A Christmas Carol (1938 film)

1938 American Christmas film directed by Edwin L. Marin

A Christmas Carol

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Edwin L. Marin
Screenplay by| Hugo Butler
Based on| A Christmas Carol
1843 novella
by Charles Dickens
Produced by| Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring|

* Reginald Owen
* Gene Lockhart
* Kathleen Lockhart
* Terry Kilburn
* Barry MacKay
* Lynne Carver

Cinematography|

* Sidney Wagner
* John F. Seitz

Edited by| George Boemler
Music by| Franz Waxman

Production
company

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Distributed by| Loew's, Inc.

Release date

* December 16, 1938 (1938-12-16)[1]

Running time

| 69 minutes
Country| United States
Language| English

A Christmas Carol is a 1938 American drama film adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella of the same name, starring Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve after visitations by three spirits. The film was directed by Edwin L. Marin from a script by Hugo Butler. A Christmas Carol has a 100% rating on the review-aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 13 reviews.[2]

## Plot

[edit]

On Christmas Eve in 19th-century London, Fred Scrooge is sliding on ice on a sidewalk. He meets Peter and Tim Cratchit, sons of his maternal uncle Ebenezer's clerk, Bob Cratchit. When Fred reveals who he is, the boys take off in terror.

Fred soon arrives at the counting-house of the miserly Ebenezer. After declining an invitation from his nephew to dine with him on Christmas, Scrooge rudely dismisses two gentlemen collecting money for charity. That night, Scrooge reluctantly allows Bob to have Christmas off but orders him to come into work early the day after. Later, though, Bob accidentally knocks off Scrooge's hat with a snowball. Scrooge fires him and withholds a week's salary to compensate for the ruined hat, also demanding a shilling to make up the difference. Bob spends the last of his wages on food for his family's Christmas dinner.

In his house, Scrooge is confronted by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns Scrooge to repent his wicked ways, or he will be condemned in the afterlife as Marley was. He tells Scrooge he will be haunted by three spirits.

At 1 a.m, Scrooge is visited by the youthful Ghost of Christmas Past, who takes him back in time to his early life. Scrooge is shown his unhappiness when he was left to spend the holidays alone at school, and his joy when his sister, Fan, came to take him home for Christmas. The spirit reminds Scrooge that Fan, dead for some years, is the mother of his nephew. Scrooge is shown his early career in business and money lending as an employee under Fezziwig.

At two o'clock, Scrooge meets the merry Ghost of Christmas Present, who shows Scrooge how others keep Christmas. At a church service, Fred and his fiancée, Bess, are seen as happy and in love. The couple must wait to marry because of Fred's financial circumstances, and the spirit observes that perhaps they will not marry at all, and their love may end. Scrooge is then shown the Cratchit home. Despite wearing a cheery manner for his family's sake, Bob is deeply troubled by the loss of his job, though he confides in no one except his daughter Martha. The spirit hints that Bob's youngest son, Tim, will die of a crippling illness by the same time next year if things do not change.

At 3 a.m., the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives, appearing as a silent, cloaked figure. The spirit shows Scrooge what will happen if he does not change. Scrooge discovers Tiny Tim is dead and his family mourns for him, while he himself dies alone and forgotten. Scrooge promises to repent and returns home to awake in his own bed on Christmas Day.

Scrooge is a changed man. He asks a boy in the street to buy the large turkey in the butcher shop's window for him, meaning to take it to the Cratchits. Running into the two men who petitioned him for charity on Christmas Eve, Scrooge gives them a large donation. He visits Fred and makes him his new partner, then goes to the Cratchit house where he gives everyone gifts and rehires Bob with an increase in his wages.

## Cast

[edit]

* Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge
* Gene Lockhart as Bob Cratchit
* Kathleen Lockhart as Mrs. Cratchit
* Terry Kilburn as Tiny Tim Cratchit
* Barry MacKay as Fred (Scrooge's nephew)
* Lynne Carver as Bess (Fred's fiancée)
* Bunny Beatty as Martha Cratchit (uncredited)
* June Lockhart as Belinda Cratchit (uncredited)
* John O'Day as Peter Cratchit (uncredited)
* Leo G. Carroll as Marley's Ghost
* Ann Rutherford as Ghost of Christmas Past
* Lionel Braham as Ghost of Christmas Present
* D'Arcy Corrigan as Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
* Ronald Sinclair as Young Scrooge
* Elvira Stevens as Fan Scrooge (uncredited)
* Forrester Harvey as Old Fezziwig (uncredited)
* Olaf Hytten as Schoolmaster (uncredited)
* Harry Cording as Waiter (uncredited)
* Halliwell Hobbes as Clergyman (uncredited)
* Charles Coleman as First Solicitor (uncredited)
* Matthew Boulton as Second Solicitor (uncredited)
* John Rogers as Chestnut Vendor (uncredited)
* Cliff Severn as Boy Buying Turkey (uncredited)

## Production

[edit]

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Made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and originally intended to star Lionel Barrymore (who played the role of Scrooge annually on radio but was forced to drop out of the film because of his arthritis, though he narrated its trailer),[3] the movie starred Reginald Owen as Scrooge and the married couple Gene and Kathleen Lockhart as the Cratchits. Terry Kilburn costarred as Tiny Tim and a young June Lockhart (Gene and Kathleen's daughter) made her screen debut as one of the Cratchit daughters.[4] Leo G. Carroll played Marley's Ghost. The characters of Fred (Scrooge's nephew) and Elizabeth, his fiancée (his wife in the novelette), were greatly expanded in order to work in a romantic angle to the story that Dickens did not intend. The couple was played by Barry MacKay and Lynne Carver. Ann Rutherford, better known as Polly Benedict in the MGM Andy Hardy film series and as Carreen O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, was a young and attractive Ghost of Christmas Past, rather than the somewhat unusual creation that Dickens described.

The music for the film was composed by Franz Waxman, in contrast to most MGM films of the period, whose scores were composed by Herbert Stothart.

While Gene Lockhart's performance as Bob Cratchit is admired, he is often criticized for looking too "well-fed" for the role. In this production, unlike Dickens' original story, Scrooge actually fires Cratchit rather than just threatening to do so.

## Theatrical release

[edit]

Originally intended as a 1939 release, A Christmas Carol was rushed into production in October 1938 and was finished in a matter of weeks. It opened in December at New York City's Radio City Music Hall where it did moderately well. One of many adaptations of the work, it was frequently revived in theaters by MGM.

## Television broadcast

[edit]

The film was shown on local television stations in the United States throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and was a staple of Chicago's WGN television's Family Classics. It ran in syndication throughout the United States from the 1960s to the 1990s on various local networks until the advent of cable television. Since the late 1990s, it has been broadcast on Turner Classic Movies, airing several times during December.

The film originally telecast in the 1960s included several additional scenes that have been cut out of the 69-minute version. Scrooge's fiancée, who eventually leaves him because of his miserly ways, was completely dropped from the shortened version, as were the two starving children "Want" and "Ignorance", who hid within the folds of the Ghost of Christmas Present's robe. Also gone were the thieves who ransack Scrooge's belongings after he "dies" in the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come segment. The much superior full version may no longer be in existence.

## Home media

[edit]

In 1988, MGM/UA Home Video and Turner Entertainment released A Christmas Carol on VHS celebrating its 50th anniversary, for the first time in a colorized version. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 1988 promoting the film's release on home video, actress June Lockhart admitted that, despite being an MGM production, it was "a 'B' picture". The colorized version was released once again on VHS by Warner Home Video in 2000. In November 2005, the black and white version was released on DVD in a "Classic Holiday Collection" box set including Boys Town and Christmas in Connecticut, two other MGM titles with a holiday/family theme; it was also released as an individual title. Since its first DVD release, it has seen multiple releases in various Christmas movie collection box sets. A Blu-ray version was released in November 2014.

## See also

[edit]

* List of Christmas films
* List of ghost films
* List of A Christmas Carol adaptations

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "A Christmas Carol (1938) – Original Print Information". Turner Classic Movies.
2. ^ "A Christmas Carol". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved January 18, 2025.
3. ^ Guida, Fred (1999). A Christmas Carol and Its Adaptations: A Critical Examination of Dickens's Story and Its Productions on Screen and Television. McFarland. pp. 95–98\. ISBN 978-0-7864-2840-3.
4. ^ Maltin, Leonard (2015). Turner Classic Movies Presents Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide: From the Silent Era Through 1965 (3rd ed.). Penguin Publishing Group. p. 106\. ISBN 978-0-698-19729-9.

## External links

[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to A Christmas Carol (1938 film).

* A Christmas Carol at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
* A Christmas Carol at IMDb
* A Christmas Carol at the TCM Movie Database

* v
* t
* e

Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol

Characters|

* Ebenezer Scrooge
* Bob Cratchit
* Mr. Fezziwig
* Tiny Tim
* Jacob Marley
* Ghost of Christmas Past
* Ghost of Christmas Present
* Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

Films|

* Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost (1901)
* A Christmas Carol (1908)
* A Christmas Carol (1910)
* Scrooge (1913)
* The Right to Be Happy (1916)
* Scrooge (1935)
* A Christmas Carol (1938)
* Scrooge (1951)
* It's Never Too Late (1953)
* A Christmas Carol (1960)
* Scrooge (1970)
* A Christmas Carol (1971)
* An American Christmas Carol (1979)
* Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
* Scrooged (1988)
* The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
* A Christmas Carol (1997)
* Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001)
* A Carol Christmas (2003)
* Springtime with Roo (2004)
* Chasing Christmas (2005)
* A Christmas Carol (2006)
* An American Carol (2008)
* Barbie in a Christmas Carol (2008)
* Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)
* A Christmas Carol (2009)
* The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol (2011)
* Scrooge & Marley (2012)
* A Christmas Carol (2020)
* Spirited (2022)
* Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (2022)
* Christmas Karma (TBA)

Television|

* The Christmas Carol (1949)
* A Christmas Carol (1954)
* Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962)
* Carol for Another Christmas (1964)
* A Special Sesame Street Christmas (1978)
* The Stingiest Man in Town (1978)
* Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol (1979)
* Rich Little's Christmas Carol (1979)
* A Christmas Carol (1982)
* A Christmas Carol (1984)
* Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988)
* A Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994)
* Ebbie (1995)
* Ms. Scrooge (1997)
* An All Dogs Christmas Carol (1998)
* Ebenezer (1998)
* A Christmas Carol (1999)
* A Diva's Christmas Carol (2000)
* A Christmas Carol (2000)
* A Christmas Carol (2004)
* An Easter Carol (2004)
* Karroll's Christmas (2004)
* Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas (2006)
* Nan's Christmas Carol (2009)
* "A Christmas Carol" (Doctor Who) (2010)
* It's Christmas, Carol! (2012)
* Kelly Clarkson's Cautionary Christmas Music Tale (2013)
* A Hearth's Warming Tail (2016)
* A Christmas Carol (2019)

Musicals|

* Scrooge (1992)
* A Christmas Carol (1994)
* Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge (2002)

Plays|

* A Christmas Carol; or, Past, Present, and Future (1844)
* A Christmas Carol (1988)
* A Queer Carol (1999)
* Fellow Passengers (2004)
* A Klingon Christmas Carol (2007)
* A Christmas Carol (2017)
* A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story (2021)

Soundtracks|

* A Christmas Carol (2009)
* Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2011)

Other|

* Adaptations of A Christmas Carol
* Batman: Noël (comic)
* "Green Chri$tma$" (single)
* The Misadventures of the Wholesome Twins (2005 musical)
* The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017 film)
* Ebenezer and the Invisible World (video game)

Related|

* John Leech (illustrator)

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Edwin L. Marin

* The Death Kiss (1932)
* A Study in Scarlet (1933)
* The Avenger (1933)
* The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi (1933)
* Bombay Mail (1934)
* The Crosby Case (1934)
* Affairs of a Gentleman (1934)
* Paris Interlude (1934)
* The Casino Murder Case (1935)
* Pursuit (1935)
* Moonlight Murder (1936)
* Speed (1936)
* I'd Give My Life (1936)
* Sworn Enemy (1936)
* All American Chump (1936)
* Married Before Breakfast (1937)
* Man of the People (1937)
* Everybody Sing (1938)
* Listen, Darling (1938)
* A Christmas Carol (1938)
* Fast and Loose (1939)
* Society Lawyer (1939)
* Maisie (1939)
* Henry Goes Arizona (1939)
* Florian (1940)
* Gold Rush Maisie (1940)
* Hullabaloo (1940)
* Maisie Was a Lady (1941)
* Ringside Maisie (1941)
* Paris Calling (1941)
* A Gentleman After Dark (1942)
* Miss Annie Rooney (1942)
* Invisible Agent (1942)
* Two Tickets to London (1943)
* Show Business (1944)
* Tall in the Saddle (1944)
* Johnny Angel (1945)
* Abilene Town (1946)
* Young Widow (1946)
* Mr. Ace (1946)
* Lady Luck (1946)
* Nocturne (1946)
* Christmas Eve (1947)
* Intrigue (1947)
* Race Street (1948)
* The Younger Brothers (1949)
* Canadian Pacific (1949)
* Fighting Man of the Plains (1949)
* Colt .45 (1950)
* The Cariboo Trail (1950)
* Sugarfoot (1951)
* Raton Pass (1951)
* Fort Worth (1951)

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