The Ghost of Christmas Film Past
By Darren Williams
15th December 2009
So it's Christmas time again and you're tired of the same old films? You're sick of seeing that story of a kid born to ASBO who lives with neglectful parents and decides to take out his evil tendencies on some poor visiting crooks? You wish Jimmy Stewart had left that angel drown? Think the worst thing you can find in your Christmas stocking is Arnie jingling his Turbo Man? Then try some of these suggestions for a Christmas with a bit more spirit.
I'm going to start with one of my favourite things, because it's Christmas and we should be good to ourselves, the seasonal spooky story. Christmas and ghost stories go hand in hand. The most famous of all Christmas tales, apart from Jesus, obviously, is a ghost story. It's a fact that often seems to be overlooked, but Dickens' A Christmas Carol has the intention of being frightening, it's not going to work as a morality tale unless it can be a little scary. Scrooge has been adapted numerous times over the years with varying degrees of success. With all of the adaptations it can be difficult to know where to begin, so let's start with a little 10 best list of the most memorable adaptations.
The greatest adaptation of A Christmas Carol is without a doubt the 1951 offering starring Alastair Sim. Sim is Scrooge. He manages to capture the hardness that hides the lost soul within in a way that no other actor ever has. Sim's performance has rightly gone down in cinematic legend and if it wasn't for the different qualities that some of the other adaptations bring then you wouldn't really need more than one Scrooge film on this list because no other performance has ever touched Sim's and probably none ever will. Sim would reprise the role two decades later in a jaw-droppingly gorgeous animated short from the great Richard Williams. William's Christmas Carol condenses the narrative into a 30 minute short and focuses on the darkness in the tale in a way that few others have managed to do.
Sim's Marley in both outings was another legend, the great Michael Hordern. Hordern himself would make the switch to playing Scrooge in 77. While the production qualities of Hordern's Carol may be quite low, it has to be remembered it was a t.v. outing from the 70s so it's going to have that cheap look to it, there's also something a little lifeless about the direction, but in terms of the Ebenezer, Hordern was second only to Sim himself.
Albert Finney took on the role in 1970, in general the film doesn't live up to some of the other offerings and a lot of the songs are below par, but Finney's performance and the remarkable 'Thank You Very Much' routine secure this film a place in Dickens legend and a worthwhile seasonal viewing. The best musical adaptation came courtesy of The Muppets (As if that's any shock). They didn't have a bad Scrooge either in Michael Caine. The story is also surprisingly faithful for the most part. This is also the most charming and outright fun adaptation of the tale. And none of the others have Gonzo and Rizzo acting as narrators.
Bill Murray took on the role in Scrooged, a film that updates the story to America in the 80s and Scrooge is recast as Frank Cross, a greedy and thoughtless television executive. It's a Bill Murray film so it obviously stands a chance of being an outright classic. Murray is a fantastic cynical Scrooge figure, completely convincing until he needs to be redeemed, the Murray of the period was always too much of a cynic to believe in redemption and as such the ending feels more like Cross is having a breakdown than he's filled with the seasonal spirit. Up until then it's excellent.
Disney's take on the tale, Mickey's Christmas Carol, was far more sentimental, as you'd expect. But it's still one of the better later offerings from the studio, thanks to the use of one of the studio's most underrated characters, the wonderful Scrooge McDuck. Not to be outdone, Looney Tunes did their own version with Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol, with Yosemite Sam as Scrooge.
Lots of t.v. comedies have done variations on Scrooge over the years, usually it's just a very dull way to get a seasonal episode out of a past its best (or in some cases never had a best shows) and then you have Blackadder's Christmas Carol. Putting a spin on their entire concept of the story, Ebeneezer Blackadder is the nicest man in England, until he's visited by a ghost who shows him how evil his ancestors were, and good old Blackadder decides he wants some of the fun for himself. WARNING - includes distressing scenes of Tony Robinson in a posing pouch.
Even Hammer got in on the act with Cash on Demand, not that you'd know it on first glance, updating it to then modern day Britain and making Scrooge a bank manager visited not by a ghost, but by a thief who blackmails him into helping rob the bank, Cushing's bank manager is a Scrooge with real grit and possibly his finest ever performance.
Victor Sjostrom's "the Phantom Carriage".
From Scrooge, Christmas can expand out into all different kinds of horror-related directions, from pure ghost stories to early slashers. Any top five has to start with Victor Sjostrom's Phantom Carriage, a tale of a ghostly figure showing a drunk how he threw his life away on New Year's Eve. Sjostrom's film did owe itself a debt to Dickens, but it captures an odd mix of naturalism and eerie ghostly effects that mark it out as one of the finest offerings of early cinema. Ealing had entered the fray in the 1940s with Dead of Night, an anthology film focused around a gathering at a farm house. The film contains a memorable story set around a children's Christmas party. The rest of the film isn't too bad either, in fact, it could have a reasonable claim to be the greatest horror film made in Britain, possibly the world. One of the greatest Christmas horrors was the 'and all through the house' segment of Amicus's Tales from the Crypt, the tale of Joan Collins murdering her husband one Christmas Eve then hearing a radio broadcast about an escaped psychopath who is dressed as Santa Claus and on the loose in the area. She decides to blame the murder on the psycho Santa, but then up on the roof there came such a clatter... Two years later, Black Christmas would beat Halloween to the title of the first holiday slasher when a deranged murderer starts tormenting a sorority house. Finally for spooky cinema, the season wouldn't be complete without The Nightmare Before Christmas. The story of how the King of Halloweenland decides to take over Christmas deserves to become a seasonal favourite in the same way that A Christmas Carol has. It's one of the most original Christmas films in living memory and an absolutely joyous production in every way.
Some of the best spooky Christmas treats haven't been cinema offerings. Instead they've come through films that were made for t.v. and it wouldn't be right to talk about scary Christmas films without mentioning them. One of the greatest additions to spooky yuletides came from the BBC in 1968. Even if the original show went out in May. Jonathan Miller decided to adapt a short story from the legendary M.R. James, Whistle and I'll Come to you, starring Michael Hordern. The success of the piece inspired the BBC to make a Christmas ghost story an annual event. There are reasons for this, mainly that James himself would tell his stories to selected groups of friends and students on Christmas Eve (A tradition that should be upheld, everyone should read at least one James story aloud by candlelight on Christmas Eve, if you can work a little performance into your reading, all the better) This lead to someone at the BBC deciding to commission the Ghost Story for Christmas series.
Starting in 1971 with another M.R. James adaptation, The Stalls of Barchester, and continuing until 78, A Ghost Story for Christmas is one of the most entertaining and genuinely frightening television series ever created. Airing one episode a year at Christmas, the series would produce six years of masterpieces with five James adaptations and one of Dickens' other great ghost story, The Signalman. Those six films, The Stalls of Barchester, A Warning to the Curious, Lost Hearts, The Treasure of Abbott Thomas, The Ash Tree and The Signalman are some of the most atmospheric and honestly terrifying films ever made. Then in 77 some idiot decided to write an original story, set in modern day, and the whole thing went to hell. Everything that was great about the first six films was lost and despite a bit of a return to form in 78 with The Ice House, the series was all but dead. At the end of the 70s, the BBC adapted Le Fanu's Schalken the Painter, an unofficial entry in the A Ghost Story for Christmas series, it captured the same atmosphere of creeping dread as the early offerings and it's amazing that they didn't decide to keep making these ghost stories through the 80s. The tradition was briefly revived in 2005/2006 with two more James adaptations. A View From a Hill was a strangely lifeless affair, but Number 13 had the feel and the scares of the old days. For some reason, no more were made.
The BBC Christmas ghost story existed outside of that series. 72 also gave us Nigel Kneale's deeply influential film, The Stone Tape. A team of computer experts move into an old building determined to find a new type of recording material and find that the walls themselves are able to reply events from the past, but the ghost in the stone is more ancient and deadly than they could ever imagine. The film is so influential that one theory as to the explanation of ghosts actually takes its name from this film, and while much of the technology is dated, the film is as terrifying as ever.
The same year also gave us Exorcism. Possibly even more frightening than The Stone Tape, a group of friends gather for Christmas dinner in an old farmhouse that's been upgraded to include all the modern conveniences, only to find themselves haunted by a previous tenant who has a heartbreaking story they need to tell. Quite possibly the most frightening Christmas ghost story ever filmed.
Nigel Kneale would later adapt Susan Hill's The Woman in Black. While I think the story works better as a stage play, there's no denying the power of the film, and it includes one of the single most terrifying scenes I've ever witnessed. A young solicitor is ordered to Crythin Gifford, a small town on the east coast to attend to the estate of a recently deceased client. While there he finds the townsfolk hold a dislike for her and for her home, Eel Marsh House, a secluded place that can be cut off from the town at high tide. Kidd settles down in the house to sort through her papers but he finds the house haunted by a mysterious woman in black who is rumoured to cause a death whenever she appears.
League of Gentlemen attempted to bring back the Christmas ghost story in 2000 with a special seasonal episode of their sick, twisted, and brilliantly funny television series. Taking its inspiration from the Amicus anthology films of the 60s and 70s, it was the best thing they've ever done. The revival of sorts continued last Christmas as the LOG's Mark Gatiss wrote and starred in the three part Crooked House series. While not on the level of the League's Christmas Special it was still a masterful ghost story from one of modern television's genre icons.
If you want something a bit more light-hearted you could try some television fantasy series. The Box of Delights is one of the great wintry television fantasies, as is the original BBC adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The BBC Narnia was far better than the recent film adaptation, which appears to be one abortion that the American religious right enjoyed seeing.
I'm going to allow myself a brief indulgent side-step here. One of my great passions is audio dramas/comedies and I'd like to take a moment to recommend five of the best Christmas offerings. I'll start with a mention for two of the best Audio scrooges. One is I'm Sorry I Haven't a Christmas Carol, the Christmas episode of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, with the long-suffering Humphrey Lyttelton (Not only of the great radio hosts of all time but also one of the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived, as all good Radiohead fans should know) as Ebeneezer Scrumph. The show might not make much sense to non-ISIHAC fans, but if you're not an ISIHAC fan then you're not really alive. Geoffrey Palmer also deserves a mention for his rather magical unabridged audiobook reading of the story, hopefully someday someone will give Palmer a chance to play Scrooge on television or film, he's made for the part. Going way back to the 40s and the Suspense radio series we get Back for Christmas starring Peter Lorre. A nasty little tale about a professor driven to murder his wife, it features one of Lorre's greatest performances. Then we have Christmas at Rawlinson End from the Godlike Vivian Stanshall, a Christmas episode of his hilarious Sir Henry at Rawlinson End monologues, tales of a drunken, racist, decrepit nobleman. I'll finish off with the Old Harry's Game Christmas Special. Written by and starring the great Andy Hamilton, much of the double-part episode might be lost on people unfamiliar with the series, but if the idea of someone being wrongly sent to Hell and a lovestruck Satan trying to get her into Heaven, taking in a professor turned into a bluebottle, talking crocodiles with a nasty sense of humour, a Welsh Grim Reaper, two reality shows called Pop Martyrs and Fatwah Academy and a sympathetic demon named Scumspawn, along the way, doesn't make you want to hear this show then you're beyond all help.
"The Apartment" is a love story set at Christmas.
Back to the films. Christmas is a time for depression, loneliness and suicide for many and a lot of the best comedy films have mined that dark vein and created some of the most bittersweet comedy films imaginable. The Apartment and The Shop Around the Corner are both love stories set over the Christmas period that tackle suicide attempts as major plot points. They're also two of the greatest films ever made and should be in your seasonal viewing calendar anyway. For something more modern try The Ref. Dark and bitchy for most of its running time, this tale of a dysfunctional family being taken hostage by a criminal on the run succeeds through it's great script and masterful performance from Kevin Spacey. Family is also hell for the cast of Season's Greetings, a bitter little comedy about the hell loved ones can cause at Christmas. The family unit is also torn apart in Gremlins as Phoebe Cates tells a horrific little tale about why she hates Christmas, the darkest moment in one of the most subversive blockbusters of the 80s. Two Christmas Laurel & Hardy shorts, Below Zero and Big Business also refuse to indulge in the goodwill to all men aspect of the season. Below Zero finds them annoying Christmas shoppers by busking to In the Good Old Summertime. Big Business sees them getting involved in a tit for tat war while selling Christmas trees door-to-door.
Dramas also take the view that Christmas can be a slice of hell. The Proposition offers a family of psychopaths, murder, rape and a brutal flogging along with Christmas dinner. You could also try The Junky's Christmas, probably the bleakest Christmas film ever made, an animated short based on a William Burrough's story about an addict desperately trying to score a hit.
Less bleak, James Joyce's The Dead is possibly the finest piece of writing in the English language and the film doesn't disappoint. Melancholy and elegiac, it takes place over a family Christmas in Ireland examines the distance that can come between two people and the memories of the past that can haunt the present. It was John Huston's finest film and both the short story and the film have the ability to reduce me to a quivering wreck.
In 1991, Malcolm McLaren made The Ghosts of Oxford Street. A t.v. musical drama/documentary examining the history of Oxford Street and Christmas past. It's difficult to describe just how remarkable this film is to anyone who hasn't experienced it. There are stories of people being hung on Tyburn gallows, accompanied by a musical performance from The Happy Mondays. Tom Jones plays the original owner of Selfridges, who was left destitute. Kirsty MacColl and Shane MacGowan play a prostitute and her client who treat us to a rendition of the greatest Christmas song ever recorded, Fairytale of New York. The film raises Oxford Street to a near mythical level and it's a crime how unseen this magical show actually is. It should be shown every Christmas.
So the finest Christmas offerings are all terrifying or depressing as hell, right? Not really. And a huge part of me is still a sucker for the seasonal spirit. So to finish on an upbeat note here's ten of the best sweeter Christmas offerings.
Let's start with Cary Grant. The Bishop's Wife is one of the few sentimental seasoning offerings that really works. The film is about an angel (Grant) who comes to help a bishop (David Niven) who is trying to build a new church and neglecting his wife in the process. They really don't make them like this anymore.
How about Christmas animation? Christmas wouldn't be complete without The Snowman. Often parodied by people who don't understand the sheer beauty of this film, it seems to have gained a reputation for sentimentality, something that doesn't occur here or in any of the author, Raymond Briggs' work. That reputation seems to suggest that people who mock it have never actually watched it. If you've never seen it before, watch it this Christmas. If you have seen it before, watch it anyway. You should also watch Briggs other great Christmas cartoon, Father Christmas, a funny little film with great narration from Mel Smith about a Santa who lives in a suburban house rather than the North Pole. The Wallace & Gromit cartoons should also be essential viewing every year, the stories may not take place at Christmas, but most of them were first broadcast over Christmas and for most of us they're a part of the season.
Some American animations get the balance between sentiment and heart perfect, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Garfield Christmas are perfect examples of cartoons that manage to put a warm feeling in your belly that doesn't make you want to vomit straight afterwards. And the Penguins of Madagascar's Christmas Caper has the potential to become a seasonal classic for future generations. Best of the lot is A Charlie Brown Christmas, like The Snowman it's mocked as sentimental, but it in no way deserves that reputation, Charlie Brown cartoons are a lot of things, but sentimental isn't one of them.
I'll finish with the Christmas film that means the most to me, A Child's Christmas in Wales. Maybe this means more to me because I'm Welsh, I don't know. But the Christmas depicted here seems only to exist in stories and films, but I defy anyone who watches it to not end up wishing they had a grandfather like Denholm Elliott, and by the time the family are singing Ar Hyd y Nos, you'll be wishing every Christmas could be that magical. I'll be watching this Christmas Eve, and if you can find a copy, you all should too.
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