A Christmas Carol (1938) - A Few Odds and Ends

Did you think we were done dissecting the 1938 MGM version? Oh, no, we're not!

There are still a few little curiosities here and there.

Interestingly, the opening indicates that the story takes place "more than a century ago." Perhaps neither here nor there, but this would place the events earlier than 1838. The book was published in 1843, which is the year a lot of versions place it in, if a year is mentioned at all. The book does say the story takes place "once upon a time," so it technically does not take place in 1843. So not only does "more than a century ago" sound cool, it's also accurate!

Fred and Bob Cratchit are very well-acquainted here. They have a scene together before Scrooge first appears and prior to that, Fred met Peter and Tiny Tim. He meets Bob and Tim again in the Christmas Present sequence outside of the church. This makes it seem a bit odd in the future when Bob says he ran into Fred and Fred was so understanding of Bob's troubles that it made it seem like he really knew Tim. This is faithful to the book, but here Fred does know Tiny Tim well!

A neat little touch is that Scrooge takes the bottle of wine that Bob and Fred had been drinking at the beginning of the movie rather than throwing it away!

A couple of characters that are unnamed in the book are given names here. Fred's fiancée (his wife in the book) is Bess and the two gentlemen collecting for charity are named Twill and Rummidge. Don't know why those two need names, but at least they sound Dickensian!

And don't get me started again on Fan being rechristened Fran!

When the Ghost of Christmas Past brings Scrooge back to bis old school, Scrooge calls out the names of his fellow students. He does that in the book too, so whatever, but... Scrooge yells, "Dick Wilkins!" So, wait, Dick Wilkins went to school with Ebenezer and also worked with him at Fezziwig's? Could be, but it seems like an odd thing to add in.

What's odd to leave out is that Tiny Tim does not say "God bless us every one" during the scene at the Cratchits' Christmas dinner. I actually rewatched the scene a couple of times to make sure! Tiny Tim always says that so it can be echoed at the end. He does say it at the end of the movie, but...

Something that I think might be unintentional was when Scrooge asked the Ghost of Christmas Present if Tiny Tim would die. The ghost misquotes Scrooge as he only says that Tim dying would "decrease the population." What happened to the "surplus" in there? Scrooge said "surplus population" earlier, but the ghost doesn't. I think the actor (Lionel Braham) flubbed the line and either no one noticed or they didn't bother to fix it. Line!

What really would appear to be a blooper is when Scrooge is eating his melancholy dinner in the melancholy tavern. He's reading a ginourmous banker's book (clearly labeled for our benefit!) then leaves it on the table in the tavern when he's done. Surely he wouldn't want to leave something like that behind! The waiter doesn't seem to react to it either.

One more thing that's probably not intentional is that you can see the face of the Ghost of Christmas present a couple of times. Very fleeting, and nobody had freeze frame in 1938 anyway!

Not a mistake, as it is scripted that way, but I find it very odd that Mrs. Cratchit is the one who offers the Christmas toast to Mr. Scrooge. Almost every other version has her squawk when Bob makes the toast, but not this time. Interesting!

And as mentioned before, Fred and Bess are not married, as they don't have enough money. I presume that's why in this version they have the Christmas party with Bess's "people." Otherwise how could Fred afford a big shindig?

Scrooge makes Fred his partner, which is also as different take, so by next Christmas he'll be many hours richer!

And one thing I can't help but wonder, is how long did Scrooge make the carriage driver wait while he was with Fred and Bess? That guy had to babysit that big turkey until Scrooge was ready to go to Bob's house. Luckily for the driver, his passenger was newly generous and probably gave him a big tip!

OK, so perhaps we're done with this movie for now, but it's a fascinating little thing!