A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol
by Hugh Harman, Edwin L. Marin

A Christmas Carol
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DVD details

Actor: Barry MacKay, Gene Lockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Reginald Owen, Terry Kilburn
Director: Edwin L. Marin, Hugh Harman
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 69 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
  • Aic that's as integral a part of Christmas as lighted trees and mistletoe. Reginald Owen and Gene Lockhart star in this rewarding holiday treat.Running Time: 69 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:?DRAMA Rating:?NR Age:?012569677159 UPC:?012569677159 Manufacturer No:?67715

DVD Reviews of A Christmas Carol

DVD Review: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. It's Uncle Ebenezer!
Summary: 4 Stars

This 1938 film rendition of Dickens' classic is not my favorite version (Alastair Sim does it better in 1951), but this version has a charm of it's own.

Reginald Owen plays Scrooge. Gene Lockhart plays Bob Cratchit; his real-life wife Kathleen plays his movie wife, and June Lockhart plays one of their daughters. Ann Rutherford plays an absurdly sexy Ghost of Christmas Past.

The story needs no recounting (but I will anyway). Nasty old Scrooge treats all the world like dirt until he's visited by the enchained ghost of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley (Leo G. Carroll) whose face first appears in the midst of Scrooge's demonic doorknocker ("Oh look! A Leo G. Carroll doorknocker! He won it in a contest, you know"). Marley warns Scrooge to mend his ways or suffer the same miserable eternal fate. Scrooge "Bah! Humbug!"s him, but is then visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future who review his life with him.

Scrooge does mend his ways, but in this version he changes so fast from creep to christian that there's the scent of something insincere about it. The insincerity is reinforced because (quite inexplicably) the scriptwriters drop Dickens' wonderful coda about how well old Ebenezer Scrooge kept Christmas year 'round thereafter. I had the feeling Scrooge would be in Christmas rehab next December.

Still, it's Dickens.

DVD Review: The definitive Christmas Carol, marked by emotion and touted by the Christmas spirit
Summary: 5 Stars

A Christmas Carol (1938) directed by Edwin L. Marin, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, written for the screen by Hugo Butler.

Starring: Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge
Reginald Owen was not set to play this part until his long time friend Lionel Barrymore had to cancel his part as Scrooge because of sickness. Fate had other plans it seems.

We all know the story: Mean man Scrooge humbugs his way through life eschewing Christmas as if it was a nagging sore that rooted itself more deeply each year, that he could not get away from. It seems everyone under the moonlight was celebrating this holiday called Christmas, with global cheer and good will. Scrooge, who had been bittered and shriveled through a life without love, and without forgiveness, was a man of business, of rules, and of ascetic necessity. He did not know happiness and he wished that anyone he came across would keep the optimism away from him, especially a man he worked for named Bob Cratchit, played wonderfully by Gene Lockhart (whom made this film with his wife and daughter).

Bob Cratchit counted on Scrooge for his survival and the well being(or living) for his family. Bob oozed with altruism and obsequiousness, and Scrooge knew this, turning his blind eye to it as much as he could till one a Christmas Eve Bob, having fun with the local kids, unintentionally threw a glittering white snowball at Scrooge as he passed. Upon finding this out, Scrooge fired him. Cratchit walked home that night on Christmas Eve holding his dignity in his hand and left his confidence in the melting snow that was stepped on by Scrooge himself. He wanted this night to be a night for his children and family, selflessly not revealing to them what had happened just moments prior.

Everyone who is a fan of Charles' Dickens A Christmas Carol knows how the story plays out, with some tweaks in different film adaptations here and there, knowing the moral that Scrooge learns at the end of this fateful Christmas night.

What I find different in this film than all the others out there is in the characters that are portrayed wonderfully by the cast of actors here. Scrooge is a bitter, curt, presumptuously crass old man while Reginald Owen poses the look of those qualities perfectly. He grumbles his way through the night and humbugs all who try to help him. You can see the years of misery on his face. As the ghosts progress through the night, you can sense and see the gradual inclination towards redemption and hope that he expresses with nothing but a slight opening of an eye that had been squinted from a life of lost passion and lost love, all with a little dribble of a tear down his left eye. I like how Owen grows as the film goes on and we see this happening before our eyes, as the audience, and I don't think it has been matched since. Owen makes the film for me and till this day I have not been filled with as much saving grace for this character than the 1938's version of Ebenezer Scrooge. It is my definitive version and hopefully with a little Christmas cheer, will be yours for years to come in this ageless timeless film.

DVD Review: A Christmas gem!
Summary: 5 Stars

Great service. great movie. Our holidays will be a little more "spirit" filled. Thank you.

DVD Review: Christmas Carol
Summary: 5 Stars

My favorite version of this movie have it on VHS and wanted a copy on DVD. Amazon is a better place to get movies than BB.

DVD Review: Excellent story
Summary: 5 Stars

I have retired this since I got it one DVD. I put a few miles on it before I retired it. I recommend it.

Description of A Christmas Carol

A classic that's as integral a part of Christmas as lighted trees and mistletoe. Reginald Owen and Gene Lockhart star in this rewarding holiday treat.
This 1938 MGM version of the Dickens classic is not the most rewarding of the various adaptations (that honor goes to Biran Desmond Hurst's 1951 film, starring Alistair Sim), but it has a strong if narrow performance by Reginald Owen as the miser Ebenezer Scrooge. Directed by Edward L. Marin, the movie is stiffer and less imaginative than it ought to be, but there are some compensations in the supporting cast, including Leo G. Carroll, and the film debut of little June Lockhart. --Tom Keogh

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