The 1978 animated version of "The Stingiest Man in Town" is a reasonably faithful adaptation of "A Christmas Carol," with some embellishments to make it more cartoony.
This show uses the same songs as the 1956 version that was presented live on "The Alcoa Hour" TV series, but the teleplay isn't really the same. I don't know if writer Romeo Muller (who did tons of work for Rankin-Bass) used that earlier show as a basis or just did his own version of the book. I'm thinking the latter.
The biggest change here is that in the tradition of most Rankin-Bass specials, the story has a narrator. In this case it's B.A.H. Humbug, voiced, as previously mentioned, by Tom Bosley.
His role here is very similar to that of the Great Gonzo's in "The Muppet Christmas Carol" from 1992, in that he's telling the story as if it's already happened, but he seems surprised by some of the events and interacts with the characters at times. It's very meta!
From a plot standpoint, the opening scenes in Scrooge's office largely contain the typical elements.
B.A.H. helps Bob Cratchit sneak some coal for his fire, but that goes about as well as expected and Scrooge's nephew Fred stops by for the usual back and forth.
An amusing bit occurs when Bob is trying to get Christmas day off. Scrooge gives him a line about not being able to afford to pay him for not working. B.A.H. warns him not to buy it, but Bob does!
They leave the office at this point and there are no charity solicitors, who seem conspicuous by their absence.
As Scrooge goes through town, we have B.A.H. "singing" the title song with a cat and a couple of dogs and mice, to get in some of that cartooniness. It's fun in its way. If you're doing a cartoon, why not have singing animals?
We get a montage of Scrooge being stingy, but I don't think it's entirely successful. He eats dinner, but I guess he doesn't tip the waiter. I thought at first maybe he didn't pay at all, as the waiter gets extremely angry, but I think it's just no tip.
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| Scrooge should be nice to his little match girl so she's fares better than the one from 1937! |
He also makes a little match girl give him two matches for a penny instead of one. It seems bad for him to be taking advantage of a young girl, like he's actually evil. Don't those little match girls always wind up freezing to death? People should be nicer to them!
Refusing to pay for a newspaper, but retrieving a discarded one out of a trash can, now that's stinginess we can get our heads around! The best bit of this scene, though, is when he taunts the chestnut vendor so much that the vendor chucks a bag of chestnuts at Scrooge as an angry reaction. Scrooge catches the bag and scores free chestnuts! That's just clever!
Scrooge's shenanigans must've tired him out, so he goes home and sees Marley's face in the knocker, then Marley's Ghost appears after Scrooge is already in bed.
Marley's Ghost sings "I Wear a Chain" and in a fun touch, we see scenes of younger Scrooge and Marley in action.
The Ghost of Christmas Past shows up right after Marley leaves. He's an odd looking little thing.
He takes Scrooge back to his time with Fezziwig and we see the Christmas party, where, not unexpectedly, Belle is also present.
In a later scene with Belle, Scrooge mentions how he just went into business with Marley and his relationship with Belle starts to go south.
When Belle breaks up with Ebenezer, she looks haggard and acts mean. I think the dialogue between them is stilted. Robert Morse does not sound like a younger Walter Matthau.
This special likes its montages and when they sing "What Might Have Been" we see a scene where Ebenezer and Belle are married and have a son and a daughter. These little touches are interesting. Later, though, we see Ebenezer and Belle age separately and old Belle looks pretty rough!
The spirit here has a good line which I don't think I've heard before. When Scrooge doesn't want to see any more, the spirit says, "You must drain the cup to the dregs." Awesome!
Not to keep picking on Robert Morse, but he's so not Vic Damone!
Anyway, Scrooge is back in his bed right after that.
The Ghost of Christmas Present shows up pretty quickly and he looks like you'd expect.
That yappy little B.A.H. Humbug did not go back to the past, but he hangs around with the Ghost of Christmas Present.
The spirit shrinks Scrooge down to B.A.H.'s size and they dance around with mice and dolls and toys. It's an odd scene, but this is an odd special.
The spirit throws little Scrooge and B.A.H. out the window, then enlarges Scrooge and pulls him along while B.A.H. holds onto Scrooge's nightcap. B.A.H. exchanges dialogue with the spirit, asking where they're going and the spirit answers him. It adds to the weirdness of whether B.A.H. is in the present or future or whatever.
In any event, the go to Bob Cratchit's house, where we see the family celebrate, including Martha singing "Yes, There Is a Santa Claus." The spirit morphs into Santa during the song. This is a reminder that this whole thing is so not British! Debra/Debby/Debbie Clinger's not bad, though.
Tiny Tim has an odd character design - it almost looks like he has an artificial leg. He's a cartoon, so who knows?
The spirit then takes Scrooge and B.A.H. to Fred's party, the thought of which makes Scrooge groan.
We see Fred toast Scrooge, then the nativity set comes into view! So is Dennis Day as Fred finally going to get a number to sing, as in "The Birthday Party of the King?" No! For some reason B.A.H. sings it! That song is totally in Dennis Day's wheelhouse, but Tom Bosley sings it and he doesn't even have a wheelhouse!
After this, Scrooge finally asks about Tiny Tim and they go back to the Cratchits' empty house. Then Scrooge and the spirt sing "One Little Boy." Not well, but they do. We see Tiny Tim in a dream sequence and he's running, but his legs still look weird!
The line in the song about the "surplus population" makes Scrooge cringe, but since he didn't meet the charity collectors, he never said that line. So, wouldn't that mean the ghost is saying it?
Right after the song ends, we see the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, or so B.A.H. says. We see the gang at Old Joe's right away but very briefly. Scrooge asks who they robbed and we see Scrooge's grave. A bunch if phantoms start singing and the gravestone turns into a devil!
The future scene is pretty short and Scrooge is back hugging his bedpost in no time. B.A.H. has to tell him that he's back.
Scrooge then talks to the kid out the window and asks him to buy the big turkey. The dialogue here is very stilted. Matthaus Senior and Junior do not sell it!
Scrooge then buys a bunch of presents for the Cratchits and has them delivered with the turkey, but he doesn't go along. We see the Cratchits with the turkey as "Yes, There Is a Santa Claus" is reprised.
Scrooge in the meantime is apparently at Fred's party, passing out quite a few presents.
He the beats Bob to the office the next morning and raises his salary. Bob asks if all this is good for business and Scrooge sings that mankind should be his business.
As he sings, we have a montage of Scrooge being nice to everyone he had been mean to earlier, including the animals. We see him give some money to a couple of gentlemen, who are probably the charity solicitors but their scene was cut.
B.A.H. Humbug, who says he'll need to change his name wraps things up as we see Scrooge and Fred and the Cratchits at perhaps a future Christmas. And scene.
So, whatever issues this special might have, it's reasonably faithful to the original story.
Next, some final(?) thoughts...
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