The cast of A Christmas Carol, Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, December, 2006
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) released Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol on Tuesday, December 18, 1962. My mother loved Mr. Magoo, and delivered me Friday, October 5,
1962, so I may have watched Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol during my first Christmas season, whether I remember it or not. What I do remember, is
watching (and enjoying) it as a child. Just as watching It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! became an October/Halloween tradition for me, watching Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol became a December/Christmas tradition, as did watching other, live-action, black and white adaptations of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, on television. My mother also gave me a copy of the book (probably an abridged adaptation), which I read.
Years passed; I grew up, and joined the U.S. Army, which sent me to Afghanistan, to serve at Bagram Airfield, from August, 2006 to February,
2007 (part of Operation Enduring Freedom VII). During that Christmas season in Afghanistan, U.S. military and Dalsey,
Hillblom, and Lynn (DHL) personnel performed a theatrical adaptation of A
Christmas Carol, at the Base Chapel.
This performance impressed me so much that, while serving at Victory Base Camp near Baghdad, during Operation Iraqi Freedom VI, in the
winter of 2008 and 2009, I started collecting copies of every adaptation of A
Christmas Carol I could, on Video Home System (VHS) and Digital Video Disc (DVD).
By January, 2017, I owned copies of sixty-six adaptations of A Christmas
Carol. Now I own, perhaps, a hundred. The earliest version I currently own is a silent, black and white adaptation from 1901, starring Daniel Smith, in the form of an .mp3 file. The earliest adaptation I have on DVD, is from 1910, produced by the (Thomas) Edison Film Manufacturing Corporation - yes, the man who
invented the light bulb. I have copies of adaptations from every decade since then, including one I purchased from Amazon Prime, in 2020, starring John Brett.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Many...?
Q: How many adaptations of A Christmas Carol are there?
A: There are at least four hundred adaptations of A Christmas Carol, according to Heath Waterman, who produced Twelve Hundred Ghosts, using audio and/or video clips from four hundred adaptations of A Christmas Carol.
Q: How many adaptations of A Christmas Carol do you own?
A: As I mentioned above, I own copies of perhaps a hundred adaptations of A Christmas Carol.
Reviews
Q: What information do you include in your reviews?
A: I intend to review and rate all of the adaptations that I see or have seen, answering the following questions about each adaptation:
Title: (e.g., Scrooge, Ebbie, Ebenezer, The Stingiest Man in Town...)
Adaptation: (Starring/featuring the voice of ______ as Ebenezer Scrooge/"the Scrooge"/Produced/written/directed by ________)
Dates and Places of Earliest Release:
(WWW, DD MMM YYYY Country)
My Rating: * - ***** (reason for rating below 4 Stars; e.g., Viewer Discretion Advised/Substandard - Black and White/Silent/Low Budget)
Format Reviewed: (e.g., animated/live-action film, MP4, on VHS, DVD, BluRay, or streamed)
Runtime: (in minutes)
Availability: (e.g., Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Philo)
Is this adaptation reverent?
(Give specific examples of reverence or irreverence.)
Does this adaptation mention "God" or "Christ"?
(Give specific examples.)
Does this adaptation include the phrase "God bless us...?"
(If so, who said it?)
What does my wife think of this adaptation?
Where and when does this adaptation take place?
(e.g., London, England, 1795; Miami, Florida, circa 2020)
What language and/or dialects are used?
(e.g., American/British English; if applicable, give specific examples of vulgarity, or language which seems inappropriate)
How closely does this adaptation follow the original novel, by Charles Dickens?
(Give specific examples of departures...)
Is this adaptation a prequel or a sequel? (If so, explain.)
Is this adaptation supernatural? (If so, give examples; e.g., ghosts, time travel.)
Is this adaptation "framed"?
(If so, explain; e.g., The Flintstone and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carols are framed because Fred Flintstone and Mr. Magoo play the role of Scrooge in plays.)
Is this adaptation a musical?
What songs and/or dances are included?
(Music/lyrics by ____ So-and-so sings such-and-such. So-and-so dances such-and-such.)
How attractive and effective is the visual art?
(The set/wardrobe/art is poorly done/adequate/excellent. Give examples; e.g., such-and-such a poster is historically accurate.)
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/adequate/excellent. Give specific examples of gimmicks used to change scenes.)
What aerial and/or nap-of-the-earth footage is included? (If so, give examples.)
What use is made of background extras? (Give specific examples of scenes with adequate or inadequate numbers of background extras.)
What is the most remarkable thing about this adaptation?
What bonus material is included on the tape or DVD?
Quizzes
Q: Why do some of your reviews have more quizzes than others, and some don't have any?
A: I intend to include at least one quiz for each adaptation that I review.
In addition to my Ratings, the number of quizzes I create for an adaptation of A Christmas Carol says something about it. An adaptation which fails to hold my interest, or which I consider substandard, may only have one quiz. It's hard to think of ten questions for a silent film that only lasts a few minutes, and about which little information, such as the names of the actors, is available. The more quizzes I create for an adaptation, the more it held my interest, and the more likely it is that I think other people would find it entertaining.
Q: How hard are your quizzes?
A: I have experimented with various methods of publishing quizzes, including quizzes on another sites which can become defunct, or require membership; and HTML code which is self-contained on one webpage, and generates a score with the click of a button. I've decided that these methods aren't worth the trouble. Instead, I'm simply going to publish the questions in one post, and the answers approximately one week later. Readers are welcome to grade their own answers on "the honor system."
I consider most of the quizzes I create easy for people who watched the corresponding film and paid attention. My quizzes are numbered in the order in which I create them. Films with larger numbers of quizzes may have harder questions on the most recent quizzes - questions which are more likely to require research to answer, such as, "Which actor in this adaptation starred in another film titled such-and-such?"
Updates
Q: How often do you update this blog?
A: Unless I am overcome by events, I update this blog every Monday, with at least one new post. Usually, I update it more often than that.
Problems With the Horizontal Navigation Bar
Q: Why don't the tabs in your navigation bar work?
A: Sometimes there are glitches with Blogger's "Pages gadget." Please try these links instead:
British Currency: https://dickensianchristmascarol.blogspot.com/p/british-currency.html
Quizzes: https://dickensianchristmascarol.blogspot.com/p/quizzes.html
FAQ: https://dickensianchristmascarol.blogspot.com/p/faq.html
British Currency
A: Pre-Decimal Sterling Calculator
The amounts of British money mentioned in A Christmas Carol (and adaptations of it) are probably confusing to people born outside of Britain and/or more recently than 1965. Characters in A Christmas Carol
(and adaptations of it) sometimes mention amounts of money based on
Britain's "Pre-Decimal Sterling." The MicroSoft Exel spreadsheet
(available for FREE via the hyperlink above) is an ideal tool to help
sort these values out, courtesy of A.J.H. Computer Services.
For example, Scrooge tells the boy he sends for the prize turkey, that
if he returns with it in five minutes, he'll give him "half a Crown."
What is the equivalent of "half a Crown," in decimalized Sterling
Pounds? Or in comparison to other amounts of British money? To figure
this out, go to the "LSD Calculator" tab of the spreadsheet by clicking
on it, near the bottom center, and, under "Old Currency," near the upper
right corner of the spreadsheet, enter "1" in the cell next to "Half
Crown," ensuring that the rest of the cells in that section are clear
or have zeros in them. As soon as "1" is entered, either by hitting
[Return/Enter] or clicking on a different cell in the spreadsheet,
numbers appear in the yellow cells below, indicating that one Half Crown
equals "2s. 6 d." (two Shillings and six Pence) in old British
currency, or £0.13 (thirteen Pence) in decimalized British Pounds.
The History of the British Pound
The
British decimalized their currency on February 15th, 1971. On
Valentine's Day, 1971 and prior, the British used a non-decimal currency
system, in which a British or Sterling Pound was equivalent to twenty
Shillings, and a Shilling was equivalent to twelve Pennies.
This system is also known as the L.S.D. system. It does not stand for
"lysergic acid"; "L" represents Pounds, "S" represents Shillings; and
"D" represents Pennies. "L" stands for the Latin phrase "libra pondo"; libra means "balance or scale," and "pondo" means "pound," which is a weight equivalent to twelve "unciae," which means "twelfth parts," and is translated into English as "ounces," "uncia"
being the singular form, meaning "one twelfth" or "ounce." Ancient
Roman ounces weighed approximately 0.722 pounds or 0.329 kilograms.
In the Roman Empire (which Emperor Claudius extended to the British Isles in 43 A.D.) a libra pondo (or troy pound of silver coins) was a monetary unit. "D" was derived from the Latin word "denarius," which, in the Roman Empire, was a silver coin.
L.S.D.
In Britain's pre-decimal system, monetary amounts were often written as three numbers with slashes between them, like so: £10/19/11, which represents ten Pounds, nineteen Shillings, and eleven Pence.
Two numbers separated by a slash would refer to Shillings and Pennies. For example, "5/7" would mean five Shillings and seven Pence - not five Pounds and seven Shillings.
Miscellaneous Pre-Decimal Coins
To further complicate pre-decimal matters, the British had other names for their coins. For examples, a "Sovereign" was another name for a Pound, or a coin worth one British Pound, and "Bob" was another word for a Shilling. Furthermore, there were Farthings, "hay pennies," and Groats, which were equivalent to 1/4 and 1/2 of a Penny, and four Pennies, respectively. There were also Florins, each of which was equivalent to two Shillings; Crowns, each of which was equivalent to five Shillings; and Guineas, each of which was equivalent to a Pound and a Shilling, or twenty-one Shillings.
WANTED!
A Christmas Carol: The Concert (2013) starring Michael Aaron Lindner as Ebenezer Scrooge
A Christmas Carol (1971) featuring the voice of Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge
A Christmas Carol (1969) featuring the voice of Ron Haddrick as Ebenezer Scrooge
FAQ by William Mortensen Vaughan
Ratings
*****
I award 5 Stars to each release which meets the following criteria:
I can recommend it, in good faith, to Judeo-Christian audiences of all ages, BECAUSE
I believe most Christians would consider it reverent, AND
I believe most people would find it entertaining, at least once; FURTHERMORE,
I personally enjoyed it so much that I intend to enjoy it again.
****
I award 4 Stars to each release which meets the following criteria:
I can recommend it, in good faith, to Judeo-Christian audiences of all ages, BECAUSE
I believe most Christians would consider it reverent, AND
I believe most people would find it entertaining, at least once; HOWEVER,
I DID NOT personally enjoy it enough to want to endure it again.
***
I award 3 Stars to each release which meets the following criteria:
I CAN NOT recommend it, in good faith, to Judeo-Christian audiences of all ages, BECAUSE
I believe some Christians would consider some part or aspect of it irreverent and/or inappropriate; HOWEVER,
I believe most people would find it entertaining, at least once, AND
I personally enjoyed it so much that I intend to enjoy it again.
**
I award 2 Stars to each release which meets the following criteria:
I CAN NOT recommend it, in good faith, to Judeo-Christian audiences of all ages, BECAUSE
I believe some Christians would consider some part or aspect of it irreverent, and/or inappropriate, OR
I DO NOT believe most people would find it entertaining - NOT EVEN once; FURTHERMORE,
I DID NOT personally enjoy it enough to want to endure it again.
*
I award 1 Star to each release which I find so offensive that I regret having endured it;
I may not have endured all of it.
Ratings by William Mortensen Vaughan
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