An older, wiser man warns his companion against the ‘demon drink’ in this darkly comic winter’s tale for the festive season. In a local inn, he recounts the story of a formidable mother on the Temperance trail who administers a short, sharp shock to a son spooked by one too many on a cold Christmas Eve. This comedy was produced and filmed by A. H. Garland with the cast of actors including members of the Newcastle and District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA). Credit: Specially...

An older, wiser man warns his companion against the ‘demon drink’ in this darkly comic winter’s tale for the festive season. In a local inn, he recounts the story of a formidable mother on the Temperance trail who administers a short, sharp shock to a son spooked by one too many on a cold Christmas Eve. This comedy was produced and filmed by A. H. Garland with the cast of actors including members of the Newcastle and District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA). Credit: Specially Commended by the Board of Amateur Cine World Credit: Burleigh Productions Present Title: A Christmas Story Credits: The Players The Storyteller: T. Atkinson The Listener: John Hunter Jack: J. R. Wrightson Stan: Stanley Graham Joe: Bill Middleton Stan’s mother: Enid Turnbull Credit: Produced and photographed by A. H. Garland Two men are drinking in a dark, old wood panelled bar, a grandfather clock behind their table. A little the worse for wear, the younger man plunges his hand deep in his pocket and pulls out some change. His companion, puffing at his pipe, turns down another drink. The bar maid carries over two pints, and picks up an empty glass. The drunk man grabs her and tries to kiss her, much to the woman’s horror. She belts him hard across the face. He feels his jaw and gestures above him, as she laughs. Looking up, she sees the mistletoe hanging from the ceiling. The bar maid shrugs and collects up the rest of the pint glasses on the table. He slurps his remaining pint. His drinking partner laughs. Title: “Never take too much drink” He gives him some much needed advice. But the younger man continues to drink. The older man begins to tell him a story. Title: “I remember a Christmas Eve many years ago. It was from this very pub …” A flashback returns us to the past. A couple of bikes are parked outside the pub, snow on the ground, a few desultory lights on a tree nearby on a breezy night. Two men, Jack and Stan, leave the bar and weave their way home, very drunk, barely able to put one foot in front of another. They make their way down a country road and over a stile. Title: “Let’s call and wish Joe a Merry Christmas” Jack drags his friend in the direction of Joe’s place. The two men arrive at a very derelict looking stone cottage, and force open the door. They enter the old stone cottage, where a fire is burning, and a man is slumped at his table next to an oil lamp and a bottle of ale. On being suddenly wakened, he waves his arms around angrily and shouts. Title: “Get Out!” He waves the men away and immediately collapses back on the table. Jack shakes him a little, but Joe does not revive. So the two drag him over to a cot bed in the corner. Jack, the older man, can’t hear him breathing and jumps to his own drunken conclusion. He pulls a tartan blanket over his face. Title: “I think he’s dead! You’d better fetch your ma!” His friend Stan shakes his head. Title: “I dare’nt [sic] go with drink on me – you go” Jack agrees to go and fetch Joe’s mother. Title: “Take care of yourself Stan!” He heads off and Stan drunkenly collapses onto a chair, flings his hat in a corner, and can’t resist the bottle of beer, untouched on the table. He pours himself a drink and glances at the clock. It’s nearly ten to midnight on Christmas Eve. He gulps down more drink. The door to the cottage comes open and rattles in the wind. Suddenly scared, Stan forces it shut. A glass smashes on the floor behind him and makes him jump. He sits back down, realising how drunk he is, and picks up the bottle of ale accusingly. Over in the corner, the tartan blanket suddenly begins to move and rise, in ghostly style. Stan is afraid. He grabs an axe. Shadows on the wall show a struggle between Stan and another figure. It now appears to be Joe in his shirt sleeves who opens the door to the cottage and wanders outside. Shortly, Jack returns with Joe’s mother, a formidable-looking woman in a fox fur carrying an umbrella. Jack takes her to the prone figure beneath the blanket. She lifts the blanket away and her other son Stan is now asleep under the blanket. The cottage door opens and surprises them. Joe walks in. Title: “Now what’s going on” His outraged mother beats him down onto the floor with her umbrella. Title: “He’s not dead he’s drunk” Joe cowers on the floor and tries to make excuses to the angry mother. Title: “I’ll give it him if he is!” She stomps back over to the cot bed and checks Stan’s breathing closely. She spies a jug of water and flings it over the unconscious Stan, who wakes, confused, and is dragged from the bed and out of the cottage by his mother. Flashback over, we return to the storyteller of the present, recounting his tale at the bar. Title: “That was a lesson to me” The bar maid tells them to drink up and the two men start to leave. Title: The End