Heaven Forbid That X-Mas Morn' Would Find Thou So...!

And God Almighty Forbid 

That This Luminous Blogger's Own Play 

Should Remain In The Attic 

As Long As The One In This Flick 

Right Here, Offered As A Present 

On This Christmas Morning:

Lost World Pictures presents
- in conjunction with Charley Gap Films -
an adaptation of the book by
Lois Gladys Leppard
- courtesy of iOn Television, too -
a film by Joy Chapman and Owen Smith,
laced by so-so acting,
criticized for lacking realism and ''natural''
along with other editing problems,
''Mandie And The Forgotten Christmas'' 
(SPOILERS! SOILERS!) 
asks the absurd question ''what if Christmas was forgotten?''
- and that is not even the true focus of the story here!
This story takes place in a boarding school in the 1900s
and it is about scroogy Mrs Heathwood
and her dislike for the Joyous Season
coupled with the fact that she keeps
a hell of a lot of Christmas decorations
up in the attic; thus, ''Mandie'' here
smells a mystery...
Not that she's much of a teenage sleuth, mind you
(regardless of those Young Mandie Mysteries and all)
but the attic sure is noisy
when all that should be up there
are a mouse or two -
and all those unused decorations!
Thus, she investigates and finds...
well, most importantly of all,
she finds, inside of a treasure chest,
a play, without an ending.
The play's author is the headmistress of the school
and it has been so ''shelved'' due to misfortune;
the sort of misfortune all authors can sympathize with!
You see, it seems like Mrs Heathwood's
deep dislike for all things ''merry''
stems from her disillusions
with dreams that didn't come true
even though she was quite
pro-active about it all...
Makes... total.. complete... sense.
And, so, our heroine Mandie here
will make things right for
everyone around here, really...
The End!

Since this version is completely without end credits,
let's take an extra second or two, here, to underline
the wholesome performance by Kelly Washington
(convincing enough as Mandie Shaw;
she took over the role from Lexi Johnson
when the latter departed after portraying the part
in not one but two distinct films...!)
Amazingly enough, Mandie's best friend, Polly,
is portrayed in all three films by the same
unsavory talent: Amanda Waters.
who's previously starred in Godfilms'
''Becoming Jesse Tate''
so, she may actually be a worthy talent...?
Completing the trio of young damsels,
Glennellen Anderson is ''Celia of the Attic'' here;
she comes off as far more genuine than
the blonde and the brunette -
with true innocent nymphette quality...
One wonders, though, if author Leppard
wasn't playing around when she named
the part Anderson inherited of
''Celia'' - as in ceiling, perhaps...?
But that's not important right now...
Mrs Heathwood is played by Joanna Daniel:
who looks like a veteran actress,
acts like a veteran actress,
but, if one judges by her IMDB résumé,
is anything but a veteran actress...?!
Joy Chapman is listed as a co-producer
on top of playing the part of Miss Prudence
and editing the film, too:!
Her ''official'' co-producer, Owen Smith,
triple duties himself as he is
the cinematographer of service
while also providing the score for the film!
Truly a laborious production, all in all...

As for the source material:
well... who has heard of Lois Gladys Leppard,
Christian author from the Bible Belt, before?
Really?
Good for you.
She was a playwright, too - among many other things.
Hence, she knows what the Heathwoods among us
have all gone through, to whatever degree...
The author passed away a full year
before the first of those three God-awful
movie adaptations of her work was released -
which is good for her, too...
Her estate is handled by fellow bloggers, too.
And, from what we read here,
their dealings with pub-leech-ers
are about the same, too...
But that's another story...!

Merry Christmas, everyone...!

Don't Forget...
the Reason for the Season!
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