The Alcoa Hour - "The Stingiest Man in Town" (1956) - Part 4

Some additional thoughts on "The Alcoa Hour" musical version of "A Christmas Carol" entitled "The Stingiest Man in Town."

First off, props for coming up with a fun title that doesn't include "Christmas Carol" or "Scrooge" in it at all. Bold move!

Since this was unavailable for so many years, this had been built up a bit. The original cast recording had stayed more or less available, so it wasn't forgotten.

Then when a kinescope of the show was discovered, it was exciting, but you hoped that the actual thing would live up to the anticipation.

But, when the DVD became available I snapped it up and was pleased that this is a really fun production.

I think it certainly helps if you're predisposed to liking mid-50s TV type variety shows. I realize that my tastes are not those of the typical viewer in 2020, but I like what I like.

The natural comparison here is with the "Shower of Stars" musical version of "A Christmas Carol" from 1954.

Besides the obvious similarities of being musical versions of the same story, both were presented live and in color, but survive today only in black and white kinescopes.

Both also have Basil Rathbone in the cast. He's great in both and plays the roles differently.

I rllike how his Scrooge really gets into the action. He's always in the middle of things. He's got the mean part from the beginning down cold, but convincingly softens as the story goes on and is  a very humble person at the end.

"Stingiest" plays more like a Broadway musical to me, as the songs seem more like, you know, songs. Janice Torre and Fred Spielman did a great job. I wonder how much this project led to the later "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol."

The DVD doesn't contain the Alcoa commercials, but you can tell where they would have been placed in between the acts. It does include one at the end, however, and it's a blast!

It has a typical 50s sit-com type family (complete with bumbling father and Lassiesque dog) showing how you can use aluminum foil to decorate for Christmas. And it has this crazy hyper baby jumping up and down in his playpen! It looks like they must've put coffee in his bottle instead of formula!

Anyway, the whole thing is a lot of fun, and we're very fortunate that this show did not stay lost!