The 1942 Columbia Records album of "A Christmas Carol" starring Basil Rathbone consists of six 12-inch 78 rpm records. Each side could hold about four minutes of material, so the whole thing clocks in at just under 24 minutes.
That's the typical length of a lot of audio versions of the story, whether it's a record set or a half-hour radio show. It's what each of those versions does with those twenty-odd minutes that keeps things interesting!
As I had mentioned last time, this starts off with an introduction from popular radio announcer Harlow Wilcox. Once he sets the scene and introduces us to Scrooge, Bob Cratchit (Cratchet) and Fred, we don't hear from him again.
Fred enters the office and says "Betsy" wants Scrooge to come for Christmas, but of course, Scrooge isn't one for such invitations. Scrooge does address him as "Fred" and "Nephew."
In the book, we only learn that the nephew's name is Fred when his wife calls him that in the Christmas Present sequence, but here there's no doubt right from the beginning!
Only one portly gentleman comes in to collect for charity, but he gets the same welcome as usual.
These interactions are brief, but they get the point across just fine.
Then Scrooge and Bob discuss whether Bob should have the next day off. Interestingly, Scrooge tells Bob to come in at 4:00 on Christmas Day!
Scrooge then leaves the office and basically starts narrating the story at this point. He's describing things as they're happening, not as if they had already happened, as was the case with Ronald Colman's Scrooge on his album.
He says he's going to have dinner at what sounds like the "White Harp," which must be his usual melancholy tavern.
For his melancholy dinner he had steak and kidney pie, which he didn't like. I don't blame him, as that sounds like something made from a bad "Chopped" basket!
Scrooge says it's a bedlam due to all the celebrating people. This is interesting because in the book he says he'll retire to Bedlam, which was the nickname for the Bethlehem Royal Hospital, a London psychiatric facility.
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| How would Boris Karloff been as Scrooge? |
I know that mainly from the awesome 1946 horror film of the same name starring Boris Karloff.
Anyway, Scrooge continues his internal monologue as he goes home. He sees Marley's face in the knocker and then Marley's Ghost come through the bolted door.
Marley's Ghost warns Scrooge to change his ways and tells him the other three ghosts will come on successive nights, as in the book.
Marley's Ghost then goes out the window to join "the other lost spirits."
The Marley business is given a fair amount of time, which I guess was to have his exit coincide with the end of that particular record. It's well-done.
The Ghost of Christmas Past shows up a pulls back Scrooge's bed curtains. Scrooge describes the spirit, which largely follows the description in the book. The spirit says its face is the face of everyone Scrooge has ever known, which is sort of in the book, but that happens when the spirit leaves.
Due to time constraints, we only get one scene from the past, which is Fan coming to take lonely, young Ebenezer home. Old Scrooge calls his younger self a "poor little shaver," which is a good old-school expression!
What I find interesting is that when the spirit says that Fan died a woman and had children, Scrooge doesn't correct it to say she had only one, meaning his nephew. I don't think this was meant to imply that Fred has siblings, but it's just interesting!
Scrooge doesn't want to see anymore and winds up back snoring away in his bed. So, no Fezziwig or Belle.
Scrooge goes out to see the Ghost of Christmas Present, who describes how he's decorated Scrooge's room.
Scrooge says the spirit looks like Father Christmas himself.
Scrooge and the spirit go out and the spirit describes some of what they see. The spirit specifically talks about people going to church.
They then pop in to see the Cratchits (I'll spell it correctly!) where two children, presumably Peter and Belinda, are waiting with Mrs. Cratchit for Martha, Bob and Tiny Tim.
Martha comes in and hides when Bob comes in, then the younger two kids go to fetch the goose.
Bob toasts Mr. Scrooge, Mrs C objects, then Tiny Tim says his line. Of note is that Scrooge does not ask the spirit what will become of Tiny Tim.
Come to think of it, Scrooge did not make the "surplus population" remark to the portly gentleman, so it wouldn't have been thrown back at him anyway.
Unusual for this sort of thing, the ghost does show Ignorance and Want to Scrooge. The ghost quotes, "Are there no workhouses..." back to Scrooge.
Scrooge next finds himself in a mist where he meets the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who does not speak in this adaptation. Scrooge continues to react verbally to what happens.
This spirit shows him the other businessman talking about someone who had died and then the charwoman and undertaker's man discussing having purloined some items, including bed curtains.
They next go to the Cratchit house, where Scrooge looks in vain for Tiny Tim.
Next they go a weed ridden churchyard where Scrooge has to feel the letters on the tombstone to make out his name.
Scrooge pleads with the spirit to let him change his ways and winds up back in his bed.
He gets the boy to buy the prize turkey and pays him two crowns, rather than the usual half a crown!
He starts off for Fred's and meets the portly gentleman, where he makes the familiar back payments.
He has dinner with Fred (and Betsy) then beats Bob back to the office later that afternoon.
He and Bob have a very nice scene as Scrooge raises Bob's salary. It's so nice that they both end up crying!
Next: some final(?) thoughts on this production...
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