About the WonderCafe Advent Calendar.

A forgotten classic retelling of a classic tale

An American Christmas Carol

“You have to do A Christmas Carol” I was told by more than one person when I told them my plans for the WonderCafe Advent Calendar. By that they meant the 1951 film version starring Alistair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, which continues to be the gold standard of Bah humbugness.

The the thing is, I’m not a huge fan of this version. Yes, I love Alistair Sim’s career defining performance so utterly wretched at the beginning, so beautifully haunted (in every sense of the word) in the middle and so uncontrollably happy at the end. I love the scene at the end where he reveals his reformed nature, especially his futile attempt to be grumpy:

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But for me, I never warmed to it. It’s very mannered and stagey, which works in its favour, but it never quite made the genius of Dickens’s tale—a horrible man is shown where he came from, what he is doing now and where it all will lead—come alive for me.

My favourite filmed version of Dickens classic tale—which ought to be read in its original form at least once in your life, if not more—is much more obscure. It’s a Canadian-made, US broadcast TV movie from 1979, An American Christmas Carol. It updates Dickens’ tale to the New England in the Depression-era thirties. The Fonz himself, Henry Winkler, does a superb job in old-age makeup playing the Scrooge figure Benedict Slade and he’s supported by a who’s who of superb Canadian actors including R.H. Thomson and Gerard Parkes (Doc from Fraggle Rock)..

It’s a really smart updating of the story and surprisingly effective. (It has a nifty dramatic device of using a radio instead of a clock to announce the ghosts.) What’s great is that it takes Dickens story and sets it not only in America but uses American storytelling idioms as well—Slade’s story is a man who rejects his adoptive father for the American Dream of factory-produced wealth and loses his soul.

There’s some badly dated choices—like giving Dorian Harewood ‘modern’ disco togs when he appears as the Ghost of Christmas Future—but it’s so enjoyable, and Dorian Harewood is so great as the ghost, you forgive it. David Wayne and R.H. Thomson are also delightful. And Henry Winkler is a revelation. He’s so closely associated with the Fonz it’s a delight to see his range as an actor is not limited to catchphrase comedy. He’s wonderful as Slade, keeping him spiky and acerbic even after he’s been reformed.

I’m disappointed that this story hasn’t had better currency and hasn’t been granted a reprieve from obscurity that other stories found like A Christmas Story, It’s A Wonderful Life or, indeed, the Alistair Sim version of A Christmas Carol. So I’m doing my part in promoting it by showing it now.

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