...I feel compelled to acknowledge the day...which is actually tomorrow. Christmas is upon me and I am to endure it not only alone, but asleep until it's time to get up for work. Yes. I must work on Christmas once again. My lovely wife is back in Illinois for the holy holidays, and as a part-timer, I believe I could have bowed out of work to be with her and the family, too. Yet, it seemed a bad time to put the company in a position of not finding someone to take my place, because who the hell would want to on Christmas? So in the spirit of the season, I made no such fuss. With any luck, and that might have gone out the window with so many assholes of the GOP voting to pass this gargantuan $1.7 trillion dollar spend-athon, I hope to be fully retired this time next year. I hope. I hope. It's not my greatest hope in life, but right now, it ranks very high on the list. I would likely be retired already if not for the many shit-for-brain Trump-haters who rejected him in the 2020 election. But such is life, somehow, and here I am.
But despite not even having my favorite version of "A Christmas Carol In Prose, Being A Ghost Story of Christmas" (1951's "Scrooge" w/Alastair Sim in the title role...also released as "A Christmas Carol") to watch, I'm not totally humbugged by my situation. It's still Christmas, after all. The tree's up and lit wonderfully, I've a glass of wine with my Christmas Eve frozen dinner and Bob the cat and I may still go a caroling.
Merry Christmas. God bless us everyone.
4 comments:
Watched the 1938 version with Reginald Owen as Scrooge, and Timmy Martin's mother and her parents as three of the Cratchits. It was the go-to version for years after its release, but it really kinda sucks, especially when compared to the 1951 version to which I referred in my post. The problem is it's just a too truncated version and it strays a bit here and there from the original story. But, it's all which has been provided thus far this season. I'll have to get my own copy of the 1951 version. It'll always be my favorite.
The 1951 version is my favorite. We bought a 2-disc DVD years ago; one is the original B&W version, the other disc has the colorized version and the 1938 (I was thinking it was 1935--I'd have to go look). We didn't like either one on that 2nd disc but we kept it.
Another good one, not as good as 1951, is the one with George C. Scott as Scrooge.
The Muppet one is pretty good but changes too much at the end. Michael Caine does an excellent Scrooge.
My favorite, besides the book, is Scrooged. For what it's worth. I agree with Glenn that Caine is a great Scrooge. Hate George C. Scott's version.
While it's clearly based on the Dickens story, "Scrooged" is not the Dickens story...just a comical facsimile...which is fine. Just can't be part of the list of adaptions. Even the Disney cartoon with Scrooge McDuck and the Mister Magoo rendering are serious attempts to adapt the story.
The Muppet version, likewise, aside from putting in Muppet humor throughout, still seeks to tell the story as written. I just watched a review of this adaption the other day by the Critical Drinker on YouTube (my new go-to movie reviewer). He says Caine insisted on playing the role as if he was surrounded by human actors, rather than puppets, taking the role very seriously. The Drinker puts his work as among his very best and given Caine has been in something like, 4 billion films, that's saying something. I haven't seen it in years and will have to see if it's OnDemand or on Netflix or something.
It's been years since I've seen the Scott version, so I can't speak to it. They did one a few years ago with Patrick Stewart and though I wasn't enamored of him in the role, they did add details from the book not often seen in other adaptions, so as a Dickens fan, I liked that aspect of the film.
There's been so many versions of this story. I saw two professional stage presentations in recent years...one in downtown Chicago which was superb, and another in a smaller venue in Arlington Hts, IL which was also really good. The latter was in the next town from where I lived for so long.
Oh...and by the way...I do really like the Bill Murray film. I just don't count it as a true adaption, but merely a loose one which is entertaining in its own right.
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