Cinema: White Christmas

As The Christmas Tree begins, dozens of eager French schoolboys disembark at the Gare du Nord for a ten week summer holiday. One little mop haired cherub named Pascal (Brook Fuller) rushes into the arms of Papa (William Holden) and Papa's fiancee (Virna Lisi). All the kids are happy. All the parents are happy. Even the conductors and porters seem happy. It can never last.

Sure enough, tragedy strikes. On a camping expedition to the Corsican seashore, Pascal is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation from a bomb that dropped accidentally out of a plane that just happened to be flying over that solitary spot in the Mediterranean . . . Anyway, after exhaustive testing, it is determined that Pascal has only six months to live. "What?" yells Papa Holden in a frantic outcry against destiny. "You mean there is no hope?" "I would be lying to you if I told you that there was," replies the aging specialist, with a certain sober sadness.

There is, of course, only one thing to do. Papa forsakes his multimillion dollar business and drives Pascal out to their country place—a little smaller than Versailles, but more cozy—where the child can perish in serenity. Papa assures the faithful family retainer (Bourvil) that Pascal must never know his fate, but the little rascal eavesdrops on the conversation and announces that he has known all along anyway. Everyone sheds a tear as Pascal manfully prepares to meet his fate. "I've never seen anything like that Pascal for guts," reflects the family retainer. "Well," comments Papa, "it's a hell of a way to learn the joys of fatherhood." Such scenes are punctuated by the ominous overhead rumbling of airplane engines, as the characters stare toward the heavens, reminded of the irony and irrevocability of fate. The white corpuscles finally overwhelm Pascal's tiny body on Christmas Eve, and Papa discovers him, head hidden by the pine branches, expired under the Christmas tree. Still another airplane engine blasts across the sound track as Papa picks up Pascal and carries him offscreen. Viewers may have to be assisted out of the theater in similar fashion.