Fezziwig’s Christmas Party
Balladeer’s Blog’s Twelfth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues!
It’s the time of year when I examine countless adaptations of the Dickens classic from television, movies, radio and elsewhere! As always new versions will be sprinkled in with the old standards.
Here is a look at the 1995 home video Read-Along Christmas Carol. This version is just 50 minutes long and is ideal for youngsters learning how to read or for the hearing-impaired to watch. Continue reading
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Yes, it’s the song from that notoriously bad movie Santa Claus Conquers The Martians. Decades ago The Christmas Martian supplanted this flick in my Bad Movie Lover heart but Hooray For Santa Claus is still a butt-kicking song.
Starting us off is the movie version of the song by the poor man’s Skitch Henderson – Milton De Lugg – and The Little Eskimos.
And here’s the version by Al “Green Hornet Theme” Hirt: Continue reading
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CAROL’S CHRISTMAS (2021) – Balladeer’s Blog’s Twelfth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with this independent flick filmed in Las Vegas for $500,000.00. Special thank you to reader Lee Anne, who in the past recommended 2nd Chance For Christmas, a fun Christmas Carol variation. At the other extreme, Lee Anne wryly recommended Carol’s Christmas, a ridiculous venture that sucks so badly it’s not even So Bad It’s Good.
This was written and directed by David S Womack, who apparently felt he could be “deep” in treating us to A Very Rian Johnson Christmas by having our main character Carol Scrooge get shot to death at the end by Fred, who is her stalker in this film, not Scrooge’s nephew.
Oh, did I subvert expectations by not adding a spoiler warning like I usually do? Well then, I must be a creative genius by the standards of Carol’s Christmas. After all, simply doing something unexpected is brilliant, right? Something you WILL expect is that Amy Pascal’s name shows up in the closing credits.
Regular readers know I’m open to all kinds of dark interpretations of A Christmas Carol, but unlike efforts like the year 2000 Brazilian film in which Scrooge is a drug dealer, Carol’s Christmas is not a flawed but artful dive into a holiday story which gets distorted by grim realities.
No, the overwhelming majority of the movie plays out as a modern day Las Vegas version of the familiar tale, right up through Scrooge’s morning after conversion scene. Carol Scrooge never gets to make things right, however, because as soon as she sets foot outside her door Christmas morning, Fred is waiting and shoots her to death at close range for always rejecting his requests for a date.
It’s the sort of childish twist you could overlook from a teenage filmmaker who thinks they’re being artistic by doing this. Actually, it’s as pointless as producing a modern day adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, but instead of the tragic couple killing themselves at the end they whip out weapons and kill off the supporting cast. Continue reading
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Rufus Rose working on one of his handmade puppets.
Balladeer’s Blog’s Twelfth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues! This version of the Dickens classic featured beautifully crafted marionettes as all of the characters. It’s a shame this baby was in black & white since the costumes for the marionettes could have really dazzled in color I’ll bet. It also makes you wonder why more puppet versions of the Yuletide tale weren’t mounted during the Golden Age of Television.
ABC broadcast this holiday treat on December 24th, 1948 when televisions were still comparatively rare. Manipulation of marionettes is not easy but the legendary Rufus Rose Marionettes were the perfect choice for the task in that era. Rufus, best known as Howdy Doody’s off-camera operator directed this program along with his wife Margo. Continue reading
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BR’ER RABBIT’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992) – Balladeer’s Blog’s Twelfth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues! Br’er Rabbit, Br’er Fox, Br’er Bear, Br’er Gator and many other characters created by Joel Chandler Harris are featured in this animated version of the Dickens tale.
Br’er Rabbit’s Christmas Carol is my favorite out of all the versions which present A Christmas Carol as the framework of a Mission Impossible/ Leverage “con job” to make a greedy character change their ways. To nobody’s surprise, Br’er Fox is the Scrooge stand-in who requires a wakeup call.
All the characters live in a town in the American South, where a charity stage production of A Christmas Carol is being performed, with the proceeds going to benefit the terribly ill Timmy Mouse. No, not “Br’er Timmy” or anything like that, just Timmy Mouse as our Tiny Tim stand-in.
Br’er Fox has no time for silly fiction and is completely unfamiliar with the Dickens Christmas classic. That fact gives Br’er Rabbit the idea to work with his friends to instill some holiday spirit into Br’er Fox, who refuses to help Timmy Mouse and charges the other animals exorbitant prices for the firewood he sells. If they can’t afford to pay, they go cold. Continue reading
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Balladeer’s Blog’s Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2021 continues with another look at lost Carol versions from early television. For the previous look click HERE.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1947) – Yet another Christmas Carol version produced by the long-gone Dumont Network. This one aired live on December 25th, 1947 and starred John Carradine as Ebenezer Scrooge. According to Variety the broadcast was simulcast in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Baltimore. There were 22 cast members and 12 sets.
The one and only Eva Marie Saint made her television debut in this production. Bernard Hughes also appeared in this Carol which costarred Ray Morgan as Nephew Fred, who did double duty as the narrator. A young David Carradine was in the cast, by some accounts as a Cratchit child but not Tiny Tim.
Variety panned this program, calling it “stiff and formal” with a “slow, drawn-out opening” which “became tedious.” The publication also trashed John Carradine’s performance as Scrooge, saying he “lacked conviction” and that “He was too ready to be kind – never the nasty, selfish, money-grubbing tyrant of Dickens.” Continue reading
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A CAROL CHRISTMAS (2003) – Here’s another entry in Balladeer’s Blog’s Twelfth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon. This version is one of the many that tries mining laughs out of setting the Dickens classic in the modern age. These adaptations have varying degrees of success and on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this effort a 6.5.
A Carol Christmas isn’t trying to be the most touching or the funniest rendition of A Christmas Carol, it’s just a pleasant, fluffy diversion for the Christmas season. Tori Spelling stars as Carol Cartman, a daytime hostess like Jenny Jones, Oprah and so many others. As the Scrooge figure Spelling is selfish, mean-spirited and abuses her staff, especially her assistant Roberta, the Bob Cratchit role.
Roberta (Nina Siemaszko) is a struggling single mother caught up in a custody battle for her version of Tiny Tim in a novel departure from the usual Cratchit family pathos.
Dinah Manoff portrays the ghost of Carol’s late aunt and manager Marla. Aunt Marla was a driven “show-biz mom” type whose monomaniacal, cold-hearted drive was passed on to Carol as she forced the girl into a show business career she never really wanted. Because of this Marla is cursed in a Jacob Marley manner and has come to warn her niece that she faces the same fate unless she changes her ways. Continue reading
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Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2021 rolls along here at Balladeer’s Blog with this look at a very good comedic rendition of the Dickens classic.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL GOES WRONG (2017) – The players from Great Britain’s Mischief Theater Company strike again in their guise as the Cornley Polytechnic Amateur Dramatic Society. After the absolute disaster they made of their 2016 production of Peter Pan (see Peter Pan Goes Wrong), the Society were banned from the BBC.
Undeterred, the troupe take over a live broadcast of A Christmas Carol starring Derek Jacobi. They do this via an all-out commando raid hilariously carried out through action movie cliches like the kind of wire work Tom Cruise has done in multiple Mission Impossible films.
From there the Society mount their own production with their highly flawed but immensely likable players, highlighted by Chris (Henry Shields), Annie (Nancy Zamit), Robert (Henry Lewis) and others. Naturally, a LOT goes wrong.
The iconic Diana Rigg, like Jacobi, plays herself as the narrator and is the fictional aunt of Society player Sandra, who is portrayed by actress Charlie Russell. Continue reading
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A JETSON CHRISTMAS CAROL (1985) – Christmas Carol-A- Thon 2021, my 12th annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon, continues here at Balladeer’s Blog! This 1985 animated version of the Dickens classic incorporates the characters from the Hanna Barbera program The Jetsons. They were a family who were the far-future counterparts of the Stone Age family The Flintstones.
A Jetson Christmas Carol is not very good but it’s a lot better than the irritatingly awful Flintstones Christmas Carol. If you know the characters you can fill in the blanks yourself:
George Jetson is the substitute for the novel’s put-upon Bob Cratchit, and finds himself ordered to work very late on Christmas Eve, disappointing his wife Jane and their kids Elroy and Judy. Continue reading
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If it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, then regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know it’s the day when I kick off my annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon in which I review several versions of A Christmas Carol. I look at movies, television shows, radio shows and books which adapt the Dickens classic. Every year I present new reviews and a few old classics since new readers will have missed them.
To start off this year’s edition Balladeer’s Blog will look at what little is known about lost television versions of A Christmas Carol from the days of live broadcasts, when not even kinescopes were being kept. Previously, the Rufus Rose Marionettes adaptation from 1948 was the only lost version I looked at.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1943) – An early experimental broadcast on December 22nd, 1943 from Dumont TV’s station W2XWV in New York, presumably to mark the 100 year anniversary of the publication of A Christmas Carol.
Very, very few people would have seen this production. George Lowther directed the Montebank Players, while William Podmore wrote the teleplay AND starred as Ebenezer Scrooge. This program aired around 9:30 PM and was the second hour of a two-hour slate of music, World War 2 coverage, commercials and a film short.
Radio and Television Weekly called it “the longest and most elaborate studio play yet presented over television” and extravagantly praised the antique furniture and costumes in the production. Reviews of the time indicated that this Carol resorted to narration from the Dickens novel to cover story elements which could not be depicted by the primitive special effects of the time.
CHRISTMAS, 1944 (1944) – This half hour production of the Carol aired on December 19th, 1944 at 8:45 PM as part of the Video Varieties television series. Dumont TV station WABD in New York presented the show in conjunction with WOR-TV in New Jersey. Reviews of the time indicated it was an adaptation of the story of Scrooge set in 1944.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1944) – The long-gone Dumont Network stikes again! The very next night – December 20th, 1944 at 9:30 PM came this half hour presentation. Oddly, though the existing records do not show who played Scrooge in this production, it is known that Carl Eastman played Bob Cratchit, Helen Jerome played his wife and Bobby Hookey played Tiny Tim. Continue reading
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