This 1954 version was a television version. I have absolutely no doubt that it is a favorite of many, mostly from memory. It is charming, and Fredric March is always fun to watch. That said, it is a loose adaptation that relies on people knowing A CHRISTMAS CAROL to fill it in. They only had an hour to tell the story, and they used a lot of it for songs. Not terrible songs, but still a lot of them.
There are no scenes of Scrooge the boy, instead we jump right into Fezziwig scenes. The Ghost of Christmas Past is also Belle, and she sings operatically aka a Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy moment with the young Scrooge. The Ghost of Christmas Present is also Fred the nephew. His song is long, and he dances around in tights which is not how I like to think of the Ghost of Christmas Present. The whole show is set up to make you really think it was all a dream.
The best part of the show is Basil Rathbone as Marley. Thankfully he didn’t sing, just haunted Scrooge. And did very well indeed.
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