If you got a chance to listen to Ernest Chappell's 1941 adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" for Victor Records, I'm sure you'll agree that it's a first class recording.
I think it's largely underrated for this type of project, especially compared to the recordings of Ronald Colman (also from 1941) and Basil Rathbone (1942), as this one doesn't have that star power.
Note: I do realize that I'm in an imaginary world where 78 rpm recordings of "A Christmas Carol" are rated at all and Ronald Colman is still a huge star!
Ernest Chappell is best known among "A Christmas Carol" radio buffs for his role as announcer with Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre gang, as he filled that role on the 1938 and 1939 broadcasts of "A Christmas Carol."
He was also the announcer for a number of other shows, but relatively late in the golden age of radio, he was also the lead actor of the show "Quiet Please"(1947-49) in which he showed a broader range of talent than one might have thought.
An early indicator of this talent was this recording of "A Christmas Carol," as he gets to stretch out as narrator, rather than Orson Welles or whoever doing all the work. He's clearly up to the task!
Among Ernest Chappell's connections from the Welles shows was Eustace Wyatt, a veteran British character actor, who had played the Ghost of Christmas Present on the 1938 Mercury Theatre broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" (the one where Orson Welles plays Scrooge). Wyatt plays Scrooge on this recording and does a great job. He's kind of like a budget Scrooge in that you get the quality if not the name brand.
Notable among the supporting cast is Bud Collyer (misspelled as "Collier" here) as Nephew Fred. His long radio and TV career included his voicing of Superman/Clark Kent on the radio show and animated cartoons for movies and TV as well as hosting the long-running TV game shows "Beat the Clock" (1950-56) and "To Tell the Truth" (1956-68).
Bud sounds like he's using his Clark Kent voice as Fred. Fans will recall how he used to deepen that voice as Clark Kent would say, "This looks like a job for... Superman!"
The wackiest casting from our latter-day viewpoint is "Master Dickie VanPatten" as "Master Peter Cratchit." Later known as Dick Van Patten, he had a long career and was known for his roles on the early TV show "Mama" (1949-57) and the later "Eight is Enough" (1977-81). The less said about the latter, the better!
You can put him in the June Lockhart/Jill St. John/Bonnie Franklin line of later well-known performers who played an assorted Cratchit as an early credit!
The other roles are solidly performed by a professional cast of not-as-well-remembered radio actors.
Next up: how does this production stack up as a faithful adaptation?
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