Ok, so I could just do a standard review of each version
of "A Christmas Carol" that I find worthy of mention.
Sure, I could...
But why?
C'mon, face it - if you've waded this far into this
website, you're interested enough in the holiday and all that surrounds
it to already know the story.
Scrooge, Cratchit, Marley, Ghosts, Tiny Tim, "Bah!
Humbug!", "God Bless Us Every One", yadda yadda yadda...
Face it, it doesn't significantly change from one version
to the next. Granted, some characters are omitted, emphasis on others
vary from one telling to the next. Some other cosmetic changes are
added to brand a project as the producer's own (and very likely to insure
that their version is uniquely copyrightable...).
Still, they're all pretty much the same story.
So, why don't we take a look at four versions here
and see how they stack up against each other. (Be warned, this page
is going to be LONG, and it may take some time to fully load...)
Then at the end, I'll share with you which characters
from each make up my "Dream Cast", as it were. (Be warned again,
I'm going to shock you with at least one pick...)
As they say, if you're going to go, go big. So
let's start with arguably the definitive 1951 version starring Alastair
Sim...
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Ah, what a perfect Son Of A, er, Grinch, Sim gave
us. This Scrooge is so bereft of actual human feeling, he doesn't
even realize he all but died emotionally soon after taking over Fezziwig's
business. If it weren't for money, he'd have absolutely nothing to
care about.
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| What is really outstanding about this film is that
it actually improves on Dickens' original story, in that it posits that
the true root of Scrooge's emptiness is based in the loss of his beloved
sister, Fan, and the parallel of that death to the passing of Scrooge's
mother. |
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Scrooge certainly began to love money more than
a human should before Fan died. Indeed, the loss of his betrothed,
which other tellings point to as the beginning of his descent into miserdom,
occurred well before Fan passed.
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No, here it is Fan's death that ties it all together.
Fan is noticably older here than in other tellings. Perhaps only
a year or two older than Ebeneezer, but still a sort of mother figure to
young Scrooge. This becomes significant when we are told, almost
in passing, that Scrooge's mother died giving birth to him.
Scrooge's father, we are told, blamed Scrooge for his
wife's death and turned against him. The only loving relationship
the boy ever had, so we may believe, was with his sister. Thus, when
she died, Scrooge's better feelings died with her. Much as his father
blamed him, Scrooge then held his infant nephew Fred accountable for Fan's
death; effectively cutting himself off from literally the last person on
Earth with whom he might otherwise have shared a familial relationship.
Very rare indeed, for a film to improve on a classic
novel. |
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Up next, the 1938 MGM version starring Reginald
Owen. This is quite possibly the only telling where Scrooge wasn't
front and center of the action. Instead, this film begins with a
chance meeting between Scrooge's nephew, Fred, and Tiny Tim. Indeed,
Scrooge doesn't appear until after we've met Fred, Tim, Peter Cratchit
and Bob Cratchit.
Truthfully, it's just as well that Scrooge is basically
just a part of an ensemble cast here. Owen plays him just a bit too
much over the top, even to the point of camp.
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Mind you, this interpretation does fit in with
the tone of the production, as it has more of a stage feel than that of
a motion picture. Still, this Scrooge is more a crank than a dark,
tortured soul. This is best demonstrated in how fast he turns toward
Christmas after all those years railing against it - he folds after visits
by only two Spirits of Christmas.
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The surrounding cast more than makes up for Scrooge's
excessive portrayal, making this a pretty darn good flick despite itself.
Gene Lockhart is a suitably put-upon Bob Cratchit, exceedingly earnest,
but not the type you'd think would be able to break out of his dead-end
job.
The Cratchit family seems like a real family, and in
no small way, they truly are.
Lockhart's real-life wife, Kathleen, plays Mrs. Cratchit.
And making her screen debut as a Cratchit daughter,
their real-life daughter, June Lockhart, now revered as one of television's
classic moms ("Lassie", "Lost in Space", among others).
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Unfortunately, as Scrooge misses the mark, Tiny
Tim (Terry Kilburn) is too much a stereotypical Central Casting kid to
elicit much sympathy.
Making up for this short-coming is Barry MacKay's Fred,
who is such a bundle of joy and goodwill that one can't help but wish him
well...even though he obviously hit the jackpot in landing such a babe-a-licious
fiancee as Bess (Lynne Carver).
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Next up, from 1962, "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol".
Yes, it's a cartoon. Yes, the running time is
under an hour. Yes, the animation is severely limited. (I believe
the scant style was termed "animated radio".)
So what. It worked. And it worked pretty
damned well.
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Here's the premise: Magoo is a Broadway actor
playing the part of Scrooge. This works beautifully in two ways:
We get to see classic Magoo antics in the prologue and epilogue, while
the tale itself is played as straight as the form allows.
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It strikes me that Magoo is a perfect choice to
play Scrooge, in that both characters are myopic in their own way.
Quincy Magoo, of course, literally can't see past the end of his nose.
Ebeneezer Scrooge can't see past the pages of his ledger. Quite appropriate
indeed...
As I've said, the animation is extremely limited, yet
it complements the story well as presented by the vocal cast.
And a fine cast it is; led, of course, by Magoo himself, Jim Backus.
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As I've said, the animation is extremely limited, yet
it complements the story well as presented by the vocal cast.
And a fine cast it is; led, of course, by Magoo himself, Jim Backus.
I wonder, as beloved as this show is, if Backus really
gets enough credit for his performance here. Consider the tightrope
he was forced to dance on as the lead; he had to - and did - portray a
convincing Scrooge while remaining in the confines of the Magoo persona.
Seems to me that playing Scrooge is enough of a challenge without playing
a completely different character playing Scrooge. (If that last sentence
made your head spin half as much as mine did typing it, then you have some
idea of what Backus may have been up against in this role.)
If that might be challenging in a simple spoken-word
production, consider also that this was a musical. Thus, Backus had
to portray Magoo playing and singing Scrooge. Mind you, these
songs weren't thrown together by some advertising jingle hack trying to
make his mark as a full-fledged composer. No, the composers were
Jule Styne and Bob Merrill - two men described on the DVD box as "Broadway
legends". No puffery in that phrase whatsoever. Their biggest
collaboration together was a little thing called "Funny Girl"...separately,
they had too many hits to list here.
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There were a few other heavy hitters in this production.
Start with Broadway veteran Jack Cassidy as Bob Cratchit, the distinctive
voices of talents such as Morey Amsterdam and Les Tremayne, and anchoring
the whole shebang, animation legends Paul Frees and June Foray.
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As I said earlier, it's under an hour in running time,
but I honestly don't consider it an abbreviated presentation. "Distilled"
would seem more accurate a description; distilled down to the pure essence
of Dickens' story.
And then we come to Patrick Stewart's turn, as presented
originally on TNT in December 1999.
Oy, vey...this should've been such a terrific movie.
Instead, it was terrifically, horribly, illogically overproduced, over
the top and overdone.
Where to start...???
Suppose we could start on a high note. Performance-wise,
anyway.
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Here we have a truly Dickensian Cratchit family.
Unlike other versions, where only lip service is paid to how poor the Cratchits
are, these Cratchits would need a raise to get to dirt-poor.
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If Richard E. Grant's Bob Cratchit has even a
spark of hope left in his body, it's no thanks to Scrooge. Indeed,
it's as if Bob were a hound dog nearing his last days, but still loyal
to a cruel master, just out of need for the scant security of the few scraps
the master might scatter in front of him.
A sad man, this Bob Cratchit. Still a reasonably
young man, but aging before his time...
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The only saving grace in Bob's life is his family.
Mrs. Cratchit, played by Saskia Reeves, still has a bit of spunk left in
her - but then again, she doesn't stare into the belly of the Scrooge-beast
daily...
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Scrooge. Suppose there's no getting around discussing
him here. Oh well...
I had such high expectations before I saw this movie.
After all, Patrick Stewart was and is a marvelous actor. Shakespearean
training and all that. Performed a one-man show of "A Christmas Carol"
on Broadway for years.
To be truthful, much of Stewart's performance was good.
Much of what was bad was poor writing; mixing contemporary phrasing with
the original dialogue. Not a good mix.
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That said, a couple of acting choices do stand
out...like a sore thumb. For example, after Scrooge invites Marley's
Ghost to sit down, Stewart seems to fall back into Jean-Luc Picard interrogating
his 500th new life form. Hardly the fear and awe Scrooge should be
feeling at this particular moment.
Even worse was Scrooge's first laugh in years, following
his final visitation. So forced, it sounded more like the onset of
tuberculosis than a heartfelt expression of the joy of living.
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I could go on, but why? Especially when there's
"special" effects that need to be trashed...
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Please, please, please...somebody please tell
me where in the novel Scrooge travels by TORNADO??? Talk about over-produced...and
for no good purpose whatsoever...
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While we're at it, somebody explain this Ghost of
Christmas Yet To Come design, please. I certainly can't... |
Now, I'll grant you, perhaps the obviously dark-robed,
anonymous humanoid GOCYTC (aren't acronyms fun?) is a cliche after so many
years. The only significant deviation from that form was in the comedy
"Scrooged". Which did seem to inspire this version - except they
completely disregarded the concept of proportion.
Here, we have a huge body - probably eleven or twelve
feet high, double the size of a normal human. Glowing eyes - ok,
that's a little cliche in itself, but we can let that slide. The
important thing is, the eyes are located right where we'd expect them to
be on a creature that tall, when interpolating human proportions.
(Which, given the human features of the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present,
seems a reasonable standard to apply to the Spirits.)
But what creature has its shoulders fully halfway down
it's body? Wait, I know; The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is a
freakin' giraffe!!! So where's the plug by Toys 'R' Us???
Ridiculous. Too ridiculous in too many ways to
make this a "must-see" in my book.
What a shame...
In conclusion, I now present my "Dream Cast".
The actors in these presentations who absolutely nailed their respective
roles, elevating them above all others. Thus far...
You are Humbug Number 
to visit this page since April
25, 2003
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