Filmic Friday 251: A Christmas Carol (1954)

In Which I Discuss A Possibly Forgotten Classic

In 1951, Alastair Sim played Ebeneezer Scrooge in a famous adaptation of the Charles Dickins classic A Christmas Carol. It's still a popular version of the story to this day!

Three years later, CBS put on a variety show called Shower of Stars and made their own version, which I had literally never heard of until we found it on Hulu [Correction: It was actually Amazon Prime Video!], but... I 100% absolutely should have heard of it because it has Basil Freaking Rathbone and music by Bernard Herrman!!!!

Bennie Herrman?!

I love his music so freaking much!

But I'd never, ever heard of this version except perhaps as a footnote on Rathbone's Wikipedia page.

So we started it up and settled in.

I also had no idea it was available on DVD, though I have my doubts about the quality of the transfer...

Btw, that's March as Scrooge with the charity men behind him.

As far as adaptations go, this one's a bit more condensed than I'm used to, but it really works with the flow  - I mean, the thing's only about 53 minutes long without commercials, so it's not going to have the space for every detail. Still, I could've done with about five more minutes of Basil Rathbone as Jacob Marley!

It's got some great effects for ghostly apparitions and Basil is fantastic.

So you've got your basic story: Ebeneezer Scrooge (Frederic March) is a miserable turd who makes everyone around him miserable and is a miserly jerk, so his old partner decides "I'll do my best to keep this twit from hauling chains for eternity" and sets him up with some holiday spirits to smack some sense into him. This goes over as well as you might think, with Scrooge being disbelieving the whole encounter... until he sees evidence that yeah, his dead friend absolutely just hung out with him for a bit.

That is when things start going haywire for him.

See, this adaptation does one of my favorite things: the ghosts are people he knew or knows! Christmas Past arrives first, donning the guise of his lovely once-fiancee, Belle.

Who is charmingly lovely, though I doubt Ebeneezer ever saw her in such a state of undress in their past.
By Victorian standards, this young lady is naked.

Christmas Past reminds him that he used to love Christmas, but his love of money grew stronger than his love of Man and it cost him everything. His joy was consumed by coins. His heart was locked away by ledgers. His love left him so he could be with what she could see him loving more than her - cold hard cash.

Christmas Present appears next, and... honestly, the actor playing him is 1000% into the role. Ignorance and Want are nowhere to be found, as often happens in these adaptations, but neither is his big beard or his fancy robe! Then again, he kinda reminds me of Mr B Natural... but as a very accomplished (and soused) baritone. His "Very Merry" song will get stuck in your head.

Oh, I didn't mention that this is kind of a musical?

Yeah, there's a bunch of musical numbers, though all of them combined probably take less time than the "Very Merry" song from Christmas Present.

See, Christmas Present is played by Scrooge's nephew, Fred, who comes off as a bit of a doofus, but a lovable one. The actor as the Ghost definitely cranks that affability up to about 93 and goes hard. He drags Scrooge around like a confused child on holiday with a distant uncle and shows him Christmas at the Cratchits' home. Tiny Tim sings a cute song, and this is what breaks through to the miserly man, who begs to know if Tim would survive. Spoilers: Uh... no. No he won't. Not if Scrooge doesn't pay his dad a living wage...

So of course, this is where they really take some liberties, because there's no Ghost of Christmas Future. At all. Present simply... leaves. And Scrooge finds himself in a graveyard that looks nearly identical to the one from that godawful Spirit pilot I watched on the DC App...

He encounters first his grave, then, while panicking, Tiny Tim's. With his heart fully shattered and rebuilt into something more approximating that of a decent human being, albeit one wracked with guilt and shame (so... 100% normal), Ebeneezer wakes up, pulls the "I'M NOT A MONSTER ANYMORE PLEASE LET ME HELP YOU, EVERYONE IN NEED" thing we're all used to from the end of every Christmas Carol adaptation, and goes to visit the Cratchits for Christmas Dinner.

This is a wonderful adaptation, and the scoring from Herrman really takes it over the top. You'd expect far less from a television adaptation on a variety show, but it's quite lovely, and I would love to see it again.

Even if that "Very Merry" song drives me freakin nuts lol.

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Filmic Friday 248: Night And The City (1950)

In Which Noir is En Vogue

Fun Fact: The director, Jules Dassin, is also the man who created Rififi,
one of the most beloved Noir films of all time.

I'm a huge nerd. You may have noticed this about me. I am a huge silly nerd who loves huge silly things like movies and comics and books and wrestling. So of course I'm going to love a movie based on a book about a guy getting involved in wrestling.

The story of Night and the City follows the life of Harry Fabian, an American living in London. He has big dreams but he's also never met a get-rich-quick scheme he didn't fall for, and that's dangerous in the seedy underbelly of London's nightlife. Working as a club tout (basically a con man who drums up business for a particular club, in his case, the American club his girlfriend sings at), Harry dreams of being somebody in the world.

Preferably somebody who doesn't have to live life on the run.

Harry's girlfriend, Mary, is an honest, hardworking woman who has dreams of her own but has put them all on hold waiting for Harry to get himself together. She genuinely wants him to be happy, but where he sees untold riches in a suspiciously low-priced share of a greyhound track, she sees the truth - he's been taken for a ride yet again.

And Harry knows it. He knows she's the brains of the outfit and he can't stand it.
He feels like an utter disappointment. He just wants to be the one who holds her up,
not the other way around.

Meanwhile, Mary has become friends with the attractive artist next door, Adam. Adam lends Mary money when Harry drains her dry, but he genuinely seems to want Harry to succeed, too. Adam should know what it's like to be a creative mind that's been stifled - he's a working artist waiting for his big break, and that's an especially difficult thing for a sculptor. Paintings are easy to sell to people - they're portable and they don't shatter into a million pieces when dropped. A sculpture is a genuine luxury, fragile and expensive. Still, Adam is doing well enough for himself that he can help his friends and he can afford to burn dinner.

"Harry's an artist who hasn't yet found his art. That's bound to frustrate a man."

The club where both Mary and Harry work is owned by Mr. Nosseross (whose name is so much fun to say) and his shrewd and disloyal wife Helen, who is also Harry's ex. They are fairly dismissive towards Harry's dreams and schemes, mostly because they've heard it all before, but also because Mr. Nosseross senses something is not quite on the up-and-up between Helen and Harry.

And when you see Nosseross, you'll suddenly know what Maury Chaykin
was going for in his portrayal of Nero Wolfe in 2001/2002 on A&E.

One day, while touting for Nosseross's club, Harry comes into contact with Gregorious, a retired Greco-Roman Style Professional Wrestler, who is hurling insults at the in-ring antics of the most famous Pro Wrestler in London, the Strangler. What awes me is that Gregorious is being played by one of the all-time greats in professional wrestling: Stanislas Zbyszko! Now, if Zbyszko sounds familiar and you're in your 30s or older, you probably remember Larry Zbyszko, who was this man's pretend son. Stanislas is a magnificent actor in this movie, and you can absolutely buy that he's a strong man who's lead a hard life and is disappointed that his son, Mr. Kristo, is a slick promoter who will not give his other son, Nikolas, a shot in his promotion.

Everything Zbyszko does is believable in this film, and he very nearly made me cry at times.
Also, it's hard to believe it, but apparently he really loved experimental cinema and would often
go to movies with Jules Dassin, the director. He also formed a close relationship with Widmark,
the star (Harry!), which makes me unbelievably happy! What a cast!

Helen sneakily helps Harry secure funding to create Fabian Promotions, where he plans to run a show with Gregorious' son Nikolas, but since part of his funding is with Nosseross, who is very unhappy with his wife running around with his tout, he has to go and secure the services of the Strangler. All of this serves to infuriate Mr. Kristo, and I'm leaving quite a lot of the story out because you have to watch this movie!

But Nosseross and Kristo won't be the only ones furious with Harry by the end of this...

Something horrible ends up happening which seals Harry's fate. In the span of an afternoon, Harry goes from having it all to being on the run.

Because Kristo ends up putting a £1000 bounty on his head.

The last act follows Harry in a much more frightening version of his introduction. We meet Harry running through London, and Harry ends up running for his life through London at the end of the film. All of Harry's one-time friends in the London Underbelly see him as a payday, now. There's nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.

My god, the ending is bleak and heartbreaking (especially if you watch the American version). You know how it will end pretty quickly, but you don't want it to. You don't want things to go the way they do, but, as is true with most Noir films, the end is an inevitability.

If you are looking for a good movie that isn't spoiled by sappy sentimentality, then absolutely pick up Night and the City. Heck, if you just want a taste of what 1950s Pro Wrestling may have been like, check it out! If I remember correctly, the actor playing The Strangler was also a Pro before he went to acting! We watched the Criterion Collection release, and I strongly suggest getting hold of that one for a wonderful viewing experience. It was in our local library system, so if you're on a budget, fret not, and check your library!

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