Tag Archives: Christmas Carol-A-Thon

December 6, 2018 · 11:18 pm

CHRISTMAS CAROL-A-THON – SCROOGE (1935) ON THE TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT

Scrooge 1935Balladeer’s Blog’s 9th Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues!

Before MST3K there was … The Texas 27 Film Vault!

In the middle 1980s, way down on Level 31 Randy Clower and Richard Malmos, machine-gun toting Film Vault Technicians First Class hosted this neglected cult show.

SCROOGE (1935)

ORIGINAL BROADCAST DATE: December 14th, 1985 to the best that can be determined.

Flash Gordon Conquers the UniverseSERIAL: Before showing and mocking the movie our members of the Film Vault Corps showed and mocked a chapter of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940).

In that serial Ming the Merciless unleashes a disease called the Purple Death on Earth, prompting Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Dr Zarkov to fly to the planet Mongo to find a cure and defeat Ming for good.

HOST SEGMENTS: None have been unearthed for this episode yet. As always if any other fans of this show have any info they would like to share feel free to contact me – see my About page for details.    

We’ve come a long way toward tentatively reconstructing a tiny bit of this show’s history over the past few years so hopefully more memories will be jogged.

MOVIE:  Continue reading →

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December 5, 2018 · 6:35 pm

AN ALL DOGS CHRISTMAS CAROL (1998): CHRISTMAS CAROL-A-THON CONTINUES

All Dogs Christmas CarolBalladeer’s Blog’s Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2018 continues with a look at this animated sequel to All Dogs Go To Heaven.

The dog-angel characters from that reasonably successful film use their Heavenly powers to get the dog-gangster Carface Caruthers (Ernest Borgnine) to change his ways. The portions of this direct-to- video flick dealing with the actual Christmas Carol adaptation are very good. 

Unfortunately that element takes up barely half of the story. The overall tale is about a demonic figure called Belladonna (Bebe Neuwirth) who wants to use a gigantic magic dog bone to manipulate all of Earth’s dogs in a plot to destroy Christmas. Dog-Angels Charlie Barkin (Steven Weber) and Itchy (Dom Deluise) from the previous movie need the help of canine crime-lord Carface to thwart Belladonna’s plans. Hence the plot to “Dickens” him into becoming a better man … or dog, actually.   Continue reading →

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December 4, 2018 · 5:02 pm

CHRISTMAS CAROL-A-THON: TWELVE HUNDRED GHOSTS (2016)

Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2018 rolls along. Heath – one of Balladeer’s Blog’s long-time readers – has done a Supercut version of A Christmas Carol. The video runs 53 minutes and is sheer genius! Plus the rest of the videos on Heath’s channel are worth checking out as well! 

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December 2, 2018 · 11:50 pm

SUSAN LUCCI’S CHRISTMAS CAROL: EBBIE (1995)

ebbieEBBIE (1995) Balladeer’s Blog’s Ninth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon rolls along with this 1995 telefilm  starring soap opera queen Susan Lucci. The eternally-sexy Lucci plays Elizabeth “Ebbie” Scrooge, our regulation “grasping and covetous” business magnate who runs the Dobson’s department store empire. This version of A Christmas Carol is kind of cute and it tries hard.

At its core Ebbie combines the Dickens tale with elements of the Diane Keaton movie Baby Boom. The dialogue self-consciously uses Big Business/ Executive Culture cliches in various exchanges. For example, where Scrooge normally says “Can’t I take them (the Ghosts) all at once and have it over with” Ebbie instead says “Can’t I just Conference Call them all in and have it over with?” Plus Marley’s Ghost refers to Scrooge “taking meetings” with the three Spirits. Sometimes these substitutions are amusing, other times just eye-rolling.  

Ebbie is one of those Carols which make the Ghosts look like people that the Scrooge figure knows in real life. Personally I don’t care for that approach but others do, so it’s all just a question of taste. An interesting note is that outside of Susan Lucci and the guy who plays her late partner Jake Marley (Jeffrey DeMunn) virtually NOBODY in the cast is recognizable. It’s like The Susan Lucci Community Theater Players Present A Christmas Carol.

Taking the crucial elements of the tale in order: Continue reading →

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November 27, 2018 · 10:56 pm

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1984): GEORGE C SCOTT VERSION

George C Scott CarolBalladeer’s Blog’s 9th Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with this take on one of the perennial staples of Christmastime viewing. Readers are often surprised that I haven’t reviewed 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 Fagan 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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November 26, 2018 · 11:12 pm

CHRISTMAS CAROL-A-THON CONTINUES: JOHN GRIN’S CHRISTMAS (1986)

john-grins-christmas

Wealthy John Grin (left) with a Ghostly Visitor

JOHN GRIN’S CHRISTMAS (1986) – The 2018 edition of Balladeer’s Blog’s Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon continues with this obscure item from the 1980s. My copy of John Grin’s Christmas was already barely watchable when I first tracked it down and it looks worse and worse each time I watch it. Still no DVD release, though, so I’ve decided to give up hoping for a clearer copy and will just review it as is.

Regular readers are familiar with the obsessive lengths I go to in order to track down the various out-of-the-way adaptations of A Christmas Carol. I’m afraid this time around the story is kind of dull – I bought John Grin’s Christmas from someone on E-Bay a few years back. They had taped it off television in 1986 and were selling that very faded and gargly-sounding VHS tape.

Renaissance Man Robert Guillaume directed and stars as the Ebenezer Scrooge stand-in John Grin, our title craftsman who makes a variety of collectibles. Many sources claim he only makes toys but that is not true, it’s just that as Christmas approaches most of his sales are toys. And, since the story is set around Christmas time … Continue reading →

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November 23, 2018 · 5:02 am

CHRISTMAS CAROL-A-THON 2018 BEGINS: LEYENDA DE NAVIDAD (1947)

If it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving then that means it’s the start of this year’s Christmas Carol-A-Thon! Between now and Christmas Day Balladeer’s Blog will examine multiple versions of A Christmas Carol, both new reviews AND old favorites mixed in. 

Leyenda de NavidadThis film version of A Christmas Carol 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 … Continue reading →

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December 25, 2017 · 6:52 pm

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2012)

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2017 comes to a close with this eeriest of all the versions to date!

MV5BMTM5NTg3NDY4N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODkyODAzMDE@._V1_SY317_CR5,0,214,317_AL_.jpg (214×317)A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2012) – This adaptation of A Christmas Carol was a noble effort to try something different that was not just a gimmick. Ignore the negative IMDb reviews which accuse this adaptation of using “Elizabethan language.” They’re off by a few hundred years, since in reality the dialogue follows that in the Dickens novel of 1843.

This 2012 version of A Christmas Carol boasts absolutely beautiful cinematography. Its emphasis is on the eerie nature of the story and has the look of a horror film much of the time. It has assorted flaws which I’ll cover as we go along but I almost hate having to cover the negative aspects of such a brave experiment.

I will take a hundred creative attempts like this, which may fall short but are trying something new, over one more soulless item which updates the story to the modern age but has no emotion to it.      Continue reading →

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December 24, 2017 · 4:37 pm

A TEEN TITANS CHRISTMAS CAROL

Christmas Carol-A-Thon 2017 continues here at Balladeer’s Blog!

Teen Titans Christmas CarolA TEEN TITANS CHRISTMAS CAROL – Last year Balladeer’s Blog examined the 1973 Luke Cage, Hero For Hire version of A Christmas Carol. This time around I’ll take a look at Christmas 1967’s The Teen Titans’ Swingin’ Christmas Carol.

Swingin’ Christmas Carol may sound like the title of a Dean Martin Christmas Special but was really an issue of Teen Titans which paralleled the Dickens tale.

The Teen Titans was a team composed of the teen sidekicks of various DC Superheroes. Robin the Boy Wonder, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Aqua Lad and later Speedy, Hawk & Dove plus many others would come and go over the decades.

For this Christmas story we meet Ebenezer Scrounge, who runs a junkyard where he employees and abuses Bob Ratchet. Bob’s handicapped son Tiny Tom comes to visit his father and accidentally witnesses Scrounge’s secret partner –  a crime boss called Mister Big – use an invention which turns old items in the junkyard brand new. Continue reading →

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December 22, 2017 · 10:41 am

MISTER SCROOGE (1964)

Time for another post in Balladeer’s Blog’s Eighth annual orgy of entries on various versions of A Christmas Carol.  

Mr Scrooge

MR SCROOGE (1964) – Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog will remember the bizarre lengths I go to in order to track down every Carol that I can. This is one of those “don’t ask” situations. I don’t want to become an international criminal. (I’m kidding … maybe.)

Mr Scrooge was originally broadcast on December 21st, 1964 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It runs just an hour and stars Cyril Ritchard as Ebenezer Scrooge and the very appropriately named Eric Christmas as Marley’s Ghost. As with the  Continue reading →

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