A place for all things related to my OSD (Obsessive Scrooge Disorder)!
Columbia Records had another nice cover for Basil Rathbone's recording of "A Christmas Carol" when they reissued it on the Harmony budget label (1960s?):
Can't beat that first edition John Leech artwork!
I'm presuming the London album is a U.S. issue of the British Decca album, which presumably had originally been released in 1949 or earlier.
In any event, the Scrooge cuts are extremely similar to the 78s with some slight differences:
Of course, the LP I have access to is so scratchy that it might as well be from 78s, but I think those are new recordings using the same basic script from his old "My Sketches from Dickens" book.
Whatever the case, I always enjoy hearing Mr. Williams!
The whole shebang runs a little less than an hour, so there's plenty of time to cover all the major plot points, but as with many versions, it has many curious omissions.
The record starts off with a prologue by Irish radio commentator Ronnie Walsh to set the mood. It doesn't use anything from the original text, but that's OK.
He does say that the story takes place in 1842, so that would be a year before the book was published.
The first scene in Scrooge's office is pretty much as expected, with visits from Fred and, in this case, one charity collector.
Scrooge actually calls Fred by his name here, not just "Nephew," but the bigger change is that the portly gentleman identifies himself as Mr. Goodman, an importer of teas. This makes him a fellow businessman and not a full-time charity collector.
Despite these changes, the script uses a lot of the familiar dialogue from the book, which is never a bad thing!
The biggest difference overall in this first scene is that Scrooge tells Bob Cratchit that he must report to the office on Christmas morning at 9:00 to work for a couple of hours, rather than giving him the whole day off.
Scrooge also instructs Bob to put his gruel on the fire and put his slippers there to warm, which implies that Scrooge's office and living space are in the same building. So, apparently Scrooge is going back there after his dinner and the knocker is on the office door.
Whatever the case, Marley's Ghost arrives and has the usual banter with Scrooge.
By this point, Scrooge is describing a lot of the action as it's happening, putting me in mind of Basil Rathbone's recording from 1942.
The Ghost of Christmas past comes along and only has one vision for Scrooge, which is the breakup scene with his former fiancée, who is named Emma here.
Emma seems like a suitable name to me, with its echoes of Jane Austen and all, but I always wonder why various versions pick the names they add/or change.
As I mentioned, this is the only scene from the past that Scrooge is shown. The spirit does say, "One shadow more," but Scrooge refuses to see it and the spirit does not compel him to see Belle/Emma with her family as in the book.
As far as that goes, it reminds me quite a bit of a similar scene in "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol," but this record predates the TV special by four years and I wouldn't imagine it was an influence on it.
Unique to the record and very intriguing is that Scrooge asks the spirit if she will return and she answers affirmatively, indicating she will return on the next night.
Indeed, when the next spirit appears, she is also voiced by Siobhan McKenna and Scrooge recognizes her but notes that she now wears a wreath of holly.
So, it's apparently the same spirit now representing the present, although the spirit does not identify herself as the Ghost of Christmas Present (shades of the George C. Scott version!). She does later say she's the "Spirit of Christmas," however.
This makes the introductory exchange between Scrooge and the spirit somewhat awkward, as dialogue is lifted from the book to include the spirit asking Scrooge if he's seen the like of her before, to which Scrooge says he has not. But, he did - last night!
I realize that they want to make as much use of Ms. McKenna as they can, but the script could have used a bit of tweaking.
As in the past, there's only one scene for Scrooge to see and it's the Cratchit family's Christmas dinner.
This is often a highlight of many versions and it's well represented here, taking up about a quarter of the whole thing.
We even get to hear Tiny Tim's song, which in this adaptation is "The First Noël."
Tiny Tim's delivery puts me in mind of the way the kids sang "The First Noël" in the 1965 Davey & Goliath special "Christmas Lost and Found" (which is awesome!), but that's probably just me!
One thing to note is that Scrooge has apparently met Bob's family before as he knows about Tiny Tim and remarks that Peter has grown since the last time he saw him.
I do realize that a lot of Scrooge's dialogue is for expository purposes, but I think that any adaptation that shows that Scrooge was already aware of Tiny Tim's condition loses a bit of impact, as Scrooge should already have been a least bit somewhat concerned instead of only becoming concerned when seeing this vision.
Oh, and I think Mrs. Cratchit calls the usually unnamed Cratchit son "Tom" but does not say the name of the other, non-Martha, non-Belinda daughter!
Scrooge does see Ignorance and Want before this spirit departs.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appears and calls out "Ebenezer Scrooge!" twice before clamming up and not saying anything else.
I'm thinking they had her call out to Scrooge just so they could say that Siobhan McKenna played all three spirits, but it strikes me as awkward that this spirit refuses to answer Scrooge's questions when it has been established that she/it can talk!
The spirit brings Scrooge directly to the establishment of old Joe and Scrooge actually knows who Joe is! Again, I realize that it's due to Scrooge needing to speak a lot of expository dialogue, but it's interesting.
Odder still is that only the charwoman enters Joe's shop. She calls herself Mrs. Dilber, which we know is the name of the laundress, but whatever. That's not the odd part!
The odd part is that she brings three different bundles, the other two (in addition to her usual bed curtains and whatnot) being the bundles usually brought by the laundress and the undertaker's man. Joe opens each bundle separately and gives an accounting of each one separately, using dialogue from the book.
I don't know why it's done that way instead of having a couple of the actors voice the laundress and undertaker's man, as it's easy enough for voice actors to double up.
Scrooge then says that he wants to see some emotion caused by his death, then some tenderness connected with a death, as he does in the book, but if the spirit does show him these things, we do not partake in them!
We just hear some eerie music and Scrooge saying he has leaned his lesson and doesn't need to see anything else. But the spirit brings Scrooge to a churchyard anyway.
There he sees Tiny Tim's grave as well as his own and notes that Tim's is well cared for and his own is not.
So, Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning and jumps around and all and engages the boy outside the window to buy the prize turkey and deliver it anonymously to Bob Cratchit and says he'll get in touch with Mr. Goodman to make a charitable donation.
Despite some of the changes that have led to a bit of awkwardness, the script so far has been pretty faithful to the book. But from this point on, things get very clunky!
The problem is that Scrooge had told Bob Cratchit that he needed to work on Christmas morning. So, the business of Scrooge arriving at the office ahead of Bob in order to surprise him takes placed on Christmas morning, rather than the day after.
Usually Bob's excuse for being late is that he was "making rather merry," which is fun. But here he says he was up late helping Mrs. Cratchit prepare the Christmas dinner, which just seems lame.
But Scrooge raises Bob's salary and says he will help his struggling family and that they'll discuss it that afternoon over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop and all, just like in the book, but that just doesn't make sense that he'd meet with Bob on Christmas afternoon, pulling him away from his family.
So, Scrooge sends Bob home and says he'll see him later in the day.
The tone of the whole thing changes now as the narrator reappears with some jaunty music to tell us the scene is now the Cratchit house after dinner (presumably having eaten the prize turkey) and we hear a little speech from Bob about the new year. Then the narrator (and music) comes back to tell us that Fred and his "winsome wife" have dropped in.
It strikes me as odd to have the narrator return suddenly after having only given the prologue before. Why didn't we have him set some other scenes instead of having Scrooge spout so much expository dialogue?
And what makes Bob and Fred such good friends? It's not particularly established that they know each other well, such as was the case in the 1938 MGM movie version.
Things get so incredibly awkward when Scrooge shows up at the Cratchit house and everyone seems surprised to see him, including Bob. And Bob then acts surprised when Scrooge says he help his family.
Now, keep in mind that Scrooge had already met with Bob earlier that day and raised his salary and said he see him later. Wouldn't Bob had told his family this good news when he got home? You'd think he would mention Scrooge was different (and would be dropping by)! He would at least have to explain why he came right back home rather than needing to work for a couple of hours.
Scrooge also namedrops Fezziwig, saying he knew how to celebrate Christmas, but within the confines of this record, we have no idea who Fezziwig is.
When Bob offers Scrooge "a glass," Scrooge declines, saying he's had enough of spirits to last a lifetime, which is a good line, but everyone laughs uproariously as if they got the joke, but they should not have any idea what he's talking about.
This whole final scene is just very strange and not particularly well-handled.
Scrooge ends the record by using more text from the book and suddenly it's done. Totally cold ending with no music or anything. I think the narrator should have come back with the jaunty music to close it out to give it a little more balance.
OK, so what's the final verdict?
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| Arthur Luce Klein with his wife, Luce Arthur Klein. |
It has a real old-school feel to me, and I would imagine it gave off that vibe even in 1959.
Frank Pettingell's reading doesn't scream "1950s!" to me, but rather something of an earlier era.
More than anything, this recoding makes me think of the old Bransby Williams recordings (discussed ) from the 1910s. Frank Pettingell was born in 1891, so he was around for Bransby Williams. Was he a fan?
Although this 1959 record is more of a reading with character voices rather than a monologue à la Bransby Williams, the floridly theatrical style seems similar and both are solo performances with no supporting cast or music.
I think it's interesting that this 1959 record starts off with Frank Pettingell stating the title in manner similar to the way they would on cylinders, but I'm presuming that's a coincidence!
Frank Pettingell is another in the long line of actors who pop up in these various adaptations who were well-known in England, but not in America.
He's in quite a few movies from the early 1930s through shortly before his death in 1966. I think they're all British productions without much crossover to the U.S. He doesn't have a signature role to me, like, say, Bernard Miles in "Great Expectations."
A notable movie with a good role for him is the original British version of "Gaslight" from 1940, which was suppressed by MGM when that studio remade the story for it's famous multi-award-winning 1944 version.
One title catches my eye, however: "Sailing Along" from 1938. That's another Jessie Matthews movie (like "Evergreen") co-starring Barry MacKay. And Alastair Sim has a role in it too! Gotta check that one out!
As far as Mr. Pettingell's performance on this recording, I think it's very engaging.
He strikes a nice friendly tone as the narrator and gives distinct voices to the characters.
I think his Scrooge voice is particularly good.
Next: What about the adaptation itself?
