The Christmas Carol

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The Christmas Carol is a 1949 low-budget, black and white television special narrated by Vincent Price. Compressing the Charles Dickens classic story into a half-hour, it is stated to be "the oldest extant straight adaptation of the story" for television.

The production will be considered primitive by modern standards; it is also noted for misspelling Ebenezer Scrooge's name as "Ebeneezer" in the opening credits.

This special is worth watching for many reasons. There is something about watching an old black and white movie about Christmas. The production is not the bet ever adaption of the Charles Dickens classic but none the less it is well thought out and executed.

Older adults will like this. Kids will be bored. It is worth seeking out. There is a "Timeless Vibe" to this that big feature films seldom capture.

This half-hour digest telling of Charles Dickens' Christmas CAROL from 1949 is one of the earliest American television programs to survive. Taylor Holmes (a character actor perhaps best known for as Henry Spoffard Sr. in Marilyn Monroe's GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES) is well cast as the sour Mr. Scrooge. Although he is a bit over the top in a few of his early scenes, he is very good otherwise and there is a unusual touch of poignancy in his performance that often is not in other actors as Scrooge, possibly due to Mr. Holmes' having lost two of his sons (including the well-known actor Phillip Holmes) within the previous five years, thus giving him perhaps an emotional link to Scrooge's inner sadness that some actors couldn't quite reach. This little drama is moves quickly of course given the time frame and the cast of mostly unknowns does very well (although the ghosts are fairly ridiculously costumed, particularly the ghost of Christmas present who resembles some actor in a king costume for a 1960's cereal commercial). It's an effective little piece of television and Christmas nostalgia. It won't be anyone's favorite rendition of the classic story but it's worth seeing and rather endearing.

This 25-minute TV short seems to be a quickie that was made just for showing on Christmas day of 1949. That was its release date, but there's no information on a network or TV stations that ran it. So, a good guess might be that it ran on some local TV stations in New York and maybe a few other cities.

Remember - this was December 1949, just before the explosion of Television in America -- in the market, in homes, and on the air. In 1946, the first year after the end of World War II, there were only about 8,000 TV sets owned in the U. S., and only six TV stations in the entire country. Three were in New York City, and one each in Chicago, Philadelphia and Schenectady, NY. Growth was gradual but slow the first three years after the war. Many TV stations first went on the air in 1949, and TV sales began to pick up rapidly. Still, there were just 98 TV stations in the whole country in 1950 and by the end of that year, people owned five million TV sets in the U. S.

There hadn't been a movie made of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" since 1938. So, the enterprising Jerry Fairbanks probably saw the possibility for a short film for TV. Fairbanks got his start as a cameraman in silent films, but soon began producing specialty shorts for Hollywood studios. He became interested in TV very early, and wound up producing many shorts, feature films and TV programs over a career that spanned several decades. He won two Academy Awards for shorts, and was nominated five times.

Perhaps the novelty of this film was having a well-known actor of the time, Vincent Price, as a narrator. He had little more than the opening lines. He first quotes Gilbert K. (G. K.) Chesterton, who wrote, "In everybody there is a thing that loves children, fears death, and likes sunlight. And this thing enjoys Charles Dickens."

Price then reads most of what Dickens himself wrote in the preface to his story: "I have endeavored in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humor with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly."

As a short and for its one-year release, this film is passable, but hardly a fitting portrayal of the story or its characters. It necessarily cuts much out, and but for one brief scene of Marley's appearance and retreat through the door to Scrooge's bedroom, there are no great effects to heighten the film - which all of the feature films have. So, Taylor Holmes can't be blamed for playing a mushy Scrooge. To have acted the full character for this brief story would surely have come across as over-acting.

And one shouldn't be too stern in assaying this short for its time and purpose. For the sparse TV audiences of the day, it was something they at least were able to watch on Christmas that related to the season. And it probably sparked some interest in people who would want to read the Dickens story, or look for the original movie to be shown the next year. Indeed, two years later, the British film company, George Minter Productions, would make a feature film that starred Alastair Sim as Scrooge with a wonderful supporting cast. It was released to theaters in the U. K. and the U. S. in early December of 1951. And, three years after that a short 49-minute TV movie aired on CBS that starred Frederic March and Basil Rathbone.

Since that time, TV networks, cable channels, and TV stations around the world have run one or more of the films of Dickens' Christmas classic each year during the holiday season from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. May it go on forever.

Simple and precise , Taylor Holmes proposing a seductive and correct crafted Ebenezer Scrooge, with some admirable virtues more impressive than few classic adaptations , Vincent Price using his charm in well manner, the handicap of early TV program being reduced by the virtues of cast.

The only problem - maybe the ghosts who , between eccentric and boring blank are only presences.

But , for a very short version, it works just admirable, proposing honest atmosphere of book and a pleasant way to define Scrooge transformation.

So, after familiar versions, just a nice - sweet surprise . And the perfect narrator.

Vincent Price is one of my favourite actors and A Christmas Carol is one of my favourite stories, so when I stumbled across this I couldn't wait to watch it. Price is great as the narrator, I could listen to him all day long, but sadly this looks like it was filmed on the cheap. The sets are minimal, the mixture of American and English accents in Victorian London is wrong and Taylor Holmes as Scrooge is woefully hammy. The opening and closing credits felt like they took up a quarter of the short running time. But if, like me, you are a Price fan or if you're just looking for a condensed version of the tale then this it is worthwhile viewing.