Monday, March 28, 2022

"The Six Shooter" (December 20, 1953) - Part 2


If you got the chance to listen to the "Britt Ponset's Christmas Carol" episode of "The Six Shooter" radio series, I'm sure you'll agree that it's actually fairly straightforward adaptation!

If you haven't heard it yet but would like to, you should go back and listen, as there are some SPOILERS regarding the framing story. 

The set-up of Jimmy Stewart's Britt Ponset character telling the story to a young boy named Johnny allows the story to follow the typical plot points with a western twist rather than having a "real" Scrooge-like character within the show's universe undergo a similar conversion. I think that approach works really well.

Johnny's aunt is actually a bit Scroogey until she has a change of heart, even though she's not the one that hears the story!

In any event, Britt's version of the story is pretty faithful to the book, just transplanting it to the western United States.

The Scrooge character is generally just referred to as "Eben," but we do learn that his full name is "Ebenezer Scrooge" when he sees it on his tombstone. He's a wealthy rancher here.

The Bob Cratchit stand-in is named "Bob" with a son named "Tim" and the Jacob Marley character is "Jake," but we don't hear their last names. And Belle is still Belle, but she's the schoolmarm!

I don't think any of the other characters are named.

The biggest change plot-wise is that Bob, Eben's ranch foreman, lives with his family in a shack on one of the ranches and Eben demands that he tear it down, on Christmas Day, which would leave the family homeless. 

This establishes the Scrooge character as really mean and heartless as opposed to just a miserly businessman.

This does allow for a nice moment at the end when Eben goes out to the shack on the morning after Christmas, feigning anger at Bob for not having torn down the shack, but surprising him by telling him the reason the shack needs to go is so Eben can build a house for Bob and his family!

There's one other change that might be unique to this version, which occurs in the future sequence. Among the people reflecting on Eben's death are Belle and her husband! 

I don't recall otherwise ever hearing (or seeing) their scene in the future.

A fun bit concerns the Christmas party at the house of Eben's nephew. The game the guests play is pin the tail on the donkey, with said donkey having Eben's face. The best part is that when Eben goes to the party on Christmas in "real" time, he insists that they use that they still use that donkey for their game!

The whole thing's a lot of fun and it hits the right emotional notes as well!

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