OK, some final(?) thoughts on Laurence Olivier's 1953 broadcast...
When doing the recap, I realized that this adaptation actually works as a cohesive whole. Like any version that needs to be condensed so drastically, certain events need to be omitted. But what this version keeps all makes sense and works together without any loose ends.
This is not one of those that depends on you being familiar with the story, so they hit some highlights and have you fill in the rest.
At the beginning, Scrooge is mean to Bob Cratchit, Fred and the two portly gentlemen and just plain miserable himself.
In the Christmas Past sequence, his memory of his sister reminds him that he should be nicer to his nephew. And Fezziwig treating him so well makes him realize that he should treat his own employee better.
Christmas Present makes him realize that Tiny Tim (and Ignorance and Want) is part of the "surplus population" so he should be more generous. He also realizes that he could be happy if he would let himself.
In the Christmas Future scenes, the contrast between Tiny Tim being mourned and nobody caring about him drives it all home.
That all seems obvious, yes, but to get all of that in a snappy twenty-odd minutes is awesome!
And I also really like Sir Laurence's little intro and outro.
OK, enough about all this, I'm going to go listen to it again!
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