A Christmas Memory

My initial feelings about this newer version of Christmas Memory were similar to many of the other posters. It does the original story a disservice by padding the story with a lot of extraneous characters and dialog that is so-not Capote. If you take this version on its own without making any comparisons, it's really not bad. Patty Duke tries very hard, and succeeds, in making Sook a character all her own. The other performers are also quite good. If the producers of this version needed to expand on the story to fill out 90 minutes, they might have included details from Capote's other Buddy/Christmas story entitled "One Christmas" where Buddy is sent to New Orleans to spend Christmas with his birth father.

Still, if you have the simplicity and charm of Capote's original imprinted on your mind and heart, this version will not do. I join the chorus of folks who would like the 1966 version on a pristine and uncut color DVD with Geraldine Page's wonderful performance and Capote's own voice narrating the story. Then again, perhaps it is sentiment that makes me favor the 1966 version, the same as the 1947 "Miracle on 34th Street" over any of its lame remakes, 1946's "It's a Wonderful Life" over 1977's "It Happened One Christmas", any animated Christmas specials other than the ones produced in the 1960s, or Lesley Ann Warren's 1965 Cinderella over Brandy's hip-hop version.