Let's take a look at the cast of the 1954 adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" from the "Shower of Stars" TV series.
Scrooge always leads the way and we have a big star here with two-time Best Actor Oscar winner Fredric March!
He was 57 years old at the time, which is a good age for Scrooge, but he was still too handsome and movie starrish to look like Scrooge, so he has a rather large prosthetic nose and a wacky fright wig!
He gives a fine performance and has no problem convincing us he's Scrooge and holding our attention.
Basil Rathbone was born to play Dickens characters and as such, makes an awesome Marley's Ghost. They use some good makeup and special effects to augment his ghostliness.
The third-billed star is Ray Middleton, who was something of a "name" at the time, but not overly well-known these days. His main claim to fame is appearing opposite Ethel Merman in the original Broadway production of "Annie Get Your Gun." If you were going to be noticed while onstage with Merman, you needed to be bigger than life as well! An extremely interesting, but more obscure item on his resume is that he appeared as Superman at the 1940 World's Fair, thus becoming the first live-action Superman. Now, that's cool!
He plays Fred here and doubles as the Spirit of Christmas Present, which is a neat idea. As such, that Spirit has a big voice and a big personality!
The other actor to get "star" billing is Bob Sweeney, who plays Bob Cratchit. He does a good enough job, but I somehow think that he and the other Cratchits look more Pilgrimy or Colonial or something than Victorian era. In fact, this whole production doesn't seem British.
Christopher Cook plays Tiny Tim. He's not bad and kind of has a Freddy Bartholomew vibe that brings a touch of Britshness to the proceedings, but like most TTs, he seems a little too old and healthy. Overall, I like him, he's well above average.
A couple of other interesting Cratchit related notes: Queenie Leonard, who plays Mrs. Cratchit here, also played Mrs. Cratchit in that earlier 1949 TV adaptation hosted by Vincent Price. An interesting market to corner! And following the trail blazed by June Lockhart and Jill St. John for random Cratchit daughters becoming future celebrities, future "One Day at a Time" star Bonnie Franklin plays Susan Cratchit. That's just a wacky trend!
Similar to Fred resembling the Spirit of Christmas Present, Belle looks like the Spirit of Christmas Past. She's played by Sally Fraser, who's very pretty, but not a compelling actress here. Curiously, she's billed as "Belle and the Spirit of Christmas Past," but Ray Middleton is billed only as "Fred."
Next we'll take a look at how the story unfolds...
No comments:
Post a Comment