Redgrave was the narrator for the 1971 version. Marley was voiced by Michael Hordern(also from the 1951 film).
My bad, I was going from memory. I forgot Hordern was Marley in the 1971 version. Your memory is way better than mine. (The young Marley, seen in flashback in the 1951 version, was played by Patrick Macnee, later John Steed on “The Avengers”).
Just found I could watch the Price film free on Amazon Prime.
I love Mickey’s Christmas Carol!! (Although it’s Scrooge McDuck as Scrooge – fittingly – and not Ludwig Von Drake. Their character designs are similar but Scrooge McDuck has that unmistakable Scottish accent.)
Oh yeah, I remember that one. A terrifying ghost of Jacob Marley, indeed! He looked like this: :bigyikes:
That one’s fantastic! The thing I like most about it is that it includes stuff from the book that’s not in many/any of the other adaptations. The look of the ghosts is one (particularly Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Past), but the big one is the fact that Marley told Scrooge that the ghosts would visit him over the course of three nights. That’s either not made clear or not mentioned at all in the other versions, so Scrooge saying, “They did it all in one night!” makes no sense. Call me a stickler for detail, but that’s something that has always bothered me.
For all that TT has the most quoted line from ACC, he really is a rather minor player in the story. He’s used to get Scrooge to see the “surplus population” he thinks ought to be eliminated (shades of abortion and euthanasia, but I digress). Playing him is really pretty simple. All the child has to be able to do is convince us he’s a crippled waif. How hard can that be? Having written all that, though, the one that sticks in my mind is the child actor in the Alister Sim version. I can’t even bring any of the others who played him to mind.
That version has one of my favorite Ghosts of Christmas Present - Edward Woodward. David Warner plays Cratchit and gives it his best, but he so often plays heavies (like Jack the Ripper in TIME AFTER TIME) that it was hard to think of him as a timid clerk.
You only notice additions/deletions if you know the story intimately or if it isn’t done well. The Alister Sim version has quite a lot of added material–to flesh-out Scrooge and Marley’s relationship and how they came to be such hard-fisted misers. Also, Fan is seen dying with Scrooge at her bedside–something that isn’t in the original story. We don’t notice these additions because we assume they’re in the book. Dickens mentions that Fan died giving birth and that Scrooge and Marley had been partners for many years, but he didn’t go into more depth about these things.My favorite is the one with Alistair Sim. That is THE version in my opinion. I also enjoy George C. Scott’s turn. My least favorite is with Reginald Owen, who took over the role from Lionel Barrymore. Barrymore had been Scrooge on the radio for years, but then couldn’t do the movie. I would have loved to have seen him in the part on screen. My favorite Bob Cratchit is the one from the Seymour Hicks’ version and my favorite Tiny Tim is from the Scott one. The Tiny Tim in Reg. Owen’s one seems very robust to me. Most of the time the Cratchitts appear too well off and the movie makers leave things out or add stuff. What I don’t understand is why they can’t just do everything in a movie version just like it is in the book?
Yes, that extra material really explains the change in Scrooge. It’s a little scene but the part where it shows Scrooge and Marley’s participation in an embezzeling scheme makes it clear how they achieved their wealth and the steps they would take.You only notice additions/deletions if you know the story intimately or if it isn’t done well. The Alister Sim version has quite a lot of added material–to flesh-out Scrooge and Marley’s relationship and how they came to be such hard-fisted misers. Also, Fan is seen dying with Scrooge at her bedside–something that isn’t in the original story. We don’t notice these additions because we assume they’re in the book. Dickens mentions that Fan died giving birth and that Scrooge and Marley had been partners for many years, but he didn’t go into more depth about these things.