OK, now all we have to do is finish nitpicking this 1949 adaptation and we can send it back to well-deserved obscurity!
Scrooge is played here by Taylor Holmes, who was 71 at the time, so definitely of the old melodramatic school of acting. Subtle, he is not! He seems like he thinks he's on stage or perhaps in a silent movie.
He's certainly not silent, though, and affects a weird voice for Scrooge. At times I thought he was going for a Lionel Barrymore vibe, but it's inconsistent.
I feel like I should be more familiar with Taylor Holmes than I am, but I can't really place him. He has small roles in movies that I've seen, but I don't remember him. He was in a pretty good run of Fox movies right before this, including three outstanding 1947 releases: "Boomerang," "Nightmare Alley" and "Kiss of Death." I'll have to keep an eye out for him the next time I watch any of those.
Tiny Tim is played by Bobby Hyatt, who actually had a number of roles as a child actor, of this was not the first. You wouldn't know it, though, as he's so amateurish here. He seems very proud that he remembered his one line: "God bless us everyone." (He does yell, "Mr. Scrooge!" later.)
The other actors don't add much, but of note is that one of the Cratchit daughters (dubbed Missie here) is played by 9-year old Jill Oppenheim, who grew up to find a certain celebrity status as Jill St. John!
Marley's ghost makes an interesting entrance. It seems to be a special effect in which a door is superimposed over paper or cardboard through which he bursts like the Kool Aid Man! Marley's ghost seems a bit confused and Scrooge doesn't seem all that scared, so the whole scene is strange.
Strange also are the other three ghosts who are costumed none too convincingly. The Ghost of Christmas Present in particular is odd. He strikes a pose like a super-hero and yells his lines!
In any event, time is of the element here, so we get short sequences with the ghosts.
The past only has young, lonely Ebenezer. No Fan, Fezziwig or Belle. The ghost does mention that Scrooge did have a fiancee, which he interestingly says was 40 years ago. Most ghosts aren't so specific. He also says that Ebenezer is lonely because he shunned his playmates, as opposed to being dumped off at school by his father.
In the present we only get the Cratchits' Christmas dinner, with the usual shenanigans.
The future actually has the most scenes, including Tiny Tim's death, the other businessmen talking and Scrooge's name rather unconvincingly superimposed on a tombstone.
Back on Christmas Day in the present, Scrooge starts jumping and laughing like a nut. Anybody would have thought he actually had gone mad!
Scrooge brings Fred and his wife to Bob Cratchit's house, but they enter first to set up Scrooge surprising the family with the turkey and other gifts. That's actually pretty fun.
Interestingly, Scrooge tells Tiny Tim that he met a surgeon friend (Wait - Scrooge has friends?) in church and that surgeon will help Tiny Tim. That's when Tim delivers his other line.
Cue the happy ending, cut back to Vincent Price quoting Tiny Tim and we're done. Well after some more really slow rolling credits...
Onward and upward!
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