The Christmas Carol (1949)
Director: Arthur Pierson
Scrooge: Taylor Holmes
While slicing and dicing that 1910 silent adaptation, I was reminded of this early TV version, as they both are rather primitive. Funny thing is, the 1949 version seems more dated than that 1910 film!
This is a low-budget, produced for televsion syndication, 25 minute long affair. What do we have going on?
First of all, The Christmas Carol? What is up with that? It really annoys me! Much more than it should, but it does!
OK, whatever, a mistake with the article. Things can only go up from there, right? Wrong! They also spell Scrooge's first name as "Ebeneezer!"
And you see both of those things for a lonnng time, as the credits are really slow...
We'll cut them some slack, though, as it's 1949, and, hey, the book had only been around for 106 years!
Anyway, things pick up a bit when we're greeted by Vincent Price, who does call this story A Christmas Carol. Thanks, Mr. Price!
Vincent Price is the narrator here. He has a great voice and he reads in a somewhat jovial manner. He's best remembered these days for his horror roles, but this is before he started making such movies, so he's way less sinister than modern audiences might expect.
His goatee does give him a devil-esque look, however!
He introduces the story and the show cuts back to him now and again for some expository dialogue, which helps move things along.
Vincent Price is the best thing about this whole thing and I totally could have just listened to him reading for the whole 25 minutes!
But, there is a dramatization of the story and we'll get into that next...
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