The Christmas Carol

TV Movie
1949
Not Rated
25m

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

451

YOUR RATING

Vincent Price in The Christmas Carol (1949)

Drama Fantasy

Dickens' classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and three Christmas Ghosts that change his perception of life. Narrated by Vincent Price.Dickens' classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and three Christmas Ghosts that change his perception of life. Narrated by Vincent Price.Dickens' classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and three Christmas Ghosts that change his perception of life. Narrated by Vincent Price.

Director
- Arthur Pierson
Writers
- Charles Dickens
- Arthur Pierson
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

451

YOUR RATING

Director
- Arthur Pierson
Writers
- Charles Dickens
- Arthur Pierson
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
A very rare example of a 1940s television broadcast still surviving in entirety. In the infancy of television, programs were always broadcast live because videotape recording technology did not yet exist. This is a kinescope recording, also known as a kine or telerecording. It was made by a film camera pointed at a television monitor filming the broadcast. Although crude, it was the only available method to record a live broadcast during the earliest days of television.

Quotes
Ebenezer Scrooge: Tiny Tim, I saw a friend of mine at church just a little while ago, he's a surgeon. You and I are going to see him, and soon he'll be your friend too.

Connections
Featured in Christmas Unwrapped: The History of Christmas (1997)

Soundtracks
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Traditional English Carol
Sung by The Robert Mitchell Boy Choir (as The Mitchell Choirboys)

User reviews18

Review

Featured review

Price Fans Will Want to Check Out

The Christmas Carol (1949)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Vincent Price hosts and narrates this made-for-TV version of the Charles Dickens' classic about Ebeneezer Scrooge (Taylor Holmes) who is visited by his former partner and warned that three spirits will visit him. I've seen so many versions of this story that you obvious begin to feel a bit of deja vu but I've always felt that the story itself is so strong that it's not too hard to bring one into it. This version here has several good things going for it but it's obviously done on a pretty low-budget and the wooden sets and some poor acting certainly doesn't help. I thought that all of the sets were rather cheap and fake looking but I think a lot of the television shows from this period suffered the same fate. Just take a look at the chains around Marley and you can see that there wasn't too much imagination going on. Another weak thing was the performance by George James who is so still as the Ghost of Christmas Present that you'd think they really dug him up out of some grave. With that said, the performance by Holmes was actually pretty good. He's certainly not one of the best Scrooge's that I've seen but I enjoyed his performance. I also thought Price did a good job reading from the book and just check out the way he keeps reminding us that Marley is dead. I'm not sure why they changed the "A" to a "The" in the title but fans of the story and Price will want to check this one out.