Balladeer’s Blog’s Sixteenth Annual Christmas Carol-a-Thon continues with this review of a VERY underappreciated adaptation of the Dickens classic.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL: A GHOST STORY (2022) – Let me state right at the beginning that this version of the Carol has jumped into my Top 10 favorites, yet astonishingly as of this writing there are NO user or critic reviews of the production at IMDb.
This presentation joins the many filmed stage performances of A Christmas Carol but towers over most of them. The iconic Mark Gatiss wrote the adaptation and Adam Penford directed.
To encourage as many people as possible to watch this Carol I will emphasis just once, here at the beginning, that this production truly has nearly universal appeal. I repeat, below will be the only time I cover this aspect of the work in my review, but it’s necessary here in 2025. Continue reading
My late mother was, unfortunately for me when I was a teenager, a country music fan so, strange as it may seem, I actually know who the singers in this flick are. This version of the Carol is set in fictional Flint City, Tennessee, a town dominated by the financial pull of banker Cyrus Flint, played by Hoyt Axton.
A REDNECK CHRISTMAS CAROL (1997) – Written by John Yow & T. Stacy Helton and illustrated by David Boyd this is a reasonably funny adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Think of the type of jokes that Jeff Foxworthy was telling back when this book came out and you’ll know what to expect. 
IT’S CHRISTMAS, CAROL! (2012) – Well, to borrow from another holiday, I hold these truths to be self-evident – 
All that said, I won’t be able to use my usual format for my reviews of A Christmas Carol since Marley and the Christmas Ghosts are all played by one person. And it’s not a case of a comedian or a chameleon-like thespian so skilled at crafting characters that it’s a showcase for their talents. (Picture Robin Williams doing different personae for the Ghosts, for instance.)
A CHRISTIAN CAROL (2016) – Balladeer’s Blog’s 16th Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with this look at a religious-themed variation of A Christmas Carol. Directed by Stan Severance and written by Wesley T Highlander, A Christian Carol follows in the footsteps of the 1983 production The Gospel According to Scrooge.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2000) – Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2025 begins with a new review. This ITV production from British television which presented the Scrooge figure as a loan shark coincidentally came out the same year as the Brazilian version which featured Scrooge as a drug dealer. 
Neither one was a comedy, but this UK adaptation adds lighter moments here and there. A Christmas Carol runs just under 75 minutes and was made by a creative team that genuinely understands the Carol. You can tell not just from their insertion of some of the more obscure lines from the Dickens novel but by the way that even their necessary departures from Dickens to stay true to their loan shark gimmick still perfectly reflect the novel’s themes. 
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. 
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 
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. 
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. 
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. 
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