A Christmas Carol (1938 film)
Encyclopedia
A Christmas Carol is a 1938 American film adaptation of Charles Dickens
's novelette
.
, and originally intended to star Lionel Barrymore
, who played the role of Scrooge annually on radio, but was forced to drop out of the film because of his arthritis, the movie starred Reginald Owen
as Scrooge and Gene
and Kathleen Lockhart
as the Cratchits. Terry Kilburn
, better known for his portrayal of Colley in Goodbye, Mr. Chips
, costarred as Tiny Tim
and a young June Lockhart
appeared as one of the Cratchit daughters. Leo G. Carroll
played Marley's Ghost. The characters of Fred (Scrooge's nephew), and Elizabeth, his fianceé (his wife in the novelette), were greatly expanded in order to work in a romantic angle to the story that Dickens did not intend. The couple was played by Barry MacKay
and Lynne Carver
. Ann Rutherford
, better known as Polly Benedict in the Andy Hardy
films and as Carreen O'Hara in Gone with the Wind
, was a young and attractive Ghost of Christmas Past
, rather than the somewhat unusual creation that Dickens described. The music for the film was composed by Franz Waxman
, in contrast to most MGM films of the period, whose scores were composed by Herbert Stothart
.
Some of the grimmer aspects of the story went completely unmentioned or unseen, in order to make this a "family film" in the style of other MGM literary adaptations. Although Marley's Ghost did appear, the phantoms wailing outside Scrooge's window were not shown. Scrooge's fiancee, who eventually leaves him because of his miserly ways, was completely dropped from the film, as were the two starving children "Want" and "Ignorance", who hid within the folds of the Ghost of Christmas Present's robe. Also gone were the thieves who ransack Scrooge's belongings after he "dies" in the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come segment. While Gene Lockhart's performance as Bob Cratchit is admired, he is often criticized for looking too "well-fed" for the role.
Originally intended as a 1939 release, A Christmas Carol was immediately rushed into production in October 1938 and was finished in a matter of weeks. It opened in December 1938 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall
where it did moderately well. In England, it failed dismally at the box office.
One of very many adaptations of the work, this version was frequently revived in theatres by MGM, was shown on local television stations throughout the 1960s, and was once a staple of Chicago's WGN
television station. The film also became a Christmas Eve tradition when it was telecast annually on WCBS-TV Channel 2 as part of their Late Late Show installment beginning in the early 1960s. On some Christmas Eves, Channel 2 sometimes aired it as many as three consecutive times throughout the night into Christmas morning. By the early 1970s, WCBS-TV had acquired the 1951 film
version and at that time ran both versions back to back. The M-G-M film was last shown on WCBS-TV in 1979, then in 1980, this version would move to WNEW-TV
, while the 1951 version had already moved back to WOR-TV
(which first telecast it in the U.S.) in 1975. Still, for years the 1938 movie remained the most famous film version of the story in the United States, and the most lavish until the 1970 musical version, though it clocked in at only 69 minutes. But its popularity was eventually eclipsed by Scrooge
, the 1951 film, after that version began to receive wide television exposure starting in 1970. There are also those who have found Reginald Owen's portrayal of Scrooge to be rather lacking, especially in comparison to later ones.
and Turner Entertainment
released A Christmas Carol on VHS
celebrating its 50th anniversary, for the first time in a colorized version
. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter
in 1988 promoting the film's release on home video, actress June Lockhart admitted that, despite the film being made by M-G-M, it was "a 'B' picture". The colorized version was released once again on VHS by Warner Home Video
in 2000. On November 8, 2005, this version was released on DVD
in a "Classic Holiday Collection" box set including Boys Town and Christmas in Connecticut
, two other M-G-M titles with a holiday/family theme; it was also released as an individual title. Since the first DVD release, it has seen multiple releases in various Christmas movie collection box sets.
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's novelette
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
.
Cast
- Reginald OwenReginald OwenJohn Reginald Owen was a British character actor. He was known for his many roles in British and American movies and later in television programs.-Personal:...
as Ebenezer Scrooge - Gene LockhartGene LockhartEugene "Gene" Lockhart was a Canadian character actor, singer, and playwright. He also wrote the lyrics to a number of popular songs.-Early life:...
as Bob Cratchit - Kathleen LockhartKathleen LockhartKathleen Lockhart was an English-born stage actress.She was born Kathleen Arthur in Southsea, Hampshire in England. An actress and musician, Kathleen got her start on the stage in England and then immigrated to the United States in 1924, upon her marriage to Canadian-born actor Gene Lockhart...
as Mrs. Cratchit - Terry KilburnTerry KilburnTerry Kilburn is an English-American former child actor. He is sometimes credited as Terence Kilburn or Terrance Kilburn.Kilburn was born in London in 1926...
as Tiny Tim - Barry MacKayBarry MacKay (actor)Barry MacKay was a British actor.He was most prominently seen in light comedic roles in the British cinema of the 1930s and is perhaps best known as Jessie Matthews' leading man in Evergreen , Gangway and Sailing Along .Other notable roles include Lieutenant Somerville in Brown on Resolution and...
as Fred - Lynne CarverLynne CarverLynne Carver was an American film actress. She appeared in 42 films between 1934 and 1953.Actress Lynne Carver was born Virginia Reid Sampson on September 13, 1916, in Douglas, Arizona...
as Bess - Leo G. CarrollLeo G. CarrollLeo Gratten Carroll was an English-born actor. He was best known for his roles in several Hitchcock films and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Topper.-Early life:...
as Marley's Ghost - Lionel Braham as Spirit of Christmas Present
- Ann RutherfordAnn RutherfordAnn Rutherford is a Canadian-American actress in film, radio, and television. She has had a long career starring and co-starring in films, playing Polly Benedict on the big screen of the 1930s and 1940s in the Andy Hardy series, and on The Bob Newhart Show as Newhart's character's...
as Spirit of Christmas Past - D'Arcy CorriganD'Arcy CorriganD'Arcy Corrigan was an Irish-born lawyer who became a character actor, playing some 49 film roles, typically very brief but impressive, such as his ominously silent, darkly shrouded Ghost of Christmas Future in the popular 1938 version of the film A Christmas Carol...
as Spirit of Christmas Future - Ronald Sinclair as Young Scrooge
Production
Made by MGMMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, and originally intended to star Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
, who played the role of Scrooge annually on radio, but was forced to drop out of the film because of his arthritis, the movie starred Reginald Owen
Reginald Owen
John Reginald Owen was a British character actor. He was known for his many roles in British and American movies and later in television programs.-Personal:...
as Scrooge and Gene
Gene Lockhart
Eugene "Gene" Lockhart was a Canadian character actor, singer, and playwright. He also wrote the lyrics to a number of popular songs.-Early life:...
and Kathleen Lockhart
Kathleen Lockhart
Kathleen Lockhart was an English-born stage actress.She was born Kathleen Arthur in Southsea, Hampshire in England. An actress and musician, Kathleen got her start on the stage in England and then immigrated to the United States in 1924, upon her marriage to Canadian-born actor Gene Lockhart...
as the Cratchits. Terry Kilburn
Terry Kilburn
Terry Kilburn is an English-American former child actor. He is sometimes credited as Terence Kilburn or Terrance Kilburn.Kilburn was born in London in 1926...
, better known for his portrayal of Colley in Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...
, costarred as Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim (A Christmas Carol)
Timothy Cratchit, called "Tiny Tim", is a fictional character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. He is a minor character, the young son of Bob Cratchit, and is seen only briefly, but serves as an important symbol of the consequences of the protagonist's choices...
and a young June Lockhart
June Lockhart
June Lockhart is an American actress, primarily in 1950s and 1960s television, but with memorable performances on stage and in film too. She is remembered as the mother in two TV series, Lassie and Lost in Space. She also portrayed Dr...
appeared as one of the Cratchit daughters. Leo G. Carroll
Leo G. Carroll
Leo Gratten Carroll was an English-born actor. He was best known for his roles in several Hitchcock films and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Topper.-Early life:...
played Marley's Ghost. The characters of Fred (Scrooge's nephew), and Elizabeth, his fianceé (his wife in the novelette), were greatly expanded in order to work in a romantic angle to the story that Dickens did not intend. The couple was played by Barry MacKay
Barry MacKay (actor)
Barry MacKay was a British actor.He was most prominently seen in light comedic roles in the British cinema of the 1930s and is perhaps best known as Jessie Matthews' leading man in Evergreen , Gangway and Sailing Along .Other notable roles include Lieutenant Somerville in Brown on Resolution and...
and Lynne Carver
Lynne Carver
Lynne Carver was an American film actress. She appeared in 42 films between 1934 and 1953.Actress Lynne Carver was born Virginia Reid Sampson on September 13, 1916, in Douglas, Arizona...
. Ann Rutherford
Ann Rutherford
Ann Rutherford is a Canadian-American actress in film, radio, and television. She has had a long career starring and co-starring in films, playing Polly Benedict on the big screen of the 1930s and 1940s in the Andy Hardy series, and on The Bob Newhart Show as Newhart's character's...
, better known as Polly Benedict in the Andy Hardy
Andy Hardy
Andy Hardy was a fictional character played by Mickey Rooney in an MGM film series from 1937 to 1958. Spanning over 20 years, the 16 movies were based on characters in the play Skidding by Aurania Rouverol....
films and as Carreen O'Hara in Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
, was a young and attractive Ghost of Christmas Past
Ghost of Christmas Past
The Ghost of Christmas Past is a character in the well-known work of the English novelist Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol.The Ghost of Christmas Past was the first of the three spirits that haunted the miser. Ebenezer Scrooge in order to prompt him to repent...
, rather than the somewhat unusual creation that Dickens described. The music for the film was composed by Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman was a German-American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films....
, in contrast to most MGM films of the period, whose scores were composed by Herbert Stothart
Herbert Stothart
Herbert Stothart was a song writer, arranger, conductor, and composer. He was also nominated for nine Oscars, winning Best Original Score for The Wizard of Oz.-Biography:...
.
Some of the grimmer aspects of the story went completely unmentioned or unseen, in order to make this a "family film" in the style of other MGM literary adaptations. Although Marley's Ghost did appear, the phantoms wailing outside Scrooge's window were not shown. Scrooge's fiancee, who eventually leaves him because of his miserly ways, was completely dropped from the film, as were the two starving children "Want" and "Ignorance", who hid within the folds of the Ghost of Christmas Present's robe. Also gone were the thieves who ransack Scrooge's belongings after he "dies" in the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come segment. While Gene Lockhart's performance as Bob Cratchit is admired, he is often criticized for looking too "well-fed" for the role.
Originally intended as a 1939 release, A Christmas Carol was immediately rushed into production in October 1938 and was finished in a matter of weeks. It opened in December 1938 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
where it did moderately well. In England, it failed dismally at the box office.
One of very many adaptations of the work, this version was frequently revived in theatres by MGM, was shown on local television stations throughout the 1960s, and was once a staple of Chicago's WGN
WGN-TV
WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...
television station. The film also became a Christmas Eve tradition when it was telecast annually on WCBS-TV Channel 2 as part of their Late Late Show installment beginning in the early 1960s. On some Christmas Eves, Channel 2 sometimes aired it as many as three consecutive times throughout the night into Christmas morning. By the early 1970s, WCBS-TV had acquired the 1951 film
Scrooge (1951 film)
Scrooge, released as A Christmas Carol in the United States, is a 1951 film adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It starred Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge and was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley.The film also features Kathleen Harrison in an...
version and at that time ran both versions back to back. The M-G-M film was last shown on WCBS-TV in 1979, then in 1980, this version would move to WNEW-TV
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
, while the 1951 version had already moved back to WOR-TV
WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey and serving the Tri-State metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network flagship...
(which first telecast it in the U.S.) in 1975. Still, for years the 1938 movie remained the most famous film version of the story in the United States, and the most lavish until the 1970 musical version, though it clocked in at only 69 minutes. But its popularity was eventually eclipsed by Scrooge
Scrooge (1951 film)
Scrooge, released as A Christmas Carol in the United States, is a 1951 film adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It starred Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge and was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley.The film also features Kathleen Harrison in an...
, the 1951 film, after that version began to receive wide television exposure starting in 1970. There are also those who have found Reginald Owen's portrayal of Scrooge to be rather lacking, especially in comparison to later ones.
Home video releases
In 1988, MGM/UA Home VideoMGM Home Entertainment
MGM Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD arm of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-History:The home video division of MGM started in 1979 as MGM Home Video, releasing all the movies and TV shows by MGM. In 1980, MGM joined forces with CBS Video Enterprises, the home video division of the CBS television...
and Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. (commonly known as Turner Entertainment Co.) is an American...
released A Christmas Carol on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
celebrating its 50th anniversary, for the first time in a colorized version
Colorization
Colorization or colourisation may refer to:*Film colorization - a process that adds color to black and white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images...
. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
in 1988 promoting the film's release on home video, actress June Lockhart admitted that, despite the film being made by M-G-M, it was "a 'B' picture". The colorized version was released once again on VHS by Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
in 2000. On November 8, 2005, this version was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in a "Classic Holiday Collection" box set including Boys Town and Christmas in Connecticut
Christmas in Connecticut
Christmas in Connecticut is a 1945 American Christmas film and romantic comedy directed by Peter Godfrey, and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, and Sydney Greenstreet.-Plot:...
, two other M-G-M titles with a holiday/family theme; it was also released as an individual title. Since the first DVD release, it has seen multiple releases in various Christmas movie collection box sets.
Source
- Guida, Fred "A Christmas Carol" And Its Adaptations (Publisher: McFarland & Company; New Edition, August 2, 2006)