Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens - "A Christmas Carol" (1959) - Part 3

A few more thoughts on the 1959 adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" from the TV Series "Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens..."

I think that this is a pretty good version, despite the short running time and obvious low budget.

It seems that some thought went into this. It doesn't seem to have just been thrown together. The credits say that it was produced with the cooperation of the Dickensian Society of London. Maybe that has something to do with it.

They were smart to get a name like Basil Rathbone to do the heavy lifting. The rest of the cast seem to be mostly journeyman British actors, but I think the performances are pretty good on the whole.

As mentioned, the only actor beside Basil Rathbone I can place is Alexander Gauge, due to his role as Friar Tuck on "The Adventures of Robin Hood." Interestingly, the IMDB lists Gabriel Toyne, who plays Fezziwig here, as being on 22 epiodes on that same show, but in a different role each time!

I thought the music in this show was pretty good and it turns out that it was by Sidney Torch, who had also done the music for that Laurence Olivier radio broadcast adaptation that I'm always yapping about!

J wonder if he thought much about that previous version while working on this one or was it just another job?

This is definitely a case where being familiar with the story helps to enjoy the presentation. I'm not sure that there's enough meat here to get the full impact otherwise. At this point in time, I can't imagine someone stumbling across this and deciding to watch it unless they're already a fan of "A Christmas Carol" or at the very least, familiar with the story.

I can't imagine that the producers of this show or anybody involved would have thought that anybody would still be talking about it 60 years later, but you can dig up almost anything from the past these days.

Ultimately, I don't think this is one for mass consumption, but it's fun for buffs. It's always interesting to see how different things are interpreted and what changes might be made.

But, as I often say: Don't go by me!