The Stingiest Man in Town

I am sure I have seen this tale in some other incarnation somewhere before, I swear.

In a bizarre, alternate history London, where everyone apparently speaks with an American accent, Ebeneezer Scrooge (Walter Matthau) is about to be visited by ghosts...sound familiar yet? As Bart Simpson once said, TV writers have been milking that goat for years. The Stingiest Man in Town is not the best version of Scrooged...I mean A Christmas Carol, but it's a nice intro to the story for kids. Back in the days when lots of obscure children's animation were released on VHS by flash-in-the-pan distributors I rented this 50-minute cartoon and it kinda stayed with me.

Still, Mickey's Christmas Carol is the best animated version.

"The Stingiest Man In Town" was a lost Christmas special churned out by Rankin-Bass, the company behind many of the most celebrated TV specials of all time. Those specials most notably include "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Frosty The Snowman", and "The Little Drummer Boy". It doesn't matter that the animation style of these specials, whether regular, 2D animation or stop-motion, are archaic in comparison to the dominant, but not necessarily superior, 3D animation popular today. These specials stand the test of time for their colorful characters and great storytelling skills.

This special, originally broadcast on network TV in 1978, just recently found its way onto DVD by way of the "Classic Christmas Favorites" box set. Although it is good to see such TV specials get the recognition they deserve after being put on the back-burner for 30+ years, "The Stingiest Man In Town" lacks the charm, purpose, and uniqueness of its TV predecessors. It's good, but not great.

My major problem with this special is in the title. I will admit that one of my biggest pet peeves is when a movie that is clearly based on Charles Dickens' immortal "A Christmas Carol" is instead titled "Scrooge". Sure, the main character is Ebenezer Scrooge, but that's NOT the title of the story to which it is based. That said, the reason the title "The Stingiest Man In Town" does not sit well with me is because I was expecting a different story. Other men besides Scrooge can be stingy, can't they? Is Ebenezer Scrooge the only person in the history of literature and storytelling who initially hated Christmas? Of course not. So instead of getting a fresher story about a different man, Rankin-Bass here adds yet another version of "A Christmas Carol" to a never-ending list of movie versions.

I will give this special credit for staying truer to the Dickens story than other versions. However, there's nothing unique or fresh about this retelling. Adding the character of B.A.H. Humbug the bug, a blatant and unnecessary ripoff of Jiminy Cricket, wasn't enough to make this retelling memorable. In fact, the bug doesn't interact much, if at all, with any of the main characters. Plus, he seems way too cheerful to be named after a word defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the quality of falseness or deception". Does that mean the bug is deceiving someone? It doesn't make sense.

This TV special was not bad, mind you, but certainly is not as memorable as animation specials that Rankin-Bass had released before. There were musical numbers, but none of great significance. I can't fault the animation style, but the problem lay in it feeling as though the special was put together at the last minute. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come makes one brief appearance as he points to a grave, and that fleeting moment, alas, is the extent of the dark, climactic turning point of the original story.

Seeing as this T.V. special's original air date (according to this website) was two days before Christmas, there is no doubt in my mind that the special had added pressure to air before families supposedly turned off their TVs to cook Christmas dinner, do last minute shopping, or attend church services. If the special was, in fact, rushed, it really does show. It is true to the Dickens story, but it could have been so much more. As it is, it was just okay to me.

Rankin/Bass do a highly abbreviated, musical version of "A Christmas Carol". It's fine, but it's a tough story to do justice to in under an hour, and inserting songs certainly doesn't help. What you essentially get is the high points and little else. Walter Matthau is a fine actor, but he's not quite what you want for Scrooge. The story is narrated by B.A.H. Humbug, an insect voiced by Tom Bosley. The less said about that the better.

I remember watching this special as a little kid in 1978. I still believed in Santa then. Walter Matthau, Tom Bosley, Theodore Bikel and Dennis Day make up for a delightful animated cast with their distinctive voices. Walter should have played Scrooge in a live action movie, he would have been delightful like he was with Oscar in The Odd Couple. The songs aren't exactly Oscar quality, but what the hell. Its a nice cartoon the kids will enjoy and even though we only hear his voice, Matthau does a splendid acting job, he just cannot sing very well. He makes Scrooge's transformation from miser to nicer very convincing. I remember one song that warmed my heart in particular was Yes there is a Santa Claus.

Review Date 8/5/2019

I have Reviewed OVER 600 "Christmas Films, & Christmas Television Movies , & Television Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare. I am on a mission to watch every Christmas Movie ever produced. Since 2014 I average 100 per year.

The Stingiest Man in Town is the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, told in the 1978 version through the perspective of the insect B.A.H. Humbug (voiced by Tom Bosley), obviously a word play on Scrooge's catch phrase, "bah humbug". Scrooge (performed by Walter Matthau) is portrayed as the tightwad Charles Dickens intended him to be with his consistent resistance to assist the poor or even have Christmas dinner with his nephew Fred (performed by Dennis Day) and his family. In hopes of resuscitating the goodness of his one-time friend, the ghost of Jacob Marley (voiced by Theodore Bikel), Scrooge's former business partner, visits Scrooge in his mansion, exhorting him to change his ways. Scrooge deems this to be madness and soon prepares for bed.

Nevertheless, Scrooge's attitude soon changes after a fateful night wherein three ghosts also visit him and take him through his past and present, and show him what his future would be like if he does not change.

Not that many twist and turns in this version but it is a great introduction to small children who are too young for the "Darker Versions" of the story!