Musical Movie Review: **** Annie (1982)

 Annie is a delightful musical.  Several of us in the family have been in the musical, so we are always comparing the movie to the musical; why didn't they do this song or that one? etc.  Annie (Aileen Quinn) lives in an orphanage whee Miss Hannigan (Carol Burnett) is in charge.  Annie has it coming as she ran away, and came home with a dog.  Grace Farrel (Ann Reinking) shows up to select an orphan to stay with Daddy Warbucks (Albert Finney), the billionaire for the weekend.  Where Annie is by the office, she makes sure she is selected.  Rooster (Tim Curry), Miss Hannigan's brother and Lily (Bernadette Peters) enter the scene as con artists intent on stealing the reward money Daddy Warbucks has offered for Annie's birth parents.  With the help of Miss Hannigan, and an old necklace, they actually pull it off; but the plot is foiled when the other orphans arrive to the mansion to say, "they was bad people."  This movie relies on technology more than the musical with a helicopter, and security guards from different lands.  As I said it is a cute, delightful musical.  And of course Annie sings "Tomorrow."  Edward Herrmann plays President Roosevelt.  

Movie Review: The Christmas Pageant (2011) with Melissa Gilbert

Man I have missed Melissa Gilbert.  Of course I miss the Little House on the Prairie Melissa Gilbert, and this movie is not her; however a couple times this movie took me back.  Gilbert plays Melissa Parks, a Broadway director, who is down on her luck and down on opportunities because of her sour personality.  In the end, she takes the only thing available, a gig directing a Christmas Pageant to the north.  There she meets her old boyfriend (Jack Harmon), who left because he realized Parks was married to her career and didn't need marriage.  She also befriends the boyfriend's daughter (Lennon Wynn) who is wise beyond her years before realizing who she is.  Her birth mother has passed away.  (It seems single parents is common in Hallmark movies.  The landlords where the director is staying are played by Candice Azzara and Edward Herrmann. 
The biggest test with this show comes when a Broadway job finally does come through.  Parks leaves the pageant production a few days before the presentation, to return to New York.  What happens from there?