Just enough familiar faces in "Pagaent" to keep me interested. Edward Hermann is Garrett Clark (LOVED him in Overboard, with Goldie Hawn). In our film, his wife Ethel is played by Candice Azzara ( You'll know her as Rodney D's wife in "Easy Money"). Unfortunately, the comedic scenes here are pretty hokey... our star Melissa Gilbert has a spilled food scene at dinner, but the timing isn't right or something. She plays Vera, who has come from the big city to be director of a small town play. Sound familiar ? I couldn't stop thinking of Christopher Guest's "Waiting for Guffman". Vera manages to tick off most of the cast, and no-one seem s to like the changes she wants to make. This film also has similarities to "Big Eden", except in that one, the townspeople really like the outsider, big city person who returns to the small town. Of course, Vera must meet a townie, and there are ups and downs as we watch the courtship, helped along by a precocious little girl. It's OK. Things happen, decisions must be made. On the Hallmark Channel. Directed by David Cass, who directed Gilbert in two earlier films. Cass also has an interesting Bio on IMDb.

"The Christmas Pageant" takes a stab at a different movie for the holidays, but it doesn't quite work. And, while romance isn't the constant thread in this film, it still fits in that largest group of films made for Christmas time release.

The idea of a Broadway director being canned and having a reputation so that she can't find a job is quite a stretch to begin with. That she would then wind up being paid to direct an adult Christmas pageant in upstate New York is another stretch. But, stretches are okay if the movie can convince the audience. That takes a very good plot and good acting. In this case, it hinges on one role - that of Vera Parks, the director.

The scene that leads to her firing from her last off-Broadway play is laughable. Melissa Gilbert as Parks shows about as much temper, impatience and nastiness as Winnie the Pooh. Her mannerisms and attitude don't come near convincing one that she is a hard-nosed director whom cast members can't get along with or tolerate. No, Gilbert needed to show some real nastiness in her early scene, and she just doesn't have it. Nor does she have it when she goes to tackle the small town Christmas pageant.

So, the rest of the story plays out mostly with a small bunch of local folks, most of whom have their own little eccentricities or problems. And, Vera discovers that her former fiancé of 10 years earlier is a widower with a cute and clever young daughter. Can anyone guess how this might end? It gets five stars precisely because of the corny characters who give this so-so film a little feeling of fun anyway.

Okay, so the production values were good, the lighting and set decoration was good, the costumes and make-up were good ... however, that's about it for this one. You would think that a company the size of Hallmark, with their own cable channel, would be able to pay for better script-writing and direction and turn out better quality movies. Sadly, somehow, they just keep turning out the same, repetitive formula: Fired-executive/Scrooge/down-on-their-luck individual meets small-town-person-with-a-heart-of-gold (usually with a precocious/precious child or two in tow) whose spouse has just died. Good grief, Hallmark seems to kill off a lot of spouses (see Christmas Ornament, Mrs. Miracle, Trading Christmas, etc., etc.). Arrggghhhhh! It just seems that, in the interest of filling time-slots, they settled for mediocrity in direction and script-writing. Ho Ho HUM.