Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens - "A Christmas Carol" (1959) - Part 1

Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens - "A Christmas Carol" (1959)
Director: Ross Mackenzie
Scrooge: Basil Rathbone

After discussing the "Shower of Stars" adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" starring Fredric March as Scrooge and Basil Rathbone as Marley's Ghost, we jump ahead five years to 1959 and turn the tables a bit.

This version is from the awkwardly titled syndicated TV series "Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens" and stars Basil Rathbone as Scrooge with Mr. March hosting, and sort-of narrating.

I can't find too much info about this series, but it was definitely produced in  England, and I'm guessing that Fredric March was not involved with the dramatizations, but dropped in later. Most episodes seem to be sequences from various works of Charles Dickens, as you could never condense most of his novels into a half-hour so. ''Fortunately for our purposes, "A Christmas Carol" is a shorter work and can be cut down while retaining the basic story.

This is another low-budget affair, but it's a bit more imaginatively staged and certainly better acted than that 1949 made-for-TV production hosted by Vincent Price. That was a big ten years in the development of TV production, but this is better all the way around. Basil Rathbone is a million times better than Taylor Holmes!

This is at least the third time that Basil Rathbone played Scrooge. He had previously done an audio version for Columbia Records in 1942 and has starred in the "Alcoa Hour" presentation of "The Stingiest Man in Town" in 1956. We'll be taking a look at both of those later.

As I had mentioned before, Mr. Rathbone seemed born to play a Dickens chaarcter. He had appeared in both "A Tale of Two Cities" and "David Copperfield" for MGM in 1935. In particular, his portrayal of "Mr. Murdstone" in the latter is scarier than any Scrooge. No number of spirits could have redeemed that guy!

If someone at MGM were thinking, they probably should've had him play Scrooge in their 1938 adaptation. Oh, well...

For a long time, people always thought of Sherlock Holmes when they thought of Basil Rathbone. I understand that he wasn't overly fond of the fact. These days, however, he's also well-remembered for his roles in horror films like "Son of Frankenstein" in addition to being the greatest swashbuckling villain ever. And he was a great Sherlock Holmes, so that's quite a legacy!

Back to the show here, he makes a fine Scrooge, battling the low-budget, a truncated script and a wacky nightcap, but he comes out on top.

If you dig Basil Rathbone and are a nut about seeing every version of "A Christmas Carol" (guilty!), here's a link to watch it: