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Hallmark Movies: Small Town Royalty Magically Celebrating Rekindled Love! - General Discussion


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Geez some harsh reviews!  I loved the movie and watched it every day while I had it on my Dish box—til that had to be replaced. I’m dying to find it so I can do that again. I LOVE Chris McNally—and I hope he’s in tons of these movies!!!  My husband of 46 years died suddenly three years ago and this movie got me through some very very ominous days and nights!!  Thank you. Please show it again soon and let me know so I can DVR it. PLEASE!!  Who else I love with Chris McNally is the Winter Princess actress—they were great together there. It wasn’t as strong a male role to play, so that was a little disappointing. But still love him and Paul Greene, of course, Ryan Paevy, Michael Rady, Mark Deklin, the Rachel Boston costar in Godwin’s Christmas. Since I’ve discovered these Hallmark movies and am unable to sleep, I just about only watch another channel for weather reports. Thank you!!!  
PS, I need to type the Closed Captioning for you all!!  Too many irritating mistakes!! (Former Journalism Instructor) 

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4 hours ago, Bronx Babe said:

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm enjoying Journey Back to Christmas right now.  Candace is wonderful and the time travel story is interesting and not stupid!  The other actors aren't bad.  Wow -- I found a good Hallmark movie! 

I watched that for the first time last year and loved it.  I'm glad you're enjoying it!  It's definitely one of the better Christmas movies, and such a nice change from the usual storylines.

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10 hours ago, AnnaRose said:

I watched that for the first time last year and loved it.  I'm glad you're enjoying it!  It's definitely one of the better Christmas movies, and such a nice change from the usual storylines.

I was more than pleasantly surprised, @AnnaRose!  In fact, I think in many ways (not just as a Hallmark movie) it could be regarded as a television Christmas classic.  I was actually invested in Candace's character Hannah.  A truly heartfelt performance.  The 1940's time travel angle -- instead of coming off as outlandish -- actually gave the story genuine human relatability and a bittersweet, poignant edge.

Now from the sublime to the ridiculous -- was channel surfing and landed on Hallmark where a guy (looked to be in his early '30's) walks into a diner and orders a hamburger with fries.  When the waitress asks what he wants to drink, the guy says...….hot chocolate.  Back to their pod people!  

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I always tape the movies so I can fast forward through the boring stuff - anyway just watched Merry Matrimony - I thought it was a new one but it's actually from 2015.  New to me though.  I thought it was pretty good as these movies go.  The leads could all act for one thing!  Only thing I didn't like was the clumsily handled "misunderstanding" that kept the two main characters apart until the very end.  

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If there are any Christmas to Remember fans here, I just saw the movie available over at The Roku Channel. You just need a Roku account which is completely free but the movies come with ads. The price of free these days I guess.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year is also available over at Amazon if you have Prime. A small note, I notice the movie is clocked in at 90 minutes which is a few more minutes than the DVD release.

During the DTH livestream, Kris Polaha popped on and talked a bit about the behind the scenes stuff with movies. One thing that stood out was the non-US DVD releases usually feature the full movie while the US releases have the 'theatrical' run-time, if you will. Usually 1hr 27/28 min. (I compared different copies and yup, this is true). Just something to keep an eye out for when you're grabbing the DVDs or checking them out online.

Also for funzies, ScreenRant has a 5 Best and 5 Worst Hallmark Christmas movies list. They sprinkle some other other Hallmark related lists in the article including the highest rated Hallmark Christmas movies on IMDB,  the 10 most common tropes in Hallmark Christmas movies (many of these are on point, too, esp #2), and 10 Weirdest Ways Couples meet in Hallmark movies. It's so interesting seeing the Hallmark train take on a life of its own when many years ago, it was just in its own corner. I recently visited a Hallmark store in-town and the channel merch was right at the door with tons of things channel related. TBH, I'm surprised it took them this long to monetize the channel viewing.

5 hours ago, Homily said:

I always tape the movies so I can fast forward through the boring stuff - anyway just watched Merry Matrimony - I thought it was a new one but it's actually from 2015.  New to me though.  I thought it was pretty good as these movies go.  The leads could all act for one thing!  Only thing I didn't like was the clumsily handled "misunderstanding" that kept the two main characters apart until the very end.  

This one kind of grew on me over the years though I definitely agree. The misunderstanding felt forced since it would have been solved through natural dialogue a long time before the end. I had a few nitpicks about the Very Important photography shoot (taking one picture and then proclaiming "okay, I think we got it!") and some other things but overall, I don't mind putting this on in the background when it airs.

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1 minute ago, MissyPoo said:

I had a few nitpicks about the Very Important photography shoot (taking one picture and then proclaiming "okay, I think we got it!") and some other things but overall, I don't mind putting this on in the background when it airs.

I had another mitpick about this too - doing a very important Christmas themed shoot that ends on Christmas Eve - do they ever say if these photos are meant to be in the Christmas issue of the following year??  Maybe they did and I missed that but this has happened in a few other Christmas movies I've watched.  Ad execs or whoever working on a big Christmas project right AT Christmas.  That is not how it works!!

On another topic - just watched Merry & Bright and wow, really like this one a lot.  Definitely going into the rotation!  

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On 10/20/2019 at 2:45 AM, Shorty186 said:

Also, was happy to find "The Nine Lives of Christmas" on TV last night. It's definitely in my top 3 TV Christmas movies.

This movie is one of those exceptions to my usual rule of liking the book better than the movie.  The movie is way better IMO and it's one I am looking forward to seeing again this year.  It's the same with the first Mrs Miracle movie.  It cut out a of extra characters and subplots and was more more interesting (well to me) than the book.

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Hoping I'm not the only one that forgot that the "Hallmark Movies and Mysteries" channel has Christmas movies too! Watched " Rocky Mountain Christmas " 2017 earlier tonight and it is now one of my new favorites! 

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7 hours ago, seasons said:

 Watched " Rocky Mountain Christmas " 2017 earlier tonight and it is now one of my new favorites! 

In a good, bad, or good-bad way?

I'm now watching "Christmas Made To Order"  Is Hallmark parodying itself with this one?   "Blah blah pitch blah blah Christmas Christmas Christmas Christmas pitch hot chocolate Christmas amazing! amazing! amazing! pitch hot cider amazing! Christmas Christmas dead parents pitch female lead with more curls than Mary Pickford the....long.....pauses.....between......sentences  PITCH PITCH PITCH!!

It perked me up!   

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Hallmark scheduling strikes again- what should be A Gift to Remember per my Sling programming is actually Marry Me at Christmas. 

It's weird to see Rachel Skarsten in this since I've been watching her play the villain over on Batwoman! 

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14 hours ago, seasons said:

Hey, has anyone subscribed to the "Hallmark Movies Now" app? $5 or $6 a month, seems like a good deal?

https://www.hmnow.com

I'm currently subscribed but only cause I signed on when it was way cheaper and called Feeln. Before the Hallmark takeover and rebranding (they tend to do that a lot it seems). I'd say 60/year is way too high for the updates and such. If I were starting over, I may check the catalog each month and then get it a month and go nuts watching everything on my watchlist.

2 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

Hallmark scheduling strikes again- what should be A Gift to Remember per my Sling programming is actually Marry Me at Christmas. 

It's weird to see Rachel Skarsten in this since I've been watching her play the villain over on Batwoman! 

How funny because she seemed like a Lifetime villain in that one. I was expecting her to snap at any moment. 

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On 11/7/2019 at 10:49 PM, seasons said:

Hoping I'm not the only one that forgot that the "Hallmark Movies and Mysteries" channel has Christmas movies too! Watched " Rocky Mountain Christmas " 2017 earlier tonight and it is now one of my new favorites! 

Anything with Kristoffer Polaha in it is worth watching!   I was not sure about him at the time Rocky Mountain Christmas premiered, but he has grown on me since then and now he is one of my favorites in the Hallmark family.

**********

On a side note -- Kristoffer Polaha recently said that he is developing a movie with Hallmark that is going to film in Australia, and supposedly premiere in the summer.  Of course, movies get delayed and plans change all the time, so it remains to be seen if it will actually go forward this year, or change themes from summer to something else.  But Hallmark has never filmed in Australia, so that would be an interesting new location for them.

Edited by TVFan17
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Tyler Hynes has revealed (through some serious hinting on Twitter during the premiere of his new Christmas movie) that tomorrow he is flying off to star in a winter-themed Hallmark movie with Lacey Chabert.   The tentative title of the movie is Winter in Vail, although it is filming in Canada.

Another Winterfest movie filming right now is A Tidy Romance (also just a working title) with Jill Wagner and Victor Webster.

There are no signs of One Winter Wedding filming any time soon, especially now that Taylor Cole is working on a Valentine-themed movie with Ryan Paevey.   OWW was just announced in July, but it must have been delayed, which is unfortunate.

Edited by TVFan17
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12 hours ago, TVFan17 said:

There are no signs of One Winter Wedding filming any time soon, especially now that Taylor Cole is working on a Valentine-themed movie with Ryan Paevey.   OWW was just announced in July, but it must have been delayed, which is unfortunate.

Ugh, I've been looking forward to this one way more than any of the Christmas movies!!

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I just deleted one after watching for a minute or two because the main character comes home to a freaking mansion, absolutely huge house that looks like Veronica Lodge lives there and yet we're supposed to believe they're just plain folks??  It's a recurring annoyance with me that people live in House Beautiful in these movies even when they are not written as being particularly well-to-do but this one really took the biscuit!

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1 hour ago, Jenniferbug said:

Ugh, I've been looking forward to this one way more than any of the Christmas movies!!

I actually liked One Winter Proposal even more than One Winter Weekend, so I was totally on board for One Winter Wedding!

I don't think the project has been cancelled or anything like that.   I'm sure it's still happening in some version or another, although I can't imagine that it would be delayed for a full year (until January 2021). 

But I wonder if Hallmark maybe decided to take it out of a winter setting and change it to something like "One Summer Wedding" (or a similar title) so they can put it in their June Weddings event.    I hope that's not what they're doing, because we see enough weddings taking place on sunny spring or summer days in these movies.  A winter wedding would be a bit more unique for Hallmark.    I would have expected them to do something like "One Valentine Wedding," but since Taylor is doing a Valentine movie with Ryan Paevey I don't think that's happening this year.

Another possibility could be that they keep the winter theme and air OWW at the end of December, as a New Year movie (since New Year's Eve was part of the other movies), but that's almost the same as delaying the movie by a full year.

The next big TCA media event is in January, and there should be lots of news and announcements coming out of it.  Hopefully either Hallmark or Taylor will shed some light on when we can expect to see the new wedding sequel.

Edited by TVFan17
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Watching An Angel In The Family.  When did Hallmark stop making this type of Christmas movie, the kind that at least gives an illusion of reality?  That one seems positively gritty next to the synthetic, overly corporate, Twilight Zone-ish, pod-people output their company cranks out now.

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Just a reminder that most of the conversation about holiday movies (not just Hallmark, but all other channels as well) is happening here. I think we're supposed to move conversation there until non-holiday movies resume after Christmas, so people don't have to keep track of two different threads.

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6 hours ago, Bronx Babe said:

Watching An Angel In The Family.  When did Hallmark stop making this type of Christmas movie, the kind that at least gives an illusion of reality?  That one seems positively gritty next to the synthetic, overly corporate, Twilight Zone-ish, pod-people output their company cranks out now.

Thanks for mentioning that!  I've never seen it, but it looks like a gem, and I have it set to record this Friday morning. (It's being shown on HM&M.)

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9 hours ago, Homily said:

I just deleted one after watching for a minute or two because the main character comes home to a freaking mansion, absolutely huge house that looks like Veronica Lodge lives there and yet we're supposed to believe they're just plain folks??  It's a recurring annoyance with me that people live in House Beautiful in these movies even when they are not written as being particularly well-to-do but this one really took the biscuit!

I'm going to respond here because this is a general complaint about the Hallmark movies and not holiday-specific. I agree that it's frustrating seeing these characters in huge, beautiful houses all the time. I think I've read that the people behind Hallmark think their viewers want that sort of wish fulfillment. I guess that might be true with some people, but I'd enjoy these movies more if some of the characters had somewhat more relatable lives. The romantic stories are enough wish fulfillment on their own, let these people live in apartments/condos/small homes. 

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48 minutes ago, VMepicgrl said:

I'm going to respond here because this is a general complaint about the Hallmark movies and not holiday-specific. I agree that it's frustrating seeing these characters in huge, beautiful houses all the time. I think I've read that the people behind Hallmark think their viewers want that sort of wish fulfillment. I guess that might be true with some people, but I'd enjoy these movies more if some of the characters had somewhat more relatable lives. The romantic stories are enough wish fulfillment on their own, let these people live in apartments/condos/small homes. 

I agree.  I love seeing beautiful homes, but I prefer them to be more modest and realistic.  In other words, less over-the-top materialism and more simple, warm, cozy, not-so-big homes that are beautifully finished and decorated.  (And that you can believe the owners actually might be able to afford in real life.)

Kind of like Kate Winslet's character's cottage in The Holiday, versus Cameron Diaz's character's home in that same movie - which, if it was a Hallmark movie, would be owned by the lady who owns the local bakery, or the part-time jewelry maker.  😄

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10 hours ago, Bronx Babe said:

Watching An Angel In The Family.  When did Hallmark stop making this type of Christmas movie, the kind that at least gives an illusion of reality?  That one seems positively gritty next to the synthetic, overly corporate, Twilight Zone-ish, pod-people output their company cranks out now.

Circa the Crown Media takeover? Or partway through RHI's reign? I still miss some of those old school classic epics they used to make back in the day like Merlin, The Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts, Gulliver's Travels and such along with their dramas.

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20 hours ago, Bronx Babe said:

When did Hallmark stop making this type of Christmas movie, the kind that at least gives an illusion of reality?  That one seems positively gritty next to the synthetic, overly corporate, Twilight Zone-ish, pod-people output their company cranks out now.

A Season for Miracles applies here. A mom who takes drugs and neglects her children (gasp), an aunt who deceives everyone (horrors), and (clutches pearls) a kiss that occurs earlier than the last 2 minutes of the movie.  

My absolute favorite.  That was quality, not the vapid, formulaic crap they spew out now where you know the ending in the first 5 minutes and they endlessly recycle the same 5 plots. 

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15 hours ago, AnnaRose said:

Thanks for mentioning that!  I've never seen it, but it looks like a gem, and I have it set to record this Friday morning. (It's being shown on HM&M.)

And you'll be amazed at not just how much Natasha Gregson Wagner looks like mom Natalie Wood, but SOUNDS just like her too.

1 hour ago, Kohola3 said:

A Season for Miracles applies here. A mom who takes drugs and neglects her children (gasp), an aunt who deceives everyone (horrors), and (clutches pearls) a kiss that occurs earlier than the last 2 minutes of the movie.  

My absolute favorite.  That was quality, not the vapid, formulaic crap they spew out now where you know the ending in the first 5 minutes and they endlessly recycle the same 5 plots. 

I'll definitely try to catch it!  Thanks for the input!

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11 hours ago, MissyPoo said:

Circa the Crown Media takeover? Or partway through RHI's reign? I still miss some of those old school classic epics they used to make back in the day like Merlin, The Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts, Gulliver's Travels and such along with their dramas.

I'm not familiar with the stories behind these companies -- all I know is that the Hallmark movies I've seen after 2012 or thereabouts (can't pinpoint exactly) are the creepily robotic ones they're plopping out now.  Those fantasy titles you mention sound like fun -- right up my alley.

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15 minutes ago, Bronx Babe said:

I'll definitely try to catch it!  Thanks for the input!

I'm not sure they will show it.  It hasn't been on Hallmark in several years despite the fact that it was a Hall of Fame movie (great talent in this including Patty Duke).  I think they just stick to the repetitive schlock now.

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17 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

I'm not sure they will show it.  It hasn't been on Hallmark in several years despite the fact that it was a Hall of Fame movie (great talent in this including Patty Duke).  I think they just stick to the repetitive schlock now.

Oh, no!  Rats.  Patty Duke!  Wonder if I can find this on YouTube....

"Repetitive schlock" -- boy you got that right, @Kohola3.  Perfect description.  

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In addition to Winter in Vail (Tyler Hynes/Lacey Chabert) and A Tidy Romance (Jill Wagner/Victor Webster), the next Winterfest movie in production is...

Alice in Winterland with Italia Ricci, Chad Michael Murray and Jack Turner.    (So Jack still gets to do a winter movie even though One Winter Wedding is apparently not happening yet.)

Alice in Winterland was originally supposed to be Alice in Christmasland, airing on the Hallmark Channel this holiday season, and I don't know if Italia was the intended star of it back then, but she is in it now. 

(Note that Winterfest movies are not Christmas/holiday movies -- it's a totally separate movie event in January --which is why I am bringing them up in this thread, where we talk about Hallmark movies.)

Edited by TVFan17
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Thanks so much, @mikeb.

I'm waiting for them to do a Christmas movie with Meryl Streep reprising her role as Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada.  

Can't you see Miranda telling Santa Claus "bore someone else with your problems" before being miraculously re-routed by him from mid-town Manhattan to Merrydale USA?  The townsfolk enlist her expertise in judging their local gingerbread competition.  Miranda slowly sheds her workaholic ways, resigns from Runway, and opens up a small, quaint fashion shop on Main Street, next door to the diner where everyone drinks hot chocolate and not Starbucks.

That's all. 

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I just watched A Family Thanksgiving on demand. I am glad there are some of my old favorites available that way. Hallmark and Lifetime are slim pickings, but Freeform on demand is a goldmine. I'm going to watch 12 Dates of Christmas, Angry Angel, Christmas Cupid, Christmas Do Over, The Mistletones, and Snowglobe among others. 

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2 hours ago, mikeb said:

It is being shown multiple times on Hallmark Drama this year, which unfortunately is the Hallmark channel with the most limited availability.

Not available to me but I bought the DVD when it became clear that the "fame" was long gone from all things Hallmark and they should change the name to Banal of Shame.

3 hours ago, Bronx Babe said:

Patty Duke! 

She is so TINY.  And Carla Gugino and Vanessa Redgrave are in it as well.  Back when there was quality in Hallmark movies.

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21 minutes ago, Valentine said:

I'm going to watch 12 Dates of Christmas,

This is another one that I really hope shows up on a channel I get this year.  Love it.  And for some reason it's not out on DVD. Or at least wasn't the last time I checked!

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20 minutes ago, Bronx Babe said:

Vanessa Redgrave --  I'm speechless.  

Oops, wrong Redgrave. It was Lynn.  But Laura Dern is in it along with Kathy Baker.  Great cast but those were the days when the quality attracted great actors. I think back to Sarah Plain and Tall.

Oh, well, there are always DVDs....

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3 hours ago, Homily said:

This is another one that I really hope shows up on a channel I get this year.  Love it.  And for some reason it's not out on DVD. Or at least wasn't the last time I checked!

It’s schedule on Freeform twice. Wednesday December 11th at 7:30am and Thursday December 19th at 10:30 am. 

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It's about time to retire Lacey Chabert and Taylor Cole. I'm over both of them and have been for a while. There are so many better actresses to use - the girl that played the best friend of Ryan Paevy and there was a treehouse, the girl in the recent Tom Arnold save the old warehouse Christmas one, Snow Bride girl (dying to see her again)... I mean, there are so many others! (But not Candace)
 

One Winter Wedding (not a fan are you shocked, haha) will probably air in June during weddings month of course! Rename it to: One White Wedding? Clearly Hallmark needs to hire me lol!

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7 minutes ago, sistersledge said:

It's about time to retire Lacey Chabert and Taylor Cole. I'm over both of them and have been for a while. There are so many better actresses to use - the girl that played the best friend of Ryan Paevy and there was a treehouse, the girl in the recent Tom Arnold save the old warehouse Christmas one, Snow Bride girl (dying to see her again)... I mean, there are so many others! (But not Candace)

Unfortunately Katrina Law (Snow Bride girl) probably won’t be back anytime soon. She’s now a regular on Hawaii 5-0. 

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2 hours ago, Dani said:

Unfortunately Katrina Law (Snow Bride girl) probably won’t be back anytime soon. She’s now a regular on Hawaii 5-0. 

In October, Katrina Law hinted that she may have something in the works (in response to someone's Twitter plea for her to come back to Hallmark or to make some sort of TV movie), but she could not say anything about it or expand on it further. 

So for her to even acknowledge that she may have something in the works probably means that it IS happening, or else she could just not respond and we'd never know the difference. 

Katrina has not filmed anything yet, so I think we can safely rule her out of Winterfest movies and probably Valentine movies.  Her Hallmark return could be anything from a Spring movie to a Christmas 2020 movie.   Maybe she will film something when she has an extended break from her series.

Katrina's sister-in-law, Tracy Andreen, is one of Hallmark's frequent writers, and so I think Katrina has an ongoing link to Hallmark through Tracy.  Tracy can write a movie and tell the Hallmark execs that she has Katrina in mind, in hopes that they will listen.  It keeps Katrina on the radar.

Edited by TVFan17
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14 hours ago, Bronx Babe said:

I'm not familiar with the stories behind these companies -- all I know is that the Hallmark movies I've seen after 2012 or thereabouts (can't pinpoint exactly) are the creepily robotic ones they're plopping out now.  Those fantasy titles you mention sound like fun -- right up my alley.

They may pop up on a few of the free w/ ads streaming sites like The Roku Channel, Tubi and such. I think I even saw them on Up's on demand catalog for some reason. If you can get Pixl, some RHI movies appear there in the Larry Levinson catalog. 

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19 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

Oops, wrong Redgrave. It was Lynn.  But Laura Dern is in it along with Kathy Baker.  Great cast but those were the days when the quality attracted great actors. I think back to Sarah Plain and Tall.

Oh, well, there are always DVDs....

Lynn -- even better.

Yes, buh-bye, quality. 

I'm just wondering how many fictional "European" countries they can come up with for those stooopid commoner-meets-royalty plotlines.

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On 11/12/2019 at 2:23 PM, Kohola3 said:

Not available to me but I bought the DVD when it became clear that the "fame" was long gone from all things Hallmark and they should change the name to Banal of Shame.

She is so TINY.  And Carla Gugino and Vanessa Redgrave are in it as well.  Back when there was quality in Hallmark movies.

I had forgotten all about this one. I couldn't get in on any channel or stream I have so I ordered the DVD. 20 Bucks! Eh....My collection is pretty slim on actual Christmas movies so I sprang for it. The cast is great. 

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