"Spirited" (2022)

"Spirited" (2022)

Director: Sean Anders

Surrogate Scrooge: "Clint Briggs" (Ryan Reynolds)

Seems like there's a bumper crop of "A Christmas Carol"-related stuff this year, including this new musical from Apple TV!

I signed up for a free trial just to watch it and I thought it was a blast!

I won't say anything more in order to avoid spoilers, but if you're curious, here's the teaser:

And here's the official trailer:

Fun!

"Scrooge: A Christmas Carol" (2022)

"Scrooge: A Christmas Carol" (2022)

Director: Stephen Donnelly

Scrooge: Luke Evans

So, the new animated "Scrooge: A Christmas Carol" dropped on Netflix yesterday, so naturally I was right on it!

I thought it was a lot of fun!

I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll do my review and breakdown after the holidays!

So, if you already have Netflix, give it a watch. If you don't, sign up for a free trial or something!

Just a Tease!

This looks intriguing:

Will I have to sign up for at least a free trial?

Ronald Sinclair 101 - Part 3!

Continuing to dig up additional movies featuring Ronald Sinclair, the child actor who portrayed young Scrooge in MGM's 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol," we come across "Boots and Saddles" from Republic Pictures in 1937, the western with Gene Autry referred to in the clipping from last time.

The Autry vehicle features Ronald Sinclair (still billed under his sort-of real name Ra Hould) as a young British earl who inherits the ranch of which Gene is the foreman.

Will Gene transform the lad into a real westerner and save the ranch? Watch the movie and see!

If you like one Autry movie from the 1930s, you probably like them all, but this one stands out for a couple of reasons.

One is the somewhat different story element of the British lad going West.

Future Wild Bill (standing, in yellow shirt) doesn't look too concerned!

Another is that the villain is portrayed by Gordon Elliott, who just the next year would star as Wild Bill Hickock in Columbia's 1938 serial "The Great Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok." That was such a success that he became a major Western star billed as Wild Bill Elliott!

He was a good actor and makes a good villain, with the thin little mustache and all and it's fun to see such a stalwart cowboy star in that manner!

Gene plays his usual version of himself and has his usual sidekick Smiley Burnette as Frog Millhouse with his usual antics.

Judith Allen gives the movie a little zip as Gene's love interest and Guy Usher as Judith's father gives good support as well.

Ronald/Ra isn't given too much to do past the setup of the story, but he does a good job and has some fun scenes with Smiley.

Easy to see why MGM snatched him up when they needed a quick Freddie Bartholomew replacement!

Good fun!

Ronald Sinclair 101 - Part 1!

I had previously made an effort to watch movies featuring Barry MacKay, who portrayed Fred in MGM's 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol," as for years I only knew him from that one role.

So, when the 1937 MGM movie "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" popped up on TCM, I thought I should take a closer look at Ronald Sinclair, who was featured in that film and also played young Scrooge for MGM the next year.

"Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" is basically a programmer, but just about any MGM film from the 1930s has good productions values and good performers and this is no exception.

The most notable thing from an historic standpoint is that "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" is the first movie in which both Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney appear! 

That combination of stars is one of the greatest in movie history, but it's more happenstance that they're both in this movie, as they don't play opposite each other, if you will, and only interact in a couple of scenes. They do work well, together. though!

Judy is billed first in the cast listing, which would be the only time she was billed over Mickey, but Mickey wasn't quite MICKEY ROONEY yet.

The lead role in the movie is actually played by Ronald Sinclair and he's the (puppy) love interest for Judy here and he's also the first actor you see on screen at the start of the credits!

That may seem odd to have an unknown such as Ronald featured so prominently, but as you watch the film, it's obvious that he's playing a part that was meant for the then-popular Freddie Bartholomew.

As I understand it, Freddie had an aunt who was his guardian and said aunt often locked horns with the MGM brass. Presumably MGM had "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" ready to go as a vehicle for Freddie with up-and-comers Mickey and Judy in support, but had to cast a different lead due to aunt trouble!

With this in mind, the trailer for the movie is quite intriguing:

Freddie was back in the fold to film the trailer. I don't buy for a second that he's happy that his "pal" is in the movie instead of him, just as I don't buy that Lionel Barrymore handpicked Reginald Owen to replace himself as Scrooge!

Whatever the case, I think Ronald Sinclair is very good in "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry," holding his own against Mickey and Judy, but I guess MGM didn't need him once they smoothed things over with Freddie Bartholomew, as his only other appearance in an MGM film is in the small role of young Scrooge.

As for "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" itself, it's a fun movie, only about 80 minutes long, so it doesn't outstay its welcome. I don't know if I'd say it's a "gripping drama of extraordinary goodness," though!

This is only Judy Garland's second film for MGM, following her breakthrough role in "Broadway Melody of 1938," and she's quite delightful. Oddly, she only gets one song, "Got a New Pair of Shoes," but she sings that one song multiple times!

As I mentioned, Mickey Rooney wasn't a big star yet, but you can see this kid had the goods. I kind of prefer him in the somewhat-shady secondary roles he played before the "Andy Hardy" persona took over, but he was good in whatever role he played.

Sophie Tucker plays Judy's aunt and she tosses off some great one-liners. I understand that she wasn't pleased with the direction in which MGM was pushing her (i.e. non-singing Marie Dressler-type parts), but she's a pro and interacts quite well with the kids.

Sir C. Aubrey Smith plays Ronald's grandfather and he's always awesome, but I don't think his title drop from the trailer is in the movie!

And one more thing as evidenced by the poster at the top of the page. For such a prestigious studio, MGM had dreadful artwork on their theatrical posters!

Bonus Movie - "tom thumb" (1958)!

Another movie I recently caught on TCM was 1958's "tom thumb" starring Russ Tamblyn as the pint-sized title character.

It's not a bad movie, although it seems pretty dated.

What struck me was that there seemed to be an unusually high number of the cast and crew that were connected to versions of "A Christmas Carol" and/or other projects of note.

The cast supporting American star Russ Tamblyn is mostly British, so maybe it's not too surprising.

Tom's parents are played by Bernard Miles and Jessie Matthews, who pop up here a lot.

Bernard Miles had that 1960 recording on which he played Scrooge, but his performance here reminds me more of his role as "Joe Gargery" in David Lean's 1946 version of "Great Expectations." 

I don't think that Jessie Matthews ever appeared in a Dickens adaptation, but she did co-star with Barry MacKay in three movies in the 1930s, as I frequently point out!

"tom thumb" is 20 years later and Jessie's about 50, but she's still attractive. Her character gets a song and it sounds like Jessie singing, but some (all?) of it was apparently dubbed by future Lawrence Welk "Champagne Lady" Norma Zimmer.

The romantic leads are played by Alan Young and June Thorburn, who also have some interesting connections.

Alan Young, who kinda seems too old for this part, was, of course, the voice of Scrooge McDuck on the original album and animated short "Mickey's Christmas Carol."

And June Thorburn, a very lovely actress who tragically passed away in a plane crash at age 36, had a small role in the 1952 adaptation of "The Pickwick Papers," which also featured Barry MacKay!

"tom thumb" was directed by George Pal, who was famous for his Puppetoons shorts featuring stop-motion animation and Tom interacts with various toys in that style.

One of the toys is the Yawning Man who is voiced by Stan Freberg, who played a modern Scrooge on his brilliant Capitol Records single "Green Chri$tma$" from 1958!

That's three Scrooges!

Also of note is that a couple of songs from "tom thumb" were written by the team of Janice Torre and Fred Spielman, the talents behind "The Stingiest Man in Town" - pretty cool!

You know, I'd almost say I enjoyed making these connections more than I did the movie itself!

That "Other" Dickens Musical!

So, "Oliver!" the 1968 film version of the musical adaptation of "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens popped up on TCM as part of the 31 Days of Oscar, which is only natural, as it racked up six of those statuettes including Best Picture.

I know I saw "Oliver!" when I was a kid and didn't really care for it (I think I resented it as supposedly being good for me from a cultural standpoint - I was more excited to see "The Love Bug") and I don't think I've seen it since, so I thought why not watch it as I'll probably enjoy it.

But, you know, I didn't think it was that great. Not bad, but not brilliant.

I think my main beef was that I didn't like the songs all that much (sorry, Lionel Bart!) and I felt like the story kept grinding to a halt for a production number that had nothing to do with said story. For example, why were The Artful Dodger and Nancy singing "I'd Do Anything" at the hideout?

Perhaps it's obvious where I'm going with this, but I do think the songs in 1970's "Scrooge" fit better and don't slow down the proceedings.

I realize that "Oliver Twist" is a much longer book than "A Christmas Carol" and it needs to be pared down, but I felt like "Oliver!" just basically took the adaptation from David Lean's 1948 film version and shoehorned the songs in. And it can't compare to that classic!

On the plus side, I thought the performances were good with Ron Moody and Jack Wild standing out and deserving of their Oscar nominations, although they kind of come off as wacky comedy relief!

Of course, I associate Jack Wild with "H.R. Pufnstuf," a bizarre Saturday morning show from my distant youth!

Interestingly, "Oliver!" gets a rating of 7.4 on the IMDb whereas "Scrooge" gets 7.5. Hmmm...

Barry MacKay 101 - Lesson 6!

After having enjoyed "Gangway" with Jessie Matthews and Barry MacKay, I thought it appropriate to watch their third and final screen pairing - "Sailing Along" from 1938!

It's also Barry's last movie in England before going Hollywood for MGM's "A Christmas Carol" later in 1938.

"Sailing Along" is another fun movie with Jessie and Barry still displaying good chemistry, but it's a bit different from "Evergreen" and "Gangway" in a few ways.

A big difference is that their characters already know each other when the movie starts, so they don't "meet cute" as is often the case.

They argue a lot and profess not to like each other, but if you've ever seen a movie before, you know that couples who argue that much must really love each other. In the movies at least!

Another difference is that Jessie is given a polished song and dance man to perform with, as opposed to having Barry sing a little and dance a little.

The singer/dancer in question is American Jack Whiting, who was mainly a stage performer, making only a handful of movie appearances. His only other movie of the period is Paramount's "Give Me a Sailor," also from 1938, a Martha Raye/Bob Hope vehicle in which Jack is cast as Hope's brother!

Funny that Jack Whiting has those two movies from 1938, but one's American and one's British, yet they both have "sail" in the title!

Whatever the case, he's quite good here in "Sailing Along," which gives him a better chance to showcase his musical skills than "Give Me a Sailor" does.

Jack's character is also a romantic rival for the affections of Miss Matthews, an idea not present in the first two movies.

Also different is the setting, as a lot of the action takes place on a barge, Barry's character being the son of a barge owner, with Jessie the foster daughter of the same owner.

Said barge owner, the Skipper, is played by Frank Pettingell, whom we remember from his 1959 recording of "A Christmas Carol."

Second (but much smaller than Jessie Matthews) billed is Roland Young, whom I've always enjoyed in the many movies in which I've seen him.

He has a British stiff-upper-lip mumbly delivery that enhances the one-liners he gets to toss off.

Roland Young's main Dickens connection is his terrific performance as Uriah Heep in MGM's 1935 adaptation of David Copperfield," in which he cast against type but delivers the goods.

Also on hand in "Sailing Along" is Alastair Sim, playing another wacky side character as he had in "Gangway."

Watching these movies definitely gives me context for Barry MacKay, but it's also enlightening to see Alastair Sim early in his career playing very eccentric characters. You wouldn't think he be giving an acclaimed performance as Scrooge as dozen or so years later!

Here's a clip from the VCI's DVD of "Sailing Along":

All in all a fun flick!

That's "Love Is Not a Joke" in Italian!

Barry MacKay 101 - Lesson 5!

While virtually hanging around the 1930s and realizing that it's been over a year since our last Barry MacKay lesson, I thought it was time to watch another of his movies!

So, I tracked down "Gangway" from 1937, his second co-starring film with Jessie Matthews, following 1934's "Evergreen."

This is another British musical from Gaumont Studios and it's a lot of fun!

It has a mistaken identity plot, which is so common in 1930s musicals and I can see this being adapted for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers without too much trouble.

Jessie plays a newspaper movie reviewer who gets mistaken for an international jewel thief by most of the rest of the cast, including Barry as an inspector from Scotland Yard. 

Alastair Sim and Nat Pendleton provide the comedy relief

The movie is something of a spoof of American gangster movies and American actor Nat Pendleton is a riot as the main gangster, spouting gangster-lingo in a way that British filmmakers would think Americans actually talk!

Also on hand is Alastair Sim in an early role as a wacky insurance investigator.  In a movie filled with screwball characters, he's the screwiest!

Mr. Sim looks younger than he did as Scrooge, but he still doesn't look young, despite being only 37 at the time. Some people never looked young!

So, how's Barry MacKay here? He's very good and has great chemistry with Jessie Matthews.

She's a way better singer and dancer than he is, but the numbers are staged in a way that he does what he does and more or less stays out of the way while she is showcased.

Jessie Matthews is definitely the star attraction here and she's billed in huge letters above the title, but Barry's role is also pretty big.

Here's a promo clip from VCI's DVD release:

VCI offers a number of Jessie Matthews movies in nice prints!

Small font or not, at least Robert Young's name is on this lobby card!

In the meantime, I had also seen Jessie Matthews in 1936's "It's Love Again" opposite Robert Young and I'm officially a fan!

Merry Christmas!

"Fred" in Hi-Def!

A while back I had mentioned watching the 1934 British musical "Evergreen" starring Jessie Matthews as part of my Barry MacKay excavation project.

It recently popped up on TCM and the high definition version of movie looked absolutely dynamite!

If only every movie from the 1930s looked this good!

Not to pick on "Scrooge" from 1935, as it probably never looked as good as "Evergreen," but I'd still like to see a really good print of it.

Carry on!

"Scrooge's Rock 'n' Roll Christmas" (1984) - Part 2

In case you were wondering, yes, Virginia, there was a soundtrack album for the 1984 "Scrooge's Rock n' Roll Christmas" TV special!

Actually, albums, as there are different variations.

Such as this one:

And this version that doesn't mention the special on the front cover, but has a big thing about it on the back:

And this Japanese issue that doesn't mention the special at all:

Most disturbing, however, is the one at the top of the page, with a rather unappealing drawing of Jack Elam as Scrooge! Who would ever buy that?

Next!

"Scrooge's Rock 'n' Roll Christmas" (1984) - Part 1

"Scrooge's Rock n' Roll Christmas" (1984)
Director: Lou Tedesco
Scrooge: Jack Elam

So, this made-for-TV or straight-to-video or whatever Christmas special is pretty rough!

The set-up is that Scrooge is working in his office when a "girl" comes in, mistaking the office for a record store.

Seeing that Scrooge doesn't like Christmas, she attempts to change his mind by showing him "rock and roll" artists performing Christmas songs in a magic snow globe.

That's about it!

The odd thing is that the roster of artists have nothing at all to do with the current state of popular music in 1984 (or 1983, which is the copyright date).

They're name artists, but they were at their peak in the 1960s and/or 1970s.

The list:

The Association

Bobby Goldsboro

Mike Love (of the Beach Boys)

Mary McGregor

Paul Revere & the Raiders

Merrilee Rush

Three Dog Night

Dean Torrence (of Jan & Dean)

All of these artists were successful and I'm familiar with their work, but they were all past their primes by the 1980s.

Their relative merits and relationship to rock and roll are discussions for another time!

There's also a newcomer named Bridget, but I don't know who she is.

Anyway, it's all very strange. The musical acts are very disconnected from the "story," but Mike Love does show up in "real time" at Scrooge's office, also mistaking it for a record store!

Otherwise, I wouldn't be shocked if the other performers had no idea that their little holiday videos were going to be used for this particular special. I wonder if they were part of some "oldies" package tour and that's why they were all together (sort of). It would have been a fun concert to see them perform their hits of 10-20 years before!

As far as the story, apparently it is Ebenezer Scrooge in the office, as he namedrops Bob Cratchit as his employee and says, "God bless us, everyone" at the end.

But it's unclear what the time and location are. The girl is very American, but when she mentions Paul Revere, Scrooge says something about him being "from the colonies," implying that they're not in America, but probably England.

Everything seems to take place in the present, but there's no explanation as to why Scrooge is in the present.

I realize this is way more analysis than this needs and it's probably futile to try and make any sense of it!

Jack Elam was an excellent performer, alternating between villainous and comic roles over a long career, and he's not bad here, but he's given nothing to work with. He would have been really good in a comic version of "A Christmas Carol."

"The Girl" is played by Lee Benton, with whom I'm not familiar. Her biggest acting role seems to have been as a regular on "The New Mike Hammer" TV series with Stacy Keach. I used to watch that show sometimes, but it was a long time ago and I don't remember her "Jenny" character.

The material of this special is weak, so it's hard to judge Lee's acting skills, but she tries to sell it, although I think she appears a bit mature for the role. 

In an event, this is a strange artifact and if you don't have OSD, steer clear!