Did Anyone Really Like 1938's "A Christmas Carol"

OP = Alastair Sim’s ghost

It was originally meant for Lionel Barrymore. The film was the only time Reginald Owen played a lead, and he seemed to bellow all his lines. Still, it has the MGM gloss even though it is not up there with "A Tale of Two Cities" or "David Copperfield".

The only valid "Christmas Carol" is the George C. Scott version.

I, too, was disturbed by the fat Bob Cratshit. And the ridiculous "wail" that Marley lets out.

R3, Scott is the only actor that sounds natural saying Ba Hambug.

George C. Scott has a twinkle that makes you realize that Scrooge isn't entirely a monster and that there is just something under the surface waiting atonement so he can start enjoying Christmas again. He switches back and forth between miser to hurt child effortlessly. He also played a delightful Fagin in the TV version of "Oliver Twist".

Am I a bad gay if I prefer this one to the immensly overrated Alastair Sim version?

The only definitive version is Mr. Magoo's. Now let's close this silly thread, and have ourselves a merry little Christmas.

David Warner made a wonderful Bob Cratchit.

The only version that really captures the spirit of Dickens is the 2003 TV movie "A Carol Christmas," with Tori Spelling, William Shatner, and Gary Coleman.

Why did the Crachits have so many kids if they couldn't afford them?

How many of you would fuck Jacob Marley?

Realistically, Scrooge would have gone back to his old ways after a week.

The Muppet Christmas Carol!

I remember on Jack Benny, they did a sketch where it's a year later and the entire town is now taking advantage of Scrooge and treating him like an ATM.

R12

Alastair Sim Scrooge (1951) is the only good version, though they expanded the book, it makes it better.

I would fuck Marley. I would fuck Marley hard.

Scrooge and Marley were virgins.

For every story there is a gay fanfic.

I love this version due to the fact that I grew up with it as it was shown on Family Classics, a television show from WGN-TV channel 9 in Chicago which presented classic movies.

I also enjoy the Muppets version, and I always watch "An American Christmas Carol" starring Henry Winkler.

This version was a B-Movie like June "I ruined this and Petticoat Junction" Lockhart said.

I hope she doesn't die before Christmas otherwise TV stations will show this piece o' shit instead of the good Alastair Sim one. That one had Mrs Naugatuck in it.

R13: I just rewatched that on the uncut laserdisc. Cutting out the love song was as stupid as any of the cuts made to all Disney's other post-Walt musicals. Who cares what easily bored str8 boys like?

Here's the song I mean. Disney keeps making excuses for why they don't put it back for good when they never should have cut it.

I was a small child when I first saw the 1938, Reginald Owen Christmas Carol. I was maybe 7 years old and it was on TV at Grandma's house on Christmas Eve in the afternoon. My mother and aunts were all busy cooking and setting up, and the kids were watching TV in the Den. That movie scared me to death. But it has always been my favorite version.

I love you R3.

With the Patrick Stewart 1999 version close behind.

The worst version is the Albert Finney musical version from around 1970 or so

R7 is spot on.

How fuckin old are you OP?

It was rubbish

R27.

32

Fuck you, R28. I still remember.

R23

What was scary about this? We're you afraid Bob Cratchit would eat you?

I don't remember at all. Way, way before my time. More than half a century in fact.

R25 I actually like the musical Albert Finney version. But my personal all time favorite is Alastair Simm.

I actually enjoy Scrooge with Albert Finney. Did anyone see that terrible pitch black version on FX w/Guy Pearce? I had to turn it off, it was retched.

Scrooged is actually one of the better versions, not the best, but better because it brings something else to the table other than a direct retelling of the story.

I started watching it R34 but it really was crap.

Has Datalounge forgotten A Christmas Carol: The Musical from 2004? Shown once--and never again.

There have been so many incarnations of this story that are forgotten because they rarely air on TV anymore.

Rich Little's Christmas Carol

Rod Serling's a Carol For Another Christmas

A UK TV movie from 1977, A Christmas Carol

A 1971 cartoon A Christmas Carol

A TV movie called Ebbie starring Susan Lucci

Ms. Scrooge from 1997 starring Cicely Tyson

Ebenezer from 1997 starring Jack Palance as a old west Scrooge with Ricky Schroder

The 1978 cartoon The Stingiest Man in Town

Seymour Hicks as Scrooge in the 1935 A Christmas Carol which was the closest version of the book made

Another cartoon from 1982 called A Christmas Carol

A UK production called A Christmas Carol about a loan shark who has to relive Christmas eve over three nights which is a bit dark but pretty satisfying

A Diva's Christmas Carol from 2000 starring Vanessa L. Williams

And lastly Scrooge And Marley which is a gay twist on the old story

Henry Winkler’s 1979 Scrooge was a tour de force. Why has it not been mentioned?

My brother met Henry Winkler while they were filling in Ontario, Canada.

He was very nice and interacting with the people watching the filming but of course everyone wanted to talk about The Fonz.

My brother asked him about The Lords Of Flatbush and Winkler lit up and spoke fondly about the movie and shook my brother's hand and thanked him for the nice conversation.

My brother had an old Polaroid picture of them together, with Winkler in costume but my dumb SIL tossed it out years ago along with many other old pictures during one of her manic phases.

R38, it used to air on Canadian TV a lot, especially on CityTV when they still aired good movies. Last time I saw it was on Youtube. The Canadian locations and actors were nice to see and Winkler proved he was more than just a catchphrase actor.

OMG, you people are freaks. Dissecting, comparing and contrasting the numerous versions of an obscure Christmas movie. Unless you're all Dickens scholars, you need a life.

And you're here commenting R41. That says more about you than any of us.

[quote] [R38], it used to air on Canadian TV a lot, especially on CityTV when they still aired good movies. Last time I saw it was on Youtube. The Canadian locations and actors were nice to see and Winkler proved he was more than just a catchphrase actor.

Winkler has a MFA from Yale.

R31, Marley's ghost scared me for starters. And then the last Ghost of Christmas future and the grave site, and it was just all very scary. I also didn't quite understand all of it. I mean yeah Ebenezer was mean and the Crachits were poor, etc. but shit I was 7.

Franz Waxman scored the 1938 version and his music is glorious.

The first version of "A Christmas Carol" that I ever saw. It used to air fairly regularly throughout the 70s and into the 80s. Marley scared the bejeezus out of me. Produced by Chuck Jones, directed by Richard Williams, and with Alistair Sim and Michael Hordern reprising their roles of Scrooge and Marley.

The animation is both beautiful and haunting; it's based on Victorian-era illustrations of the novel.

Would you fuck Marley? Yes or no.

R44 are you sure it was this version and not 1951's with Sim?

I’m going to take a wild guess, since I haven’t seen it but I bet the Guy Pearce version has colorblind casting to go along with it’s updated story.

R22. Thanks for posting ... lovely song. I think this was on my original VHS tape!!!

R37 , in all his wisdom, omitted the 1983 classic "Mickey's Christmas Carol.

Disney's animated short version is pretty fucking dark, even for a condensed version of the story. Even the moments played for laughs still have melancholy or even macabre underpinnings. Think about it: Goofy died and became a ghost doomed to drag chains around forever, Mickey Mouse buried a child, and Scrooge desperately tried to escape his potential future coffin as it opened up to reveal the fires of Hell itself. All in just 25 minutes.

The weirdest line from the 1938 version:

Reginald Owen has that effect on people.

R51 I think most people know that one and the Muppets Christmas Carol as well, so I didn't mention them.

R52, that one has one of my favorite lines in any version of A Christmas Carol; when Pete says to Scrooge McDuck, "You're the richest man in the cemetery!" before slapping his back and sending him into his grave.

This was Nephew Fred in the 1992 Muppet version:

I absolutely love the 1951 version. Sim is wonderful in all stages of Scrooge's transformation. No other version comes close.

I love the supporting cast as well. Hermione Baddeley (I'm sure I butchered her name) as Mrs Cratchit (pre-Maude), Ernest Thesiger (Dr. Pretorius in "The Bride Of Frankenstein") and Patrick MacNee (pre-Avengers) are among a wonderful ensemble.

That should've bee the gay Teeny Tim

r53

One of the glories of the 1951 "Scrooge" is Michael J. Dolan as the Ghost of Christmas Past. He was a celebrated Irish stage actor-manager who only made a handful of movies, and died a couple of years after he made "Scrooge".

Isn’t it scary?

That one was terrible. The Alistair Sim version is the only version for me. Very frightening. There’s a new version with Joe Alwyn. Any good?

Alec Guinness was the most satisfyingly repentant Marley. Was it the Albert Finney version?

I watched a video somebody sent me of Tommy Steele in the annual touring production of "Scrooge" (based upon the Albert Finney version) that may or may not still be going. This was from 2012 and really shows how weak the score is. There are certainly some energetic moments ("Thank You Very Much", "December the 25th"), but "Happiness" and "On that Beautiful Day" are very cloying. Tommy Steele seems completely wrong for Scrooge, and the staging reminds me of the British invasion of Broadway in the late 1980's, i.e. already dated by 2012 (when this version was filmed.) The movie was great to look at, but after seeing a second version of it, I now have to re-think my impression of it.