Carol for Another Christmas (1964)

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

. . . by piggy-backing a lot of One-World, Total Disarmament, Income Redistribution prattle on the framework of the beloved Charles Dickens story, A CHR!STMAS CAROL. Misers, epitomized by Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge, are obsessed by arithmetic--NOT creature comforts, conspicuous consumption, the Seven Deadly Sins, or any other vice. Due to childhood trauma, they hoard their gold, just as other people hoard shoes or cats. Scrooge would NOT burn a lump of coal or eat a decent meal on his own behalf. A CAROL FOR ANOTHER CHR!TMAS tries to equate Scrooge with its main character, Daniel Grudge. Dan lives by himself in a luxurious mansion, spends money like water on frills such as domestic help and chandeliers, and puts his energy into being a blow-hard ideologue. While Scrooge only had one thought in his head (Get and save every penny), Dan spouts off endlessly about various facets of international politics. Barb wire mazes, Japanese girls without faces, crazy cowboys, casket convoys, United Nations, poor relations, kids with guns, Armageddons--what does any of this have to do with Christmas?!

While Rod Serling's "Patterns" in the 1950's on live television is even better than this twist on the Charles Dickens classic done for the UN might even be more topical now than when it first aired.(Patterns is still topical too, a sign of how great a writer Serling was).Serling wrote a great dramatic script here yet again though for those who expect just a Dicken's remake, your in for a major surprise.Sterling Hayden plays Mr. Grudge, a sort of modern Scrooge ever since he lost his son in World War 2 on 12/24/1944. He has been moping ever since blaming US Foreign Policy of getting involved overseas in everybody's issues for losing his son. Luckily, this is before Vietnam escalated so that does not come into this though it would weaken the main argument against Mr Grudge's logic.It is obvious this movie is made on a television budget and in black and white the sets really look stark. The script and the cast are what brings this off. Late in this special, we get Peter Sellars getting together the survivors of Armagedden and preaching "ME" and that is the scary part of this. We have the me generation now, it is almost as if Serling was really predicting the future here.The "WE" theme is here to counterbalance that theme. The UN wanted this theme obviously. The only thing missing here is the fact that today the "We" theme has been twisted by agenda driven special groups and corporations to be something beyond Serlings vision here which is the more simplistic theme that we all need to cooperate to avoid disaster. Serlings themes here are brilliant and Eva Marie Saint, Britt Ekland, Sellers, and more help Sterling Haydens great performance in this television movie made just a year before some of these folks would be working with Kubrick in Dr Strangelove.I am glad to have caught it this holiday season on TCM as I had never seen it before now.

Turner Classic Movies blindsided me tonight when they decided to run this rarity, a special that ran on Monday, 28 December 1964 on ABC. Yes, this special runs like a final episode of "The Twilight Zone."And that is not a bad thing!This remake of "A Christmas Carol" is, by "Zone" standards, edgy. First, Joseph Mankewicz directs this, his only television project. The cast is first-rate, from Sterling Holloway to Peter Sellers and Steve Lawrence. Unlike the original CBS series, this was filmed in New York City.This special makes me wonder whether or not "The Twilight Zone" might have lasted longer, had it aired on The Alphabet Network. In the 1960s, that network was far edgier than CBS, the original host for Rod Serling's series.Many people may find Rod Serling's writing shrill. OK, my views are very similar to his, and my family knew him personally. But in this day and age, this special is like a badly needed slap in the face. If his writing is difficult, the actors overcome this.And as for the ending: Remember, this is late 1964, when television was still a fairly timid medium, reliant on advertising. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had just been passed, and the march on Selma, Alabama was in the future. For the script's stiff qualities, I give this 9/10, but for overall effort and intention, I give this 100,000,000/10.PS: And given how, even in late 1964, animosity against the Japanese existed, seeing this special is refreshing.

Made just after the financial disaster of "Cleopatra" -one of the most unfairly underrated movies of all time,at least in its four-hour version-by Mankiewicz.It's an updated Dickens' "a Xmas carol" with a "modern " uncle Scroodge ;one can notice that the "don't be selfish,open up,don't get caught up in the "me" machine was also treated by Frank Capra in his (certainly more palatable) "it's a wonderful life" .This is a movie which concerns today's audience ,in spite of its dated details ;more than ever we must help our fellow men and not hide our heads in the sand even when we feel like letting everything down.When the second ghost talks about the hungry people in the world,he's speaking to all of us;it's not surprising that the only man who rebels against the Imperial Me is a black man (and his wife).There's a stellar cast featuring Sterling Hayden as the lead and Eva Marie-Saint,Robert Shaw,Ben Gazarra as the nephew ,Peter Sellers and more ...