Underplayed Gems

The Nativity (1952)

The Nativity poster
Original title
The Play of the Nativity of the Child Jesus
Directed by
Franklin J. Schaffner
Genre
Christmas film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h
Rating
4.0 of 10 from 1 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This television drama from 1952 tells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. It adapts text from 14th and 15th century English mystery plays.

reverentausterehistoricalsolemnslow-pacedtraditionalmeditativeceremonialancient

What happens

The Nativity was a 58-minute United States television drama with music about the birth of Jesus Christ, presented on the television anthology Westinghouse Studio One. Directed by Franklin Schaffner, it is a rare modern network television production of an authentic mystery play, mostly culled from the York and Chester mystery plays of the 14th and 15th centuries in England. The adaptation was by Andrew Allan. The presentation, originally telecast live the evening of December 22, 1952 on CBS, has been preserved on kinescope. It has been issued in several DVD public domain versions.[1] It can also be seen complete online on Internet Archive. The play was performed in what is now known as Elizabethan English. Although it takes its text straight from fifteenth-century English, the words were not pronounced as Middle English would be, but in a more modern manner. Musical selections were selected from Christmas carols and sung by the Robert Shaw Chorale. The cast included Thomas Chalmers, Paul Tripp, and Miriam Wolfe. Hurd Hatfield serves as narrator.[2] (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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