Forgotten Dolly Parton Christmas Movie You Can Watch for Free Right Now

Even the biggest Dolly Parton fans may have forgotten about this festive Christmas movie that should be part of every holiday movie night! The country icon stars in the 1996 made-for-television film Unlikely Angel, which you can stream for free now on Tubi. The fantasy-comedy series, directed by Michael Switzer, starred Parton as straight-talking singer Ruby Diamond, who on her way home from a bar one night, crashes her car and dies.

When she awakens in heaven, she meets Saint Peter, played by Roddy McDowall, who tells Ruby she can return to Earth, but only if she agrees to reunite an estranged family been torn apart by the death of the mother. If Ruby can succeed by midnight on Christmas Eve, she will be granted her wings as an angel. Parton is delightful in the film with a dynamite wardrobe to match, and fans of the "9 to 5" singer will love her performance. 

Parton might not be an angel in real life, but even her mother thought she could have been a preacher, the country star told Playboy Magazine in 1978. "My mother and many people have always said that they saw the love of God in me," she told the interviewer. "I expect that someday, in some way, before I die I'll have done some good for God, who I think has done all the good in me that's ever been done."

"I think that people for years have passed God right up, looked right past Him, thinkin' that He was some great monster in the sky and that you had to live with these horrible guilt feelin's and you had to crawl under a bed if you'd done somethin' wrong," she continued. "I have a totally different concept of God. I'm God-fearin', but I'm not afraid of God. The way I look at God is, I think He means somethin' different to everybody. We are all God's children, if we just clear a way for Him to work through us. You don't have to be standin' in a church house to reach people to change their lives to do good." Watch Unlikely Angel now on Tubi.