The Christmas Carol

The problem with "The Christmas Carol" (1949) is that it's a VERY familiar tale--with quite a few versions out there--including the classic versions with Alistair Sim as well as Reginald Owen, a musical, some wonderful made for TV versions and it's probably the most ripped-off plot used in sitcoms! So, because of this, a SHORT version with cheap sets is already at a huge disadvantage--even if it had Vincent Price narrating. Most of the acting (except for the Ghost of Christmas Present) is decent and it's okay for 1949 TV. But, shoving this into such a short time slot and the poor ending at the Cratchit ending didn't help. Overall, it's worth a look if you are curious but my advice is to see the made for TV version starring George C. Scott--I really think this is the best of the lot.

This show is like white bread--inoffensive and a bit bland.

Mainly because of Vincent Price's excellent and tongue-in-cheek narration, reading the celebrated Dickens story, this works better than it should, especially given the ridiculously over the top performance of Taylor Holmes as Scrooge, acting in a way one associates more with the worst excesses of silent cinema.

However, in twenty-five minutes this production does include a scene in Scrooge's office, Jacob Marley and all the three ghosts, as well as a glimpse at Scrooge's redemption and celebration of Christmas.

As an example of early television's attempts to film the classics, it is very good indeed. There are of course better adaptations of this tale, but this one is worth seeking out even if is just the once.

The version I watched is rather muddy picture-wise, but the sound is clear and understandable, and everyone has clear voices which serve Dickens' text well.

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.

This condensed version of the Dickens story was shown on CBN one December in the mid-1980s. I taped it, and our family has enjoyed watching it each Christmas since then. The production is simple, but certain of the elements evoke unintended laughs. Only about half of the actors use British accents. Taylor Holmes' portrayal of Scrooge is very melodramatic, and we laugh at some of his delivered lines. The effect of Marley breaking through Scrooge's door is also very funny: a shot of the door is superimposed with Marley walking through a large sheet of paper and accompanied by a big "boom" sound effect. However, the program is very charming, despite the mediocre production values. I hope it is made available someday, even as a bargain-bin DVD.

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.