The Little Match Girl

"The Little Match Girl" is an incredibly depressing short story by Hans Christian Andersen and because it's so short and depressing I am surprised anyone would make a film version. However, there are actually quite a few shorts (including a Disney one which was shelved after it was completed) as well as the very cheap 1954 version.

The 1954 film was made in a set--with lots of cheap wooden props. It also comes off as very cheap because there is no dialog....just narration which was added later. It's not an effective way to tell the story and because of this and the cheap sets, it all seems very stagy.

The story is about a young girl selling matches on a snowy winter night. No one buys them and because she's so poor she stays out all night...ultimately freezing to death. In the interim, she has various dreams about nice Christmas stuff...as well as of her virgin Mary-like dead mother.

Depressing? Yup. Cheap? Oh, yes! Overall, I cannot recommend it and instead think you'd be better off reading the story yourself.

The Little Match Girl (1954)

*** (out of 4)

Nice version of the Hans Christian Andersen story about a poor match girl who dreams of something better but in tragedy. According to Wiki (yeah, I know), this version was originally a 1952 French movie that was purchased by Castle Films in 1954 and they added the English narration. I had a hard time really getting too much information on this as the titles and credits have been replaced by the Castle Films one so even the print I watched did no good in that regards. For the most part I think this is one of the saddest "Christmas" stories out there and it really doesn't take too much to film it. This version here has a few different takes on the story including the girl being "rescued" by the Virgin Mary. I thought the young actress playing the girl did a pretty good job with it and unlike so many other dubbed movies, this one doesn't suffer from the translation. In fact, the story itself is so strong that you could easily turn off the sound and still be able to enjoy the message and the drama.

This version of the heartbreaking Anderson "fairy Tale" is perhaps viewed best with the sound off and your favorite Christmas Carols playing. It has mostly been seen by Americans as a silent from Castle Films, an 8mm home movie company. What's great about this is the black and white spookiness it shares with some of these other obscure Christmas items (Hardrock, Coco and Joe being the ultimate example) that convey a bleak sense of Christmas sadness (Santa is added to the tale) that is both heartwarming and a little troubling.

And what could be better for the tone that Anderson's morbid, unforgettable tale of a homeless child freezing to death on the street. They don't play up the ending in this version, they don't have to.

All in all, highly recommended to fans of obscure Christmas fare and it is findable on DVD.