Review of The Christmas Carol

"The Christmas Carol" is a 25-minute (very essential version at that brief runtime), black-and-white, live-action film from over 65 years ago and writer and director Arthur Pierson adapted the popular Charles Dickens story for the small screen here. The most famous cast member is probably Jill St. John, even if she only plays a very minor character. You have to really mess things up in order to come up with a bad film because the base material is just so good. And Pierson definitely succeeded with his work here. This was mostly due to Taylor Holmes who played the lead character very convincingly. The narration comes from Vincent Price, who is of course also a really famous cast member. I liked how they switched between him reading to us from the book and the action. It gave the film a somewhat cozy look. And with the films he appears in otherwise, it's also fitting that he is a part in this film, one of the spookiest Christmas tales, despite its wonderful message. Occasionally, I was a bit surprised how little Scrooge was scared by all these ghosts appearing out of nowhere, but that's just a minor criticism. My favorite adaptation of Dickens' work here is still Disney's old animated take on the story, but I thought this one here was pretty good too and I certainly recommend it. Thumbs up.