On the Twelfth Day... (1955)

The writing is rather on the wall for poor old Wendy Toye in this dialogue free musical adaptation of the "Twelve Days of Christmas". When her true love (David O'Brien) turns up to give her a partridge in a pear tree, she is delighted. Next day, well she gets another and two gorgeous turtle doves, on the third... well you get the drift and with her home rapidly turning into a menagerie, you'd think she might call an halt - but then the five gold rings come along and she thinks...? Clearly she'd never heard this rhyme before though and by the time we get to the end her home and her garden are no longer her own and her butler (Franklyn Bennett) has had just about enough of the maids, lords, pipers and the cacophony! Toye also directed this increasingly frenzied and creatively staged Christmas celebration and by the end of it, well I bet she never wanted to hear "Oh, For the Wings of a Dove" again. I don't either!