade Holden starred in The Christmas Tree which is not what you would think by the title, a warm and fun holiday movie. Christmas is peripheral to this very sad, almost beyond endurance sad movie.

Holden is one of the richest men in the world and a widower who has a young son Brooke Fuller. While on holiday in Corsica and swimming on the beach Fuller is exposed fatally to radiation poisoning. I'm not sure of the science of this, but I think the effects are those that would be sustained in one of those dirty bomb type explosions. You'll have to see the film to see how it is done.

There's no hope but to make the lad's weeks/months as happy as possible. The moral if there is any is that all the wealth and power in the world can never be brought to bear against the inevitable.

The cast also includes Virna Lisi and the great French comedian Bourvil. It's a great film, but not for the Yuletide season.

I agree with the dissenters

[Blub1256ber · 2/10 · 14 November 2013]

It's not at all worth it. Bataille's novel, which I eagerly devoured after seeing "The Christmas Tree" the first time on CBS' The Late Show in December, 1975, is an OK read, but not too much better--or more interesting--than Terence Young's maudlin filming, in which there is little, if any, emotional involvement. William Holden, as the multi-millionaire dad, looks completely embarrassed. He has "I just wanted to work with Terry because he did such a good job on the Bond flicks and 'Wait Until Dark' written all over his fake expressions of concern. The best thing about TCT without question is Brook Fuller. Contrary to previous opinions, IMO he was a very talented young man - if you check him out on IMDb, you'll note his career was cut short early on; recovering from this dirge must have been difficult for him. But he gets the best line - "Live happy - Every day a holiday!" (That's certainly advice we can all use, but that's as good as it gets; meanwhile Mario Feliciani, as "Le Docteur," casually, nonchalantly reminds us that we're all mortals. Ho hum......) The alarm about nuclear accidents is hammered home repeatedly. From the beginning of the film, we spend the whole time waiting for poor Pascal to expire. When he does, it's more than just an anticlimax; it's hollow and catatonia-inducing. He has made a plaque for Daddy wishing him "Good Luck" - to me, it was "Good luck trying to get this sticky, pointless drivel out of your mind." Final note: Georges Auric wrote some of the incidental music, but the pseudo-sad guitar that weaves its way in and out of the soundtrack is clearly lifted from Les Jeux Interdits by Rene Clement - a much, much better example of how to get viewers to cry.

THE Christmas TREE

[saccrn79 · 10/10 · 29 November 2005]

The year was 1969 when I first saw this movie on television. I was twenty- five years old at the time. I really liked the movie for what values it offered. Pascal's comment to his father if his father was sick and recuperating why does he have to take medicine. The confession that he told his dad he over heard during the night that the senior doctor cried knowing there was no cure, that this young patient (himself) had only a few months to live when he had a conversation with another doctor in the hall. To me hearing this conversation about me would cause a great depression. I would'not want to eat or care about any thing or any one. I don't know how I would react to this devastated news. This movie has not been shown on TV for some years.

If you like watching children die you'll love this

[clanceylufkin · 1/10 · 23 December 2010]

As a child for three years in a row my parents dropped me at the local grind house to see this while they went Christmas shopping. I'd need to see it again to give an adults opinion of this movie and I haven't, so it being a Christmas movie who parents subjected their children to, I will give my child's opinion on this...

Hey mom and dad...this movie really stinks!!! Why do you keep leaving me alone in a dark theatre to to watch an exceedingly painful movie that forces me to face my own mortality when I'm only 8 years old? Come on folks...I'm a child I don't need this now. I have a life time coming up to worry about my own demise. So...is watching a kid my own age be found dead under a Christmas tree Christmas morning someone supposed to make me full of The ol' X-mas cheer? Why are you doing this to me!??? Next year could you simply lock me into a closet while you go Christmas shopping instead? I'll be fine...I'll play with the shoes.

Great But Unwatchable.

[jkw-ns · 10/10 · 23 December 2017]

I saw this film for the first and the last time as a thirteen year old in the 1970's. I think that it was screened on ITV.

Holden is superb in the role, as are all the other actors, but the ending tears your heart out to such an extent that I can't watch it again. I openly wept and I'm sure that many other people did. If the purpose of film is to captivate and entertain then 'The Christmas Tree' gets top marks but if the purpose, in this case, was to instil a 'feel good' feeling into the viewer then the film fails...spectacularly so.

Well made, moving and well acted but so moving that it grabs your soul and makes you feel deeply, deeply sad.

Pallid Tear Jerker Phony as a three-dollar Bill

[i_did_nt_inhale · 2/10 · 18 June 2001]

This boring hodgepodge of saccharine and tears is as manipulative as it is barren. And the kid is just God-awful. William Holden is clearly in the death-throes of his career at this point and this is "Exhibit A" that he was willing to do just about anything for a paycheck. The plot, an aging father is trying to make one last special Christmas for his fatally ill ten-year old son. That's all there is. Not even the normally irrepressible Bourvil can inject any life into this D. O. A. tearjerker.

a real emotional show

[nono-5 · 18 May 1999]

I have always seen that movie at each Christmas since I am 7. Few people know it but it is really worth to watch. That is according to me one of these little unknown treasures in the world movie collection.

A very different Christmas film - unusual, crazy at times, warm and requiring tissue

[SimonJack · 8/10 · 17 January 2021]

"The Christmas Tree" is a 1969 film made in France, with a multi-national cast. It debuted in America in September of that year - two weeks ahead of its opening in Italy and three weeks ahead of its release in France. While that's a little strange (although not completely unusual as with the plethora of spaghetti Westerns made during the middle to late 20th century), there's very little information online about this film, or about one of its stars or about the book it's based on - and it's author.

Two very big international names of the period star in this film - American Academy Award winner William Holden is Laurent Sêgur, and Italian Virna Lisi is Catherine Graziani. A prominent French actor of the time, Bourvil, plays a major role as Verdun. Others in the cast, are Austrian and Russian as well as French and Italian. And, then there's the young American co-star, Brook Fuller, who plays 10-year-old Pascal Sêgur. All the IMDb Web site has about him (with no more information anywhere else) is that he was born in 1958 in Monterey, California; and, he's an actor and a writer, and he is connected to three films. He was a child actor in two 1960s films, and a writer for a 2012 film made in the Ukraine. Yet, this 11-year-old child gives a tremendous performance in this film. So, one can puzzle over why Brook Fuller didn't appear in many more films and possibly become a major star.

Well, that aside, this film has an unusual plot as well, and some very different - if not quirky, situations and scenes. The plot is based on a novel by French author Michel Bataille. Very little information is available online about him, except that he was born in 1926 in Paris, studied and worked as an architect for 13 years then left that to take up writing fulltime. British director and writer Terence Young ("Dr. No," "From Russia With Love," and "Thunderball") wrote the screenplay and directed this film. So, one doesn't know how much it sticks to the book. A subtle undertone of the story - either from the book, or the screenplay, or both, is an anti-nuclear arms race tone. This was at the height of the Cold War with the nuclear arms race in full swing between America and the Soviet Union. Without any other way of understanding how it could happen and not become well known in the story, a nuclear accident is the basis for this movie. It happens when a military plane explodes in the air, with subsequent explosions that release radiation from an atomic bomb that floats down to the sea under parachutes.

Holden's Laurent Sêgur is an American of obvious French ancestry, who is a multi-millionaire. We never learn what his company or business is. But during WW II he was in the American Army and worked with the French and Italian underground to sabotage German installations. That's how he and Verdun became friends. In the 24 years since the war, Sêgur has become super wealthy. He now is a widower with a 10-year-old son, and lives in Paris. His son, Pascal, is in an exclusive school much of the year, and they spend 6 ½ weeks together on his vacations. One of their frequent places to stay is the castle in the French countryside that Laurent bought years before, and where his wartime friend, Verdun, now manages and takes care of the estate. It has just one other employee, Marinette, an elderly French cook, and they use just half a dozen rooms of the huge estate. Laurent admits that he doesn't even know how many rooms the place has.

Laurent now also has a lady friend who is an art designer for a magazine in Paris. Catherine is about to become his fiancé, but only after she meets Pascal who comes home for the summer vacation. Laurent asks Pascal where he would like to go on vacation, and they wind up in Corsica, camping out on a beach. While out on a raft, the military plane accident occurs overhead. Laurent goes into the water to retrieve something Pascal has dropped, and during that time Pascal is exposed to the radiation from the bomb that is floating down to the sea.

After they learn that Pascal will die from the radiation exposure in three to six months, Laurent spends the rest of the time with him at the country estate. He and Verdun do all they can to make Pascal happy. Some of the things they do are far out. The film has some good moments of light humor as well. Pascal gets a tractor to drive and two pet wolves that his dad and Verdum have to steal from the Paris zoo. Pascal takes to Catherine and she to him, and on Christmas Eve when Laurent and she return after last minute shopping, Laurent finds Pascal finally at rest under their Christmas tree.

I'm not a rich person myself - monetarily, that is. But as a dad, I would have done anything I could to make a child of mine happy who was dying of an incurable disease. This just happens to be based on a book about a wealthy widower and his son. I think most people will find this film a wonderful and warm (though with a sad ending) snapshot of life and family, whether at Christmas or any time.

Here are some favorite lines from this film.

Catherine Graziani, "But do you know really why I'll marry you?" Laurent Sêgur, "Mmm hmm. It's because you want two passports."

Catherine Graziani, "Ah, the trouble with men - they just don't know how to count."

Marinette, as Pascal leaves with a large bowl of meat to feed the wolves, "Shall I go with you?" Pascal Sêgur, "Marinette, women and wolves don't mix."

A very emotional Christmas time movie, that is already well summarized in other reviews.

[brittnangie · 9/10 · 16 December 2016]

I saw this movie once when I was a small child (4 or 5),this was obviously very shortly after production. I am now 49 and I have thought often about the emotional impact that it had on me at such a young age. I was inconsolable the evening after watching this and the whole next day. I'm assuming this was because I was a very sensitive child and I was so young when I watched it. Back then children weren't so desensitized to raw emotion as they are today. Even still, I don't think that I would show this movie to a child as young and sensitive as I was. Just thinking about it, this movie is still a very memorable and emotional movie to think about. It just shows very well the lengths that a parent will go to to make their dying child happy when they don't know what else to do. It shows the assumptions that people will jump to without knowing the facts, It also shows the loving bond between a child and his pets. If you enjoy tearjerkers, then this one will do the job. I do still think of it most years around Christmas, and I'd really love to see it again. Just writing this review of a movie I saw 44 years ago brought tears to my eyes. A Wonderful depiction of love, humanity and sacrifice.

Still up to date ,to see even if you don't like to cry .

[Heimdallav · 19 May 2003]

I red the book when I was 11 and wanted to see the film . I liked it the same . Now I am 35 and I still like to see it sometimes . It's a good analysis of the characters . What would you do if a person you love very much have to die en six month . Bourvil is my favourite actor and it is one of his best role .

One of the saddest films ever

[catalinescu-65-901946 · 9/10 · 12 March 2022]

Man, I saw this movie when I was little.. don't actually remember what age.. I don't remember much from that time. But this story stuck with me and now, some 25 years later, I just remembered this and looked it up. Don't know if I would watch it again though.. but if you are one for a good tear jerker, this surely does the job.

A beautiful Christmas drama

[cituarteg · 13 January 2002]

I saw this movie about thirty years ago and never forgot about it. I'd love to see it again but I haven´t been able to find it. The plot, actors and photography are great and it is the kind of movie I'd love my children to see.

Tearjerker, unique story, definitely want to see it again

[sims2j · 23 December 2003]

I was a kid when I first saw this movie, and I cried. I was not a movie critic then (I'm still not), but I know that this movie really tugged at my heartstrings. I haven't seen the movie since, but I would like to. It was so interesting to me at the time, the unique way the father dealt with the impending death of his young son.