If you got the chance to listed to the 1960 LP version of "A Christmas Carol" from Caedmon Records featuring Ralph Richardson as Scrooge, I'm sure you'll agree that it's a well-done and faithful adaptation.
I've had this album in my collection for quite some time and have always enjoyed it. The generous running time of almost an hour allows it to fit in most of the incidents you would expect, so back in the pre-home video days it was probably the most complete version you could enjoy at your leisure.
Since this recording has a star narrator in Paul Scofield, we have quite a bit of the original text, not unlike the 1939 "Campbell Playhouse" radio broadcast with Orson Welles and Lionel Barrymore.
We even get the "standing in the spirit at your elbow" line!
The liner notes of the album say that Paul Scofield is playing Charles Dickens as the narrator, but we'll have to take their word for it, as there's nothing on the recording to indicate that's the case.
One thing that seems a little different about this version is that there's a fair amount of background noise under the narration at times. Sometimes it's Scrooge muttering or sneezing or other things going on. I makes the narration a little less dry, I think.
In any event, the record does include a lot of material from the book and it doesn't add anything extraneous. So, I'll just mention a few things I found interesting.
The beginning scenes have everything in them. One detail from the book seldom addressed is the fancy nature of Scrooge's fireplace, but it's well described here. And Scrooge is quite sneezy, which befits the book's mentioning that he had a cold in his head. This Scrooge has no problem sneezing, unlike his 1969 animated counterpart!
We get a lot of description about the phantoms that Marley's Ghost joins outside of Scrooge's window and their moaning is pretty creepy!
There are some wacky music and sound effects when the Ghost of Christmas Past shows up. I presume they're going for supernatural, but I get a kind of outer space vibe.
This spirit brings Scrooge back to his old school, but he doesn't show him the Christmas that his sister Fan came to bring him home. We get Fezziwig and Belle and Belle's husband, though. Belle's oldest daughter is around, but none of the noisy littler kids.
The Christmas Present sequence has just about everything we'd expect. Fred laughs quite a bit and Ignorance and Want cry and moan in a very unsettling manner!
In the future, the other businessmen are very flip about Scrooge's death and the other two gentlemen (the "old Scratch" guys) also get in there. No scene at Old Joe's, though, but Scrooge sees his forlorn body, then the spirit brings him to the Cratchit house before showing Scrooge his own grave.
Christmas morning ahs all the usual stuff as well and includes a very nice sequence of Scrooge walking though the street and exchanging pleasantries with everyone he meets. The whole Christmas morning segment is really cheerful!
Cut to the office and Bob getting his raise and we're done!
I do have to admit, though, that the choral music that ends the record goes on a bit long for my taste, but whatever.
What we do have is very faithful, well-acted adaptation that still holds up as good entertainment today!
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