Taken from Czech legend, this fairytale-type film tells the story behind the Christmas Carol. Prince Wenceslas is a teenager (Jonathan Brandis) with a wicked stepmother (Stefanie Powers), who wants her own son Boleslav (Oliver Milburn) to be the future king and schemes to achieve this goal with her consort Lord Tunna (Perry King). Joan Fontaine plays Wenceslas' good grandmother and Leo McKern makes the most of a small role as a duke whose daughter is to marry the young prince. With its stilted dialogue, this is only moderately entertaining stuff, for kids at least.

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