Best movie of this year hands down!

Too much of everything

Good movie but grossly overrated

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 400 Christmas MOVIES.BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. I HAVE NO AGENDA! I AM HONEST!. I am a child of 1970's. I grew up in the Los Angeles area. On Christmas Eve this film came on at 11:00pm on Channel 11. Every year my family would all gather together to watch this classic! Remember you could only watch this ONCE A YEAR and you had to catch it when it aired! . There was no such thing as Home Video or On Demand. Watching this film with my family is my happiest childhood memory. It was better than a trip to Disneyland. This production of "A Christmas Carol" was produced by MGM in its heyday. The film was shot In October and in theaters by December! So this rushed production over the years has been over shadowed by more lavish productions but casting wise this film has no equal. In this film Scrooge is a crusty old business man in old Victoria England. He seems to thrive on making money and not caring about anything else! He has alienated his only living family member and seems to thrive on making his trusted employee Bob Cratchit life a living hell. On Christmas Eve of course he gets visited by not 3 but 4 ghost. Bob Marley (his late former business partner) and the Ghost of Christmas Past Present and Future. The ghost of course come to teach Scrooge about the joy of not only giving but also the joy of living. This I think is the first film that makes the Ghost come in one night. In the book they come on different nights.What also is great about this version is that its never boring! It moves quit quickly and watching this in black and white gives this a the correct tone. It is a delight! I am not lying at when I say my Christmas Season is not complete without watching this! This film plus "Christmas Vacation" are mandatory viewing in my home. Please if you have never seen this version you should. The Jim Carey version borrowed heavily from this adaption. I beg all of you to watch it with your family. There is something so special to me about this film and viewing it with family.

Where is Fezziwigs' party? Scrooge and Belle's break-up? Fen's childbirth? All missing from this fast-paced version of the all too familiar story. Leo G. Carroll does a fine job as Marley's ghost. Some humorous scenes including snowball fights and an ice "slide" in front of the church. Just as Scrooge's past life starts to bog-down, Scrooge makes blonde Ann Rutherford (dressed in a white flowing gown with a golden tiara) disappear! A very short past! Christmas present is a bit better. A church scene with Fred and his fiancé and Bob Cratchit's family replaces the miners singing in the earth quite nicely. A wonderful dinner with Bob and family. The grim reaper future ghost is mute here, not that scary at all. The ending is done quite nicely with everybody (Fred and Scrooge, etc.) all stopping by at Bob's house. Yes, Scrooge gives to the poor, Bob gets a raise, and Fred becomes Scrooge's partner. Of course we all know that Tiny Tim will be alright too! A great cast including 3 Lockharts and Reginald Owen plays a wonderful Scrooge. Only 69 minutes. Very short and sweet and well-worth your time. Others will point out the other "missing scenes" but it all makes for a very pleasant version that won't give the little ones bad dreams.

This a pretty decent, fairly reliable version of Dickens' famous story. Reginald Owen is an above average Scrooge, much more formidable than he is often portrayed. He is lithe and athletic in appearance and quite frightening to those who encounter him. He is lacking depth of character, not being the actor that Alistair Sim is, but still manages to do the job. Sim's Scrooge has a kind of depth, a touch of melancholy, that none of the others, including George C. Scott and Patrick Stewart, had. What I don't care for in this is some plot elements that could have been left alone. Cratchitt getting fired for throwing snowball at Scrooge seemed silly. It eliminated the tender scene at the end where Scrooge waits for the tardy clerk in his office. The scene here where he actually shows up at Bob's house is frantic and silly. Gene Lockhart is a reasonably good Cratchitt, but in most of the renditions he is seen as a bit too well fed and his family a bit too affluent, considering his circumstances. For me, however, the actors playing Tiny Tim and Fred, Scrooge's nephew are so distracting and so giddy, I can hardly stand to watch them. I suppose the screenwriters felt they were better storytellers than Dickens.

A Christmas Carol is directed by Edwin L. Marin and adapted to screenplay by Hugo Butler from the Charles Dickens story of the same name. It stars Reginald Owen, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Terry Kilburn and Barry MacKay. Music is by Franz Waxman and cinematography by Sidney Wagner and John F. Seitz.I wonder just how many times A Christmas Carol has been adapted to theatre, film, television, radio or opera? Well it's a lot as we know, but my point being that it's one of those literary works that needs no introduction or plot synopsis. It's as famous as famous can be. With all the many "film" adaptations to view, there's often discussions about which is the best, which is the most loyal to the source and etc etc, what mostly comes through in such discussions is that it's such a brilliant piece of literary work it would take the work of an idiot to mess up the feel good factor come the story's denouement. Thankfully, in spite of tampering with aspects of the source material, Marin's 38 version is as pleasing as a glass of Xmas punch. There are minor irritants here no doubt about it, Scrooge begins to turn from mean miser to good fellow a bit too early, and traditionalists do balk at the changes in the story such as a sex change for one of the ghosts, Cratchit gets the sack, the haunting grimness is missing with the ghost visitations and again etc etc, yet the essence is right and the key points are rightfully included. Given it's a film that runs just under 70 minutes some scenes are rushed, but it's very well performed by the cast (Owen wonderfully caustic as Scrooge after stepping in when Lionel Barrymore's ill health ruled him out of the production) and the joy that comes with the finale is simply impossible to ignore. Like a lot of other people I'm a lover of the Alastair Sim 1951 version, of which this MGM version is often unfairly compared against. For although the 51 film is definitive in its adaptation, and rightfully sits at the top of many people's lists of filmic productions, Marin's film has much to recommend it to being part of your perennial Xmas viewing schedules. 8/10