“God Bless Us, Everyone!”

A wealthy, miserly old man who hates the world and everything in it tries desperately to wreak his own bitterness on everyone around him.

Although there is certainly a like-minded miser sitting in the White House, counting his money and thinking up new ways to make people miserable, I’m not describing the 45th president of the United States.

Rather, I’m synopsizing the fictional character Ebenezer Scrooge, of Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol,” aka “A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas."

1935

Published in 1843, it's the perfect tale of redemption, in which an angry misanthrope sees the error of his ways by viewing what he was, what he is, and what he can be by the intervention of the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future.

So rich is the story that the earliest moviemakers considered it ideal fodder for film. Indeed, it was told in the earliest days of motion pictures, starting in 1901. By 1928, when movies were still silent, it had already been adapted seven times. One version was less than five minutes long; another is lost forever, its original print having disintegrated long ago.

1938

The first sound adaptation was made in England in 1935. This “Scrooge” starred Seymour Howard, a venerated British actor who had played Ebenezer in various stage productions over the years. What's interesting is that he also played the role in one of those seven silents, in 1913. The rather creaky 1935 version is the only one in which most of the ghosts don't appear on screen, which is a notion that takes some getting used to. Modern audiences have come to expect a vivid representation of the three spirits’ visitations.

The second attempt at the story was in 1938. This truncated version (it's only 69 minutes!) removes some pivotal scenes and characters, so while it captures the mood of Dickensian times via the MGM back lot, it misses the mark due to the script's abbreviations. Still, it has a keen atmosphere of wintertime London, and there's nothing quite like scenes of snowfall in a black-and-white movie. Character actor Reginald Owen's juicy, and rather sprightly, performance as the crotchety Ebenezer also makes it worth viewing.

1951

It took 13 more years before a third film version was made from this venerable story – and, in my opinion, that version is the best. In 1951, the witty British actor Alistair Sim captured the very essence of Ebenezer Scrooge. The film is regarded as the definitive version because it not only nails the spirit of the story, telling the tale with a combination of humor and genuine scares, but also vividly recreates its period. And in addition to Sim, there are memorable characterizations all around him, especially Glyn Dearman, who breaks your heart as Tiny Tim.

In between the second and third film versions, Dickens' story was adapted for television as early as 1947. In fact, there were eight TV versions throughout the late 1940s and early '50s, often as part of the anthology programs popular in TV's early days. In 1954, film actor Frederic March portrayed Scrooge in a musical adaptation, with Basil Rathbone (cinema's Sherlock Holmes) portraying the ghost of Jacob Marley. Two years later, the story was again set to music, as “The Stingiest Man in Town” – this time with Rathbone playing Scrooge. Two years after that, Rathbone reprised his role as Scrooge, and March stepped in to narrate. (My guess is they were a couple of hams taking turns at this chestnut of a role.)

1970

In 1970 came the big-budget, big-screen studio musical “Scrooge,” with a young Albert Finney gamely aging himself in the title role. He's a colorful Ebenezer, the sets and costumes are marvelous, the music is lively, and some top-flight British actors are featured – including Alec Guinness as a fey, yet rather frightening, Marley's ghost.

A slew of animated adaptations from the early '60s through the early ‘80s featured such familiar cartoon characters as Mr. Magoo, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and the Flintstones. Then, in 1984, a highly-regarded movie-of-the-week TV version debuted, starring the legendary George C. Scott. He commanded the small screen in this meticulously detailed, beautifully photographed, and highly faithful version. Catch it if you can – but I still say the 1951 version is the best!

1984

Following the Scott version, this revered tale was comically modernized with Bill Murray in 1988’s “Scrooged,” tailored to Jim Henson's characters in 1992’s “A Muppet Christmas Carol” (with Michael Caine as Scrooge), done as a TV production again with Patrick Stewart in 1999, musicalized for TV with Kelsey Grammar in 2004, and adapted yet again in 2009 with Jim Carrey, via awkward motion-capture technology. (A number of lesser TV updates, and a Smurfs twist, didn't add much to the "Carol" canon.)

Just this year, “The Man Who Invented Christmas” was released in time for the holidays, a new take that tells the story of how Dickens published the book that started it all. None less than the legendary Christopher Plummer portrays old Ebenezer in this last go-around.

Why has “A Christmas Carol” been so popular for audiences to watch, and for filmmakers to adapt, over and over throughout the decades? To me, the reason is simple: It’s a timeless, relatable story about our ability to change for the better and to revive our faith in our fellow man, in a higher power, and the belief in our own value. In these troubled, troubling times, that's a good message to be reminded of – at any time of the year.

A Tiny Memory

Actor Terry Kilburn, who at age 12 played Tiny Tim in the 1938 film version, recalled:

“I’ll always remember going onto the set at the MGM lot the first day… the snow was coming down – they were actually Kellogg’s cornflakes, bleached or something, but it was so beautiful. Oh, you can imagine that for a kid who loved acting and being in fantasy, it was extraordinary.” 

Read an enjoyable interview with the now-91-year-old thespian here.