Quiz 2 on An American Christmas Carol (1979), Starring Henry Winkler

 1.  When Mr. Slade mentions "Morgan," who or what was he probably referring to?

 2.  When Mr. Slade mentions "Coolidge," who or what was he probably referring to?

 3.  When Mr. Slade mentions "Zebulon Pike," who or what was he probably referring to?

 4.  An instrumental adaptation of what song is heard during the opening scene, in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol, before the choirboys are heard singing another song?

 5.  What are the first and last names of the first person whose possessions "the Scrooge" repossesses, in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol?

 6.  What are the first and last names of the wife of the first person whose possessions "the Scrooge" repossesses, in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol?

 7.  What are the first and last names of "the Tiny Tim," in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol?

 8.  In this adaptation of A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Past mentions playing a trumpet; who does he seem to imply that he was, or knew, in a previous life?

 9.  What is the last name of of the second person whose possessions "the Scrooge" repossesses, in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol?

10.  In what county is the opening scene, in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol?

The answers to this quiz were published on Groundhog Day, 2021.

Quiz by William Mortensen Vaughan

Quiz 1 on An American Christmas Carol (1979), Starring Henry Winkler

 1.  When was this film first released?

 2.  Where does this film's opening scene take place?

 3.  What song do the boys sing as they ask for donations?

 4.  What is the name of the company that Mr. Thatcher asks Mr. Slade to re-open?

 5.  What are the first and last names of "the Scrooge," in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol?

 6.  Who is "the Cratchit," in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol?

 7.  What are the first and last names of "the Marley," in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol?

 8.  What day of what year is it, during this film's opening scene?

 9.  What does "S&L" stand for, in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol?

10.  What is the title of the booklet that "the Scrooge" passes out to the choir boys, in this adaptation of A Christmas Carol?

The answers to this quiz were published on January 26, 2021!

Quiz by William Mortensen Vaughan

 

An American Christmas Carol (1979), Starring Henry Winkler: Review by William Mortensen Vaughan

Title:  An American Christmas Carol

Adaptation:  Henry Winkler stars as "the Scrooge," Benedict Slade.

My Rating:  ****

Dates of Earliest Release:   

16 DEC 1979 U.S.
24 DEC 1988 Netherlands

Format Reviewed:  live-action film, on DVD

Runtime:  98 minutes

Availability:  

As of 6:55 p.m., January 3, 2021, it could be viewed at ShoutFactoryTV.

Copies of this film on DVD are for sale online, for approximately $10 U.S. Dollars. 

This film has also been released on BluRay.

Is this adaptation reverent?  

Yes, this adaptation is somewhat reverent.  

It includes the hymn "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen." 

The Ghost of Christmas Past also claims that he used to play a horn when walls fell, implying that he was Joshua (or with Joshua) when the walls around Jericho fell (see Joshua 6:1–27).

Does this adaptation mention "God" or "Christ"?  Yes.

Does this adaptation include the phrase "God bless us"?  No.

What does my wife think of it?  

She didn't like it the first time she saw it.  She thinks Henry Winkler looks like Dr. Phibes, which gives her the creeps. But after watching it again, in January of 2021, she finds she likes it.

 When and where does this adaptation take place?  

This adaptation takes place in Concord, in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 1933.  It also shows scenes from 1893 and 1917. Mention is made of U.S. Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

What language and/or dialects are used?  American English.

How closely does this adaptation follow the original novel, by Charles Dickens?  

This adaptation recreates the general story line of the novel, with different characters (Benedict Slade, instead of Ebenezer Scrooge, for example).

Mr. Slade has an employee, named Mr. Thatcher, whom he fires, on Christmas Eve, after having him help repossess the possessions of several people.  Mr. Thatcher has a son, named Tim, who uses crutches, and has a disease.

After Mr. Slade fires Mr. Thatcher, the ghost of his deceased partner, Jack Latham, appears to him, and tells him that he will receive visitations from three other ghosts.

The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future appear to Mr. Slade; they resemble three men whose belongings Mr. Slade repossessed that day.

After seeing the visions they show him, Mr. Slade wakes up on Christmas Morning, a changed man.  He gives Tim tickets for a journey across North America and the Pacific Ocean, to visit a doctor, in Australia, whom he believes will heal him.

Mr. Slade also rehires Mr. Thatcher, and promotes him.  He then takes Mr. Thatcher around to give back the property they'd repossessed the day before.   

Finally, Mr. Slade goes to the orphanage where he was adopted, and adopts another boy, and takes him in the way his foster parents had taken him in when he was a boy.

Is this adaptation a prequel or a sequel?  No.

Is this adaptation supernatural?  

Yes, this adaptation is supernatural, featuring ghosts and time travel.
 
Is this adaptation "framed"?  No.

Is this adaptation a musical?  No.

What songs and/or dances are included?  

There is a ragtime animal dance that Henry Winkler and Susan Hogan perform, in which they place their hands under their armpits to form wings, and repeatedly peck at the air on opposite, alternating sides of each other's heads, as if they were birds.

Early in the film, a young man leads a choir of orphaned boys around town, singing carols and asking for donations. This young man is played by Michael Wincott in one of his earliest roles - years before he played Moxica, in 1492 (1992); Top Dollar in The Crow (1994); or Dorleac, in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002).

How attractive and effective is the visual art?  

The set, wardrobe, architecture, and art are good.  It includes old furniture and furnishing, such as a pot-bellied stove and a radio, as well as a historic, World War I poster, from 1917. 

How creative and intense are the transitions, especially when "the Scrooge" is taken from one time and/or place to another? 

The transitions are adequate.

What aerial and/or nap-of-the-earth footage is included?  

I don't remember any... Of greater interest are the historical items in this period drama.

What use is made of background extras?  

Effective use of background extras is made. For example, when the boys' choir is seen caroling, the streets seem to be filled with last-minute shoppers, as might be expected in a commercial district on Christmas Eve. Also, numerous unemployed men appear outside the Alden Granite Company where they lost their jobs. There are also several parties, at which there seem to be plenty of people.

How creative and intense are the transitions, especially when "the Scrooge" is taken from one time and/or place to another?  

The transitions are effective.

What is the most remarkable thing about this adaptation?  

The most remarkable thing about this adaptation is, perhaps, seeing Henry Winkler 1) in a role other than "the Fonz" on "Happy Days," and 2) old, which doesn't work for me, after all of the hours I spent watching "Happy Days."  Henry Winkler will always be "the Fonz" to me.

What extras are included on the DVD?  

The DVD includes a featurette, which is an interview with Henry Winkler, in which he mentions the year 2013.

Review by William Mortensen Vaughan

A Christmas Carol (1954), Starring Fredric March: Review by William Mortensen Vaughan

Title:  "Shower of Stars":  "A Christmas Carol"

Adaptation:  Starring Fredric March as  Ebenezer Scrooge

Dates and Places of Earliest Release:  

THU, 23 DEC 1954 U.S.A.

TUE, 25 DEC 1956 U.K.

SUN, 22 DEC 1957 Sweden

 

My Rating:  ** (Substandard - Black and White)

Format Reviewed:  live-action film, on DVD

 

Runtime:  60 minutes

 

Availability:  

As of February 2, 2021, this film is available on YouTube.  Copies of this film, on DVD, are available online, for approximately $10 U.S. Dollars.

Is this adaptation reverent?  Yes.

Does this adaptation mention "God" or "Christ"?

Yes.  (See below.)

 

Does this adaptation include the phrase "God bless us...?" 

Yes, Tiny Tim  says, "God bless us, everyone!"

What does my wife think of this adaptation?
She finds it annoying; she especially dislikes Ray Middleton's singing.

Where and when does this adaptation take place?

Victorian England.

 
What language and/or dialects are used?  

American English.

How closely does this adaptation follow the original novel, by Charles Dickens?

This adaptation follows the original novel fairly well, with some deletions, and odd changes.

The opening scene and credits feature a group of carolers, including two men, two women, a man playing a flute, and a child soloist, singing a song "on this darkest day of winter," about "holly, pine, and mistletoe," along streets with horse-drawn carriages.

Then Scrooge's office is shown, as two gentlemen enter to ask him for a charitable donation.

After Scrooge shows them the door, he tells Bob to clean up before leaving, in about five minutes.

Then Fred (Ray Middleton)  shows up.  Scrooge sends both Fred and Bob away.

Then Scrooge locks up his office and takes his strong box home, where his housekeeper has prepared his supper and his bed.  He cuts her short when she wishes him a merry Christmas as she leaves.

Jacob Marley appears to him, and tells him other spirits will visit him.

The first Spirit, of Christmas Past, looks like Belle to Scrooge, and is played by the same actress:  Sally Fraser.

She shows Scrooge himself, singing a duet with Belle at Mr. Fezziwig's Christmas Ball.  Later, Belle is seen leaving Scrooge, because he has changed so much.

Then Ray Middleton appears in the form of a muscular, young Ghost of Christmas Present, looking more like an elf.  Scrooge mistakes him for Fred.  Fred sings to him, and shows him a vision of the Cratchits, in their home on Christmas Eve.

Then Scrooge finds himself alone with a crow in a cemetery, where he discovers his own tombstone, with his name and the year 1843 inscribed on it; he also finds Tiny Tim's tombstone.

As he wails and cries, and pats Tim's tombstone, he wakes up patting his own headboard on Christmas Morning.

He opens his window and takes in the fresh air and sunlight, and asks a boy what day it is.

The boy informs him that it's Christmas.

Instead of sending the boy to the poulterer's, Scrooge gets cleaned up and dressed, and invites himself to Bob's for Christmas dinner.

On the way, Scrooge happens to cross paths with the gentlemen seeking charitable donations, so he apologizes for the horrible things he told them the day before, and gives them some money, in an amount which astonishes them.

At Bob's, Scrooge promises to raise Bob's salary, and help get Tiny Tim the medical care he needs.

The story ends with Tiny Tim saying, "God bless us, everyone!"

For some odd reason, only five of Bob's children are seen; the middle boy is missing, and, when he introduces them to Scrooge, it appears that Belinda is the eldest daughter, and Martha perhaps the youngest.  The other daughter is named Susie - information not found in the novel.

Fred's party is never shown, and there is never any indication that Scrooge decides to visit Fred.

The entire day after Christmas is precluded by Scrooge's visit to Bob's house on Christmas Day.

Is this adaptation a prequel or a sequel?  No.

Is this adaptation supernatural? 

Yes, it includes ghosts and time travel.

Is this adaptation "framed"?  No.

Is this adaptation a musical?  No.

 

What songs and/or dances are included?  

Music by Bernard Herrmann... Carolers, Fred, young Scrooge, Belle, Tiny Tim, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and old Scrooge all sing songs I haven't found anywhere else.  The first song, about "holly, pine, and mistletoe," is, in my humble opinion, the best.  I agree with my wife that the others are annoying.

For some odd reason, a harp, instead of a fiddle, is seen at Mr. Fezziwig's Christmas Ball.

How attractive and effective is the visual art?  

The visual art is adequate, except that it's in black and white.

How creative and intense are the transitions, especially when "the Scrooge" is taken from one time and/or place to another?

The transitions are adequate.

 

What aerial and/or nap-of-the-earth footage is included?  N/A

 

What use is made of background extras?  

Adequate is made of background extras, on the streets of London, and at Fezziwig's Christmas Ball, for example.

What is the most remarkable thing about this adaptation?
The most remarkable thing about this adaptation is, perhaps, the absence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come and Fred's Christmas Dinner.  Perhaps the crow is intended to serve as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

 
What bonus materials are included on the tape or DVD?

There are no bonus materials on this DVD.

A Christmas Carol (1939) (Orson Welles' Radio Broadcast): Review by William Mortensen Vaughan

Title:  A Christmas Carol

Adaptation:  Featuring the voice of Lionel Barrymore as  Ebenezer Scrooge, and Orson Welles as the Narrator

Dates and Places of Earliest Release:  

SUN, 24 DEC 1939 U.S.A.

 

My Rating:  ** (Substandard - audio recording during a slide show)

Format Reviewed:  DVD

 

Runtime:  55 minutes

 

Availability:  

As of February 2, 2021, this recording is available on YouTube. Copies of this recording are available, on CD, for approximately $10 U.S. Dollars.

Is this adaptation reverent? 

Yes, this adaptation is reverent.  It is an abridged, audible version of the novel.

Does this adaptation mention "God" or "Christ"?

Yes.  (See below.)

 

Does this adaptation include the phrase "God bless us...?" 

Yes, Tiny Tim  says, "God bless us, everyone!"

What does my wife think of this adaptation?
She's not impressed.

Where and when does this adaptation take place?

Victorian England

 
What language and/or dialects are used?  

American English

How closely does this adaptation follow the original novel, by Charles Dickens?

This adaptation follows the original novel fairly well.  It has Orson Welles and Lionel Barrymore reading/quoting the text from the novel for a radio show.

Is this adaptation a prequel or a sequel?  No.

Is this adaptation supernatural? 

Yes, it includes ghosts and time travel.

Is this adaptation "framed"?  No.

Is this adaptation a musical?  No.

 

What songs and/or dances are included?  

Music by Bernard Bernstein...

How attractive and effective is the visual art?  

My copy of this adaptation is an extra, included on a DVD titled Christmas and A Christmas Carol, a documentary about Christmas in general, with an emphasis on how Charles Dickens' novel, A Christmas Carol, influenced it.  
Overall, the DVD seems unprofessional and poorly edited.  There are scenes with no logical explanations as to what the viewer is looking at, or even why the footage is included.

A slideshow is included with the audio recording of Orson Welles' radio adaptation of A Christmas Carol, with historic illustrations from or related to the novel, but they are not placed or timed with any logical correlation to the words heard while the images are on the screen.

How creative and intense are the transitions, especially when "the Scrooge" is taken from one time and/or place to another?

The transitions are poorly done.

 

What aerial and/or nap-of-the-earth footage is included?  N/A  

 

What use is made of background extras?  N/A

What is the most remarkable thing about this adaptation?
The most remarkable thing about this adaptation is, perhaps, the lack of correlation between the audible words and the illustrations.

 
What bonus material is included on the tape or DVD?

This slideshow with an audio track is a bonus on a DVD.