Vidas truncadas

For tax reasons and to be nearer his beloved African game preserve William Holden spent a lot of time in Europe during the sixties working. At the end of the decade Holden starred in The Christmas Tree which is not what you would think by the title, a warm and fun holiday movie. Christmas is peripheral to this very sad, almost beyond endurance sad movie.

Holden is one of the richest men in the world and a widower who has a young son Brooke Fuller. While on holiday in Corsica and swimming on the beach Fuller is exposed fatally to radiation poisoning. I'm not sure of the science of this, but I think the effects are those that would be sustained in one of those dirty bomb type explosions. You'll have to see the film to see how it is done.

There's no hope but to make the lad's weeks/months as happy as possible. The moral if there is any is that all the wealth and power in the world can never be brought to bear against the inevitable.

The cast also includes Virna Lisi and the great French comedian Bourvil. It's a great film, but not for the Yuletide season.