The Definitive A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951): Starring Alastair Sim (1 Viewer)

[telzall]

All I want for Christmas is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens with photos from the 1951 movie. I know it’s out there!

 

[Harry-N]

Meanwhile, over on streaming, I found SCROOGE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951) available to stream with commercials on a service called PLEX. It looked rather SD-ish to me, but it DID have Mrs. Dilber's line "...for reaching it out."

 

[davidmatychuk]

All I want for Christmas is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens with photos from the 1951 movie. I know it’s out there!

See comment #887 in this thread. I lucked into such an item at Value Village, but online booksellers should have them.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Tonight, courtesy of Tubi TV, I enjoyed my first ever full viewing of AN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CAROL (1979), starring Henry Winkler as Benedict Slade (This is after all, an American adaptation!). Much unlike my faulty memory (I thought it was set in the then contemporary 1970s! OY VEY!!!!) of my previous brief viewing of one scene when this TV movie debuted 44 years ago, its early FDR 1930s setting proves most appropriate.

Is it perfect? In my opinion, no. Benedict Slade looks like he aged about 30 to 40 years between circa 1917-1918 (The Liberty Bond Drive scene) and Christmas, 1933. Apart from this and maybe one or two other nitpicks (I did find it a bit overlong), I was really moved by this long passed over (By me!) adaptation! For the first time, I get the love some people who were raised on this Christmas Carol version have for it, especially fathers with sons! Also, my compliments to Mr. Henry Winkler's makeup artist for the older Benedict Slade! (Hopefully, not posthumously handed out, though all too possible 44 years on!)

Indeed, Christmas can be a time for miracles!!

CHEERS!

 

[Tony Bensley]

Also, my compliments to Mr. Henry Winkler's makeup artist for the older Benedict Slade! (Hopefully, not posthumously handed out, though all too possible 44 years on!)

Well, this sure explains everything! (And thankfully, NOT posthumous in either case!)
Rick Baker ... special makeup consultant
Greg Cannom ... makeup creator: Henry Winkler

Source: IMDB

CHEERS!

 

[davidmatychuk]

Tonight, courtesy of Tubi TV, I enjoyed my first ever full viewing of AN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CAROL (1979), starring Henry Winkler as Benedict Slade (This is after all, an American adaptation!). Much unlike my faulty memory (I thought it was set in the then contemporary 1970s! OY VEY!!!!) of my previous brief viewing of one scene when this TV movie debuted 44 years ago, its early FDR 1930s setting proves most appropriate.

Is it perfect? In my opinion, no. Benedict Slade looks like he aged about 30 to 40 years between circa 1917-1918 (The Liberty Bond Drive scene) and Christmas, 1933. Apart from this and maybe one or two other nitpicks (I did find it a bit overlong), I was really moved by this long passed over (By me!) adaptation! For the first time, I get the love some people who were raised on this Christmas Carol version have for it, especially fathers with sons! Also, my compliments to Mr. Henry Winkler's makeup artist for the older Benedict Slade! (Hopefully, not posthumously handed out, though all too possible 44 years on!)

Indeed, Christmas can be a time for miracles!!

CHEERS!

That's an American adaptation filmed in Canada, so maybe it's really "A North American Christmas Carol". There's a lot of fine Canadian talent supporting the Fonz and the great David Wayne in that one, and it's a nicely sedate variation on the classic story. Shout! Factory put it out on a decently remastered Blu-Ray with a nice interview with Henry Winkler (a man so seemingly nice he may have been visited by spirits on Christmas Eve himself), and I may not watch it every year like one particular version we know but I'm glad to have it. Shout out to Elora, Ontario! Is that near you, Tony?

 

[Tony Bensley]

That's an American adaptation filmed in Canada, so maybe it's really "A North American Christmas Carol". There's a lot of fine Canadian talent supporting the Fonz and the great David Wayne in that one, and it's a nicely sedate variation on the classic story. Shout! Factory put it out on a decently remastered Blu-Ray with a nice interview with Henry Winkler (a man so seemingly nice he may have been visited by spirits on Christmas Eve himself), and I may not watch it every year like one particular version we know but I'm glad to have it. Shout out to Elora, Ontario! Is that near you, Tony?

Yes, there are a lot of familiar faces for we Canadians who grew up in a certain age that are in this film. I did immediately recognize the actor who would later play the kindly, but stuttering and sometimes absent minded inventor Jasper on the marvelous ROAD TO AVONLEA series, though his name (R.H. Thomson) embarrassingly did not register! Of course, much of that series was also filmed in Ontario's rich farmland, standing in for its Prince Edward Island setting! It's good that a quality company like Shout! Factory put out a good Blu-ray of this North American Christmas Carol adaptation.

I've incidentally also been battling a sinus infection this week, which I am hopefully now getting on the good side of!

Elora is between London (My current home!) and Toronto, but closer to Toronto, with a distance of 137.4 km, according to Google Maps, which makes it slightly less than a 2 hour drive.

CHEERS!

 

[Garysb]

A Christmas Carol (1951) will air on FXM Movie Channel multiple times beginning at 2:30 PM Dec 24th alternating with FX version of A Christmas Carol with Guy Pearce as Scrooge.

 

[cinemel1]

I watched my annual viewing of the Alistair Sim version of the Dickens classic a couple of nights ago. It only gets better. My favorite scene isn’t even in the book: Scrooge goes to eat his dinner at a local inn and asks for more bread. The waiter says “That’ll be a ha’penny extra, sir”. Scrooge replies: “No more bread!”

 

[Harry-N]

One of my favorite lines from the movie.

 

[telzall]

See comment #887 in this thread. I lucked into such an item at Value Village, but online booksellers should have them.

Well, I'll check Alibris and Abe's Books but I'm not optimistic.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Well, I'll check Alibris and Abe's Books but I'm not optimistic.

When I got mine, I saw that Abe's had one. I never knew such a thing existed before I actually saw it at Value Village, but if I had I would have ordered one online in a second.

 

[Jack P]

I watched my annual viewing of the Alistair Sim version of the Dickens classic a couple of nights ago. It only gets better. My favorite scene isn’t even in the book: Scrooge goes to eat his dinner at a local inn and asks for more bread. The waiter says “That’ll be a ha’penny extra, sir”. Scrooge replies: “No more bread!”

In a similar vein, I love the added scene Scrooge has with Mrs. Dilbert after he's reformed, especially her line, "To keep me mouth shut?" in response to his asking her to guess why he's given her a guinea.

 

[davidmatychuk]

First of all, Merry Christmas to all of my HTF friends, especially the readers of this thread, which is my favorite. On Christmas Eve, I watched Alastair Sim & Company for probably the 200th time in my life, and as usual I found something new to ponder in this rich, delightful film, namely how well the filmmakers' additions and alterations to Dickens' text were conceived and integrated. It's a masterpiece of creative adaptation, and it's one more (new) reason that it will always be, in my opinion, the greatest Christmas film ever made. I followed it with the splendid 2017 fantasy biopic "The Man Who Invented Christmas", which made for a perfect Dickens double bill, and I hope you all had as happy a Christmas Eve as we did.

 

[Tony Bensley]

First of all, Merry Christmas to all of my HTF friends, especially the readers of this thread, which is my favorite. On Christmas Eve, I watched Alastair Sim & Company for probably the 200th time in my life, and as usual I found something new to ponder in this rich, delightful film, namely how well the filmmakers' additions and alterations to Dickens' text were conceived and integrated. It's a masterpiece of creative adaptation, and it's one more (new) reason that it will always be, in my opinion, the greatest Christmas film ever made. I followed it with the splendid 2017 fantasy biopic "The Man Who Invented Christmas", which made for a perfect Dickens double bill, and I hope you all had as happy a Christmas Eve as we did.

Merry Christmas to David and everyone on here!

After several years of rather sparse and sporadic Christmas viewings, I really got back into it this year, incorporating a number of 1st (And some 2nd) time viewings with some old longtime favourites, some of which I haven't seen for many years.

To keep this post from getting lengthy, I'll keep this to my "A Christmas Carol" story line viewings.

1st time viewing:
AN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CAROL (1979) - For those who have previously skipped this "North American" adaptation like I did, I highly recommend giving this gem a viewing!

2nd time viewing:
DISNEY'S A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2009) - After letting more than a full decade pass since my 1st DVD viewing in the early 2010s, I finally gave this Jim Carrey version a 2nd viewing. My biggest mistake the first time around was comparing this gem to the Alastair Sim version too slavishly!

The rest are listed in order of this year's viewings:

FAMILY TIES - "A Keaton Christmas Carol" Episode (1983) - As Christmas Carol stories go, it's a bit kitsch, and necessarily abbreviated within the half hour TV family sitcom format, but kind of fun.

MICKEY'S CHRISTMAS CAROL (1983) - Having just picked up the Blu-ray last Wednesday, I enjoyed my 1st viewing of this gem in many decades! I did first see this one in the Theatre when it was originally released!

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938) - This MGM version has grown on me a bit in the last few years. Worth noting is that two of the child actors (98 year old June Lockhart and 97 year old Terry Kilburn, who played Tiny Tim!) are still with us as of Christmas 2023, 85 years after this MGM feature's original release!

SCROOGE / A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951) - Of course, this definitive version remains number one in my heart, and always will! The above titling reflects the opening titles on my 2012 VCI Blu-ray and subsequent CTV 12:30 AM viewings! While this latest broadcast sadly reflects the fact that CTV no longer has local affiliates, and thus no commercials with a local flavour, and in addition, was presented in an odd letterbox format, it did include Mrs. Dilber's "For reaching it out" dialogue! It also warms the cockles of my heart that for all of their changes, CTV has carried on with their annual A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951) presentation tradition!

CHEERS!

 

[bujaki]

The incomparable Terry Kilburn who also said good-bye to Mr. Chips.

 

[Charles Smith]

I believe this is new, apologies if it isn't.
Joe Dante's take:

A Christmas Carol | Trailers From Hell

Accept no substitutes, 1951's A Christmas Carol stands alone as the definitive film version of Dickens' classic. The sublime Alastair Sim is the heart and soul of the movie as Scrooge, a sour recluse whose heart and soul is kept in the cash register. Sometimes a noir, sometimes a comedy...

trailersfromhell.com

 

[davidmatychuk]

I believe this is new, apologies if it isn't.
Joe Dante's take:

A Christmas Carol | Trailers From Hell

Accept no substitutes, 1951's A Christmas Carol stands alone as the definitive film version of Dickens' classic. The sublime Alastair Sim is the heart and soul of the movie as Scrooge, a sour recluse whose heart and soul is kept in the cash register. Sometimes a noir, sometimes a comedy...

trailersfromhell.com

I never saw it before, and it looks recent to me. It's great, too. Thanks!

 

[Tony Bensley]

I believe this is new, apologies if it isn't.
Joe Dante's take:

A Christmas Carol | Trailers From Hell

Accept no substitutes, 1951's A Christmas Carol stands alone as the definitive film version of Dickens' classic. The sublime Alastair Sim is the heart and soul of the movie as Scrooge, a sour recluse whose heart and soul is kept in the cash register. Sometimes a noir, sometimes a comedy...

trailersfromhell.com

I never saw it before, and it looks recent to me. It's great, too. Thanks!

Same here, and I think it's great! Thanks for sharing, Charles!! CHEERS!