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A Christmas Carol, a review by Antares

A Christmas Carol





Year: 1938
Film Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre: Drama, Classic
Length: 69 Min.

Director
Edwin L. Marin

Writer
Charles Dickens (1812)...Original Material By
Hugo Butler...Screenwriter

Producer
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909)

Cinematographer
Sidney Wagner (1901)
John F. Seitz (1892)

MusicStars
Reginald Owen (1887) as Ebenezer Scrooge
Gene Lockhart (1891) as Bob Cratchit
Kathleen Lockhart (1894) as Mrs. Cratchit
Terry Kilburn (1926) as Tiny Tim Cratchit
Barry MacKay as Fred
Lynne Carver as Bess
Leo G. Carroll (1886) as Jacob Marley's ghost
Lionel Braham as Spirit of Christmas Present

Review
       For oh so many years, the holiday season has meant for me, my yearly viewing of my favorite Charles Dickens story, A Christmas Carol. This story has been told so many times throughout the years, that I think it possible to play every version and variation back to back, and not repeat an instance for the entire twelve days of Christmas.  The truth be told, I generally will only watch three versions of this classic tale, which I rate in this order: Scrooge (1951) Alastair Sim, A Christmas Carol (1984) George C. Scott and if I'm looking for a somewhat 'entertaining' version, the musical Scrooge (1970) Albert Finney. The criteria I look for in an adaptation of Dickens tale of redemption are the following; (1) Ebenezer Scrooge must be mean, miserly and completely loathsome in his pre-conversion personality, (2) the narrative must stay as close to the original story as possible and (3) the settings in the film must portray London as it was during Dickens time. A cold, dreary and unforgiving city, where fortune smiles upon the few, at the cost of the many.

       Throughout the years, I have watched almost every version of this story put to celluloid. But for some unknown reason, I never came to view the MGM version from 1938, starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge. Well, after finally righting this wrong, I find that I wasn't missing much. This is by far, the worst adaptation of my favorite Christmas classic. Not only does it fail to meet the requisites I mentioned in the previous paragraph, but the performances as a whole, are wholly unbelievable and largely over the top. Terry Kilburn, who was outstanding as four generations of the Colley family, in Goodbye Mr. Chips, plays Tiny Tim as if he's suffering from an intake of too much sugar, topped with a dollop of ADD. He's too manic and cheery to play the suffering, yet hopeful cherub. Gene Lockhart, who is one of my favorite character actors, is woefully miscast as Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's destitute clerk. One look at Lockhart does not create visions of a man struggling to feed his large family, on the contrary, it looks more like he has gorged himself at an all you can eat buffet.

       And finally, the story goes that MGM had initially intended for this film to made with Lionel Barrymore in the lead role. Barrymore had been reciting the story on radio every yuletide season for years, and his recitation was so popular, that MGM decided that it would be a perfect vehicle for his acting talent. The cast was hired, the crew was in place and the sets were completed. But an unfortunate accident on the set of another picture would derail the project, Barrymore had fallen and broken his leg, and would be unable to play the lead. In my eyes, it would be a stroke of fortune for one of my favorite actors of the period, as he would miss out on participating in this train wreck of MGM interpretation. Chosen to take his place, at Barrymore's suggestion, was Reginald Owen, a long time bit player and character actor. This would be Owen's lone starring role and he must have decided to make the most of it. First, his appearance is almost comical as opposed to despicable. While I was watching I had a sense of a cross between the wizard from The Wizard of Oz and any adult character from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His hunched over, hobbling gait looks forced and without any sense of believability. And finally, his delivery of many of the famous quips from Scrooge are entirely over the top.

       If you have never watched any versions of Dicken's timeless classic, steer clear of this debacle, it's a complete waste of time. But if you're the type that adds sugar to your Cap'n Crunch, because it's 'just not sweet enough', then this version may be to your liking.


Ratings Criterion

(From A Christmas Carol (1938) on December 4th, 2009)

The Vampire Conspiracy, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: The Vampire Conspiracy
Year: 2003
Director: Marc Morgenstern
Rating: NR
Length: 90 Min.
Video: Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles:

Stars:
Sarah Boes
Adrian M. Pryce
Ron Mazor
Christiane Garcia
John Lopes

Plot:
Five strangers are abducted by a megalomaniacal vampire and put into a deadly maze of wits and endurance. Should they make it through alive, they receive this vampire entire fortune. Should they fail, they become his victims and are placed back into the game, this time as a succubus to hunt the next round of victims.

Extras:
Scene Access

My Thoughts:
This is another movie out of the 50 movie boxset Mortuary of Madness. And for me... this is another winner. It kinda reminds me of one of my favorites... Cube. Sure this movie is very low budget... but it don't hurt it much at all. I would say the acting is pretty good... though not great. If a lot of bad language bothers you for whatever reason this one may bug you a bit. As it seems like they throw in some bad language after every other word. The ending is a bit on the confusing side... but overall I enjoyed this one quite a bit. There is now a few movies in this set that I enjoyed... so I can definitely say I didn't waste $15 on this set!



(From Addicted2DVD's November Alphabet Marathon on November 6th, 2009)

Charmed: The Final Season, a review by addicted2dvd

Charmed: The Final Season (2005/United States) Get ready for the ultimate ride in supernatural entertainment! In Charmed: The Final Season, the magical Halliwell sisters Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Paige (Rose McGowan) face their biggest challenges in love, life and death as they try one last time to fulfill their destiny! Join them in their fight to protect Leo from the Angel of Death, and witness their devastating battle when demons conspire to take over the Underworld! Charmed: The Final Season's 6 discs deliver 22 episodes of nonstop thrills, suspense and a climactic finale! The Charmed Ones are ready. Are you? EPISODES: 1. Still Charmed & Kicking 2. Malice in Wonderland 3. Run, Piper, Run 4. Desperate Housewitches 5. Rewitched 6. Kill Billie: Vol. 1 7. The Lost Picture Show 8. Battle of the Hexes 9. Hulkus Pocus 10. Vaya Con Leos 11. Mr. & Mrs. Witch 12. Payback's A Witch 13. Repo Manor 14. 12 Angry Zen 15. The Last Temptation of Christy 16. Engaged and Confused 17. Generation Hex 18. The Torn Identity 19. The Jung and the Restless 20. Gone With The Witches 21. Kill Billie: Vol. 2 22. Forever Charmed

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Stars:
Alyssa Milano as Phoebe Halliwell
Rose McGowan as Paige Matthews
Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell
Brian Krause as Leo Wyatt
Kaley Cuoco as Billie

Extras:

• Audio Commentary
• Bonus Trailers
• Featurettes
• Closed Captioned

Here it is... the final season of Charmed. I went through this season so fast... in just a few hours over a day. Come to think of it... I went through the entire series pretty quick... 8 seasons (178 episodes) in exactly 3 weeks. That averages out to 8 and a half episodes per day! This is my 4th time watching the series... and I loved the entire run this time as I did the first time I saw it.

Good new this set (is the only one that) has extras! There is a few commentaries as well as several featurettes. Including a featurette where they actually interview fans of the series. A strange thing about this set is that they did not use the theme song for the opening of the episodes. They have for every previous season... but they don't for the last season? Oh well... I always skip the episode openings anyway. One thing that bugs me about all the sets of Charmed is that there is no play all function. I know how difficult is it to click the next episode once it goes back to the menu...but it can be a pain. Especially when you keep forgetting where you set down the remote... like I did many times!

This season Kaley Cuoco is added to the cast. She is well known for playing Penny on The Big Bang Theory. Kaley plays a young witch that The Charmed Ones take in and teach the craft to. This is one time I just can not pick favorite episodes... as I loved every minute of them all. I especially loved how they ended the series. Episodes like Forever Charmed is how all series should go out. It gives a great sense of closure for the series. No unanswered questions. Just a sad goodbye. If there is anything I would change if I could. It is how the final episode brought back so many familiar faces from previous episodes/seasons... but they couldn't get Shannen Doherty to make an appearance. The final shot of the episode was of a bunch of family pictures on the wall as they followed an Piper and Leo up the stairs... and they couldn't even use a picture of her on the wall!?! It is a shame.

Over-all I can't say enough good about it... loved every second. After watching all 8 seasons I actually find myself a little sad that I don't have any more to watch.




(From Addicted2dvd's Random TV Series Watched on April 21st, 2012)