The Littlest Angel

I saw this show in 1969 as a wide eyed little girl anxiously awaiting Christmas. I loved it then and never forgot it as I grew up. Last year I discovered it was available and spared no time or expense in ordering it. What a disappointment! It was painful to watch how cheesy it really is and how little money Hallmark spent on the production. I guess at the age of 8 you are watching through a different set of eyes. I am so sad. I wish I had never ordered it so that my memories of it would still be fond ones. Please, if you enjoyed this show as a child do not watch it now as a grown up. I guess it's true - you can't go back.

aloha

I saw it for the first time as a kid in the 1990's at Catholic school, with little knowledge of 1960's television or that it was from that far back, and found it kind of enjoyable, although I felt bad for the kid dying and missing his home. (And I blinked and missed that he fell off a cliff, and thought he had died of exhaustion from climbing the mountain trying to catch the bird). I rewatch it as an adult recently (knowing more about 60's television), and am like, this movie was that old? The angel boy was the kid from 'Family Affair'? The guardian angel was Herman Munster? Also, I'm re-seeing the trippy 60's effects, which went over my head as a kid, and while I didn't see their names anywhere in the credits, if someone told me Sid and Marty Krofft had a hand in production, I would believe them. Overall not a bad movie, with 60's stars.

Like newscat, I was so taken by this film as a small child, that I asked my Dad to make me a wooden box for my treasures.

I found it to be such a moving story;the angel's giving his most treasured possessions to Jesus made a deep impression.

I don't think he knew why I wanted it, but I'm 43 and still have it.

After many years, I'm hoping to find a copy so I can see it again. and to share it with my husband who would be seeing it for the first time.

Yes, I'm sure the production values aren't up to today's standards and that it may look really cheesy. But I'm looking forward to seeing it to relive happy childhood memories.

Although this TV special, probably quite imaginative for 1969, now looks like an under-dressed, blue-screen relic from years past, it still has enough musical flair, talented players and soft-hearted sentiment to make it a passable holiday entertainment. Johnny Whitaker, as the shepherd boy who follows a white dove off a cliff and winds up in the Hereafter, isn't an accomplished vocalist yet is still a most efficient child-actor, carrying most of this show along with his youthful enthusiasm; Whitaker is quite adept at picking up his musical cues, and is comfortably at-home sharing the screen with heavyweights such as Fred Gwynne (sporting a thick crop of dark hair!), Tony Randall, Connie Stevens, James Coco, and E. G. Marshall. The costumes are fairly unflattering on everybody (Whitaker's shepherd's skirt is far too brief--exposing his knobby knees), and the primitive effects are an eyesore, however the songs are rather tuneful and everyone involved proves to be a good sport and pulls this off with sheer professionalism.

I recall seeing most of this "Hallmark Hall of Fame" musical special on NBC, probably when it first aired in December 1969. Seeing it again almost 30 years later, I found this shot-on-tape production every bit as dreary and depressing as I'd remembered it. "The Littlest Angel" is the heartwarming story of a shepherd boy named Michael who dies on his eighth birthday, and ends up in Heaven. (To make matters worse, the white dove that lures Michael to his death turns out to have been sent by God Himself.) Michael, less than enthusiastic about being in Heaven, just wants to go home - and who can blame him? If you have any small kids who weren't sufficiently traumatized by the demise of Bambi's mother, they're bound to get a kick out of the scene in which Michael is allowed to return to Earth briefly to retrieve his treasure box; he can see his parents, but his parents, who don't even know yet that their son is dead, can't see him.

In this special, Heaven is a place where people wearing white gowns and metallic halos are badly chroma-keyed against vaguely psychedelic backgrounds. There's very little plot, and a bunch of pretty forgettable songs which run the gamut from pious to perky. The video effects are hopelessly crude (even, I think, by 1969 standards). Johnny Whitaker, who was still co-starring in "Family Affair" on CBS at the time, is one of the few genuinely delightful things about this production. Fred Gwynne, a few years after shaking off Herman Munster, does what he can as guardian angel Patience. You may be surprised at how well he sings (as he did in the much later "Ironweed"). Connie Stevens appears for one number as a "flying mistress"; Cab Calloway leads a heavenly choir; E.G. Marshall plays God.