Customer Reviews

Olden Days Coat [VHS]

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The Olden Days Coat (Bruce Pittman, 1982)

Margaret Laurence's kids' book The Olden Days Coat is one of those stories that will stay with you, once you've read it, forever. It's a quick little fantasy tale that contains all the Laurence magic boiled down into a fantastic picture book; it is not to be missed.

The short-film adaptation of it, however, is as sure to disappoint as the book is to enchant. Megan Follows (recently seen in the TV adaptation of Plainsong) stars as Sal, the girl underwhelmed by the idea of spending Christmas at her grandmother's house. She doesn't turn in an awful performance, though you'd never know that she'd be nominated for her first (of four) Gemini Awards four years later. Everyone else is deadly dull, as is the direction of Bruce Pittman, whose career since this has been strung with awful TV shows (Doc, Sue Thomas F B Eye, and Relic Hunter all appear in his recent resume, along with such big-screen gems as Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II.) Despite the fact that this runs less than half an hour, I can't imagine viewers wouldn't have rather endured another four or five minutes of Jiffy-Pop commercials instead of the slow-as-molasses opening scenes.

A dire, dire thing. If you've ever read the book, avoid it. *