"Probably Dicken's most popular story... that we're going to whittle down to a half hour short and skip nearly every single of the most important elements of the story that help to support the main parts".
It's awesome, and ranks in a close second for me, but my #1 favorite version would have to be the 2009 animated version with Jim Carrey. It is a truly marvelous adaptation of the book, unbelievably faithful to the source material down to the smallest details!
"Every day since my demise, I've been made to watch you. Especially in the nightly hours. I've seen you do things, Scrooge...horrible things. Things that would make the very Devil himself shiver. You're a sick old man, Ebenezer. A disgusting sickening degenerate of a prune. Your nights of debauchery weight heavier on my soul than these damnable chains."
Somehow I never thought I'd see Fredric March in a Rifftrax. My two obsessions -- 1930s-40s Hollywood and listening to snarky comments about cheesy films -- have collided.
A few years ago I threw out the 1966 encyclopedia set I’d used as a boy, still in my parents’ house. The paper recycling in the town allowed recycling of books if the bindings were removed, so I removed them and filled the recycling bins with the paper. Thrift shops are sick of getting old encyclopedias so I just got rid of the set properly.
@@markiangooley I have a set of the red and black binded ones they sold door to door, They match my decor and make me feel like Vincent Price when I'm in my study. like 50% of the infomation is 80's wrong.
It was made for TV, Rathbone complained in his memoirs that it demonstrated how television can make a great story mediocre, and I suspect that Coronet just bought the rights to it.
Having seen so many retellings of this classic and read it, I can't help but mentally note every scene they skipped and how relevant it was to the overall tone and story, hurting this short version to have skipped them.
Definitely! This is the only Dickens story I really like. I enjoy most versions of this story, but this one lacked a lot of subtlety and felt super rushed. I feel kinda bad for the big name actors in this one.
Recipe for Cripple's Gruel One cup of beef tallow Two cups of filtered ditch water Heat and stir until amalgamated and piping hot garnish with parsley scraps and serve. Serves two small cripples.
Not so huge really. The original was just a novella, with only 147 pages, many of which were just illustrations. An important work, no doubt, but not a "huge novel" by anyone's definition.
Elewes wasn't exactly a nobleman, lacking any hereditary or life title in the British Peerage that would qualify him as part of that class. Still, he did come from lower-rank noble stock, had inherited a small fortune as a young man that allowed him to build up a sizeable property portfolio in Central London,, served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 12 years, and, yes, was very much a miser of the first order. Indeed, his miserliness became the stuff of legend. Besides eating bad meat, Elewes' other eccentric behaviors include walking twenty miles in downpouring rain to avoid paying coach fare, keeping only one fireplace in his lofty London house lit in the dead of winter, allowing his country estate to fall into ruin rather than spend money on its upkeep, and spent only £50 per annum despite leaving a fortune that, inflation-adjusted to the 2020s, would be worth an estimated £81 million!
Just read the novella for the first time and hats off to Coronet--the abridged dialog is almost verbatim from the book. Actually, this isn't a terrible retelling visually, either, considering the budget. What is even happening?
4:40 - I know it's a short film, so cuts have to be made ... but imagine how foolish you'd have to be to remove the "There's more of gravy than of grave about you" line.
The very last line slayed me! Thanks for the seasonal reminder my time is indeed valuable! Oysters and nameless gray vegetables for everyone! Now who want more cake?
Nice to hear you guys up to your old retorts. I do miss the silhouettes though. I've been going thru my MST3K sets & watching movies I've never seen before or don't remember and it's still great fun. Merry Christmas ya ole Buildings & Loans! 🤣
I finally gave in! Thanks to a decade of Martin Van Buren jokes. I finally took the dive, so I could refresh my memory. I was tired of not getting the jokes. I'm Canadian but have a keen interest in all things American, so I did already know the basics but wanted to do a refresh and also learn more, (about the numerous sex scandals and hush money, taken from the pockets of the American worker.)* So thank you Rifftrax. God Bless you, every one! * In case I'm taken seriously. Everything I wrote, between the brackets, is probably not true ;)
This line is in most adaptations but I still never understood it. Why does the ghost of Christmas present say "I see an empty chair where Tiny Tim once sat." But then immediately after say "I can't speak for the future." Like dude, make up your mind.
Because Tim was so weak, he could literally die at any moment. Tim could be on his death bed if things continued how they did for the Cratchets. But it’s also meant for Scrooge to think about what could happen if he kept treating Cratchet as he did. But this could also be a hint it was a dream.
I guess it's because that line is supposed to be the ghost's speculation instead of an officially-sanctioned Christmas Future prophecy. Like, "I don't know man, but it doesn't look so good to me."
I remember the commercial jingle, “Extra value is what you get/ When you buy Coronet!” But I can’t recall what Coronet was selling! With Coronet Films, it’s extra value for riffing?
Although Basil WrathBone is my 2nd favorite Sherlock, I find I'll have to stick with 'Blackadder's Christmas Carol' as my annual X-Mas video-viewing tradition. But since RiffTrax makes even the truly unwatchable watchable, I'll just say "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good Riff!"
21:39 So if I'm following the moral of this story... and I may not be... we should be generous and give to those less fortunate so that people don't steal our precious belongings and talk shit about us once we're dead? This sounds less like Scrooge having a change of heart and more him realizing he needs to lay some money around to help his PR.
The fact that Tim does survive in the altered future implies that his condition was completely treatable, even in the 1840's, and the only reason he would have died is because Scrooge didn't pay Bob enough to get the help.
There's also a bit in the story where Scrooge says something about the poor dying to "decrease the surplus population." As Scrooge becomes more humanized, he's reminded of these words even though he becomes compassionate towards Tiny Tim.
"I see an empty chair in the future"
*two seconds later*
"I cannot answer about the future"
"He not only lives, he walks!"
"Probably Dicken's most popular story... that we're going to whittle down to a half hour short and skip nearly every single of the most important elements of the story that help to support the main parts".
Yeah, I love this story but this particular version lacks a lot of the subtlety in the original. Blah! Too bad for Basil Rathbone.
"Old People - Sometimes They Just Dissolve"...Now THAT should be Golden Corral's new slogan!
It happens sometimes, people just explode. Natural causes.
Is that what MacArthur meant by old soldiers simply fading away?
First thing I thought - well played!@@JamaicanCastle
😆😆😆😆
“I’ll be James Spader in Secretary, you be Maggie Gyllenhall.” I cry laughed at that one.
"3 spirits? Now you're talking. Make it Vodka, Scotch, and a small pint of Gin".
3.. k ugh.. to your health to your happiness.. .. .. ugh.. and may you find love/joy.. ...
Rich Littles Christmas Carol! 😂loved it!
Lol and a warranty on my liver.
We had to watch this in elementary school and the only lesson i ever learned was that I really wanted a bed with curtains
"Good old Blimey Jim!" Seriously, this has to be the most bare-bones Christmas Carol ever...
Coronet really just did a speedrun of A Christmas Carol, didn't they.
It makes Mickey's Christmas Carol look like Infinity: Endgame
For real, not four minutes in, and we're at the bedchamber scene.
@@dawnbreaker2912 At least they cut out the nudity. Wait what version did I see previously..?
@@user-os7ec4dm8x It's just not the same without the Ghost of Christmas Future's striptease act.
One could only imagine how condensed Coronet would make Gone With The Wind
😂😂😂
"And why aren't you played by Kermit the Frog?" Truer words have never been spoken, it's the best version of the Christmas Carol 🐸🎄
Just watched it again. I 100% agree 👍
What about Mickey’s Christmas Carol?
@@TwilightLink77 It's cute, but there's just something magical about the Muppet Christmas Carol that even Disney couldn't replicate
It's awesome, and ranks in a close second for me, but my #1 favorite version would have to be the 2009 animated version with Jim Carrey.
It is a truly marvelous adaptation of the book, unbelievably faithful to the source material down to the smallest details!
Scrooged. Just Scrooged.
I'm guessing this is exactly how poor ol' Basil Rathbone turned out after he was forced to do "Hillbillys in a Haunted House"...
The funny thing is in the book, Marley really has been watching Scrooge secretly for years! He says, "that is no light part of my penance."
"Every day since my demise, I've been made to watch you. Especially in the nightly hours. I've seen you do things, Scrooge...horrible things. Things that would make the very Devil himself shiver. You're a sick old man, Ebenezer. A disgusting sickening degenerate of a prune. Your nights of debauchery weight heavier on my soul than these damnable chains."
“No light part of my penance” is right. Remember, he probably saw Scrooge change clothes.
that's quite a ghost burn
I think Marley saw his Johnson while they were alive@fromthecheapseats7126
How in the hell did Coronet get Fredric March and Basil Rathbone?
That’s like trying to get Shohei Ohtani and you’re a Little League team.
Or the Mets🤥
Many people don't recall that Basil Rathbone was in "Is This Love?"
Or the Mariners
Basil Rathbone was in the Mariners? Huh, learn something new every day.
Their careers were nearing the end so they thought "screw it, where's my paycheck?".
I note that the major cut in the film was the missing line about raising Crachit's wages.
"he not only lives, he walks!"😂😂😂
What I’d do for a version where Scrooge never learns his lesson because of that one misunderstanding.
Somehow I never thought I'd see Fredric March in a Rifftrax. My two obsessions -- 1930s-40s Hollywood and listening to snarky comments about cheesy films -- have collided.
"Brought to you by Encylcopedias, it's like we never existed!" Well now I feel old at 43.
A few years ago I threw out the 1966 encyclopedia set I’d used as a boy, still in my parents’ house. The paper recycling in the town allowed recycling of books if the bindings were removed, so I removed them and filled the recycling bins with the paper.
Thrift shops are sick of getting old encyclopedias so I just got rid of the set properly.
@@markiangooley I have a set of the red and black binded ones they sold door to door, They match my decor and make me feel like Vincent Price when I'm in my study. like 50% of the infomation is 80's wrong.
"Thank god we don't have to listen to Tiny Tim singing about tiptoeing through tulips anymore."
Tiny Tim tip-toes through tulips while traipsing through turtleheads and tramping through trilliums.
@@Firguy_the_Foot_Fetishist Better not do that last one in Ontario. It’s our Provincial flower. You can’t even pick one without getting arrested.
This version of Marley seems to move around a LOT more freely than most of the many other versions.
When looking at Marley I could only think of the word babushka
It was made for TV, Rathbone complained in his memoirs that it demonstrated how television can make a great story mediocre, and I suspect that Coronet just bought the rights to it.
I have a friend who owns a t-shirt that reads "Movies: Ruining the book since 1930"
Pretty much...
Another clever disguise by Sherlock Holmes;)
Having seen so many retellings of this classic and read it, I can't help but mentally note every scene they skipped and how relevant it was to the overall tone and story, hurting this short version to have skipped them.
Definitely! This is the only Dickens story I really like. I enjoy most versions of this story, but this one lacked a lot of subtlety and felt super rushed. I feel kinda bad for the big name actors in this one.
"Who can we get to play the ghost of Christmas Future? We'll need someone who can point. Someone with a good index finger."
And really fat hands, apparently
So they got the guy who played Thing from The Addams Family.
We need a version where Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Bob Marley😂
You mean The Muppets Christmas Carol?
That actually did happened in the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Christmas special.
Scrooge had Riff Raff vibes. Thought he might start singing Time Warp.
At the end of the short he bursts into Fred's house with a gun saying his lifestyle's too extreme.
This comment caught me completely off guard. I haven't laughed so hard in years. Thanks, I needed that! 🤣
😂😅😂😅😂😅😂😅😂❤
@@JamaicanCastle😂😅😂😅😂😅❤
@@JamaicanCastle😂😅😂😅😂😅😂❤❤
The five scariest words are "Knew your father, I did!"
The Bridget version of Mr. B Natural is so much less frightening…
"You leave my father out of this!"
Recipe for Cripple's Gruel
One cup of beef tallow
Two cups of filtered ditch water
Heat and stir until amalgamated and piping hot garnish with parsley scraps and serve. Serves two small cripples.
Tiny Tim: Can I come to the table now, ma?
Emily: Not just yet, dear. You've still got a few more hours in the shunning chair.
They really jammed a huge novel into a short film!! Rathbone did a great job. You guys crack me up!
Not so huge really. The original was just a novella, with only 147 pages, many of which were just illustrations. An important work, no doubt, but not a "huge novel" by anyone's definition.
More a novella
"Huge"? What?
@@Popebug Yes, I have never read a Dickens book. Ya got me. Too many characters called Fezzy Bottom or Perry Winkle for me.
Ebenezer Skrull was one of the deleted transformations for Amelia Clarke.
When Scrooge said, "Jacob Marley"! I wish Marley would've said, "Wassssupppp"!
The real life inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge was a nobleman named John Elwes, a man who was so cheap that he would buy rotten meat to save money.
Oh my God. Do not invite that dude to the potluck.
Elewes wasn't exactly a nobleman, lacking any hereditary or life title in the British Peerage that would qualify him as part of that class. Still, he did come from lower-rank noble stock, had inherited a small fortune as a young man that allowed him to build up a sizeable property portfolio in Central London,, served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for 12 years, and, yes, was very much a miser of the first order. Indeed, his miserliness became the stuff of legend. Besides eating bad meat, Elewes' other eccentric behaviors include walking twenty miles in downpouring rain to avoid paying coach fare, keeping only one fireplace in his lofty London house lit in the dead of winter, allowing his country estate to fall into ruin rather than spend money on its upkeep, and spent only £50 per annum despite leaving a fortune that, inflation-adjusted to the 2020s, would be worth an estimated £81 million!
Just read the novella for the first time and hats off to Coronet--the abridged dialog is almost verbatim from the book. Actually, this isn't a terrible retelling visually, either, considering the budget. What is even happening?
20:00 Homeless Martin Van Buren lmao
4:40 - I know it's a short film, so cuts have to be made ... but imagine how foolish you'd have to be to remove the "There's more of gravy than of grave about you" line.
things are so upside down and backward these days, I'm almost expecting Mike and the guys to actually become Golden Corrall's new spokesmen.
Considering they recently put out a video of them actually going to Golden Corral... yep.
12:49 " a fat alcoholic prone to bragging "😂
Coronet Films. The gift that just keeps on giving.
RiffTrax: just handing out all the hot Dickens we can handle this holiday season.
HOT DICKENS FOR EVERYBODY! MERRY XMAS!
JUST PASSING 'EM OUT
HOT. DICKENS.
Ah, the days before they invented walls.
The very last line slayed me! Thanks for the seasonal reminder my time is indeed valuable! Oysters and nameless gray vegetables for everyone! Now who want more cake?
Man... how much starch did they use in Scrooge's night cap??
Fun livestream premiere. The spirits did it all in 25 minutes!
Nice to hear you guys up to your old retorts. I do miss the silhouettes though. I've been going thru my MST3K sets & watching movies I've never seen before or don't remember and it's still great fun. Merry Christmas ya ole Buildings & Loans! 🤣
"We're getting crunk tonight, lads!"
This digest version of A Christmas Carol makes the Muppet version look like a Cannes Film Festival winner. 😂
the Gandalf one got me good
'Oh my god, I shot a cop! What am I going to do??'
Merry Christmas, Briny Jim.
The Hero With A Thousand Adaptations
"Little Bo Peep had a more understated bow than him"😂😂😂
Thanks folks happy holidays 😊
That Christmas goose looked like a malnourished duck.
So is Marley still in purgatory
I’m so hungry I’d eat a 6 foot party sub served in a coffin….
3:05 Holy crap, is that Basil Rathbone?!
He must have been bored that year. 😴
Riff-trax and coffee. Just what we need this crazed, pre-Christmas workday.
That little chuckle at 2:28 is sending me 😂
Soooo... nobody is going to comment that he's only a couple of pages into the book when he ends the story?
This is a Coronet Films production, you know. 😆
I finally gave in! Thanks to a decade of Martin Van Buren jokes. I finally took the dive, so I could refresh my memory.
I was tired of not getting the jokes.
I'm Canadian but have a keen interest in all things American, so I did already know the basics but wanted to do a refresh and also learn more, (about the numerous sex scandals and hush money, taken from the pockets of the American worker.)*
So thank you Rifftrax. God Bless you, every one!
* In case I'm taken seriously. Everything I wrote, between the brackets, is probably not true ;)
''Ha! Booyah! Suck it, Marley!''
Should have said that in A Muppets Christmas Carol. 😂
Enjoying this with a nice, hot Dicken's Cider. Merry Christmas, lads.
Six foot sub coming through! hahahaha
Coronet needed more Muppets.
Exactly what I want for Xmas. A month's worth of Dickins!
with the actual number of ''interpretations'', you could probably get some dickins every day of the year and twice on sundays. LOL
"Here lies Ebenezer Scrooge. He never scored."
The moral of this story: the rich will only share if you scare the living crap out of them.
This line is in most adaptations but I still never understood it. Why does the ghost of Christmas present say "I see an empty chair where Tiny Tim once sat." But then immediately after say "I can't speak for the future." Like dude, make up your mind.
Because Tim was so weak, he could literally die at any moment. Tim could be on his death bed if things continued how they did for the Cratchets. But it’s also meant for Scrooge to think about what could happen if he kept treating Cratchet as he did. But this could also be a hint it was a dream.
I guess it's because that line is supposed to be the ghost's speculation instead of an officially-sanctioned Christmas Future prophecy. Like, "I don't know man, but it doesn't look so good to me."
I remember the commercial jingle, “Extra value is what you get/ When you buy Coronet!” But I can’t recall what Coronet was selling! With Coronet Films, it’s extra value for riffing?
Paper towels or napkins, I think?
Here's a deep question. If Scrooge hadn't given Cratchett off, would the spirits even had bothered?
Although Basil WrathBone is my 2nd favorite Sherlock, I find I'll have to stick with 'Blackadder's Christmas Carol' as my annual X-Mas video-viewing tradition. But since RiffTrax makes even the truly unwatchable watchable, I'll just say "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good Riff!"
Marley and Me: A Christmas Carol Slash-fic
How could you do this to me
You think Afred Higgins has an adaptation of A Christmas Carol? I think not.
Marley the Dog should have been eating Pesto Flavore Basil Rathbones.
Maybe it's another fellow clan member.
LMAO
Briny Jim haha
21:39 So if I'm following the moral of this story... and I may not be... we should be generous and give to those less fortunate so that people don't steal our precious belongings and talk shit about us once we're dead? This sounds less like Scrooge having a change of heart and more him realizing he needs to lay some money around to help his PR.
An ACI Christmas film would be... _interesting._
I don't remember anymore, why was Tiny Tim's death on Scrooge? Also did he like not know he was gonna die someday?
The fact that Tim does survive in the altered future implies that his condition was completely treatable, even in the 1840's, and the only reason he would have died is because Scrooge didn't pay Bob enough to get the help.
@@chrisc6857 Ah ok that makes sense, I hadn't thought of it that way. Money can't buy happiness but it can buy your kid's life, apparently lol
There's also a bit in the story where Scrooge says something about the poor dying to "decrease the surplus population." As Scrooge becomes more humanized, he's reminded of these words even though he becomes compassionate towards Tiny Tim.
a young Richard O'Brien watches this short and thinks "I know how I want to look now"
I wish there was an ACI adaptation of this tbh
“Is Christmas cheer Grass?”
At Your Fingertips: Christmas Ghosts
@@JamaicanCastle beat me to it!
The answer to the animal riddle is actually "Boris Johnson's hair!"
I think it would have been some great irony if Jacob Marley was played by Nigel Bruce but he was long dead.
Unless it is a quote in the beginning of the book from the author or a proloague, why is he reading the end of the book at the beginning pages?
Please do this with the Sanford and Son version of A Christmas Carol please please please
Good old Briny Jim! 😂😂😂
Arrr, I be fond o' that ol' Jim lad.
Wait, wrong British novel.
So, no live show this Christmas then...
Allegedly Rathbone took any role he could get right up to the end because his wife loved an extravagant lifestyle. Then again perhaps he did too.
"I will not!" Oh, damn.
Scrooge was a miser in everything but putting buttons on his dressing gown.
Tiny Tim's Christmas Gruel mmmm de-lish
10:57 Before I was poor? In this version she was rich and became poor? Or she read the line wrong with no editor or director awake?
“Bah…Humbug!”
“I’m Sorry! That ‘Bah’ was out of line…”
Well, I was in live comments, switched to "like" as suggested, & can't get into live comments again. Thanks, RT
Bill had the 2 best jokes: "except for the Irish" and the reference to the Maggie Gyllenhaal secretary scene.
Coronet Films, because someone has to make these stupid educational shorts to distract the students so the teacher can go get a quick smoke.
I have always what would the visit of the ghost of Bob Marley be like
Scrooge asks him if his soul can be saved and Marley breaks into Every Little Thing Gonna Be Alright
Yes, this was a lean year for me. Coronet really came through.
This story needs a spring sprite or a bread devil to give it some pizazz.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 😅