Film Reviews Christmas Edition: A Christmas Carol 1938

“If they are going to die then they should go ahead and do it and decrease the surplus population!”



I am starting the month of my Christmas film reviews with the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol. I know mostly everyone knows the story and the many film adaptations spanning from 1901-2009 are all more or less the same, but I just love A Christmas Carol in all its forms I have seen thus far. This one is my favorite out of the ones I have seen, however my roommate informs me that the 1951 version is the best, which I have not seen.

For those of you who know the story, you can skip down to the review of the film, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the story; I will give a brief summary. Unless you would like to read my summary, feel free to do so.

Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol December 17^th, 1843 and is widely regarded as one of his best works, personally my favorite.

The story follows Ebenezer Scrooge who is a miser that has lost all the meaning of life. He is relatively the wealthiest man in the area but never spends a dime. His perspectives are out of whack and his life circumstances turned him bitter, rude, and mean. One could say it is mostly the fault of his father. To save soul, the ghost of his long dead business partner Marley, visits him to tell him that he will be having an out of body experience during the night (Christmas Eve) via the visitation of three spirits. The first spirit, of Christmas Past, is an angel who comes at the stroke of 1 AM, the ghost of Christmas Present is essentially Santa Claus who comes at the stroke of 2 AM and embodies the spirit of Christmas. The last ghost is of course the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come who is the Grim Reaper. He comes either at the stroke of 3 AM or when he decides to.

This may be the first time that the representation of death also symbolizes the death of an old life and the birth of a new one. Since then, Death has been seen in other mediums as helping to give people who need a wakeup call, a bit of perspective. This can be clearly seen most popularly in the movie Click and in an episode of Family Guy.

So, what makes the 1938 version different from the rest? Obviously not much. However, there are a few noticeable differences. One key difference is that the Ghost of Christmas Past does not show Scrooge his old love that did not come to marriage because of starting of his miserly ways, which back fires sending him into more bitter resentment for the world at large and caused him to be more reclusive. Another difference in this adaptation is that Cratchit is fired for accidentally\throwing a snowball at Scrooge, which I have not seen in any other version yet.

The movie is quite creative in keeping the realism and magic in the film. The affects are top notch for the day and some of the cinematography is ground breaking. The message of the story is easily understood. Though many of the lines deviate from the original dialogue, much of it is kept in. Furthermore, the only movie\version that is verbatim (line for line from the original story dialogue wise) is the most recent Disney Version by Robert Zemeckis starring Jim Carey.

I really love this version (1938); a big reason is that it is the oldest version that is over an hour and quite entertaining. In addition, it is the closest version to being a hundred year anniversary since the story came out. I do enjoy old movies and this is by far ones of the oldest favorites of mine.

Interesting fact: The first time I saw this version was on TCM years ago, TCM loves to do introductions for their movies. In the introduction for this one, we find out that Reginald Owen was not the first pick for the lead role. In fact, it was intended to star Lionel Barrymore who for years had played Scrooge in several radio broadcasts. However, by the time the movie was in production, Barrymore was confined to a wheelchair. He did however get to host the trailer for the movie. Reginald Owen does do a fantastic job and does the character of Scrooge justice. Also, in my opinion, Peter Boyle is a dead ringer for Reginald Owen and ironically, Boyle has a small role in a different Christmas movie, The Santa Clause. Six degrees of separation works for everything I guess.

I rate this movie 5 out of 5 stars. It is classy, it is pretty, it is fun, entertaining, comedic, dramatic, and of course heartwarming. This rating sticks whether we are talking A Christmas Carol adaptations, Christmas movies in general, or film in general. No matter how I look at it, this film gets 5 for 5.