A Christmas Carol (1938)
Retro Review #11: The first film adaptation of A Christmas Carol to be visited by the Spirit of Dickens’ Past.
A Christmas Carol (1938)
+ Feature film, bw, 1h 9m
+ Based on literature (novella) A Christmas Carol. (1843)❗🔙🔜⭐ by Charles Dickens⭐
A+v
Grade: A+v (20.0) / HOF: 60
EQ 👍? | 📖? 👥? 📽️? 🎼? (Coming soon upon re-review)
DW 😎🕶️🚫?.? | 🌚? 🌝? (Coming soon upon re-review)
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R 💻⬆️⬇️? 👀⬆️⬇️? 🛐⬆️⬇️? (Coming soon upon re-review)
What a delight! They got it right!
No, it wasn’t perfect. They removed a few good scenes from the novella. They changed some details. They added some new material. It definitely wasn’t the most faithful so far to the content and dialogue—that would still be the 1935 Scrooge I viewed earlier today.
Mind you, they used some parts of the novella I have yet to see in any other adaptation. And they certainly included much of the best dialogue from the original story.
But you can guess where I’m going with this. They found the twinkle! This film came quite close to capturing the tongue-in-cheek, twinkle-in-the-eye feeling you sense from Dickens when reading his narrative for the first time.
Due to the inherent differences between prose and film, they couldn’t add the twinkle with the same sparkling narrative used by Dickens. They had to find other ways, and find them they did!
They added clever little humorous vignettes to scenes that enhanced without contradicting the spirit of scene present. They had bright elaborate sets and well-costumed extras that made 1843 London seem more fun than the dreary place it’s often portrayed as, even though the poverty was still there to see.
Best of all were the characters and performances. Reginald Owen had the twinkle even when he was grumpy Scrooge. (Bad Scrooge liked being that way, almost as much as Good Scrooge enjoyed his reformed self!)
Barry MacKay had the twinkle as nephew Fred.
And in a twist from the novella, Ann Rutherford gave a twinkling performance as a reimagined Ghost of Christmas Past.
Really, all the characters and performances were very good, so I have to credit screenplay adapter Hugo Butler and director Edwin L. Marin for their great work in bringing the twinkle of A Christmas Carol. into movie theaters of the past, into my home at present, and perhaps into your home in the future!
Onwards!
+ viewed 2024-12-03, HDX7, 1.37, 1D
+ ⏳👻🎈⛄🎄🎅🦄🧙😥
+ ✅❌? Approved (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ 😡? 😵💫+? 🤬+? 🤭+? 🫣+? (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ 👀 (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ ✝️ (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ ✡️ (Coming soon upon re-review)
+ 🗽 (Coming soon upon re-review)
Originally posted to text group 2024-12-04
Last updated 2025-04-04
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Text Group Reaction:
❤️ from J