There are times we connect to a film by the experience of how we saw it. This can take the form of the theater, the people, your concession stand snack or by not even being in a cinema. Such is the case of A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim to me. The first time I saw it was in my Grandfather Fred Timmerman’s living room in West Roxbury, MA. This was the mid-70s and my family were visiting for Christmas. I had gotten sick and had to stay home. I washed down my medicine with Ginger Ale. He decided it was a good time for a movie night. Because this was the ’70s, he wasn’t busting out a VCR. We had real movies back then. He set up the projector screen and pulled out his 8mm movie projector. He retrieved a tin filled with films that were mostly home movies. Deep down there was the silent and condensed version of Alistair Sim’s A Christmas Carol. There was a slight hitch in my grandfather’s system. He had lost the cap that screwed on the back of the projector, so the light blasted the rest of the room. He remedied this by holding a pie tin against the blinding hole. He had to take a break between the films to let the pie tin cool down. Whenever I see A Christmas Carol, my mind immediately puts me back in the living room on Ivory Street and my grandfather holding the pie tin.
Who here doesn’t know the plot for A Christmas Carol? Seeing how this is the worldwide web, there might be a few people who haven’t read the book, sat for the stage play, watched the movie or witness the version done on Gilligan’s Island. Ebenezer Scrooge (The Ladykillers‘ Alastair Sim) is a notorious cheapskate. He treats his major employee Bob Cratchit (Pink String and Sealing Wax‘s Mervyn Johns) as poorly as he pays the guy. Bob’s got a sick kid at home named Tiny Tim (Four Sided Triangle‘s Glyn Dearman). Even though it’s Christmas Eve, Scrooge doesn’t want to shut down early. He wants to stay open Christmas. He hates the holiday. That night as he gets ready for sleep he meets the ghost of his old business partner Jacob Marley (The Spy Who Came In From the Cold‘s Michael Hordern). He warns his business partner that Scrooge is destined for the bad place if he doesn’t straighten up. In order to see the error in his ways, Scrooge will be visited by three ghosts. Can they spook him into being a better person?
Alastair Sim owns the role of Scrooge. He nails both the fury at the beginning and the joy at the end. You feel the redemption as he transforms. Visually the film draw you into this world. The special effects remain effective for this era. You don’t doubt the ghosts exist. The same goes for the sound effects that must have pushed the system back in 1951. A Christmas Carol remains an unreplaceable Christmas masterpiece. I’m grateful that my grandfather went through all the hassle of setting up the film project that night to share it with me. Although he’d probably be impressed only having to break out the Blu-ray to see the whole movie and hear the ghostly action.
The Video is 1.33:1 anamorphic. They’ve done a great job of restoring the black and white film. This is the English version with the Scrooge title card. You’ll feel the Victorian Christmas time. Audio is LPCM 2.0 Mono. There’s also an LPCM 5.1 Surround Sound mix. The audio is clean enough to hear the wind blowing around the cold London streets. The subtitles are in English and Spanish.
DVD contains the movie and two following bonus features.
Campbell Playhouse: A Christmas Carol (59:18) is the radio drama version. This is produced, introduced and narrated by Orson Welles (Citizen Kane). Lionel Barrymore plays Scrooge. Barrymore playing Scrooge had been a yearly event for five years. Gather the family by the TV for a listen.
Biographic Essay by Fred Guida (15:07) is about books about the Sim’s version about the movie and Charles Dickens.
Introduction by Leonard Maltin (5:02) has him thrilled to introduce one of his favorite films. He points out the actors who are linked to The Avengers (TV series), Dr. Strangelove and Bride of Frankenstein.
Audio Commentary by Marcus Hearn and George Cole has them share background on the cast, crew and production. George Cole starred in the film as the Young Scrooge. He has plenty of tales about his career. His Cockney accent was overcome by Sim and his wife. He and Alastair Sim would reunite in The Belles of St Trinian’s. Cole passed away in 2015.
Darker Side of a Classic (26:31) has Sir Christopher Frayling, a British Film Culturist give the background on the movie. He believes Brian Desmond Hurst doesn’t get the notice he deserves as a great British director. The invention of the Victorian Christmas including the Christmas card happened as A Christmas Carol came out. He gets into how the story gets its darker edge removed over the years from the Dickens’ story. This version is much more bleak.
Life and Films of Brian Desmond Hurst (41:14) has biographer Allan Esler Smith guide us through the director’s life and career. His father was a welder in shipyards. His family worked on The Titanic. He joined the military and barely survived the battle of Gallipoli. His life intersected with two major movies. After getting out of the army, he split to Canada and went to art school. He got into set design and appeared in a John Ford movie with John Wayne. He eventually worked himself into the director’s chair.
Distributing A Christmas Carol (9:47) has Richard Gordan discuss his time at Renown Pictures for the U.S. distribution. He gets into how they made the definitive A Christmas Carol. Gordan arranged U.S. financing for the film. We learn how they swapped the title for America. The film wasn’t initially a hit in America because it was viewed as too dark to be family entertainment.
Too Good to be Shown At Christmas (32:26) goes into how this was part of the burst of Dickens movies made around this time. It started with David Lean’s Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. The Lean movies got into the darkness found in Dickens’ books. We also learn about other nation’s version of A Christmas Carol. Variety hated this film when it originally came out.
Scrooge – Silent (10:17) is from 1922 version. They do a couple visual tricks for the various ghost visitors.
Bleak House – Silent (10:14) is also 1922 film of the Dicken’s novel.
Original British Theatrical Trailer (1:43) has the film being titled Scrooge.
American Trailer (1:42) promised a new warmth and glory to the screen. It’s titled A Christmas Carol here.
Scrooge Revisited (2:29) takes us to the exterior locations still standing in London. This includes the Cathedral and a side street on Pickford’s Wharf.
VCI Entertainment presents A Christmas Carol. Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst. Screenplay by Noel Langley. Starring Alastair Sim, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Michael Hordern & George Cole. Running Time: 87 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: November 12, 2024.
While I don’t have a digitized picture of my grandfather during the holidays; here’s a photo of my grandfather with Pope John Paul II during the Papal visit to Boston. My grandfather is the guy with glasses in the brown coat holding the Instamatic camera on the left of the Pope’s hat and right next to the motorcycle cop. How this photo happened is considered a Christmas miracle in my family.
