The Definitive A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951): Starring Alastair Sim (4 Viewers)

[Garysb]

For those who have the station, A Christmas Carol (1951) will be shown tonight at 9:00 PM EST on the Hallmark Movie and Mystery Channel, It should be repeated often throughout the Holiday Season. Will be interesting if it includes the missing words. Unfortunately there will be many commercials . Just like when I was a kid.

 

[Tony Bensley]

For those who have the station, A Christmas Carol (1951) will be shown tonight at 8:00 PM EST on the Hallmark Movie and Mystery Channel, It should be repeated often throughout the Holiday Season. Will be interesting if it includes the missing words. Unfortunately there will be many commercials . Just like when I was a kid.

Hi Gary!

While we don't have the Hallmark Channel on our current package, I'm not worried as I already have the missing 4 "for reaching it out" words on the 2005 Emerald Edition DVD by Morningstar Entertainment.

For many decades, I've viewed A CHRISTMAS CAROL by way of CTV. This has been an annual midnight December 25 ritual for me a few decades now, having stretched back to the early 1980's when my brother (Who, very sadly passed away in 2005!) and I would enjoy this classic piece of cinema together! If I think of it, I'll try and check whether their print includes these missing words, just for the sake of curiosity!

CHEERS!

Tony

 

[Matt Hough]

They showed Holiday Inn in HD in the slot right before A Christmas Carol. I didn't see Carol, but the five or ten minutes of Holiday Inn I saw looked great. I haven't replaced my DVD copy with the Blu-ray, but seeing this certainly made me want to.

 

[Garysb]

They showed Holiday Inn in HD in the slot right before A Christmas Carol. I didn't see Carol, but the five or ten minutes of Holiday Inn I saw looked great. I haven't replaced my DVD copy with the Blu-ray, but seeing this certainly made me want to.

They cut the blackface number used for Lincoln's birthday in Holiday Inn.

 

[theonemacduff]

Early this afternoon, I received a reply from the California based Bay City Books seller. This is what it said, in part:
"We shipped it via International Priority Mail which usually takes 4-8 working days; however, Canada shipments have averaged a 2-4 week delivery window this past year."

I strongly suspect that this also explains why my A CHRISTMAS CAROL Blu-Ray/DVD shipment from the also California based Import CDs did not arrive ahead of Amazon.ca's earliest estimated delivery date, as my past orders used to. Border tightening at U.S./Canada Customs would be my best guess as to why the longer delivery window for Canadians, as of late!

Therefore, for we Canadian HTF members; don't be surprised if your U.S. orders are taking noticeably longer to arrive than in years past!

CHEERS!

Well, if you're living in Vancouver, you could always set up an address with a shipper/receiver just across the border in Point Roberts. They do a land office business, and the wait times at the border are generally on the order of 10 minutes. I've brought across numerous BDs and DVDs, and as long as you're under $75 or so, they just wave you through. And you can gas up on cheap gas too

 

[Robert Crawford]

Not to sidetrack this thread too much, but why is this version of A Christmas Carol more thought of than the 1938 film release?

 

[stuartfanning]

Rewinds comparisons (not as detailed as anything on this thread)!

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=206

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=19443

 

[WilliamMcK]

Not to sidetrack this thread too much, but why is this version of A Christmas Carol more thought of than the 1938 film release?

Personal preference! I think those of us who prefer the 1951 British movie, prefer its darker… arguably more Dickensian… flavor. It feels closer in style to David Lean's twin masterpieces, GREAT EXPECTATIONS and OLIVER TWIST. MGM's 1938 effort (which I still enjoy and watch every year) seems lighter… more perfunctory by comparison. The 1960's animated musical Mr. Magoo's CHRISTMAS CAROL, the 1970 feature film musical SCROOGE and the 1984 CBS television film with George C. Scott all have their admirers too… (and there's a little known NBC 30 min animated version… animated in the style of John Leech's original illustrations… with Alastair Sim and Michael Hordern reprising their roles, that should be sought out by everybody who loves A CHRISTMAS CAROL!)

 

[Tony Bensley]

Maybe I'm just being impatient, but does EVERYTHING coming to Canada from the U.S. have to take at least the better part of two weeks to arrive, even when it's shipped priority post? I've been anxiously waiting for my replacement disc containing the Lionel Barrymore Christmas 1939 A CHRISTMAS CAROL Radio Play, along with the Fred Guida Bio-Bibliography, to arrive, which was sent from VCI Entertainment on November 3!

I'm hoping that I don't have to wait through yet another weekend for this!

CHEERS!

I contacted the VCI representative today, and it turns out that, due to some unexplained technical glitch (My order wasn't showing, even though she was quite certain that she had placed it on November 3rd!), my replacement disc most likely never shipped! She was most apologetic and was in the process of printing up another order for me even during our conversation! This time, she'll be emailing me my order and tracking numbers.

It seems like these days, anything I try to do gets messed up on account of key information getting lost in cyberspace! SHEESH!!

Ah well, I guess that's just the way of it, sometimes!

CHEERS!

Tony

 

[Garysb]

Its a shame that Lionel Barrymore was too ill to appear in the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol. He did an annual radio version of the story and was supposed to do the film but fell ill. He is in the trailer for the film telling people they should see the film.

Here is the 1939 radio version with Orson Welles narrating. Mr. Welles mentions that this is the fifth time Mr. Barrymore performed the role on the radio. With commercials for Campbell's soup.

https://archive.org/details/CampbellPlayhouseAChristmasCarol12241939

 

[davidmatychuk]

Not to sidetrack this thread too much, but why is this version of A Christmas Carol more thought of than the 1938 film release?

Three reasons: Alastair Sim, Alastair Sim, Alastair Sim. (There are other reasons, too).

 

[davidmatychuk]

I contacted the VCI representative today, and it turns out that, due to some unexplained technical glitch (My order wasn't showing, even though she was quite certain that she had placed it on November 3rd!), my replacement disc most likely never shipped! She was most apologetic and was in the process of printing up another order for me even during our conversation! This time, she'll be emailing me my order and tracking numbers.

It seems like these days, anything I try to do gets messed up on account of key information getting lost in cyberspace! SHEESH!!

Ah well, I guess that's just the way of it, sometimes!

CHEERS!

Tony

Remember, Tony, "SCROOGE & MARLEY" - serving all your international shipping needs since roughly 1820!

 

[Tony Bensley]

Its a shame that Lionel Barrymore was too ill to appear in the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol. He did an annual radio version of the story and was supposed to do the film but fell ill. He is in the trailer for the film telling people they should see the film.

Here is the 1939 radio version with Orson Welles narrating. Mr. Welles mentions that this is the fifth time Mr. Barrymore performed the role on the radio. With commercials for Campbell's soup.

https://archive.org/details/CampbellPlayhouseAChristmasCarol12241939

Hi Gary!

Thank you very much for providing the above link! I've decided that, while I am able to access this Radio play, I'm choosing to wait for my replacement disc to arrive, which due to unforeseeable circumstances, will be awhile longer than I had anticipated! For the record, I have been provided with a USPS Tracking number, and it is being sent by Priority International.

In my opinion, the MGM version would have fared better with Lionel Barrymore playing Ebeneezer Scrooge, rather than Reginald Owen, who I maintain, was wrong for the part, but the studio was obviously stuck when Lionel couldn't do it due to his illness! I guess that it just wasn't meant to be!

CHEERS!

Tony

 

[Ejanss]

Personal preference! I think those of us who prefer the 1951 British movie, prefer its darker… arguably more Dickensian… flavor. It feels closer in style to David Lean's twin masterpieces, GREAT EXPECTATIONS and OLIVER TWIST. MGM's 1938 effort (which I still enjoy and watch every year) seems lighter… more perfunctory by comparison.

It's darker, like a combination of the great elegant David Lean Dickens with the creepy B/W mood of Val Lewton.
The scene with Michael Hordern's Marley, played for humor, is ironically the least eerie scene in the movie, at least compared to his approach up the stairs or his vision of the "banished" ghosts.
(And if you never thought the Ghost of Christmas Future was scary before...)
Writer Noel Langley (who screenwrote Wizard of Oz, and directed "Pickwick Papers") who could imitate Dickens to fool the experts, adds a few original scenes to flesh out young Scrooge's downfall, and a telling new scene on the night Marley died.

Also, up to that point, Sim was a comic actor, and while his Scrooge is jittery and ice-cold, he uses his humor to add a sardonic snark to Scrooge's grumblings, and goes absolutely giddy when he reforms.
And the last VCI version added an interesting featurette putting the movie into the context of 1951 postwar Britain arguing over the necessity of Public Welfare--In the scene with the two charity gentlemen, Sim's Scrooge grumbles "Anyway, it's none of my business", and one of the two adds a stinging "...Isn't it, sir?"

 

[Tony Bensley]

In my opinion, it is no accident that Noel Langley was behind the definitive versions of both THE WIZARD OF OZ and A CHRISTMAS CAROL! In both cases, virtually every aspect of their respective adaptations only served to each Film's benefit rather than detriment. The only aspect about the former that somewhat bothers me is the enormous number of continuity errors; one aspect that the screenwriters had no control over!

I did also find the aforementioned featurette tying the movie to the postwar Britain context to be most fascinating, especially when it drew parallels to the conditions that existed when Charles Dickens wrote the book!

CHEERS!

 

[WilliamMcK]

Here's the half-hour animated movie I mentioned... with Alastair Sim and Michael Hordern as the voices of Scrooge and Marley... I really recommend it!!!

 

[bgart13]

The '51 version is superior in many ways, many elements came together in nearly perfect unison. The '38 version is too cutesy, with the lead performance bothering me the most. There are elements of it that work, but it's too... friendly, perhaps? Not threatening enough. Not ghostly enough. I'd have loved to have seen it with Barrymore instead. The licenses taken with the original story bother me too. Sure, there are some with the '51 version too, but the differences still work within the tone and theme of the story. To me, it feels like the '51 filmmakers understood the original story much better and did their best to be honest to the material.

 

[Ejanss]

Also, Sim even makes "bad" Scrooge oddly sympathetic--
His old comic timing gives him a sort of bitter chuckle of disbelief every time some poor do-gooder tries to appeal to his better nature: "The day off tomorrow, Cratchit?--(huh-huh!) You say the same thing every year!"
But once he resists seeing the error of his ways, he keeps protesting "But I am too old to change, go and reform some younger man!"

 

[davidmatychuk]

HMV had the 2012 Entertainment One "Emerald Edition" Blu-Ray at HMV today for $10, so I bit the bullet. It's not good. The image is weak. The DTS-HD audio (2 channel mono) is weak. The music over the opening credits skips like a record TWICE ("Hark the her-els sing"). There's no booklet like the Morningstar "Emerald Edition" DVD had, nor does it have the alternate opening on that DVD. It does have the British trailer for "Scrooge", though oddly enough the opening credits are for the North American "A Christmas Carol" version. HOWEVER...it is the only Blu-Ray I know of with the complete Mrs. Dilber "for reaching it out" line.

 

[Tony Bensley]

HMV had the 2012 Entertainment One "Emerald Edition" Blu-Ray at HMV today for $10, so I bit the bullet. It's not good. The image is weak. The DTS-HD audio (2 channel mono) is weak. The music over the opening credits skips like a record TWICE ("Hark the her-els sing"). There's no booklet like the Morningstar "Emerald Edition" DVD had, nor does it have the alternate opening on that DVD. It does have the British trailer for "Scrooge", though oddly enough the opening credits are for the North American "A Christmas Carol" version. HOWEVER...it is the only Blu-Ray I know of with the complete Mrs. Dilber "for reaching it out" line.

IMG_1337.JPG

Hi David!

Is the visual quality actually not as good as the 2005 Morningstar DVD, or does it simply fall short by Blu-Ray standards?

CHEERS!

Tony