EIN WEIHNACHTSLIED IN PROSA ODER EINE GEISTERGESCHICHTE ZUM CHRISTFEST (1960) – Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2024 comes to a close with this review of a neglected version of A Christmas Carol that aired on German Television in 1960.
A Christmas Carol in Prose or A Ghost Story for Christmas had previously been performed live in 1955 but no copies exist. Even this 1960 version was unavailable on video for decades, and the 2015 transfer to DVD is not as clear as it could be. Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog’s Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2024 continues with the 1998 telefilm Ebenezer, the only version of the Dickens classic to feature a brothel! Well, as long as you don’t count whatever under-handed business Scrooge and Marley are running in the Alastair Sim version. (I’m kidding!)
Previously Balladeer’s Blog has reviewed The Trail to Christmas, a version of A Christmas Carol adapted to the American West of the 1800s. Ebenezer adapted the Dickens novel to the wild west of Canada in the 1800s, which adds an extra layer of novelty to this production. Casting Jack Palance as Ebenezer Scrooge was the real strength of this adaptation!
Palance’s Scrooge is a miserly and crooked saloon owner while Bob Cratchit (Albert Schultz) is his much-abused bartender. Rick Schroder (yes, Rick Schroder) portrays gun-slinging Sam Benson, a character unique to this version and Tiny Tim is played by Joshua Silberg. Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog’s Fifteenth Annual Christmas Carol-a-Thon speeds toward its conclusion! For today’s installment I’m grateful to my fellow blogger at Crafts Inspire Me for suggesting this in one of her comments here. Her blog is very enjoyable and holidayish!
ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS CAROL MOVIE (2024) – As mentioned above, C.I.M.’s author inquired about my ultimate cast for a film adaptation of A Christmas Carol. If I could pluck actors and actresses from any production of the Carol out of the time stream I would cast the following
NOTE: I’m listing the cast from least prominent up to most prominent.
WAITRESS AT THE INN/ TAVERN: KATH SOUCIE – The waitress who served Scrooge his dinner at the inn/ tavern he stopped at on his way home after parting company with Bob Cratchit on Christmas Eve. She is in the Dickens novel but has no dialogue and is omitted from most versions of A Christmas Carol.
An exception is the 1997 animated version, which used the waitress as a great way to add another female character without going outside the source material. Souci as the waitress even got a song!
GHOSTLY HEARSE DRIVER: ROY EVANS – This phantasmal character from the Dickens novel was rarely featured in screen adaptations of the Carol. Shortly after Scrooge sees Jacob Marley’s face in his door knocker, he gets a brief glimpse of this coachman driving a horsedrawn hearse.
Roy Evans played this ghost in the 1970 Scrooge musical and actually got a line of dialogue! By default that makes him THE choice for this particular role in my opinion. Continue reading
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Christmas Carol-a-Thon 2024 continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with another all-new review.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1914) – This British production was directed by Harold M. Shaw and runs a bit over 22 minutes. Charles Rock starred as Ebenezer Scrooge and he delivered a very good performance, diminished only by the brief running time.
Though longer than the 1901 and 1910 silent film versions of the Carol, this 1914 movie is still a big step backward from the 1913 big-screen version which ran roughly 40 minutes. One of the very few Carols to overcome being limited to just twenty-some minutes was the 1971 animated production, and Harold Shaw’s effort falls far short of that one.
Still, there are bright spots in the 1914 version. Let’s take a look. Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog’s Fifteenth Annual Christmas Carol-a-Thon continues with that old classic that starred George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge.
This is one of the perennial staples of Christmastime viewing for many people. Readers are often surprised that it took me so long to review this one even though it’s one of my favorites. No special reason, it’s just that so many excellent reviews have already covered this Carol that I wanted to hit the more obscure versions first.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1984) – Let me kick off this review with my old, overused joke about wanting to hear George C. Scott holler “Dickens, you magnificent bastard … I READ YER BOOOOOOOOK!”
My only complaints about this undeniable classic would be 1) the way it’s one of those Carols which unnecessarily add extra tension to the relationship between Scrooge and his father and 2) unnecessary magnification of why the poor and unemployed are sad at Christmas. Dickens put it poetically. This adaptation belabors it.
Moving on to the performances:
SCROOGE – Be thankful that George C. Scott toned down his George C. Scottishness for this role. If you’ve seen him as Fagin in the 1982 adaptation of Oliver Twist you know what a bullet this Christmas Carol dodged. (“When you put your hand into a pile of goo that a minute ago was the Artful Dodger’s face … You’ll know what to do.” That’s the last time I’ll do that. I promise.) Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog’s Fifteenth Annual Christmas Carol-a-Thon resumes with a new review. One of the few surviving silent film versions that I had not yet covered.
SCROOGE, OR MARLEY’S GHOST (1901) – This big-screen Christmas Carol adaptation was the first-ever cinematic depiction of the Charles Dickens classic. The criminally neglected British silent film pioneer R.W. Paul produced the movie and fellow trailblazer Walter R. Booth directed.
Those two Englishmen deserve to be as synonymous with the early silent film era as Melies, Lumiere and the Pathe Brothers. There’s a terrific documentary from British film historian Kevin Brownlow that covers – among others – Paul and Booth and their works. Kenneth Branagh narrated.
Back to this 1901 production. Scrooge was originally just over 6 minutes long but like so many movies from the silent era it suffered damage in the decades ahead. About 5 minutes have survived and the film bears a few similarities to the 13-minute Edison Films Christmas Carol from 1910.
Like the later Edison effort, R.W. Paul’s production is presented mostly in pantomime style and with painted backdrops but it blazed a trail with a few special effects and was the first silent movie to use intertitles during its run-time.
Taking things in order: Continue reading
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TF1 in France
Christmas-Carol- A-Thon 2024, Balladeer’s Blog’s Fifteenth Annual such event, continues with one of the most visually enticing versions ever made. Unfortunately, it’s become virtually impossible to obtain for people who lack the nearly psychotic drive necessary to track down these things.
TF1 Television in France first aired this version of A Christmas Carol, which could be described as a Carol for the arthouse crowd. Not a put-down OR a compliment, just an observation.
The performances are even more low-key than in the George C. Scott version and the direction, by Pierre Boutron, is very inventive, bordering on a surrealist approach. The overall effect is like A Very Jean Cocteau Christmas or something. As with the Spanish Leyenda de Navidad this French production keeps the story in 1843 London and stars Michel Bouquet as Scrooge and Pierre Olaf as Bob Cratchit.
This 90-minute version of the Carol is one of the tiny handful that depict Scrooge at Marley’s funeral, like the 1969 Australian cartoon version. Marley’s Ghost has the look of a bearded badass but delivers his warning to Scrooge with a cold and calculating air that is almost more chilling than the impassioned delivery of most other Marleys. Continue reading
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A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1982) – Balladeer’s Blog’s 2024 edition of my annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with this EXPANDED look at the great Thea Musgrave’s opera version from Granada Television video in 1982.
Musgrave was British and in my opinion she was one of the few masters of opera from the late 20th Century. I’ve previously looked at her operas about Mary, Queen of Scots, Harriet Tubman and Simon Bolivar.
As for her Christmas Carol opera, the world premiere of this most accessible of Thea’s works was on December 16th, 1981 at the Norfolk Center Theater. That Norfolk, VA production was by the Virginia Opera Association.
Later the opera debuted at the Royal Opera House in the U.K. and at the State Opera House in Australia. Continue reading
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Christmas Carol-a-Thon 2024 continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with this encore post from 2010.
LEYENDA DE NAVIDAD – This version of the Dickens classic was produced in Spain in 1947 (and was remade for Spanish television in 1966 ) and the Spanish language title is Leyenda de Navidad (Legend of Christmas, of course). The film was written and directed by Manuel Tamayo (who wrote the screenplay for the 1955 feature Tarde de Toros) This is a wonderful version for several reasons, not the least of which would be its well-done (for the time period) sets of 1843 London.
We’ll take the differences and similarities to other versions in order – 1. Scrooge has several people working for him for some reason, not just Bob Cratchit and NONE of them get Christmas Day off from this Scrooge …
2. Marley’s Ghost steps out of a life-sized portrait of the man that adorns the wall above a fireplace, and returns to that portrait after his standard warning about
the 3 Ghosts …
3. Transportation through time with Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog’s Fifteenth Annual Christmas Carol-a-Thon continues! A few days ago I made an encore post about the Susan Lucci version of the Dickens classic.
This time around it’s a Carol version that I’ve never before reviewed.
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FREDERIC MARCH PRESENTS TALES FROM DICKENS: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1959) – Basil Rathbone IS Edgar Winter as Ebenezer Scrooge! Or at least that’s what he looks like with his incredibly long white hair in this television show.
This was one of the 14 episodes of the Frederic March television series in which he hosted dramatizations of assorted stories written by Charles Dickens. The air date of this particular episode was December 27th, 1959. Continue reading
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