Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens - "A Christmas Carol" (1959) - Part 3

A few more thoughts on the 1959 adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" from the TV Series "Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens..."

I think that this is a pretty good version, despite the short running time and obvious low budget.

It seems that some thought went into this. It doesn't seem to have just been thrown together. The credits say that it was produced with the cooperation of the Dickensian Society of London. Maybe that has something to do with it.

They were smart to get a name like Basil Rathbone to do the heavy lifting. The rest of the cast seem to be mostly journeyman British actors, but I think the performances are pretty good on the whole.

As mentioned, the only actor beside Basil Rathbone I can place is Alexander Gauge, due to his role as Friar Tuck on "The Adventures of Robin Hood." Interestingly, the IMDB lists Gabriel Toyne, who plays Fezziwig here, as being on 22 epiodes on that same show, but in a different role each time!

I thought the music in this show was pretty good and it turns out that it was by Sidney Torch, who had also done the music for that Laurence Olivier radio broadcast adaptation that I'm always yapping about!

J wonder if he thought much about that previous version while working on this one or was it just another job?

This is definitely a case where being familiar with the story helps to enjoy the presentation. I'm not sure that there's enough meat here to get the full impact otherwise. At this point in time, I can't imagine someone stumbling across this and deciding to watch it unless they're already a fan of "A Christmas Carol" or at the very least, familiar with the story.

I can't imagine that the producers of this show or anybody involved would have thought that anybody would still be talking about it 60 years later, but you can dig up almost anything from the past these days.

Ultimately, I don't think this is one for mass consumption, but it's fun for buffs. It's always interesting to see how different things are interpreted and what changes might be made.

But, as I often say: Don't go by me!

Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens - "A Christmas Carol" (1959) - Part 2

This adaptation from the TV series "Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens" has a brief running time in which to squeeze in as much story as they can.

The whole thing runs about 25 minutes to allow for local commercials, plus you have opening and closing credits plus just enough Fredric March to justify the title!

So, what did they have time for?

Well, we start with a brief introduction from Fredric March. He says he's in the same room in which Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" Could that be true?

We start off with Scrooge's nephew dropping in, but there's no time for the portly gentlemen, so after giving Bob Cratchit the usual hard time, Scrooge goes straight home.

We don't see Marley's face in the knocker, but Scrooge seems jumpy when he goes into his house and says "Humbug!" again at something. Being that this seems like a low-budget affair, I can't imagine that they had a special effect showing Marley's face in the knocker, but cut it for time constraints.

In any event, Scrooge sits by the fire in his dressing gown and ginormous nightcap when his little bell on the mantel rings by itself.

We do get a special effect of a transparent Marley's Ghost entering through the door.

I do think that in this case, the wrapper holding Marley's Ghost's jaw shut makes him look like an old woman. It looks more like a babushka than anything else!

Marley's Ghost also rolls his Rs a lot. He's different!

He warns Scrooge to change his ways and tells him to expect three spirits at one, two and three o'clock respectively.

Scrooge bids him a somewhat jaunty goodbye, then chalks it up to indigestion.

The first spirit arrives right away, however. The Ghost of Christmas Past here looks like Noah or Moses to me.

As Scrooge and the spirit visit the past, they walk through heavy mist. It makes me think of the way heaven is depicted in movies like "Here Comes Mr. Jordan."

At this point, the sets are just a few props surrounded by all that mist. This presumably helped the budget for this production and it gives things a dreamlike quality.

They go back to Scrooge's  school and after some kids frolic by, they see young Ebenezer alone. Then Fan comes in to bring him home and they twirl around and go out the door.

Next we come to another door with no building, and the spirit asks Scrooge specifically if he recognizes the door!

Scrooge does indeed, as it's Fezziwig's warehouse (clap! clap!). Fezziwig tells young Scrooge and Dick Wilkins to make room for the party, but we only see Belle come in and she twirls around with young Scrooge and kisses him under the mistletoe.

Next we go to the breakup scene. This goes on much longer than the other two scenes from the past and has some dramatic heft.

We don't have time to see Belle married and this first spirit vanishes.

Fredric March comes back to read a bit to set up the next spirit. We don't really see much of him, but he's pretty engaging.

The Ghost of Christmas Present is next, of course, and he looks and acts the way you'd expect. The actor, Alexander Gauge, does a really good job. Too bad we don't get to see more of him here. He's best known for playing Friar Tuck in the 1950s TV series "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Richard Greene.

They first visit Bob Cratchit's house, which is also represented by a sparse set. Mrs. Cratchit is there with Martha and one boy Cratchit when Bob comes in with Tiny Tim. Interestingly, Bob mentions that Martha mashed the potatoes, which is usually Peter's job. Does that mean the other boy is not Peter?

We only have time for Bob to say grace and Tiny Tim to say his line before we head off to Fred's house.

There we see Fred playing the guessing game with his guests and they toast Uncle Scrooge.

This spirit disappears and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appears as the bell strikes thrice (as Marley's Ghost said).

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come falls victim to just looking like a guy in a caped robe. He's not overly scary.

They visit the Cratchit house, where we learn Tiny Tim has died. This scene also goes on a bit longer than the others and is very sensitively handled. We see Tiny Tim's crutch in the corner and hear him say his famous line one more time.

Martha does call the other Cratchit kid "Peter," by the way, so she did totally steal his potato mashing job!

Leaving the Cratchits, a coffin is being transported in front of Scrooge and the spirit and they stop to listen to a couple of businessmen talking about some old "wretch" that had died.

Then they see just the charwoman selling the bed curtains to Old Joe. These scenes are all quick.

Next is the cemetery where Scrooge sees his own tombstone and promises to change.

He wakes up in his own bed and realizes he can change those shadows from the future.

He gets the kid to buy the turkey for the Cratchits and surprises Fred at his home, where sits right down to start chowing on the "magnificent" turkey!

He catches Bob coming in late the next morning. Amusingly Bob says he's late as they were making rather merry because someone sent them a magnificent turkey!

Scrooge raises Bob's salary and they toast from a bowl of Christmas punch that Scrooge had been hiding.

Fredric March comes back to read the end of the story and we're good!

Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens - "A Christmas Carol" (1959) - Part 1

Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens - "A Christmas Carol" (1959)
Director: Ross Mackenzie
Scrooge: Basil Rathbone

After discussing the "Shower of Stars" adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" starring Fredric March as Scrooge and Basil Rathbone as Marley's Ghost, we jump ahead five years to 1959 and turn the tables a bit.

This version is from the awkwardly titled syndicated TV series "Fredric March Presents Tales from Dickens" and stars Basil Rathbone as Scrooge with Mr. March hosting, and sort-of narrating.

I can't find too much info about this series, but it was definitely produced in  England, and I'm guessing that Fredric March was not involved with the dramatizations, but dropped in later. Most episodes seem to be sequences from various works of Charles Dickens, as you could never condense most of his novels into a half-hour so. ''Fortunately for our purposes, "A Christmas Carol" is a shorter work and can be cut down while retaining the basic story.

This is another low-budget affair, but it's a bit more imaginatively staged and certainly better acted than that 1949 made-for-TV production hosted by Vincent Price. That was a big ten years in the development of TV production, but this is better all the way around. Basil Rathbone is a million times better than Taylor Holmes!

This is at least the third time that Basil Rathbone played Scrooge. He had previously done an audio version for Columbia Records in 1942 and has starred in the "Alcoa Hour" presentation of "The Stingiest Man in Town" in 1956. We'll be taking a look at both of those later.

As I had mentioned before, Mr. Rathbone seemed born to play a Dickens chaarcter. He had appeared in both "A Tale of Two Cities" and "David Copperfield" for MGM in 1935. In particular, his portrayal of "Mr. Murdstone" in the latter is scarier than any Scrooge. No number of spirits could have redeemed that guy!

If someone at MGM were thinking, they probably should've had him play Scrooge in their 1938 adaptation. Oh, well...

For a long time, people always thought of Sherlock Holmes when they thought of Basil Rathbone. I understand that he wasn't overly fond of the fact. These days, however, he's also well-remembered for his roles in horror films like "Son of Frankenstein" in addition to being the greatest swashbuckling villain ever. And he was a great Sherlock Holmes, so that's quite a legacy!

Back to the show here, he makes a fine Scrooge, battling the low-budget, a truncated script and a wacky nightcap, but he comes out on top.

If you dig Basil Rathbone and are a nut about seeing every version of "A Christmas Carol" (guilty!), here's a link to watch it: