The 1954 "Shower of Stars" presentation of "A Christmas Carol" was presented in a one-hour time slot with some fairly lengthy musical numbers. As such, they needed to make some cuts to the story. What did they take out and what did they leave in? And did they add anything?
Well, what was mostly added were some musical numbers. The lyrics to the songs were written by noted playwright Maxwell Anderson (who also wrote the screenplay, known for works from "What Price Glory (1924) through "The Bad Seed" (1954)) and the music is by Bernard Herrmann, a top film composer, with credits from "Citizen Kane" (1941) to "Psycho" (1960). Most of the singing is provided by the Roger Wagner Chorale, who give the whole thing an old-school feel as does their accompanying flutist.
They start the proceedings with a song, while a gentlemen purchses a copy of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. OK, so far, but when he leaves the shop, he is greeted by two other men who call him Jonas and ask him for a charitable donation. Wait, are those the same two guys who try to hit up Scrooge? Yes, they go to Scrooge's office next, which starts the narrative. Hold the phone - how did Jonas buy a book of this story if it hasn't happened yet? What's in his book? This is so meta that it makes your head spin!
OK, back to the story. Scrooge blows them off with his "surplus population" quip and gives a big grin at his own cleverness! He argues with Bob Cratchit about the coal and Fred comes in.
Fred comes in and goes through his usual business with his uncle. Bob claps at Fred's speech and thanks him as he leaves for making his day.
Scrooge reluctantly gives Bob the next day off and Cratchit leaves. At this point another number from the Chorale is featured, this time about Santa Claus. This seems very American, not British.
Scrooge is still in his office and has some great muttering about Santa, including calling him "Old St. Hypocrite!" Wow, is he on the naughty list!
Scrooge goes home, but doesn't have an interaction with the door knocker. The charwoman is inside, getting things ready for Scrooge. She's just about to wish him "Merry Christmas" as she leaves, but Scrooge cuts her off just in time!
Next up, Marley's Ghost host comes in through the door. The transparent effect is quite good. He turns solid to interact with Scrooge and warns him to change his ways and expect the other spirits and all. What's cool is that he takes this big ledger from his chains and says it contains all their misdeeds. After Marley's Ghost leaves, Scrooge tries to conv6one himself that it was all a nightmare until he trips over that ledger. A fun proto-"Twilight Zone" kinda thing! Scrooge jumps into his bed for the end of Act One!
In this broadcast, we get Bill Lundigan back for a commercial. He tells us about the new line of station wagons from your Chrysler dealer as the Chorale sings out. It's not too heavy-handed and those cars are fun!
When we go back to the story, the first spirit arrives and Scrooge says she resembles "her" so much. She says she's the Spirit of Christmas Past and that Scrooge has "forgotten what the world is like for children." Not really sure what she means by that, as we don't see Scrooge as a child.
We only get one scene, which is Fezziwig's Christmas party. This looks more like it takes place in a fancy house, rather than a warehouse. Scrooge talks about Fezziwig and points out Dick Wilkins.
There's some fancy dancing going on, then young Scrooge says that he's waiting for Belle. When we see her, we realize that she's the "her" whom the spirit resembles. A neat touch! Interestingly, Belle says she was late because they had a lot to do at the shop, which is what Martha Cratchit usually says.
Young Scrooge joins her for a semi-operatic duet, kind of Nelson Eddy/Jeannette MacDonald style number. At the end of the song, they kiss under some mistletoe held by Fezziwig, which is sweet.
Right after this, however, as it seems Scrooge was about to say something about Bob Cratchit, the spirit directs his attention to Belle breaking up with his younger self. Wow, that is right after they sang that nice duet! The spirit disappears and Scrooge is back in bed.
At this point, a town crier lets us know it's two o'clock, so time for the next ghost.
Now we get the wackiest sequence in the whole show - the Spirit of Christmas Present appears and he looks just like Fred. He sings this earworm of a song in which he strteches out the worfds "very" and "merry" as in a "ve-e-e-ery, a me-e-e-erry Christmas" in a deep baritone while dancing around and taunting Scrooge with magic tricks. It's extremely odd!
Scrooge is naturally bewildered and calls him nephew and Fred. The spirit acts like he has no idea what Scrooge is talking about, but says he's the Spirit of Christmas Present. Scrooge asks " Christmas present?" and the spirit quips that Scrooge doesn't give many of them.
Anyway, he turns Scrooge's gruel into a Christmas pudding, which dissolves to the Cratchit's table and we see the whole family getting ready for Christmas. It's apparently Christmas Eve, however, as Bob says that Peter should wait until tomorrow before sampling the gingerbread. So, was this in real time?
We seem to be missing the other Cratchit son, but we have all three daughters, Martha, Belinda and Susan (according to the credits, but Bob calls her Suzy).
I will say that the Cratchits don't seem all that poor and the goose doesn't look that small. There's actually some talk that the goose is on the big side. That being said, this version doesn't try to emphasize the fact that the Cratchits might be poor, just that Scrooge is a mean boss and they need more money for Tiny Tim.
Bob specifically says to his wife that he could get Tiny Tim the help he needs if he made just a few shillings more a week.
Hint, hint!
Bob plays a game with the family, which is the riddle that Fred usually springs on the guests at his party in which the answer is Scrooge.
On the whole, this Bob Cratchit is way more critical of Scrooge than usual. Not that he doesn't have a right to be, it's just not typical.
Tiny Tim hangs the star on the tree and sings a song. Scrooge is visibly taken with Tiny Tim and asks the spirit if he will live. The spirit talks about the vacant seat and crutch without an owner and says these shadows may only be altered by the Spirit of the Future. When Scrooges asks where he can find the Spirit of the Future, this spirit says, "Look within yourself, for if you continue as you are, the answer is there before you." He repeats that line as he fades away.
What is there before Scrooge? Well, a black bird (a raven, maybe?). I'm not sure if the bird itself is the spirit, but Scrooge follows it to a graveyard where he sees his own tombstone, which reads "Ebenezer Scrooge 1843." I guess that means he would die in 1843, which was. of course, the year "A Christmas Carol" was published, but I don't think the year in which the story takes place was indicated otherwise.
He then sees Tiny Tim's tombstone, which reads only "Tiny Tim" in huge letters. That's obviously to hammer the point home to Scrooge, as "Tiny Tim" is a nickanme and the real tombstone would read "Timothy Cratchit," most likely.
Scrooge bangs on the tombstone in despair, then wakes up banging on his bed. He says it was all a dream, forgetting about that big ledger left by Marley's Ghost. He looks out the window and asks the requisite boy what day it is. When they boy says it's Christmas Day, Scrooge as usual remarks that the spirits did it all in one night. But if he thought it was a dream, he would know it was the next morning.
Hmmm...
Scrooge then starts singing that "very merry Christmas" song like the Spirit of Christmas Present, which is so awesome it makes that whole previous scene worthwhile!
Commercial! Co-host Mary Costa joins Bill to listen to the Chorale sing "The Spirit of Christmas," so not too much plugging of Chryslers!
Back for Act 3, Scrooge is all dressed up and practically dancing down the street when he meets the charity solicitors and makes a big donation. He then drops by to see an appropriately astonished Fred and says he's rejoining the human race and will be back for some mice pie. Fred is so astonished, in fact, that he doesn't even say a word, which must have been tough for him! We never do learn whether or not Fred is married, as Scrooge doesn't go inside.
He passes by his office and mischievously takes some holly from the building across the way to put on his own sign in a cute little scene.
He then goes to Bob Cratchit's house and right away tells him he'll raise his salary and help Tiny Tim.
He joins the family for dinner, but before they can eat, Tiny Tim wants to sing his sing for Scrooge. He really just starts it off, as the Chorale takes over. The song goes on for a bit, and we have an extended closeup of Scrooge. Fredric March does a good job here, as we can tell that Scrooge is taking the words of the song to heart and thinking about what the spirits had taught him.
Song's over, Tiny Tim finally says, "God bless us everyone," and the credits roll.
So, we get a pretty straightforward account of the story with some musical embellishments. Some of the dialogue is lifted directly from the book, which is usually the case, but most of it is not. This, again, makes the whole thing seem more American than British.
Next we'll wrap this one up!
