I’m Dreaming of a Celluloid Christmas, Part 1, by John Ostrander
Having learned nothing from my last list of favorite films other than how to start a few fights, I’ve decided to go at it again, this time with a list of my favorite Christmas films. T’is the season to really annoy people, after all.
A few words as I begin. This is my list of favorite films. I’m not saying they are the best. Well, some of them are. They just may not be your favorites. Omission of a certain film doesn’t mean I don’t know it or don’t like it. It’s just not on my list. Anyone attempting to see more into the list will be drowned in eggnog and buried with a stake of mistletoe through the heart. Hostile? Sure. T’is the season.
Here we go.
A Christmas Carol – I’m something of A Christmas Carol-aholic. It’s an inspired combination – Dickens creates a ghost story not for Halloween but for Christmas. Brilliant!
I read the story as a boy, the scene around the Cratchit family table was read at my house every Christmas Eve when I was growing up, and it was the last play I performed (where I played such vital roles as Mr. Round, Fred’s friend #3, Dancing Man, and Ensemble) before giving up my sputtering acting career. So I have very definite ideas of what the movie version should be. I own three different versions on DVD – all of which I will have seen before Christmas Day this year.
The one I knew first was the 1938 version starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge and the inestimable Leo G. Carrol as Marley. It’s a decent version and probably enjoys its spot on my list by virtue of being the first one ever saw. Odd little trivia note: Gene Lockhart plays Bob Cratchit in the movie (rather effectively) and his wife Kathleen plays Mrs. Crachit. In addition, their daughter June plays Cratchit daughter Belinda. June Lockhart would later be known to baby boomers as Timmy’s mother on Lassie. I’m not sure what relationship that gives her to the dog. She would also be Maureen Robinson on the Lost in Space TV series.
The animated Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol. What makes it strange is that I was never I particularly big fan of the character of Mister Magoo, whose myopia is usually the source of all the jokes in his cartoons. Yet, he makes a fine Scrooge in this quick adaptation that captures the basics while streamlining the plot. The voices include the inestimable Paul Frees (the voice of Boris Badenov among a gazillion others) in a number of parts, the delightfully plumy Jack Cassidy making an affecting Bob Cratchit, as well as the voices of Royal Dano, Morey Amsterdam, and – of course – Jim Backus as Magoo playing Scrooge.
The concept is that Magoo is an actor playing Scrooge on Broadway. It allows for a mercifully small amount of Magoo myopic schtick but lets the old codger play the part straight. Bob Merrill and Julie Styne (later of Funny Girl) wrote a number of great songs for the show. One that they wrote for this show but were too late to have it animated was a little number called “People.” Yes, that “People”. The song wound up in Funny Girl and became a cornerstone for Barbra Streisland’s career. (Thanks you, imdb.)
The last – and, IMO, best – of the Carols on my list is, of course, the 1951 version starring Alastair Sim. It’s also known as Scrooge over in the U.K. but the Brits drive on the wrong side of the road, too, so what do they know? It had the feel of a movie made in the Thirties to me, partially because it was in black and white and partially because of the sometime florid acting styles of some of the supporting actors. Michael Hordern’s Marley comes to mind. He not only chews some of the scenery but swallows it whole. Tiny Tim is none too tiny and a bit too old and so sickening sweet I’d like to see him drop-kicked into the Thames. Interesting side note – young Jacob Marley is played by Patrick Macnee, who we will later know much better as John Steed in The Avengers TV series.
It is Sim who makes the movie work, arguably the best Scrooge on film to date, despite the fact that physically he’s not really right for the role. We generally picture Scrooge as lean and mean – Sim is anything but. Yet he captures Scrooge’s persona perfectly and his transformation into a new man after the visitation of the three Christmas Ghosts is perfect – he makes joy utterly believable and infectious.
There are a host of other versions – George C. Scott did one that I recall being very good but that I have not seen in years. Bill Murray did an updated version called Scrooged and it might have worked if the ending didn’t just plain suck. They simply turned the camera on Murray and let him wing it. Didn’t work for me but it has some redeeming features. Carol Kane is brilliant as the Ghost of Christmas Present and Bobcat Goldthwait is terrific fun as the Bob Cratchit stand-in. Especially when he has a gun.
Albert Finney plays Scrooge in the movie musical Scrooge which I never really cared for despite the presence of Dame Edith Evans as the Ghost of Christmas Past and Kenneth More as the Ghost of Christmas Present, both of whom perform wonderfully. Alec Guiness, Ol’ Obi-Wan Kenobi himself, plays Marley’s Ghost but it wasn’t a performance that spoke to me. Leslie Bricusse did the songs, only one of which – “Thank You Very Much”, sung by the crowd on Scrooge’s coffin – comes to mind, unlike Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol where I still remember the songs well and fondly.
The thing is – I don’t think they’ve yet made the best version of A Christmas Carol. It keeps getting focused on all the treacle-y elements, the overly sweet and sentimental. Yes, that’s in the book but the other major element, the social commentary, is usually missing. The underlying social conditions that Dickens spoke about are still with us. I also think the ghost parts should be genuinely scary. The perception is that A Christmas Carol should be a family film and we don’t want to scare the little tykes too much. Humbug, I say. Send ‘em home crying if you have to. Do the material justice; do it right. Peter Jackson, get this into your queue. (Ian McKellan as Scrooge? Oh, I think so.)
Next: A Christmas Story. I love this film. Although it’s technically set in Indiana in the late 1940s, parts of it almost feel lifted from my boyhood in the 50s. Coal furnace? Check? Visiting Santa? Check? Schoolyard bullies? Check. Everything plugged into one socket? Check. Check check check.
The story was adapted (and narrated in the movie) by humorist Jean Shephard from various short stories he had written. Our protagonist, Little Ralphie Parker, is inhabited by Peter Billigsly in one of the best performances by a child actor I’ve ever seen — true to the character and the material but with a sense of comedic timing beyond his years. Ralphie desperately wants a Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle (BB gun) only to be thwarted by every adult who replies, in one of the movie’s signature lines, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” Mom, played by Melinda Dillon as a bit sexier and a little ditzier June Cleaver, leads that pack.
I can remember, as a boy, wanting some toy (not necessarily a BB gun) so badly I ached and being told by the parent it wasn’t good for me. Ralphie’s mania was my mania sometimes.
Another item in the movie’s favor – Darren McGavin as Ralphie dad, a.k.a. The Old Man. Lots of us around here are Darren McGavin fans, if only for his role as Kolchak in the original Night Stalker. I’d argue this is McGavin’s most memorable movie role. The Old Man curses up a storm when in battle with the furnace, his delight in winning perhaps the tackiest sweepstakes prize ever (they sell replicas and I keep threatening to get one) is palpable, and he sees every flat tire as an opportunity to beat his old record in changing it – this is a rich part and McGavin does it full justice.
There is a scene late in the movie where Ralphie gets a present from an aunt who obviously hasn’t seen him in a while. Said Aunt has hand made Ralphie a Doctor Denton’s style sleep suit – head to toe, with feet and a hood that has bunny ears on it. His mother thinks it’s adorable, of course, and Dad knows its utterly humiliating and gets Ralphie out of it ASAP. I mention it because this stuff still happens. I was talking with a friend on the phone when a package arrived from an aunt. In it were hand made winter hoodies for the kids – with bunny ears. Her kids are way to old for bunny ears. I simply said, “Ralphie.” She agreed. The aunt had done a “Ralphie.”
This is a funny, warm, and knowing holiday movie.
This is getting a tad long and I still have more picks to mention so I’ll think we’ll cut it off here and resume next week. I’ll also discuss what’s not on my list and why. In the meantime, feel free to mention some of your own faves and we’ll see how it all links up – or not – next week.
Ho Ho HO!
Writer of Star Wars: Legacy, Suicide Squad, GrimJack: The Manx Cat (here on ComicMix) and Munden’s Bar (soon to return to ComicMix), John Ostrander sells himself short. He a was featured performer in the prestigious Goodman Theatre’s annual production if A Christmas Carol starting back when Uncle Scrooge was nary an egg, working with future comics collaborators William J. Norris and Del Close.
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol is a favorite of mine, too. The songs were actually pretty good for an animated version.
Since You Went Away. Really. The best Christmas movie ever. Honorable mention to Scrooged (Michael O'Donohue script) and The Hebrew Hammer.
Martha, I deliberately DIDN'T mention that movie so you could chime in. It's my MISSION to get that movie on DVD. I hope it comes with a box of tissues.
Also, Since You Went Away is not a Christmas movie per se. It's a movie that ENDS at Christmas in one of the saddest holiday scenes this side of Auntie Mame. But it gets better for the family…just like in Auntie mame.
Raises an interesting point. Does having a movie SET, in whole or in part, at Christmas make it a Christmas movie? As Rick suggests, I think not. I think the holiday needs to be integral to the movie's storyline and not simply a setting through which we pass. Part of SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE occurs during a Christmas but I wouln't consider it a Christmas movie.
I see Martha's point, though. In Since You Went Away, Christmas is not just a scene, it's the emotional climax of the film. Also, the entire film's backdrop is WWII and all the sacrifices that Middle America has made for the war effort.
I miss those special Christmas episodes of crime shows like Dragnet. If not for the writer's strike, perhaps we would have had us a Criminal Minds Christmas Special.
Possibly a gift horse, that writer's strike. There were a boat load of Halloween episodes this year. Many of them were "X-Files" in nature and mostly out-of-show-character from the regular episodes.
Mr. Dickens' story holds up well in a variety of versions, all right — especially those that honor its creepier essence. There's a good teevee CHRISTMAS CAROL with Basil Rathbone, from a Dickens-based teleseries of the 1950s. Shows up occasionally in off-brand video editions.Mike Gold's reference to the Xmas-special teevee melodramas reminds me of a dollar-store DVD that turned up last year — contains a JACK BENNY Yule episode, very frantic, with Mel Blanc stealing the show as a temperamental department-store clerk. A funny and savvy indictment of the popular tendency to wallow in anxiety during Christmastime.Prevailing favorites here are 1942's THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER, with Monty Wooley, and the 1966-69 CHRISTMAS MEMORY (also part of the CAPOTE TRILOGY), with Truman C. narrating. Ideal seasonal scenario, for my part, is to mix the media — a good Xmas movie or two, Spike Jones' NUTCRACKER recording, Paul Wing's RUDOLPH record albums, Lionel Barrymore's XMAS CAROL album, and a stack of Giant Christmas Comics from 'way back when (Donald Duck, Dennis the Menace, the DC RUDOLPHS, like that). Not all at once, natch: Spread 'em out.Perpetually in awe of the work of Peter Billingsley and Darren McG in 1983's A CHRISTMAS STORY. That kid was the perfect born-too-late Hal Roach Rascal. Billingsley also is very good in a far lesser movie called DEATH VALLEY, from 1982 — a variant on 1949's THE WINDOW, though without attribution to source-author Cornell Woolrich.Here (below) is a link to the latest BizPress Xmas-movie rant: http://fortworthbusinesspress.com/display.php?id=…
Not a movie, but a truly wonderful version of the Christmas Carol is Patrick Stewart's one man show. I had the great fortune to see it when on stage when visiting my family in New York some several years ago and have listened to the CD recording every year since.A slightly abridged version but it captures all of Dicken's work, including the social commentary. Stewart's Ghost of Christmas Present revealing the two children under his skits is one of the most strikingly memorable images I've ever seen. Not too shabby considering it's all done just with Stewart's voice.
I did my own riff on this a few years ago on my blog, called You Shall Be Upheld in More Than This.
I recall seeing this with you and being upset as I had been under the impression that the show featured race-car driver Jackie Stewart.
I personally prefer the Scott "Carol" over all others; it seems to me to concentrate on the aspect of Scrooge that often seems to get lost in the shuffle – that he's essentially a good man who's lost his way.Get hold of a copy and check it out; i doubt you'll be disapointed.I seem to recall that the Leo G Carroll "Topper" show did a "Carol" episode – a dream, with ghost George Kirby turning up as Christmas Present wearing a gift box for a costume.
Tsk, you throw the mistletoe dart into the heart!I like musicals and my favorites for the season are Holiday Inn and White Christmas. But there was a great A Different World Christmas episode based on The Christmas Carol.
I agree that SCROOGE with Alastair Sim version is the best I’ve seen, but think the Reginal Owen a close second. Personally, I don’t remember seeing the Owen version until I was older but the Christmas Carol with Sim seemed to pop up every year on several local stations. I think it’s been a good twenty plus years since I’ve seen the Mr. Magoo cartoon and wonder how I’d feel about it today.It probably doesn’t count, since I don’t know if it was every filmed, but the one-man reading/performance by Patrick Stewart I saw in New York was one of the most brilliant adaptations of the story I have ever seen. Sadly, the made-for-television version of the book with Stewart as Scrooge in no way shows how wonderful he was in person.A CHRISTMAS STORIES is in my Top Ten Favorite Movies and something I can watch at any time of the year. My wife Donna had never seen the movie until we began dating.Thanks for the overview of the movies, by the way, brought back some nice memories and has pushed me to purchase new copies on DVD this season.
Okay, this is too obvious, but I must ask:Has there ever been a version called (The) Christmas Carole, starring a woman?
There was a film called "A Diva's Christmas Carol" with Vanessa Williams, which was a made-for-TV thing as I recall. Williams plays a pop singer who has badly treated those who worked with her over the years.I also seem to recall some other television movies that played with the 'ghosts of Christmas past/etc' thing.
And that was directed by Richard Schenkman, whose MAN FROM EARTH I wrote about after San Diego.
Two words: Holiday Inn.
Two Xmas film favorites, with links: A Christmas Story and Die Hard.
Hmmm, I wonder if I put in a throwaway link first, the real links would work. I'll have to try that next time.
I'm giving John the opportunity to finish his list before pointing out the omission of DIE HARD, but, since A CHRISTMAS CAROL is already noted, I'd like to nominate one more version: BLACKADDER'S CHRISTMAS CAROL. As for A CHRISTMAS STORY, it falls more under the category of historical documentary. I swear I never even noticed the movie cameras following us around…
You played with guns as a kid? I'd never have guessed. See, folks, your parents were right– if you played with guns as a kid, you could grow up to be like Mike Grell. They were only trying to protect you.
A Christmas Carol (1938) – Reginald Owen played an interesting Scrooge with great one-ff lines ("Don't work any overtime…you might MAKE something of yourself"). The Nephew Fred role was much better portrayed, however.A Christmas Carol (1951) – The Sim classic that everyone's raving about. I must admit that Sim's portrayal is great, especially his messing with the housekeeper at the beginning of the "New Scrooge" phase. Scrooge – This is the musical version. I like it and the general weirdness that Sir Alec Guiness brings to the role of Marley. Plus, it's the only version I know of that actually features Scrooge going to Hell for his sins. The overall production designs were great for the film.A Christmas Carol (1984) – George C. Scott gives excellent service as the miser who finds redemption (or reclamation, if you will). Sci-fi vet David Warner is wonderful as Bob Crachitt and the young boy (who's name escapes me at the moment, unfortunately) who played Tiny Tim was equally cute, "good", and sickly (something the other, supposedly ill, Tims did not look).The best part for me, however, was Edward Woodward as The Ghost Of Christmas Present. he treated Scrooge with the same amused contempt he usually saved for the criminal opposition on his series, The Equalizer.Scrooged – I happen to like this film. It's also the only time I have seen the Ramseys together (Logan "I Killed Bufford Pusser In The Original Walking Tall Trilogy" Ramsey and Anne "Throw Momma From The Train As Soon As She Is Done In Goonies" Ramsey).Christmas Comes To Willow Creek – A sappy film that reteams former General Lee owners John Schnieder(sp?) and Tom Wopat as polar (no pun intended) opposite brothers who share animosity, a former wife/girlfriend, and a joint gig hauling supplies and foodstuffs to their adopted father's (played by Hoyt Axton) Alaskan hometown.It's A Wonderful Life – I watch this every year (B&W version only) and usually follow it up with Harvey.Holiday Cartoons – A Charlie Brown Christmas is a must (just as The Great Pumpkin Halloween counterpart is) and it is swiftly followed by A Garfield Christmas and Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas.Rankin-Bass Specials – I love these and watch them every year. *places chip squarely on shoulder* And people who sing the praises of Magoo (which I agree with, being a cartoon fan) should not rank on the Rankin-Bass!As far as "seasonal" films, I watch Gremlins around Christmas because it takes place entirely around Christmas. I also watch both Ghostbusters films around New Year's.But, I do not watch Lethal Weapon because it take place at Christmastime. I watch it whenever I am in the mood to watch the films.