Remembering Mr. Krueger's Christmas

 

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    Most of the world associates the actor Jimmy Stewart and Christmas with the marvelous Frank Capra film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  And that is a classic tale, with everyman George Bailey learning, at his most depressed hour, how much a town needs him.

     But there is another Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie, “Mr. Krueger’s Christmas,” made by the Mormon Church in 1980. (Watch the film herehttps://youtu.be/m7TfY7aK9R4?si=tty5LJi3fuEUiPyz.) It used to be a fixture on TV stations across the nation during the holidays.  It is not an advertisement for the Mormon Church.  Rather, it’s a story of an elderly widower’s optimism and faith that carries him through life, particularly during times such as Christmas, when loneliness can be heightened.

     Stewart, who gives a great performance, plays Willie Krueger, an elderly widower who lives alone with a cat in the basement of an apartment house where he serves as janitor.  We don’t know anything about Mr. Krueger’s past, other than he is a widower and alone this Christmas Eve.  Mr. Krueger is a bit of a Walter Mitty character.  He likes to daydream.  His daydreams are mostly childlike.  He listens to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on an LP and imagines conducting it.  He peers through a glass shop window at a fancy suit and imagines himself wearing it at a fancy function.  I’m sure most of us have similar daydreams.

    Just as Mr. Krueger is settling in for a lonely Christmas night, he hears carolers outside.  Pleasantly surprised, he shouts from the basement for them to join him for a cup of hot chocolate.  The carolers, who appear well off, are leery of Mr. Krueger, not in a mean way as much as a condescending “this is an odd, old guy” way.  Mr. Krueger excitedly prepares for their visit but they merely stand at his door, sing a song and leave.  All except for a little girl, Clarissa, who wanders into the small home and leaves her mittens.  This paves the way for a second encounter between Mr. Krueger and the carolers.

     I won’t give away the ending except to say that before the reunion there is a deeply moving daydream where Mr. Krueger, looking at a baby Jesus nativity piece, imagines he is at the birth of Christ.  He kneels before the baby Jesus and thanks his Savior for always loving him, no matter if he deserved it or not.  He thanks Jesus for being with him when his wife died and for reminding him to be compassionate to a lonely, cantankerous neighbor.

     This is a powerful scene that establishes Christ’s love – and its power to raise our spirits no matter what – as the main theme of Mr. Krueger’s Christmas.  In fact, it makes the final scene with the carolers seem almost an afterthought.  Mr. Krueger, we learn, can maintain his optimism, his childlike charity and love, no matter what life throws at him.

     Again, there is no proselytizing for the Mormon Church in this film.  That broadens its appeal and certainly helped more people see it.  It’s very popular on the Internet Movie Database, with an 8.0 rating out of a 10 high score.

     The 26-minute film has mostly disappeared from television.  Some people say it is hard to find, but a quick search will find many affordable copies, mostly on Ebay. In 2005, it was re-released on DVD with a remastered musical score and sent to Ensign magazine subscribers.  My copy of it comes with three other LDS-filmed shorts, including the moving four-minute short, “The Nativity,” that recounts Christ’s birth.

     If you haven’t seen this film in more than a few years, hunt it down.  It’s worth another viewing.  In a press conference when the film was released, Stewart, succinct and to the point, summed up why he did the film:

     “I liked the script.  I liked the message.  I thought it was time we needed something like this.”

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This review from long ago (10-plus years) did not even survive in Google Wayback. Glad we had a copy of the Standard Works page to transcribe and bring back Cal Grondahl's wonderful cartoon. (In the early Standard Works days, the cartoons were black and white.) Happy 40th anniversary for this iconic film. I last recall Mr. Krueger's Christmas being promoted at least 15 years ago. We were handed DVDs at church during a Christmas service. But today, I'm sure a healthy number of people watch the film during December.

--- Doug Gibson

--- Originally published at StandardBlogs

'Man's Search for Happiness' goes from Temple Square to cult film

 This post was originally published at StandardNET:

Who remembers “Man’s Search for Happiness,” the 1964 LDS 13-minute film on the “plan of salvation?” That movie played constantly when I was a child and into my teens. It played at LDS visitors centers, in church, at firesides, as a missionary tool. I must have seen it 20 times.

And then it disappeared, replaced by a newer version. In the pre-Internet days, the original “Man’s Search for Happiness” became so scarce you couldn’t find it at a Deseret Industries. So, one day I was leafing through a catalog for Something Weird, a Seattle mail-order DVD and online cult film operation that traffics in everything from old 1930s melodrama to skin flicks. In the “Christian Scare Films” category at SW, Volume 14, surprise, you can buy “Man’s Search” (sic) for $10, $9.99 for an online download. Indeed, it is the old Mormon flick of my youth.

• RELATED: Watch the 1964 version of “Man’s Search for Happiness”

The catalog reads: “Man’s Search (color) actually shows us what Heaven looks like (well, actually, a glimpse of our “pre-life”) and, yup, it’s surprisingly psychedelic: lots of pretty colors and angels milling around. And this trippy, Mormon-made short shows us this pre-mortal life as a way of explaining where we came from and where we’re going in this “Earth life.” So don’t be distracted by the “Funland” amusement-park of sin (where you can zoom around on a cartoon ride, ogle women, and stare at distorted mirrors). Join the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints and keep things dull until your Spirit-Self can walk straight up to Heaven (yes, literally, we see it!) and hug lots of dead people.“

Part of me loves the irony of seeing ”Man’s Search ...“ literally go to out-of-date religious film purgatory (could you imagine what RiffTrax could do with this?) Part of me is sad to see a film I have an affection for being sold as a joke by SW. Another part of me relishes the irony of my faith’s big 1964 film, which premiered to millions at that year’s World’s fair in NYC, being sold by a ”dirty films“ seller during the same era of my faith waging a highly publicized campaign against pornography. Finally, I remain surprised that the LDS Church leadership allowed its copyright to expire so ”Man’s Search ...’ would enter the public domain. After all, it’s narrated by an apostle, Richard L. Evans. 

Or maybe it’s not in the public domain? Maybe a copy was dumped somewhere, or a print found its way into a SW buy of “old, obsolete film?” As mentioned, the LDS Church filmed a newer version in 1987 but retained Evans’ narration and the original script. Are those copyrighted? It would be amusing if SW received a “cease-and-desist” letter from LDS Church attorneys.

If you haven’t seen the 1964 version of “Man’s Search ...” in a long time, it’s easy to find. YouTube has a few copies, including a five-minute “teaser” from SW. I’ve watched it a couple times a year the past several years and was able to share it with my wife and children, who hadn’t seen it. If you grew up on this “Man’s Search For Happiness,” you’ll enjoy it. But, not surprisingly, it has become very dated. The BYU-produced film, directed by the late Disney animator Judge Whitaker, does use psychedelic screen-over colors to portray pre-mortal life, and that’s funny.

The film is very campy and unintentionally cultish. Given the many dysfunctions and sins to choose from, it’s pure camp that a mere carnival would symbolize “the evils of the world.” Viewers are advised to stay away from roller coasters, fun house mirrors, wheels of fortune and shooting galleries.

I’ve saved the most amusing camp for last, where a gaggle of men gaze hungrily at the ankles and calves of burlesque dancers dressed as modestly as Shirley MacLaine in “Can Can.” The late Russian leader Kruschev’s well-publicized objections notwithstanding, that was pretty old-fashioned “indecency” even for 1964.

The rest of the film, which involves the birth of one individual and the death of a grandfather, provides a pretty good overview of the LDS Plan of Salvation. Near the end, when grandpa walks slowly into the spirit world (SW has it wrong, he’s not in heaven) things get funny. A Facebook friend is on target when he compares the spirit world inhabitants that grandpa greets to the possessed souls in the old Brit shocker flick “Village of the Damned.”

Still, I’m glad that “Man’s Search for Happiness” lives on, whether on the Net or through a mail-order company. (The Salt Lake Tribune mentioned this post soon after its original posting in 2011.)

--- Doug Gibson