A Christmas Carol (1951)

My fondness for Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol hearkens back to 4th grade when my class performed A Christmas Carol as a play and I played the role of the Ghost of Christmas Future. I wore my father's blue terrycloth robe which hung loosely on me and I had no lines of dialogue. All I had to do was point as my classmate who played Scrooge had all the dialogue.  Since I was a fan of horror films, playing the part of a ghost was right up my alley. I remember I liked the story so much that I asked my aunt for the book for Christmas.

As much as I love Dickens story, the film and television versions of his tale have never quite satisfied me. I've seen the television version A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1984) with George C. Scott.  Albert Finney starred in a musical version called SCROOGE in 1970.  Cartoon characters Mr. Magoo and Donald Duck have done animated versions and even the Muppets took a stab at it in THE MUPPETS CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992).  Director Richard Donner made a modern take on the story with SCROOGED (1988) starring Bill Murray and Karen Allen. Most recently, director Robert Zemeckis tried to strike gold for a second time with his animated A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2009) with Jim Carrey as Scrooge using the same animation style as his more successful THE POLAR EXPRESS (2004). I don't know if I haven't liked some of these CHRISTMAS CAROL versions because they've been in color or because the actors playing Scrooge haven't won me over.  But I think I just found the version that I like the best.

Most critics and movie goers alike seem to agree that the 1951 A CHRISTMAS CAROL (originally titled SCROOGE), shot in black and white, made in England with an English cast is the most well acclaimed version.  Having just watched it before Christmas, I would agree. What makes this CHRISTMAS CAROL a winner is the performance of Alistair Sim as the pivotal Ebenezer Scrooge. Tall and thin with expressive eyes and wild white hair, Sim is excellent as the Christmas hating miser. His voice, his mannerisms, and his transformation from grumpy, frugal curmudgeon to likable, good-hearted uncle and employer is magnificent.

This A CHRISTMAS CAROL, directed by Brian Desmond-Hurst and adapted by Noel Langley from Charles Dickens 1843 novella, moves at a very fast clip. We are introduced to Ebenezer Scrooge (Alistair Sim) who we very quickly learn is not in the holiday spirit. Scrooge won't extend a loan to a customer. He 'Bah Humbugs' his underpaid employee Bob Cratchit (Mervyn Johns) who wishes him a Merry Christmas. He rebuffs solicitors collecting for the poor and destitute. And Scrooge sends away some kids singing Christmas carols on a street corner near his home.

Scrooge wants nothing to do with Christmas and all its warmth and kindness and family. But as he prepares for bed on Christmas Eve, Scrooge has a terrifying nightmare. He is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley (Michael Hordern). Marley is a wailing, noisy spirit who warns Scrooge that he will be visited by three ghostly apparitions this night. The first to arrive is the Spirit of  Christmas Past (Michael Dolan). He takes Scrooge on a journey to visit his past life. We see Young Ebenezer Scrooge (George Cole) at college, full of life. Scrooge's sister Fan (Carol Marsh) arrives to bring him home for the holidays. Young Scrooge is even in love with a pretty young woman named Alice (Rona Anderson).  But Scrooge's happiness unravels as Fay, while giving birth to a son Fred, dies during childbirth. Scrooge begins working for a man named Fezziwig (Roddy Hughes) as a clerk. Another employer Mr. Jorkin (Jack Warner) later steals Scrooge away from Fezziwig. His co-worker is a young accountant named Jacob Marley (Patrick MacNee from THE AVENGERS television show).

Next, Scrooge is visited by the Spirit of Christmas Present (Francis de Wolff), looking like Henry the VIII in robes, thick beard, and a crown. He shows Scrooge the Cratchit family, gathered together for Christmas, their young lame son Tiny Tim (Glyn Dearman) ailing. Bob Cratchit defends Scrooge even as Mrs. Cratchit (Hermionne Baddeley) vilifies her husband's penny pinching boss. Scrooge and the Spirit of Christmas Present move on to the home of Scrooge's nephew Fred (Brian Worth).  Hosting a Christmas Eve party, Fred also defends his cynical uncle who he had invited to Christmas dinner earlier in the day but was turned down. Scrooge blames Fred for the death of his mother during childbirth and has cut himself off emotionally from his relatives.

The last ghost to visit Scrooge is the terrifying Spirit of Christmas Future, a variation of the grim reaper, hooded and faceless. This spectre reveals that Tiny Tim will die, his crutch alone in the corner of the Cratchit home. Scrooge witnesses his own funeral. The few mourners that attend lament that because Scrooge was so stingy, he had no one to leave his fortune to. "I'm not the man I was," Scrooge says as he awakens on Christmas Day a changed man. He dances and sings with his maid Mrs. Dilber (Kathleen Harrison), scaring the daylights out of her. Scrooge pays a young boy to buy the biggest turkey in the shop for the Cratchit family and pledges to help support Cratchit's children in the future.  Scrooge arrives at  his nephew Fred's home for dinner, becoming a part of his family again. Because of the previous nights events, Scrooge will make a difference in the community and families close to him.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL'S story of Scrooge's redemption is always a powerful tale during the holiday season and this version does it in such an entertaining way. The film shows us Scrooge's nasty side but doesn't overdo it like some versions have and moves quickly into the fantasy section (my favorite part of the story). Interestingly, this film version adds some background to Scrooge's back story that isn't in the Dickens book. Flashbacks showing Scrooge's sister's death and young Scrooge's first meeting with young Marley aren't in the book. The character of Mr. Jorkin is created just for the film. These scenes as well as other in the Christmas Past sequence paint a sympathetic picture of Scrooge and make us care for him a little earlier in the story as we discover how he went from idealistic young man to grumpy, lonely businessman.

Author Charles Dickens lived and wrote in the bleak Victorian Era of the 19th Century and his stories dealt with dark subjects like poverty and social injustice so it's only appropriate that this 1951 version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL (as well as the 1938 version) is shot in black and white. It adds to Scrooge's melancholy mood and the grim times many of the citizens London dealt with. Black and white conveys the two moods of the story.  Black for Scrooge's dark period, his foul mood, and the supernatural journey he takes to discover the joys of not just Christmas but helping mankind.  White as daylight breaks on Christmas morning, a new beginning. Scrooge discovers he's not dead but alive and that he can make a difference in the lives of not just one person (Mrs. Dilber, Tiny Tim) but a community. As much as we love color, Dickens stories belong in black and white.

The key to this A CHRISTMAS CAROL'S success is actor Alistair Sim who plays Scrooge. Sim is not a household name, a famous celebrity. Although Sim would have a successful career as an actor (he worked with Alfred Hitchcock in the 1950 film STAGE FRIGHT), Scrooge would become Sim's signature performance. He would perform as Scrooge a few other times in his career, even provide his voice for Scrooge for a 1971 animated short A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

All the acting in A CHRISTMAS CAROL is uniformly good. The actors all get the story and play their parts, whether large or small, splendidly. Dickens stories always have plenty of characters. In many filmed versions, Bob Cratchit is often the handsome supporting character but in this one, Scrooge's nephew Fred played by Brian Worth has that distinction. Cratchit played by Mervyn Johns is a more doting, parental figure. The Tiny Tim character can often be a bit excessively sweet or over the top but in this film he's just a normal kid struggling with a handicap as best as he can as played by Glyn Dearman. This British version just feels like an authentic Dickens adaption as it was filmed in Britain with English actors.

Although most of the cast is unknown to me in this A CHRISTMAS CAROL, a few familiar faces pop up. I spotted Ernest Thesiger (Dr. Pretorious in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN) as the Undertaker, Peter Bull (the Russian ambassador in DR. STRANGELOVE) as a Businessman, and Patrick MacNee (TV's Jonathan Steed in THE AVENGERS) as the young Jacob Marley.

One character I learned more about watching this version was Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley. As young men, they are similar in their ambitions to become businessmen, taking over Scrooge's former employer Fezziwig's business, renaming it Scrooge & Marley, Enquirers. But both will be consumed with the all mighty pound and lose sight of giving back to the community or seeing the good will in men. They will also lose sight of their friendship. As Marley lies on his deathbed, Scrooge refuses to visit his partner until the day's work is done. Scrooge takes over Marley's estate but hoards it. When Marley returns as a ghost, he warns his old friend to take a different path than he did.

Another important piece to A CHRISTMAS CAROL are the fantasy elements. In this version, the special effects are understated yet effective. Computer Generated Images (CGI) are still decades away. The most important effect is the first one involving the ghost of Jacob Marley. We need to be able to see through him and the filmmakers achieve it. It's not fancy or spectacular but Marley's ghost is ethereal, floating around the room or his face appearing on a door knocker. Some of the effects are just old fashioned slight of hand. The Spirit of Christmas Future using his cloak to cover up the screen and transition us from one scene to another. Or The Spirit of Christmas Present's dramatic reveal when he lifts his robes and two children - Want and Ignorance - clutch at his feet works because of a powerful music cue. But the special effects and tricks never take away from the story.

Throw in a few actual Christmas carols sung throughout the film and this A CHRISTMAS CAROL is a perfect movie for children and adults alike to watch again and again during the holidays.  I dare anyone to 'Bah Humbug' me for making such a declaration.

Key Largo (1948)

KEY LARGO (1948) is a great example of a catchy plot and a bunch of fine actors lifting up a film that is decent but not scintillating.  Humphrey Bogart comes to Key West to visit a dead war buddy's father and widow and gets tangled up with a hotel full of mobsters led by Edward G. Robinson as a hurricane bears down on the Florida Keys and the hotel.

I first became interested in KEY LARGO (directed by the great John Huston) during college. What sparked my interest at the time wasn't Huston's film (which I knew nothing about) but a story I read in the Hollywood trade papers that up and coming Finnish uber director Rennie Harlin (CLIFFHANGER, DIE HARD II) was planning on directing a film about gangsters caught in a hurricane which echoed the plot of KEY LARGO. It was never made (maybe a good sign as Harlin's career has faded as much as that script idea). The combination of  gangsters and hurricane intrigued me so I caught KEY LARGO one night on television.  I was disappointed by it.  Yes, it stars Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and Lauren Bacall but the hurricane element was barely noticeable.  Having grown up in the Spielberg/Lucas era of big effects, I was expecting gangsters trying to shoot one another as houses and cars flew around and tidal waves crashed through the hotel.  But it was mostly talking and very little action.

Watching it now, that would make sense as KEY LARGO is based on a play by Maxwell Anderson adapted by Richard Brooks and John Huston (although apparently the movie resembles little of the play). But director Huston does play up the hurricane elements more than I recalled with wind sound effects, footage of huge waves crashing onto the shore, and a climactic palm tree that crashes through the lobby window to end the second act of the film. The hurricane is just a metaphor for the turbulent, swirling drama going on inside the hotel as innocent people are terrorized by dirty crooks. The main focus of the film are the actors and the dialogue and not the storm.

Humphrey Bogart stars as disillusioned WWII veteran Frank McCloud, on a bus to Key Largo to visit wheelchair bound James Temple (Lionel Barrymore) and Nora Temple (Lauren Bacall), the father and widow of Frank's war buddy George, who was killed in action at San Pietro in Italy. Mr. Temple runs the Largo Hotel. When Frank arrives, he discovers the hotel is temporarily closed, rented out for a month by a group of shady characters supposedly from Wisconsin on a fishing trip. As a hurricane looms in the distance, Frank helps Nora tie up their boat and board up the windows before the storm hits.

The leader of these unsavory guests is Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson), an Al Capone like mob kingpin who was deported by the Feds from the U.S. and fled to Cuba. Rocco has snook back into the United States but is hiding out at the hotel with his crew Curly (Thomas Gomez), Toots (Harry Lewis), Angel (Dan Seymour), and Rocco's old flame, the alcoholic, ex nightclub singer Gaye Dawn (Claire Trevor). We first meet Rocco sitting naked in a bathtub, smoking a cigar, a small fan blowing air to keep him cool from the Florida humidity. Everyone is cool and collect until one of the local sheriff's men Deputy Clyde Sawyer (John Rodney), while looking for a couple of escaped Seminole Indian convicts, recognizes Rocco. Rocco's men jump Sawyer and have him locked up in one of the hotel's rooms.

The hurricane hits landfall and the tensions inside the hotel ratchet up as Frank and Rocco begin to psychologically slug it out. Frank trying to protect the Temple's from Rocco's murderous impulses. Rocco terrorizing his hostages, trying to prove he's back in charge. Rocco doesn't like the storm and wants to leave for Miami where he's trying to sell a shipment of counterfeit cash to the Miami syndicate. Sawyer grabs a gun but it's empty and Rocco kills him. Rocco's men take Sawyer's body out in the turbulent bay and toss him into the water.

Rocco and his men discover the boat that brought them to Key Largo has left. Sheriff Ben Wade (Monte Blue) shows up looking for deputy Sawyer. He discovers Sawyer's body washed back in by the hurricane. Rocco lies, telling the Sheriff it was the Seminole Indian brothers who killed Sawyer. The Miami syndicate led by their leader Ziggy (Marc Lawrence) arrive and pick up Rocco's shipment. Rocco forces Frank to take him and his men back to Cuba. Gaye slips Frank a gun. Frank gets the gangsters away from the hotel, headed for Cuba when he decides to battle it out with Rocco and his men on the high seas.

The hurricane as a metaphor for the psychological storm brewing inside the Largo Hotel is constant throughout KEY LARGO. Rocco is a one man hurricane, mowing down human psyches and even taking lives. Rocco antagonizes the invalid Mr. Temple, inciting Mr. Temple to get out of his wheelchair to fight Rocco, with disastrous results. Rocco tortures Gaye Dawn mentally, keeping liquor from her, forcing her to sing a song when she can no longer carry a tune. Rocco flirts with Nora, calling her a "wildcat", making Gaye jealous. Rocco kills Sawyer and sets in motion a lie that will cause Sheriff Wade to kill the two Seminole Indian brothers for a crime they didn't commit.

But the eye of the hurricane, the calm before the Rocco tempest is Frank McCloud. He arrives at the hotel with emotional baggage, his best friend killed in the war, his faith in the freedom he fought for shaken. Frank has seen plenty of death and when Rocco challenges Frank to shoot him (with an empty gun that Rocco gives him), Frank backs down. Rocco calls Frank a coward and the film implies that Frank may have been a coward in Italy while his best friend George was the hero, winning medals.  But later, Nora hints that Frank is in denial, that it was Frank and not her husband who fought off the Italians, who showed bravery in the face of insurmountable odds. George had told her about the real Frank McCloud.

Frank McCloud is a prototype Bogart character, very similar to his Rick Blaine in CASABLANCA who states, "I stick my neck out for no one." Frank echoes similar words in KEY LARGO when he says, "I fight nobody's battles but my own." But Frank will battle with his lone wolf persona.  He tries to stay out of Rocco's affairs. But a spark has come back into Frank's life when he sets eyes on Nora. He doesn't want to see Nora or her father hurt. They've already lost a husband/son. Frank will get his confidence back when he observes Rocco becoming unglued during the storm, pacing like a caged tiger, unable to control things as Mother Nature takes over. "Show it your gun," Frank tells Rocco. "If it doesn't stop, shoot it."

Although Bogart is the star of KEY LARGO, it's really an ensemble film with everyone getting their turn to shine. At times, Edward G. Robinson seems like the main character as he takes over the middle section of the film, Bogart staying in the background. It's fun to see Bogart and Robinson squaring off against one another. In the early 30's, Robinson was the top dog playing gangsters and tough guys in films like LITTLE CAESAR (1931). Bogart would later take the mantle from Robinson as his career would start to flourish beginning with his role as a bank robber in THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1935). Bogart and  Robinson even worked together previously in the boxing melodrama KID GALAHAD (1937).

Edward G. Robinson is truly menacing as Johnny Rocco, sadistic, violent, a sociopath. Rocco is a one man cyclone, causing destruction and misery in his brief stay at the Largo Hotel. But Robinson could play any role and as vicious as he is as Rocco in KEY LARGO, he could also play timid and meek in Fritz Lang's SCARLETT STREET (1945) or a moral, dogged insurance investigator in Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944). Bogart is his usual steady, cool self as Frank McCloud but I wouldn't say it's one of his flashier performances. But he gets to act with his wife Lauren Bacall. KEY LARGO would be their fourth and last film together (1942's TO HAVE AN HAVE NOT and 1944's THE BIG SLEEP two of their earlier pairings). Bacall as Nora doesn't have to be sexy in KEY LARGO but she's fantastic at conveying what's going on in her head with just a stare or glance from her perfect face.  Director Huston does an amazing job of cutting to reaction shots by Bogart, Bacall, and Claire Trevor as Gaye that give so much information about what they're thinking or noticing as events unfold.

If you recognize actor Lionel Barrymore's voice as James Temple, it's because Barrymore's most famous role was as the mean Mr. Henry Potter in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946). But Temple is a good character although he suffers plenty of misery in KEY LARGO. Lionel Barrymore, along with his siblings John and Ethel, are considered Hollywood royalty (actress Drew Barrymore is related to them). Surprisingly, out of all the great actors in KEY LARGO, only actress Claire Trevor would win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance as the over the hill, alcoholic moll Gaye Dawn. Director Huston rounds out Rocco's gang with some colorful characters. Thomas Gomez as the gum chewing heavy Curly Hoff and Harry Lewis as the giggling enforcer Toots Bass stand out with Curly my favorite.

All of director John Huston's films are adapted either from novels or plays with Huston writing or co-writing many of the screenplays.  His superb career includes classics like THE MALTESE FALCON (1941), THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE (1948), THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951), and THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975) all based on classic books.  Huston and Bogart would work together on six films.  I never realized it but co-writer Richard Brooks would become a protégé of Huston's, turning to writing and directing his own movies, many of them also based on novels and plays.  Some of Brooks more well known films adapted from plays or novels include CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958), ELMER GANTRY (1960), and IN COLD BLOOD (1967).

As great as the acting and dialogue is in KEY LARGO, there's something about the film that holds it back from being better. The film's climactic shoot out on the boat is staged poorly and doesn't have the dramatic effect expected. I would have liked to have seen Bogart and Robinson battle it out mano a mano at the end but their final confrontation is less than compelling. A few more scenes outdoors during the ferocious storm with the key players might have been interesting. And the subplot with the two escaped Seminole Indian brothers, who trust Mr. Temple and get killed because of Rocco's deception to Sheriff Wade, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

But my petty criticisms should not be enough to dissuade movie fans from viewing KEY LARGO. Any film with Bogart, Robinson, Bacall, and Barrymore is worth catching. They just don't make movies anymore where women are called "dames", gangsters are called "wise guys", and tough guys threaten to give someone a "sock in the kisser."