As is always the case with a straightforward adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" such as Frank Pettingell's 1959 recording, I like to break it down and see which elements from the book made it into the project, which were omitted and if there's anything added.
The two sides of this LP total about 47 minutes, so there's plenty of time to tell the story and hit all the major points.
I must say I do like these early versions of what we now think of a "audio books" because you can get an enjoyable listen in a manageable amount of time.
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| Arthur Luce Klein with his wife, Luce Arthur Klein. |
This adaptation by Arthur Luce Klein (Google him and his wife - they're quite interesting!) is pretty faithful, as it uses a lot of the original text. As you listen, it seems that very little has been changed. But... there are some curious omissions!
I do think it's odd that a recording like this which is mainly narrated does not start off with "Marley was dead: to begin with" or anything at all about Marley. Most versions will include that starting line, then at least include something about "dead as a door-nail."
This version skips over all the mentions of Marley including the sign still showing both names and gets right to the description of Scrooge being "tight-fisted" and all. This actually goes on for quite a bit.
I think not establishing that Marley is dead makes the appearance of his ghost a little less surprising.
Anyway, the opening scenes at the office include Fred's visit and Scrooge giving Bob Cratchit a hard time about wanting the next day off, but does not include the portly gentlemen collecting for charity. So, Scrooge never gets to make his "surplus population" remark and I feel this also causes the story to lose a little something.
When Marley's ghost appears, there's actually a lot time spent with his/it's interaction with Scrooge.
The Ghost of Christmas Past kind of gets the short end of things here, as it's just said that it arrives and takes Scrooge back into his past.
This whole segment is mostly paraphrased and the events are glossed over pretty quickly. It really reminds me of the Ireene Wicker or Howdy Doody or Bret Morrison kids' records that are so short that they need to hurry the story along.
But in the past we hear about lonely young Scrooge reading and seeing the characters from the book come to life.
Also Fan does come in, but she doesn't speak. The spirit only gets a couple of lines when he talks about Fred being Fan's son and it actually lays it on pretty thick!
After Fan, Scrooge and the spirit naturally go to Fezzwig's warehouse (clap! clap!) for the Christmas party. What's interesting here is that quite a bit of time is spent on talking about Fezziwig's dancing. It's all straight out of the book, but it seems to be using precious time that could be spent on something else more to the point.
A quick recap of Scrooge's breakup with Belle, said to be many years later, and the ghost is gone without any mention of Belle later being happily married.
Maybe instead of so much description of Fezziwig's dancing, this last bit could have been included.
Now when the Ghost of Christmas Present arrives, we get quite a buildup! And maybe Maybe half the record is devoted to the Christmas Present sequence.
There's a lot about the ghost's appearance with all the food and then he and Scrooge spend a lot of time going through the city before arriving at Bob Cratchit's house.
Then we get basically the entire Cratchit family Christmas dinner scene. Almost one-third of the recording is spent with them. That's a nice segment and Pettingell does a great job with all the characters.
I will say, though, that the spirit not being abk33e to throw Scrooge's "surplus population" remark back at him (because the charity guys were not in the first scene) makes the foreshadowing of Tiny Tim's death much less powerful.
Also, while we're nitpicking, the spirit doesn't say "I see a vacant seat..." but he does say "if these shadows remain unchanged..." So, what shadows are those? That's awkward editing.
So much time has already been spent on Christmas present that we don't have time to go to Fred's house for his party or hear about Ignorance and Want.
Indeed, the night is waning fast and things need to get wrapped up in the next 10 minutes or so!
The Christmas Yet to Come sequence is quick, but it's interestingly presented.
The narrator mentions the other businessmen and says how they're saying that "he" is dead and "he" was grasping and such. Scrooge can't figure out who "he" is, though.
Cut to the Cratchit house where we learn that Tiny Tim has died and Scrooged realizes that Tiny Tim can't be that "he" so he himself must be the "he" of whom those other men were talking! Kind of a neat way to contrast Tiny Tim's death with Scrooge's own.
With this realization, Scrooge pleads for anther chance, which he gets on Christmas morning.
He does his usual things: engaging the boy to buy the turkey, going to Fred's house for Christmas dinner and surprising Bob with an increased salary at the office the next morning.
So, within this adaptation, we get most of the major story elements, with the glaring omission of the portly gentlemen collecting for charity.
There's a ton of content here, though, as it's just Frank Pettingell reading/acting with no music or anything to fill up the running time. Most of it is straight out of the book and I always appreciate ample amounts of the original text in any version.
The record label is not inaccurate with it's credit of "Frank Pettingell Reads from 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens." Truth in advertising!
All in all, a fun listen!
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