I generally do not put my two cents into this type of misinformation "free-for-all" but, having read everyone's opinion on what I have always considered to be one of television's finest productions, I couldn't sit by and listen anymore. As a retired university professor (I taught an in-depth course in musical theater history) much of what I read here was written by people with very little love or understanding of the developments of 20th century American musical theater."The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood, or Oh Wolf, Poor Wolf," originally broadcast over the ABC network during Christmas of 1965, proved so popular that ABC repeated the broadcast the following Christmas season. (Most likely the last time it was seen in color; rebroadcasts were rare 45 years ago.) I was only 11 years old at the time, but I still remember watching and enjoying both broadcasts. "Red" was a TV special and not a movie. It was filmed in a television studio using the "live-on-tape" method. (The camera was pretty much stationary and post-production was quick and without much editing or close ups.) The music was performed live in the studio. And so, if you listen to the original cast recording (recorded not in 1965, but a year later in 1966) you will notice some major differences between the performances. On the recording there is now an overture and two full ballets which add at least 15 minutes to the brief running time of the show (neither of which were a part of the broadcast). And the Animals must not have been available for the recording date because they do not sing in the song "Snubbed" with the wolf. (Instead, on the LP, this ensemble piece is turned into a solo for Cyril Ritchard who admirably sings both his and the Animals' parts, making the wolf sound somewhat psycho and much funnier than on the TV special.) The Animals performance of "We're Gonna Howl Tonight" was not re-recorded for the album, but was taken directly off the soundtrack of the broadcast; hence, the sound quality goes from stereo to monaural on the album during that one number. Overall, the performances are first rate on the LP. The "ad libs" are funnier, the orchestra is larger, and even the lyrics received a sprucing up.The show was originally broadcast in color. But, as was the case in much of early TV, the reel of tape that housed the show was worth more than the material it preserved because the color broadcast of "Red" was eventually erased and the reel reused to preserve another ABC show. What exists today on VHS and DVD is an inferior black and white kinescope of the broadcast. (Before the invention of recordable video tape, television primitively preserved its history by placing a film camera in front of a TV monitor during a broadcast.That explains the distorted image.) The entire production was meant to be performed with tongue firmly planted in cheek. We understood that in 1965. Few in today's audiences "get it" now. The art of satire is, unfortunately, lost today and this type of comedy is mistakenly called "corny." And so, the charm of this small masterpiece is also lost. For years, I showed this delightful musical to my music theater students at Christmastime. It is a perfect example of what we came to know as the end of Broadway musicals as we we knew them (falling, as it does, after "Fiddler On the Roof" and "Hello Dolly," but before "Mame" and "Company"). "Red"provides us with the opportunity to observe Liza Minnelli as she evolved from a mass of nervous teenage energy into a confident and well-rounded superstar; hear the brilliant Broadway-quality score of Jule Styne and Bob Merrill; and, best of all, experience one of the world's greatest comic performers, Cyril Ritchard, in one of his most hilarious roles. Yes, pray for a better copy to come alone. But while we wait, let's just be happy that this beat-up copy exists for our enjoyment.

What do you get when you throw a ton of money at top Broadway talents for a "sure fire" holiday special and toss in a popular rock group for demographic appeal? Well, historically and forever anything that people assume will be "sure fire" isn't - and THE DANGEROUS Christmas OF RED RIDING HOOD (or OH WOLF, POOR WOLF! as the sub title ran - a spoof on the relatively recent Arthur Kopit stage farce "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mother's Hung You In The Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad" and typical of the "wit" of the script) is a perfect example.Top billed Cyril Ritchard was (and remains) beloved of American audiences for his Captain Hook in Mary Martin's PETER PAN (with part of its score by Jule Styne); Liza Minnelli had already made the beginning of a major mark on stage Off-Broadway in a revival of BEST FOOT FORWARD and had won a Tony for her Broadway debut in the marginally successful Kander and Ebb musical FLORA THE RED MENACE (her incongruous first costume here looks like something from that show); Styne and Merrill's FUNNY GIRL was in its second year on Broadway, and they were both working on shows for the following season (Styne would win a Tony for HALLELUJAH, BABY - Merrill would come acropper with his BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S closing in previews). How could they go wrong with a little hour long holiday special? Quite easily it turned out - although nothing much was lost at the time. No one had a lot to lose, and with Styne and Merrill as Executive Producers, there was no one to push for better. The work was tossed off without the care and craft that would go into something which had to sustain a run on stage. It filled a time slot and was decent fun even if it was no one's best work ("Ding-A-Ling" is fairly definitive proof that pop/rock music was not Styne or Merrill's métier).Not one particularly distinguished tune or lyric emerged (the "Red Riding Hood" number sets the tone of sustained silliness with its anachronistic rhymes and jokes), and the wit in the book credited to Robert Emmett never went much beyond the only partially fulfilled concept of telling the story of "Red Riding Hood" from the Wolf's point of view. Despite the presence - mainly for the joke of the group's name - of the pop group "Eric Burdon and The Animals" in the supporting cast (they do awfully well in the Lee Theodore's sprightly 60's choreography), the show essentially disappeared after the initial November 28, 1965 Thanksgiving broadcast over the ABC Network (one supposes the link was EVERYONE going to Grandmother's house for Thanksgiving Dinner) until a cheap black and white holiday VHS video (a kinescope?) appeared in discount Christmas bins a decade or so ago.With a slightly better print now available on DVD, the show is an interesting view for what is there. Ritchard is, as always, a delight in the lead role of the Big not-so-Bad Wolf narrating the piece in flash-back from his "cell" in the zoo, even when allowed to raise his perpetually arched eyebrows a trifle too high. The very young Liza Minnelli (Red Riding Hood - "her real name was Lillian") is just approaching her full powers and the potential is obvious. The talent is still very raw, but it is undeniably impressive ('though it would take a far stronger director than Sid Smith to reign her in and get a polished performance). It is clear why, the following fall, she would be rejected in her audition for Sally Bowles in the original CABARET - Sally was supposed to be worldly but *not* supposed to be a first class performer, and No one would believe a Minnelli Sally producing the required character shadings or that she could do no better than performing in a basement in Berlin at this point in her career.Fanciers of early 60's pop music get a glance of both Vic Damone as Minnelli's Woodsman/love interest and The Animals as the "Wolf Pack. Both were popular at the time, and while nothing in the Styne/Merrill score is as good as anything in Merrill's score for BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (which finally got recorded more than 25 years after it closed on Broadway!), nothing in it is painful either and all is musically very well performed by all concerned.Pleasant little artifact and a diverting holiday trifle. Nothing more, nothing less . . . but it might have been much, much more.

Musical television special from November 1965, apparently broadcast live by ABC (and with very little rehearsal), is a coy, nutty take on the "Little Red Riding Hood" tale, with music by "Funny Girl" composers Bob Merrill and Jule Styne (who also served as executive producers!). Young Liza Minnelli is Lillian (a.k.a. Red Riding Hood) who fends off the friendship of a lonely, debonair, Shakespeare-quoting forest wolf; when he realizes he's lost her to a singing woodchopper, he decides to have her for dinner (literally). Despite some interesting camera-work (for its time) and good, clear sound, this black-and-white relic isn't very memorable. I'm sure Styne and Merrill left some of these songs off their resume, particularly the Lillian-Wolf duet "Ding-A-Ling". Cyril Ritchard is very confident as the suave wolf (he glides through this unsure production as if he didn't have a nerve in his body), but Minnelli is a different matter. This certainly wasn't Liza's first time in the spotlight (TV or otherwise), but she attacks her moments on camera with the overt eagerness of a brassy, bustling newcomer. Even her quiet solo, "I'm Naive", is jazzed up by Liza's over-emphatic delivery and kinetic body language. Minnelli-buffs will undoubtedly want to take a look, but the story and the songs don't really go together, and the Christmas theme is practically irrelevant.

I was able to see a grainy print of this "movie" at a revival theater. I don't know where they got the print, but it's a real shame that it's not out on video or DVD. It is jaw droppingly awful in a way that makes it hysterically funny.Liza Minnelli gives an early, clunky performance as Red Riding Hood and Cyril Richard is a scream as the wolf/granny. The best moment is when the two of them sing "Ding-a-Ling". Cyril looks ridiculous dressed up and hamming it up as granny, while Liza jumps around the tv set doing some of the worst dance moves ever recorded on film.See this movie if you ever get a chance, it's priceless.