Monday, December 5, 2016

Dec 4 - The Christmas Carol (1949)


Vincent Price is a quasi-narrator for this television adaptation that bounces between actors and Price reading to the audience from the novel between each stave. It really isn't that great. The best quality is that it's only a half hour since it was made for TV.

Remember that last post when I talked about scenes having breathing room and characters feeling like humans? Yeah, that's all gone. The forgettable actors recite the lines quickly without any emotion and weight behind the words. Humor falls flat, Scrooge speaks in an annoying tremulous manner to everyone, whether he's being curt, frightened or giddy. The whole thing feels like a high school assignment from the apathetic group of students who have, technically, successfully slapped together a quick movie and can get their A for participation.

This one goes straight to the bottom. The short silent films, while not terrifically entertaining, are historically fascinating and easy to recommend watching once. This one is thoroughly skippable.

  1. A Christmas Carol (1938)
  2. Scrooge (1935)
  3. A Christmas Carol (1910)
  4. Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost (1901)
  5. The Christmas Carol (1949)

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