"...And Marley?"

OK, Lou Costello got me to thinking, so I had to do it!

Here's the radio team of Fibber McGee and Marley:

Looks like Marley's about to say, "Tain't funny, McGee!"

Makeup!

Here's a still from MGM's 1938 production of "A Christmas Carol":

The effect of Leo G. Carroll as Marley's Ghost looks good, but you can really see that Reginald Owen is wearing a ton of makeup! It kind of ends at his chin, leaving his neck un-made-up!

"Topper" (December 25, 1953) - Part 2

If you got the chance to watch the "A Christmas Carol" episode of the TV series "Topper," I'm sure you'll agree it's an amusing piece of early TV history.

Several TV and radio shows over the years have done take-offs on "A Christmas Carol," sometimes with a character dreaming they're in the story as they doze off while someone is reading the book, as Cosmo Topper does here.

We had previously heard Dagwood Bumstead dream that he was the Bob Cratchit stand-in on the "Blondie" radio series, as discussed here and here.

As mentioned last time, it's fun that Leo G. Carroll, who plays Topper had played Marley's Ghost in MGM's 1938 "A Christmas Carol" adaptation. He must have remembered acting in that movie, so did he think much about it while filming this TV episode?

The premise of the "Topper" series (which ran from 1953-1955) was that the ghosts of George and Marion Kerby were "haunting" Topper (he was the only one that could see them) and a lot of the amusement was seeing Topper try to explain wacky supernatural happenings.

Leo G. Carroll is sort of getting karmic retribution, as his Marley's Ghost caused Scrooge to call the neighborhood watch, which led to Scrooge looking foolish!

The "Topper" TV series starred Anne Jeffreys and Robert Sterling as the Kerbys. They were married in real life as well, so that's fun.

The breakout star of the show, however, was Neil, the big St. Bernard who had also perished in the avalanche that led to him and the Kerbys becoming ghosts on the first place.

Neil was known for enjoying the contents of his little barrel as well as any other adult beverages he came across in a bit of harmless, but perhaps non-PC fun!

He even got a co-starring comic book!

Neil was not a character in the "Topper" series of three movies from 1937-1941, which featured Roland Young as Topper.

It may seem odd to later audiences that Constance Bennett is billed above Cary Grant, but he wasn't quite Cary Grant yet and she does carry the movie!

Even without Neil, those are a lot of fun, though, with Constance Bennett and Cary Grant as the Kerbys in the first movie, then just Constance Bennett in "Topper Takes a Trip (1938), then Joan Blondell as Marion in "Topper Returns" (1941).

As far as Cosmo Topper's name, I presume it's a coincidence that his last name is the same as Fred's friend from "A Christmas Carol."

But I have often wondered if his first name inspired the first name of the Kramer character from the "Seinfeld" TV series when they did the big reveal. Hmmm...

In any event, it's fun to see a TV series starring ghosts take on our favorite ghost story!

"Topper" (December 25, 1953) - Part 1

"Topper" (December 25, 1953)

Director: Paul Landres

Scrooge Surrogate: Cosmo Topper 

We hang around the video world a bit longer for this episode of the early 1950s TV show "Topper."

This particular episode is a takeoff of "A Christmas Carol" with Cosmo Topper dreaming he's Ebenezer Scrooge. 

What makes it a bit more intriguing than the usual such thing is that Topper is played by Leo G. Carroll, who, of course, played Marley's Ghost in the 1938 movie adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" from MGM!

You can check it out the episode below:

If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch a somewhat better quality video here:

Old school fun!

Classics Illustrated Revisited

We get back into the comic book, I mean graphic novel world with this "new" edition of "A Christmas Carol" from Classics Illustrated.

I think it's just a reprint of the old story from 1948 (discussed here)with the color zhuzhed up digitally:

It's Number 53 in the series even.

But.. it has a snappy new cover as seen at the top of the page.

What's most interesting is that Marley's Ghost is totally Leo G. Carroll from the 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol," (which featured Reginald Owen as Scrooge)!

Not "inspired by" or anything, it's just straight-up him!

Perhaps I will get my mitts on this edition to see what it's all about.

Or not!

A Christmas Carol (1938) - Who's Who

Now let's take a look at the cast of the 1938 MGM version of "A Christmas Carol."

First up, Reginald Owen as Scrooge. He's OK, but doesn't seem all that mean and reforms extremely quickly. Granted, that's the script and direction, but I don't think he adds much. He does have an iconic Scrooge look, but sometimes you can really see the heavy makeup!

As mentioned previously, Bob Cratchit gets an expanded role here. That's a good thing as Gene Lockhart does a great job in the role. He has tons of Christmas spirit! I know the knock on him is that he looks like he hasn't missed too many meals, so he doesn't seem poor, but what're you gonna do? He's a total pro  and was in a lot of movies over the years. His other Christmas classic movie claim to fame is his part as the judge at Kris Kringle's hearing in "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947). Not too shabby!

A fun thing is that Gene Lockhart's wife, Kathleen Lockhart, was also a performer and she was cast here as Bob's wife. No name given to her in the book or in this adaptation. She does a good job, but her role is much smaller.

Even more fun is that the Lockharts' 13 year old daughter, June, appears here as Belinda Cratchit! June Lockhart of course was later famous for her roles in the TV series "Lassie" and "Lost in Space." She's recognizable here in  her film debut. She guesses that Bob brought home sausages for Christmas dinner!

So, what about that other Cratchit kid, Tiny Tim? Well, he's played here by Terry Kilburn, who's not an unappealing performer (I've seen him elsewhere, most notably in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" from 1939), but he just seems wrong here. Too old, too healthy looking. He's just not, you know, tiny!

This movie has the full complement of six Cratchit kids, including Martha and Peter. They all kind of run around screaming a lot, in the manner that adults think that kids act. They remind me of a Victorian Brady Bunch!

Scrooge's nephew Fred also has a greatly expanded role here too. What about the actor, Barry Mackay? Best. Fred. Ever. I don't know who he is, as I've never seen him in another movie (his filmography is small), but he does a great job here. Fred's supposed to have the most infectious personality of anyone you've ever met, and this Fred does!

Fred's not married yet in this version, but he has a fiancee named Bess. The actress, Lynne Carver is attractive, but she doesn't really get a lot to do.

Marley's ghost is played by Leo G. Carroll, whom I've seen in a zillion things, all they way up through "The Man from U.N.CL.E." TV series and he always seems about the same to me, including here. The idea of your former partner's ghost visiting you is pretty scary, but he doesn't add much more. He kind of groans more than moans, I guess.

The Ghost of Christmas Past might have the most interesting casting in the whole movie. While many versions tend to feature an old man, here the ghost is a beautiful young woman, as played by Ann Rutherford. She's the one actor who seems like she was cast because she was hanging around the MGM lot. This was around the time she started playing "Polly Benedict" in the "Andy Hardy" movies. The Christmas past sequence seems very short, but she does just fine.

Interesting casting for young Scrooge too. As mentioned before, we only get one young (and he is young) Scrooge. The actor, Ronald Sinclair, is a young teenager and it's interesting to see someone so young as Fezziwig's apprentice. Dick Wilkins is young here too. Is that actually more period authentic than the twenty-somethingish apprentices we're used to seeing?

Ronald Sinclair appears in a few movies as a teen actor (including playing young Ronald Colman in "The Light That Failed" (1939) - fun!), but switched to the other side of the camera as an adult. He eventually worked as a sound editor on "Die Hard" (1988)! So, does that also give him two Christmas classics on his resume?

To me, the cast is not peppered with familiar character actors the way a lot of MGM movies of the period are, for whatever reason, but the other parts are adequately played. Except for "Fran!" She's as annoying as her name change!

All in all, I think the cast does a good job with the material they're given, with Scrooge and Marley's ghost particularly watered down, but a superior Bob and Fred in the bargain!

Still worth a watch, and it's a snappy 69 minutes!