Caftan Woman's Choice - One for December on TCM

December is a month filled with endless movie delights, but if only one movie is watched during the month it must be 1951s A Christmas Carol. I hear you. "Really, Caftan Woman? You must know that we all watch A Christmas Carol and who doesn't love the 1951 feature?" True, but Christmas is a time of tradition, not originality. A Christmas Carol has been a Christmas Eve tradition since my girlhood some fifty-odd years ago and this gives me a chance to sing its praises. 

Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge

It starts with the story and Charles Dickens was one of the best story men of all time. His novels delighted audiences in the 19th century and still do in the 21st. Mankind being what we are, we haven't changed that much. The story of Ebenezer Scrooge shown the path to make his and others' lives better by the spirits of the past, present and future is a lesson in faith, hope, charity, redemption and grace that speaks to our core.

Brian Desmond Hurst produced and directed the "potboiler" in the summer of 1951 to cash into the Christmas market, challenging the idea that you have to spend two years in the desert to make a masterpiece. The Irish born Hurst was a veteran of WWI who studied film under John Ford in Hollywood before returning to Europe to create his well-regarded films. Hurst's A Christmas Carol is presented with a sense of authenticity in setting and characterization that sets it apart and above the countless other versions of the story.

Noel Langley adapted the screenplay. His 40-year career on both sides of the Atlantic includes Maytime, Edward, My Son and Shirley Temple's Storybook on television. Some of the changes and nice touches he brought to the story include making Ebenezer the younger brother of Fan and having his mother die in childbirth which makes a symmetrical connection to the story of nephew Fred. Langley added to the business relationship between Scrooge and Marley. Instead of Ebenezer seeing his lost love enjoying the family life he might have shared, Scrooge saw his former fiance a single woman assisting the poor. When Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas Present if the people are real or shadows, the spirit responds "We are the shadows. Did you not cut yourself off from your fellow beings when you lost the love of that gentle creature?" I can't help think that Dickens himself would nod and smile at that line.

Michael Hordern as Jacob Marley's ghost
Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge

The crowning jewel is the casting of Alastair Sim as Scrooge. Sim had been stealing scenes and delighting film and stage audiences for years. They couldn't get enough of his plummy voice, pop eyes and the unique way he had of insinuating himself into a character yet at the same time letting us in on the joy in his work. Michael Hordern (not yet Sir) is truly eerie and heartbreaking as Jacob Marley. Hordern would also play Scrooge in a 1977 TV version of the story. Sim and Hordern would reprise their Scrooge and Marley roles in Richard Williams' stunning 1971 animated version of the story.

One of the most memorable characters is Mrs. Dilber. In the story that is the name used for the laundress, however Langley gave it to the charlady and Kathleen Harrison ran with the role. Ms. Harrison had as long a career as a life, and she lived to be 103, with one of her last television roles in another Dickens adaption when Our Mutual Friend appeared as part of Masterpiece Theatre.

Mervyn Johns is my favourite Bob Cratchit. He plays a sweet, but not cloying soul who is servile to a mean master only because he must. Hermione Baddeley is a perfect match as the loyal Mrs. Cratchit, and it tickles me to think that in over a decade she would be cavorting with Johns daughter Glynis in Sister Suffragette when Mary Poppins hits the screen. Ernest Thesiger (Bride of Frankenstein) is droll as the undertaker and Miles Malleson (The Thief of Bagdad) unforgettable as Old Joe the junk man. The entire film is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Britain's fine character actors. As Old Joe says in the movie, "We're all suitable to our calling."

Glyn Dearman, Alastair Sim, Francis De Wolff
John Charlesworth, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley
Assorted Cratchits champing at the bit for Christmas to begin.

The music for the film is from Richard Addinsell whose popular Warsaw Concerto is from another Hurst film, Dangerous Moonlight. The booming introduction to the movie never fails to produce goosebumps, and the imaginative use of familiar Christmas tunes and of the folk song Barbara Allen as a theme for Fan still brings a tear to my eye. In the Dickens story, he mentions only a "familiar air" in relation to Scrooge's sister and the sweetly melancholy Barbara Allen is a perfect choice.

In his story Dickens mentions Sir Roger de Coverley, a traditional Christmas dance tune and it is featured prominently at Fezziwig's party. Our local classical radio station in Toronto has the tune as part of its' Christmas playlist. I never can hear those fiddles start-up without hearing Alastair Sim, with excitement in his voice, say "Look, there's Old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig - top couple."

We return to the inimitable Mr. Sim whose transformation from "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner" to "as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city knew" is total and touching and real. It is all that is all we can ask for, and more, from any performance of Scrooge and any adaption of A Christmas Carol. 

If your 24th is already booked and hasn't room for this personal and Canadian tradition, TCM is screening 1951s A Christmas Carol for the first time on the network on Monday, December 12th at 8:00 pm.