Load of rubbish!!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I read all of the previous reviews of this Made for TV Movie and IMO only a few folks "got it". This is not going to be as much of a review as it is "background" information.First, it was not seen LIVE. It was pre-recorded in a Studio in Brooklyn, NYC. I was there during the shooting.At the time my dad was "General Manager of Institutional Advertizing" for General Electric, and this was a GE Theater Production.I'm not going to refute any of the individual criticisms, such as the effeminate Ritchard...he was effeminate, but I didn't see this as the negative that the reviewer did. "Female" wolves also eat.Liza was brilliant! Not only is she extremely talented, coming from Minelli/Garland genes, but I got a chance to meet her at the shooting and spend quite a bit of time with her...so I AM somewhat biased. I fell in love with her.Being a son of a GE Marketing Bigwig did have its benefits back during that time period. As one of the Managers of the GE Pavilion at the NY World's fair in '64-'65 I was treated as a VIP not only at the GE Pavilion, but everywhere else as well getting back-door passes to all other Pavilions. Another benefit was being invited to the TDCoRRH shooting. I was 15 at the time, old enough to appreciate meeting Liza and Burden. From that experience I became a life-ling Minelli fan and never played another Burden or "The Animals" record again. Unfortunately, I also spent some time with Burden, and I learned that he will never experience a time where he is not loved, and he is loved best while he's alone.Fortunately I was able to get a hold of the DVD, however unfortunately it was never remastered. It is still the grainy quality of the original SD release. Yet, occasionally I still pop it in the player and enjoy it just as much with each viewing. I only wish that my father was still around to enjoy it with me.

Further to bluestreak45's comments, this is definitely worth a viewing for Eric Burdon and The Animals as the wolf pack, for Cyril Ritchard as the victimized Big Bad Wolf, for the polished musical score, and, if you're a Liza fan, for her belting out tunes at age 19. Songwriter Jule Styne conceived the idea of telling the Red Riding Hood story from a lupine point of view (and wrote the music with Bob Merrill, who wrote "Mambo Italiano"), and it is an ambitious idea, and even has a few amusing exchanges of dialog, e.g., when RRHood (Liza) asks the wolf (Ritchard dressed as granny) to play something on the piano from "when you were a girl-- maybe something by Bach." Unfortunately the production values are minimal and the videotape from the original ABC broadcast is grainy and washed out. Happily for obscurity lovers, as of this writing it is available in five parts at dailymotion.com/video/xuvlm_4-little-red-ridinghood-xmas_music . The Animals show up in part 2, but don't really get going until their howling song in part 4.

The Dangerous Christmas Of Red Ridding Hood was an extremely big deal at my house, and it had nothing at all to do with the movie content. The show was sponsored by General Electric, and at the time my father was GE's Advertising General Manager.Much of what was written is true in that I can remember the production being somewhat silly, but I guess that really was more of the intent.However, the lasting impression the production made on me was due to the fact that I was fortunate to be present at the shooting. Fortunate in that I was a 14 year old boy getting to meet Liza Minnelli, who was but 19 herself, and probably because my father asked her to, she spent about an hour's time communicating with me, and I have loved her ever since.Unfortunately, for probably the same reason, Eric Burden did the same and I was not at all impressed as I thought him to be...a word I would have used at that time...a jerk.Anyway, when the show finally aired we had family friends over to watch it with us, and from the other comments written here they were probably being nice, but I remember the comments being congratulatory.Tom

'The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood' was originally aired on ABC-TV on 28 November, 1965 ... almost a month before Christmas. The material really has nothing to do with Christmas, and it's obvious that a few Yuletide details have been bunged in just to make it likelier that this production would be optioned and scheduled as a 'Christmas' special (which it really isn't) so as to be more commercial and get higher ratings. The script by Robert Emmett isn't very good ... but the score is by the great Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, the same team who wrote the songs for 'Funny Girl'. This isn't one of Styne's best scores (nor Merrill's), but anything written by Jule Styne is worthy of notice.This is a musical retelling of the Red Riding Hood story ... told from the viewpoint of the wolf! That's a very clever idea; unfortunately, it's the only really clever idea in this production. The wolf (renamed here Lone T. Wolf) is played by Cyril Ritchard, which is part of the problem. Ritchard was an extremely effeminate performer. His effeminacy was an asset in some roles, such as when he played Captain Hook (on a ship at sea with all those pirates, whoops!) or when he starred as Kreton the alien in 'Visit to a Small Planet'. But here, his prissy demeanour makes the big bad Wolf seem merely ridiculous. As the wolf, he wears a frock coat and gloves plus a furry headpiece that makes him look like something out of 'Cats' ... plus a long bushy tail that makes him look like Basil Brush gone grey. Even worse are the scenes in which Ritchard's wolf gets dressed up in Granny's nightdress. Drag humour isn't funny if the man wearing women's clothes is just as effeminate WITHOUT the women's clothes.Worse luck, the story is told in flashback. Lone Wolf (Ritchard) is describing his version of events to the other wolves ... who are played by Eric Burdon and the Animals. Get it? The wolves are played by the Animals. Ha bloody ha. It might have been amusing if the Animals had got out their instruments and played 'The House of the Riding Hood', but no such luck.Red Riding Hood is played by Liza Minnelli. I've always disliked this performer due to her extreme archness, but I recognise her talent without enjoying it. In flashbacks, Ritchard's wolf explains that Red Riding Hood was the actual villain, and that everything which happened was her fault, not his. The woodsman (Vic Damone) turns out to be Prince Charming, making this production seem like an early version of 'Into the Woods'.The best things in this production are the Styne/Merrill songs, especially "You'll Need a Song" (sung by Damone) and 'Ding-a-Ling' (sung by Minnelli and Ritchard while the wolf is pretending to be Granny). I'll rate this production 3 points out of 10, and most of that's for the score.