Merry Halloween! the Boogeyman

I'm continuing my countdown to Halloween covering scary, creepy and Halloween-appropriate Christmas entertainments.  Today I want to acknowledge the role of the Boogeyman in several Christmas stories.

Oogie Boogie

Perhaps the most recognizable boogeyman character in a holiday movie is Oogie Boogie from 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Oogie Boogie is the risk-taking villain who dwells underground, below Halloween Town.  Not only is he mean and a crooked gambler, he's composed of a burlap sack filled with bugs!  Besides his hatred for Santa Claus, Oogie Boogie is not the scariest of foes. 

Oogie unravels to reveal....

Eeewww....hand me a can of Raid!

The Boogeyman is also a monstrous attacker in three versions of the Christmas story, Babes in Toyland.  Babes in Toyland was originally written as an operetta by Victor Herbert and Glen MacDonough at the turn of the twentieth century.  It is a musical fantasy story filled with Mother Goose fairy tale characters.  There is a great deal of adventure and even a little romance.  Babes in Toyland has been adapted numerous times for film and television, each time undergoing drastic changes in storyline, character and musical composition.  One such drastic character change is the addition of the Boogeyman (or a group of boogeymen) in three filmed productions:  1934's March of the Wooden Soldiers, 1986's Babes in Toyland and 1997's animated version.

left: The widow Mother Peep with Ollie Dee and Stannie Dum

The 1934 adaptation, originally released as Babes in Toyland, has since been retitled March of the Wooden Soldiers.  It is a black-and-white feature length vehicle for comedians Laurel & Hardy playing Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee, toymakers and residents of the fairy tale village, Toyland.  The true adversary in this story (and the original operetta) is Barnaby, the meanest man in town who is blackmailing the beautiful, young Bo Peep into marriage.  In this adaptation, when Barnaby's schemes fail, he recruits the Boogeyman--more accurately, many boogeymen, to help him force her into marriage!

1934's version of the Bogeyman

These boogeymen, much like Oogie Boogie, are underground dwellers of monstrous appearance.  Here, they have long fangs, claws and their bodies are covered in fur, similar to wild animals.  On the humorous side, they wear dried grass skirts--for modesty(?)  Even more humiliating, the savages are repeatedly referred to as Bogeymen--from Bogeyland (pronounce this like it is spelled for the same word that means one over par, as in golfing!)  It's hard to be intimidating when you can easily be mistaken for a fan club member for actor Humphrey Bogart!  But these bogeymen are scary!

Barnaby and the bogeymen on their way to Toyland

After Barnaby leads the bogeymen back to Toyland to raid the village, the fairy tale characters enlist the aid of wooden toy soldiers to help defend the city.  It is a childen's story after all!  It can be quite frightening to see the bogeymen carrying lit torches and setting fire to Mother Goose land as Barnaby tries to carry off his bride.  By shear number of their kind, these grass-skirt wearing over-grown monkeys come off as creepy, threatening and dangerous. 

Cue the familiar tune 'March of the Toys' as the wooden soldiers attack the bogeymen

1986's Babes in Toyland starring a young Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves and Richard Mulligan also includes a hord of underground creatures.  However, these mud and stick monsters are not the formidable foes as in the two other Babes adaptations.

These underground creatures look like they are still under the ground!

 For scary creatures, I prefer Barnaby, here played by Richard Mulligan, and his two hunchbacked henchmen.  They resemble the early vampire Nosferatu and Riff Raff from the movie Rocky Horror Picture Show. I wish the two henchmen had been given a greater role in frightening Lisa, played by Barrymore.

Zack and Mack with Barnaby in the middle

1997's animated adaptation

1997's animated Babes in Toyland incorporates the Boogeyman character as well.  However, this time his appearance is adjusted more to resemble a purple winged demon and his boogeymen minions are smaller versions of himself.  Here, he is referred to as a goblin from Goblin Forest.

The Boogeyman is a purple, winged demon called a goblin--kind of looks like Mr. Clean

The goblin minions breaking into the toy factory to destroy it!

Once again, Barnaby leads the goblins back to Toyland where the toy soldiers are enlisted to defend the village and its residents.

Cue the music for 'March of the Toys' again

A demon goblin is a scary antagonist.  The demon aspect evokes images of the Devil, other worldly evil and cruelty.  That scares me for sure!

See for yourself how scary these boogeymen--or bogeymen--can be.  All four of these movies are easily available to watch on DVD.  Check your local library or on-line viewing sources.

Charles Nelson Reilly

Who doesn't love comedic actor Charles Nelson Reilly? I sure do. From his zany and absurd responses on Match Game to his mad magician role on the insane, psychedelic children's show Lidsville to his many other TV roles, this guy was one-of-a-kind. But he also made several noteworthy appearances in Christmas programs. How many do you remember?




Reilly was a regular cast member on the 1960s family series The Ghost and Mrs. Muir in the role of a descendant of the Captain, Claymore Gregg . In the 1969 episode 'The Ghost of Christmas Past,' Claymore Gregg is selling Christmas trees for the holiday but as expected his prices are too high and he refuses to cut a discount even for Carolyn and the children (Carolyn is played by Hope Lange). At the Christmas tree lot, Claymore discovers that someone has left a foundling in the back seat of his car. He takes the baby to Gull Cottage where Martha and Carolyn are eager to care for a little one at Christmas time.

Carolyn casually asks the Captain about his favorite Christmas and he replies that his is a Christmas that never existed except as a dream. Later that night, Carolyn has a dream where she is experiencing Christmas a hundred years ago in Gull Cottage with the Captain arriving home early from the sea to spend the holiday at home with his family. Carolyn also works for Claymore, a real Scrooge at the office, who would rather sit at home alone on Christmas day and count his money than be with his family. But on Christmas morning, Ebenezer Gregg arrives at Gull Cottage full of the generosity of the holiday spirit and Carolyn and the Captain share a very passionate kiss.

Carolyn awakens on Christmas morning to discover it was all a dream. However, it turns out everyone in the house has experienced the same, idyllic nineteenth-century Christmas dream courtesy of the Captain. And, Claymore arrives at Gull Cottage full of the generosity of the holiday spirit--and the baby’s mother is located. This episode has a touch of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ but it is handled with loving care in this original story.




Reilly also made an appearance in a holiday episode of The Doris Day Show in an atypical episode of this series. In this fourth season Christmas episode, "Whodunnit, Doris?" Doris Martin is now working as a reporter for Today’s World Magazine and becomes a witness of a mystery worth writing about. It appears as if a Santa Claus has shot a man after entering his home through the chimney. But Doris believes that this Santa is innocent. She doesn’t want Santa to lose his good reputation with the public so she jeopardizes her own life and safety to prove that someone else committed the crime. In an weird twist, it is the victim's nephew, played by Charles Nelson Reilly--also in a Santa suit--that ends up the shooter. This episode would be completely forgettable if it weren't for the signature wackiness of Reilly--and the ridiculousness that he's the gunman!

This episode is viewable on the fourth season DVD set of The Doris Day Show and on the Christmas Memories DVD release of the holiday episodes from the series, pictured above.




Charles Nelson Reilly also lends his voice to the 1997 animated TV special Babes in Toyland. He voices the character, Mr. Humpty, the humanized egg character of Humpty Dumpty--and he even sings several songs.


Reilly appears in the difficult to find 1987 TV movie The Three Kings and the 1974 animated special The City That Forgot About Christmas. This classic cartoon is another in a charming series sponsored by the Lutheran Church that includes the continuing characters Benji and his dog Waldo. These two are also featured in Christmas Is, Easter Is and a Fourth of July-inspired Freedom Is.



And, of course, he continues his role as Killer in the All Dogs series of animated stories including An All Dogs Christmas Carol in 1998.

While these roles may not be the highest points of Reilly's career, he still manages to bring his own unique spirit to them. He's one of the few clever personalities who is a delight to watch regardless of the size of the role. Catching him in one of these Christmas programs will certainly add a spark to your holiday viewing.