"A Christmas Carol" All-Star Team - Day 9

The next Cratchit family member to join our "A Christmas Carol" All-Star team is the matriarch of the bunch - Mrs. Cratchit!

She looms pretty large in the scheme of things with her awesome pudding and frank assessment of the "founder of the feast," which is pretty good for someone without a first name! 

We never do hear Mrs. Cratchit's first name in the book and, in fact, I don't exactly know the first or last name of the person whom I pick to represent Mrs. C on my team!

She's the actress who voices Mrs. Cratchit on the 1953 NBC broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" starring Laurence Olivier. 

I've never seen an actual cast list for that show but the version available from Heritage Media has an outro that lists a few members of the supporting cast. The guy has a cool British accent, so he sounds reliable!

There are two females listed, Denise Bryer and Olive Gregg, both of whom were extremely prolific voice actors. 

There are two female roles in this version, Mrs. Cratchit and Fan (referred to as just "little sister"), so you figure one did one and the other did the other voice. But who was who?

Some further research indicates that both actresses did kid voices, including boys (not an uncommon practice).

So, I thought,  "Oh, I bet one of them plays Tiny Tim!" He only has his one line, said twice, but, yeah, it sounds like a woman doing a boy voice.

So, I tracked down what the "boy" voice of each actress sounded like, but they're pretty similar and they both do sound like Tiny Tim, so either one could've been TT, with the other probably Mrs. C!

Denise Bryer's actually still around at age 92! Do you think she remembers anything about this broadcast? Would she know which character she played?

In any event, as I mentioned when discussing this broadcast before, I listened to a record of it over and over as a kid and always thought Mrs. Cratchit stole the show!

So good job, Denise Bryer or Olive Gregg!

A Christmas Carol (1953) - Laurence Olivier - Part 4

OK, some final(?) thoughts on Laurence Olivier's 1953 broadcast...

When doing the recap, I realized that this adaptation actually works as a cohesive whole. Like any version that needs to be condensed so drastically, certain events need to be omitted. But what this version keeps all makes sense and works together without any loose ends.

This is not one of those that depends on you being familiar with the story, so they hit some highlights and have you fill in the rest.

At the beginning, Scrooge is mean to Bob Cratchit, Fred and the two portly gentlemen and just plain miserable himself.

In the Christmas Past sequence, his memory of his sister reminds him that he should be nicer to his nephew. And Fezziwig treating him so well makes him realize that he should treat his own employee better.

Christmas Present makes him realize that Tiny Tim (and Ignorance and Want) is part of the "surplus population" so he should be more generous. He also realizes that he could be happy if he would let himself.

In the Christmas Future scenes, the contrast between Tiny Tim being mourned and nobody caring about him drives it all home.

That all seems obvious, yes, but to get all of that in a snappy twenty-odd minutes is awesome!

And I also really like Sir Laurence's little intro and outro.

OK, enough about all this, I'm going to go listen to it again!

A Christmas Carol (1953) - Laurence Olivier - Part 3

So, what does the 1953 radio broadcast of "A Christmas Carol" include and what does it omit?

We start off with the narration telling us that Marley was dead as a door-nail and Scrooge is a wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner, etc.

Laurence Olivier does the narration in his natural voice and plays Scrooge in a voice that sounds Scroogesque, but is not too wacky. Solid job!

Scrooge's nephew comes in and Scrooge dismisses him pretty quickly, but we get the idea that the nephew (whom Scrooge later refers to as Fred) is very cheerful in contrast to Scrooge himself.

The two portly gentlemen come in to collect for charity and only one talks, just like in the book.

Scrooge says "Good afternoon!" a lot to get rid of everyone!

Bob Cratchit also gets the usual talking to.

Scrooge has his usual melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern and sees Marley's face in the knocker when he gets home. He hears all the bells ring and Marley's ghost appears through the door.

Marley's ghost has a cool, echoey  voice. As per the book, he says the other three spirits will come on three successive nights.

The Ghost of Christmas Past is described as like an old man shrunk to the size of a child and has an appropriate old man voice.

They go back to see lonely, young Ebenezer at school. His sister comes in, but Scrooge only refers to her as "little sister" and does not call her Fan. The spirit reminds him that Fred is her son.

Next is Fezziwig's party, which reminds Scrooge that he could treat his own employee better.

We gotta keep things moving, so no time for Belle.

The Ghost of Christmas Present comes and brings Scrooge to Bob Cratchit's house. It seems all the kids are there, but the only ones named beside Tiny Tim are Martha and Belinda. Tiny Tim gets just his one line, which is fine, as it's hard to cast a good Tiny Tim voice. Scrooge is appropriately worried about Tiny Tim. He also says he didn't know that people could be so happy.

I think Mrs. Cratchit steals the show in this scene. She might be my favorite Mrs. Cratchit ever! I think it's the way she says, "I'll be bound."

Scrooge notices that the spirit is growing older and he sees Ignorance and Want. We don't get the chance to go to Fred's party.

True to the book, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come does not speak, but the narration and Scrooge's dialogue let us know what's going on.

They see Scrooge's body, "plundered and bereft" and covered with the requiste sheet.

We go to the Cratchits' house and learn that Tiny Tim has died. Then Scrooge learns that it was his body when he sees his name on the gravestone.

Scrooge wakes up and finds it's Christmas morning from the kid outside his window. He sends the kid to get the prize turkey and says he'll send it to Bob Cratchit.

Scrooge continues to think out loud and wraps up the story by telling us that he's going to make a donation to the poor, go to dinner at nephew Fred's and surprise Bob at the office by raising his salary.

Sir Laurence finishes the narration and we hear Tiny Tim say his line one more time!

So, we get a lot of content from the book with lots of description. I love hearing things such as the Ghost of Christmas Present's torch being "in shape not unlike plenty's horn" that are straight out of the text but seldom heard.

Awesome job all around!

A Christmas Carol (1953) - Laurence Olivier - Part 2

I think this is the first issue of the recording.

I really like this audio adaptation featuring Sir Laurence Olivier as narrator and Scrooge.

As I mentioned, I listened to it a lot when I was a kid and I still like to hear it today. I think it holds up well, and not just for nostalgia's sake. I guess it helps to have an affinity for old-time radio, but this is a fun thing to listen to while in the car or walking around or whatever.

The whole thing clocks in at under half an hour, due to it originating as a radio broadcast in a half-hour time-slot. So, some incidents need to be shortened or omitted, but the scriptwriter (Derek Patmore) does a good job of capturing the flavor of the original novella.

There's probably as much narration as anything, but that's a good thing, as it's Laurence Olivier reading big chunks of the original text. There's so many great descriptive lines that we don't usually get to hear in most adaptations that are acted out. I feel that Olivier presents it in a manner as if he's speaking to us rather than reading to us.

I also love the music, it's scored all the way through and fits really well. A good job by music director Sidney Torch, who had a long list of credentials in England.

The sinister strains of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" that keep popping up are awesome and take me right back to the days of listening to the record!

Next up: what did and didn't make the cut!

A Christmas Carol (1953) - Laurence Olivier - Part 1

A Christmas Carol (1953)
Director: Harry Alan Towers
Scrooge: Laurence Olivier

Back on December 24, 1953, NBC Radio broadcast an adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" starring Laurence Olivier.

The production was recorded in London and was apparently licensed at various times in the subsequent years for use on records, which showed up in various forms starting in 1960. They were those cheapo records that seemed to be sold in odd locations like grocery stores and gas stations, which usually had anonymous artists trying to sound like name acts. But every now and again, something special like this one would surface.

When I was a kid, we had the version pictured at the top (with foil cover and random sort-of-Dickensian characters) and I could not tell you how many times I listened to it! This was way before home video and such, so this was my go to for scratching my Scrooge itch, along with the "Scrooge" (1970) soundtrack.

I had heard this recording a zillion times before I actually ever read the book and since the recording uses ample amounts of the original text, I could hear Laurence Olivier in my head while reading it. Still do, in fact, but that's an awesome internal narrator!

Even as a kid, I was awestruck that this record featured Sir Laurence Olivier. Everyone knew he was the greatest actor in the world. What he was doing on what I could recognize as a budget record that seemed to be aimed at the kiddie market was a mystery at the time, but I later found out that the recording had originated as that radio show.

So, what was the show like? There are various versions in various quality all over the internet, but this one is good quality (with a new intro and outro):