Silent Santa: Movie Portrayals Up To 1900
The image of Santa Claus was not, as is often believed, the creation of Coca-Cola ad executives and the illustrator Haddon Sundblom, but developed over several decades, beginning with his description as a "jolly old elf" in "A Visit from St Nicholas" (aka "The Night Before Christmas"), a poem published in The Troy Sentinel, New York on December 22nd, 1823, and later claimed by Clement Clark Moore, a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College and enthusiastic supporter of slavery (the poem was filmed by Edison Studios in 1905). Recently the poem's authorship has been brought into question and may prove to be the work of Henry Livingston Jr.*
As the 19th Century progressed, he developed into the rotund night visitor we're familiar with today, in John Leech's illustration of the Ghost of Christmas Present for Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and the work of illustrator Thomas Nast, first seen in an 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly, as well as an editorial in the September 21st, 1897 issue of The New York Sun, wherein a young Miss O'Hanlon was comforted with the fact that "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" by editor Francis Pharcellus Church.
Santa Claus Filling Stockings (1897)
In December that same year, Santa made his first appearance on screen in a 254ft film by the American Mutoscope Company, named Santa Claus Filling Stockings. The film depicts our hero coming down the chimney and distributing his gifts before heading out the way he came in and was the second of a four-part series which also included The Night Before Christmas, in which the children hang up their stockings; Christmas Morning, when they gleefully discover their toys; and The Christmas Tree Party, which sees Santa joining the family and handing out more gifts.
The films were possibly made by WKL Dickson, a French-born Englishman who had founded Mutoscope in 1895 after falling out with his former employer, Thomas Edison (Dickson returned to England in 1897, so his actual involvement is unknown). If one man can claim the title The Father of Film, it's Dickson, who invented the first camera, made one of the first moving pictures, Monkeyshines, in 1890, and built the first studio, the Black Maria, all in the face of Edison's disinterest and objection. He and Edison finally had a disagreement neither could overcome and Dickson formed his own company and created the Mutograph projector. He started almost immediately on another creation, the Biograph – the company would change its name to the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company in 1899 and go on to hire DW Griffith, who shot the first motion picture in the small California village called Hollywood.
Santa Clause (1898)
Sadly Santa Claus Filling Stockings is lost, but September of 1898 saw the release of a British film we can thankfully still see, Santa Clause (known as The Visit of Santa Claus and Santa Claus' Visit in the USA - the latter is often mistakenly credited as a 1900 Edison release) from George Albert Smith's GAS Films shows a familiar-looking Santa in fur-lined cloak and hood. GA Smith was a former magic lantern man and hypnotist, who is know to have corresponded with Georges Méliès around this time and the influence of the French pioneer is apparent. This shouldn't detract from Smith's efforts though as he was equally adept at using available special effects such as double exposure, to create fantasy sequences the equal of those being accomplished across the Channel.
What marks Santa Clause as a landmark of early English cinema is the handling of Santa's visit during which, as the children sleep on the left of the screen, Santa is seen landing on the roof and climbing into the chimney on the right. This is the first time that two incidents, taking place in separate locations had been seen sharing the same frame in an English film. As with Smith's other pioneering efforts like The Haunted Castle (1897) and The X-Ray Fiend (1897), Santa Clause stars Smith's wife, Laura Bayley, as the children's governess and is a great example of the developing language of film, just a few years after its invention.
Santa Claus and the Children (1898)
Two months later in November 1898, one of the earliest fiction films from another great British cinema pioneer, Robert William Paul was released. RW Paul started out as an instrument maker and began manufacturing the Animatograph, a replica of WKL Dickson's Edison Kinetograph, around 1894 with Georges Méliès being one of his earliest customers. Sadly Santa Claus and the Children is another lost film (ironically Paul was an early advocate for archival preservation), but thanks to the British Film Institute, we can still enjoy some of his later classics, like Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901), the earliest surviving version of Dickens' classic, The Magic Sword (1901), and ambitious fantasy epic, and The ? Motorist (1906) an early science fiction film in the spirit of Méliès. It's possible that Paul's film is heavily influenced by either or both of the Mutoscope and GAS films, as originality took second place to commerce in the early days of cinema.
Rêve de Noël/The Christmas Dream (1900)
On the December 1st, 1900, Georges Méliès revealed his big Christmas release to Star Film's eager customers. Rêve de Noël (known as The Christmas Dream in England and the USA, where it debuted at New York's Eden Musee on December 16th, 1901) was one of 34 films he made that year, as well as creating tableaux for the Paris World's Fair, but the prolific auteur was determined to top the success of the previous year's Cendrillon (Cinderella) and spent, he claimed, "…three months concentrated work, packed to produce a projection of 10 minutes' duration, without losing interest for one moment."
Described as both "Father Christmas" and "The King of Toyland" in publicity material, a bad-tempered Santa has more of supporting role here, and it's left to the Angels to distribute the gifts, with the central story being that of a beggar, threatened with ejection, invited to the feast by a wealthy host. The version we can see today last 4 minutes 15 seconds, and appears to be missing one scene, featuring a choir and organist, with some of the others truncated. Nevertheless, it's full of the charm we expect from Méliès, particularly in the distinctive set design and shows the development of his techniques as Star Film's productions became more ambitious.
It's well worth checking out these early examples of Christmas cinema, and reflecting on how well they capture the spirit of the season, in contrast to the mega-budget, syrupy extravaganzas we're forced to endure 110 years later.
Viewing
Santa Claus (1889) can be viewed on the BFI's YouTube channel
Rêve de Noël/The Christmas Dream can be seen on the DVD set Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (1896-1913), from Flicker Alley.
Also recommended is the DVD, Christmas Past: Vintage Holiday Films, from Kino Video. which includes the 1905 Edison Night Before Christmas, and eight other silent films from 1901 to 1925, including a 1910 version of A Christmas Carol.
Reference
The AFI Catalog: Silent Film
The British Film Catalogue: Volume 1, Fiction Film 1895–1994, 3rd Edition; Denis Gifford. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001. Pages 7 and 8.
L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès; Jacques Malthête, Laurent Mannoni. Éditions de La Martinière/La Cinématèque Française, 2008. Pages 109–111.
Marvellous Méliès; Paul Hammond. The Gordon Fraser Gallery Ltd, 1974. Page 44.
Coca-cola-art.com, A Coca-Cola Blog by RockAndRoll Agency, Coca-Cola Santa Claus: Coke Christmas Art by Haddon Sundblom.
* The New York Times Web Site, 12.23.09; "Literary Sleuth Casts Doubt on the Authorship of an Iconic Christmas Poem".
Blu-ray Review: Gremlins (25th Anniversary Edition)
Gremlins (1984)
Country: USA
Production Companies: Warner Brothers/Amblin Entertainment
Executive Producers: Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall
Producer: Michael Finnell
Director: Joe Dante
Screenplay: Chris Columbus
Cinematographer: John Hora (Technicolor)
Editor: Tina Hirsch
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Production Designer: James H. Spencer
Set Designer: William F Matthews
Creature Design: Chris Walas
Stop Motion Effects: Fantasy II Effects
Special Effects: Robert MacDonald, Bob MacDonald Jr
Matte Paintings: Dreamquest Images
Sound Editor: Richard L. Anderson
Special Sound Effects: Alan Howarth
Costume Designers: Norman A Burza, Linda Matthews
Stunt Coordinator: Mike McGaughy
Length: 106 mins.
Budget: $11 Million
Cast: Zach Galligan (Billy Peltzer), Phoebe Cates (Kate Beringer), Hoyt Axton (Randall Peltzer), Polly Holliday (Ruby Deagle), Frances Lee McCain (Lynn Peltzer), Judge Reinhold (Gerald Hopkins), Dick Miller (Murray Futterman), Glynn Turman (Roy Hanson), Keye Luke (Grandfather), Scott Brady (Sheriff Frank), Corey Feldman (Pete Fountaine), Jonathan Banks (Deputy Brent), Edward Andrews (Mr Corben), Harry Carey Jr. (Mr Anderson), Belinda Balaski (Mrs Harris), John Louie (Chinese Boy), Arnie Moore (Alex), Donald Elson (Man on Street),"The Real" Don Steele (Rockin' Ricky Rialto), Susan Burgess (Little Girl), Daniel Llewelyn (Hungry Harris Child), Lois Foraker (Bank teller), Chuck Jones (Mr Jones), Kenny Davis (Dorry), Nicky Katt (Schoolchild), Tracy Wells (Schoolchild), John C Becher (Dr Molinaro), Gwen Willson (Mrs Molinaro), Jackie Joseph (Sheila Futterman), Joe Brooks (Dave Meyers, Santa), Jim McKrell (Lew Landers, WDHB-TV reporter), Howie Mandel (Gizmo voice), Fred Newman (Stripe voice), Frank Welker, Mark Dodson, Michael Winslow, Peter Cullen, Bob Berger, Michael Sheehan, Bob Holt (Gremlin voices), Mushroom (Barney), Jerry Goldsmith (Man in Telephone Booth, uncredited), Steven Spielberg (Man in Electric Wheelchair, uncredited), Kenneth Tobey (Gas Station Attendant, uncredited).
Synopsis: Inept inventor Randall Peltzer brings a Christmas pet home for his son Billy. The Mogwai, named Gizmo, is an appealing creature, but comes with three rules: don't get him wet, avoid bright light, and don't feed him after midnight. After Billy's friend, Pete, spills some water, Gizmo multiplies, but things get much worse after the new Mogwai trick Billy into feeding them in the middle of the night. Soon, Billy and Kate, a work colleague Billy is attracted to, must save the town when the Mogwai transform from delightful to deadly.
Review: Hot off success of The Howling (1981), Joe Dante was approached by Steven Spielberg with a script from a young New York film school student named Chris Columbus. Spielberg envisaged the film as a low budget horror movie and saw it as the perfect vehicle for Dante's major studio debut and the first production from his own fledgling production house, Amblin Entertainment. Little did they realize that the resulting work would not only create a classic of 80s genre film-making, a holiday perennial that appears near the top of most right-thinking people's Christmas movies list, but also cause the invention of a new certificate better suited to cover the hilariously subversive carnage on show.
The beauty of Dante's movie, typical of his generation of film makers, is that it takes the small town traditions of Capra and Hawks, adds the sweetness and hope of the Holiday movie genre, and reinvents them for a more cynical, post-Watergate generation. The difference here is that while Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola tend to look back on the films of the 1940s and 50s with a rosy glow, Dante wants to blow them all to hell.
Filming on the same Universal Studios town center set seen in It Came from Outer Space (1953) and Tarantula (1955), and would soon host Back to the Future (1985), Kingston Falls is an idyllic location that, like its Capra predecessor in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), hides meanness and corruption under a veneer as thin as the fake snow covering its streets. The Mogwai, are so effectively lovable that we question our taste in finding them so appealing, but when the transformation comes, we cheer on their gleeful destruction of everything the town holds dear, including the trashing of a local cinema showing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
Ever the benevolent dictator, Spielberg negotiated a lengthy production schedule - seven months pre-production for creature designer Chris Walas to create and engineer his little monsters, three months of principal photography, followed after a two week break, by two months spent filming the Gremlins. Indeed the film took so long to produce that Dante directed an episode of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) between his hiring and the actual production.
In the two commentary tracks that accompany this Blu-ray release, Dante proves himself to be a wily operator, willing to fight for his convictions - the fur of lead Mogwai, Gizmo, was designed to be the same color as Spielberg's dog to help along the approval process and he twice tells of problems he had with the studio over one of the best scenes, when Phoebe Cates' character explains why she hates Christmas. As Dante explains, it's the heart of the film, a story that, to the viewer, is ludicrous and funny, but utterly tragic for the person to whom it happened. Yet the powers-that-be at Warner Brothers fought to have it removed, even after the prints had been struck.
To his credit, Spielberg supported Dante in that instance but, as he did recently in the case of Paranormal Activity, made other suggestions that altered the course of events, including toning town some of the violence in Columbus's original – we can thank him for the fact that both Billy's Mom and his dog survive intact. Despite this, the MPAA still ruled some of the action - particularly the classic kitchen sequence, where Mrs Peltzer fights of the lizard-like Gremlins with household appliances - unsuitable for a young audience and this, along with the same year's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, was responsible for the inauguration of the PG-13 certificate. In the UK it went out under the 15 banner which had been introduced in 1982 and while the US Blu-ray has dropped to a straight PG, the UK edition maintains its 15 status.
The Blu-ray features a decent, but not remastered, transfer which starts out a little grainy and soft in the Chinatown sequences, but pays off in Kingston Falls and the detail visible in the Mogwai and Gremlin puppets. The audio, in Dolby TrueHD 5.1, is wonderful, with Jerry Goldsmith's score sounding marvelous, particularly the "Gremlin Rag" theme, and the detailed voice work – including future "Deal Or No Deal" host Howie Mandel – and Sound Design, from John Carpenter collaborator Alan Howarth (Halloween II, Escape from New York), reveal new detail.
Extras are the same as on the 2007 Special Edition, and include commentaries from Dante, producer Michael Finnell, and effects man Chris Walas; and a second from Dante and actors Cates, Galligan, Miller and Mandel. A contemporary "Making Of" featurette is nothing special, but the deleted scenes allow us to see various cuts made to Judge Reinhold's part (he simply disappears from the film in the final edit), as well as one excellent scene showing that Dick Miller's character has just been fired by his Asian employers, as he bemoans: "I guess that's the end of my career in noodles". Photos, storyboards and trailers, including one for Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), round out the set.
As he makes clear in his commentary, Chris Walas had clearly had enough by the end of this production and relinquished control to Rick Baker in the sequel (Baker's $12M effects budget was one million more than the whole of the first film), but we can still enjoy his massively subversive monsters, and dream of a return to form for Joe Dante's new movie The Hole (2009), and hope that it's even half as enjoyable as this bone fide inflammatory classic. Happy Christmas everyone.
Box Office 12/21/09: Cameron King Again
The prevailing critical opinion: clichéd, predictable – and really quite wonderful, either didn't matter, or worked in Avatar's favor and swept it to $77.02M at the weekend box office, beating even its own studio's estimates (see my review here). Heavy snow on the East Coast held it back from breaking too many records, but it stands as the highest grossing original work (not a sequel or a remake) in history, the second highest December release (just beaten by I Am Legend's still bewildering $77.20M), and the highest ever 3D release, earning $55M from 3,129 screens, beating Up's $35.4M by quite some margin. Of those 3D screens, 178 were IMAX, and the film earned $9.5M in those theaters for the second highest IMAX opening, behind Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen's $11.70M.
Overseas, Avatar brought in an additional $164.54M, bringing its worldwide total to $241.57M, the largest ever for an original work, but ninth overall – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince holds the record with $394M, and this year's The Twilight Saga: New Moon, at #6 with $274.9M, means that three of this year's releases are in the all-time Top 10.
At #2, Disney's The Princess and the Frog hopped down a predictable 50%, with $12.18M, for a running total of $44.71M, while The Blind Side continues to hold on with $10.02M for a running total of $164.72M, making it the most successful film of Sandra Bullock's career.
Did You See the Morgans failed to overcome the "Seen it all before, on TV" feeling exuded by its trailer and earned a meagre $6.61M at #4, a disappointment given its $58M budget. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, continues to descend, falling 45% with $4.40M, its US total now standing at $274.59M ($634.69M worldwide).
Invictus is at #6 with $4.20M, while A Christmas Carol fell 50% and 332 screens (including relinquishing all its IMAX locations to Avatar), bringing in $3.44M for a US total of $130.81M ($249.01M worldwide). The Top 10 is rounded out by Up in the Air ($3.21M), Brothers ($2.88M), and Old Dogs ($2.34M), while 2012 sits at #11, with $2.20M for the weekend, a US tally of $159.02M, and an astonishing worldwide total of $714.21M, making it the fourth biggest earner of the year, behind the Harry Potter ($929.40M), Ice Age ($883,70M), and Transformers ($835M) sequels.
Christmas weekend sees the opening of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, It's Complicated, and expansions for Up in the Air and Nine.
Avatar (2009)
Avatar (2009)
Country: USA
Production Company: Twentieth Century-Fox, Dune Entertainment, Giant Studios, Ingenious Film Partners, Lightstorm Entertainment
Producers: James Cameron, Jon Landau
Executive Producer: Colin Wilson, Laeta Kalogridis
Director: James Cameron
Screenplay: James Cameron
Cinematographer: Mauro Fiore
Cinematographer, LA [3D System]: Vince Pace
Editors: Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron
Music: James Horner
Production Designers: Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg
Art Directors: Todd Cherniawsky, Kevin Ishioka, Kim Sinclair
Costume Designers: Mayes C. Rubeo, Deborah Lynn Scott
Special Makeup Effects: Antony McMullen, Keith Marbory, Gary Yee , Kevin McTurk/Stan Winston Studio
Second Unit Director: Steven Quale
Virtual Cinematography System Creator: Robert Legato
Visual Effects: Joe Letteri/Weta Digital
Special Effects: Steve Ingram
Creature Designers: Wayne D. Barlowe, Neville Page
Sound Designer: Christopher Boyes
Sound Editors: Addison Teague, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
Costume Designers: Mayes C Rubeo, Deborah L Scott
Stunts: Garrett Warren, Allan Poppleton
Length: 163 mins.
Budget: $425 Million*
Cast: Sam Worthington (Jake Sully), Zoe Saldana (Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (Dr Grace Augustine), Stephen Lang (Col Miles Quaritch), Michelle Rodriguez (Trudy Chacon), Giovanni Ribisi (Parker Selfridge), Joel David Moore (Norm Spellman), CCH Pounder (Moat), Wes Studi (Eytukan), Laz Alonso (Tsu'tey), Dileep Rao (Dr Max Patel), Matt Gerald (Corp Lyle Wainfleet), Sean Anthony Moran (Pr Fike).
Synopsis: In the year 2154 Earth is a dying planet and Human corporations, with military backing, have colonized the distant moon Pandora and are strip mining it for a rare mineral. Disabled Marine, Jake Sully, takes the place of his dead brother in a program that places humans among the indigenous Na'vi, to better learn their ways and persuade them to surrender their forest to the corporation. As Jake finds himself drawn to the arcadian Na'vi and particularly their leader's daughter, Neytiri, the suits and their military cohort, Colonel Quaritch, lose patience and begin enacting a huge operation to destroy the Na'vi's most sacred region.
Review: Fourteen years in the making with 2,000 people employed solidly for the past two years, Avatar is so costly that the effects work had to be amortized across two films (Battle Angel is coming in 2011) and even then it lands in theaters as the most expensive film ever made, from the director of the most successful film in history, Titanic (1997) having pulled in 11 Academy Awards and $1.6 Billion at the box office.
Given this level of anticipation, the film stands or falls on whether producer/director/writer/editor, James Cameron, has managed to create a ground-breaking epic with broad appeal, that demands repeated viewing, and blows away everything we've seen before. Ever. This somewhat audacious goal can only be met if Cameron overcomes our jaded palate for massive summer CGI slaughter-fests like Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator: Salvation, and 2012, as well as successfully engaging our hearts and brains in his huge endeavor.
In part, he's succeeded. The world of Pandora is absolutely stunning, each leaf shimmers with detail, each spec of dust and flying insect has been meticulously brought to life and, aided by the IMAX 3D experience, you'll find yourself swatting at small creatures and waving away specs of ash, open-mouthed at the sheer beauty and scale of what's on the screen. The motion capture animation is also brilliantly realized, no unconvincing mouth movements or soulless eyes here, the Na'vi and the human Avatars are entirely relatable, we buy fully into their pastoral existence, fall entirely for Zoe Saldana (Star Trek) as the feisty warrior princess Neytiri and, if you thought Sigourney Weaver looked hot in her Alien wife beater, you'll appreciate her even more as a 10-foot-tall, blue cat creature.
Unfortunately this is almost fatally undermined by dreadfully hackneyed storytelling and, while it's laudable that Cameron's basic message is pro-environmental and anti-militaristic, everything from the banal yoga studio font used in the subtitles and logo (a modified version of Chris Costello's shockingly over-used Papyrus, for those who care), through the story – essentially a sci-fi remake of Dances with Wolves – to the dialogue, cardboard cutout villains and appalling dialogue, threatens to topple the film right up to its last half hour. We long for the comparative complexity of Michael Biehn's psychotic Lieutenant Coffey in The Abyss (Biehn was originally considered for the role of Quaritch), or the oily intensity of Paul Reiser's Carter Burke in Aliens (1986). In comparison Stephen Lang (Public Enemies) coasts on physical bulk and shock and awe, while Giovanni Ribisi (Lost in Translation) only occasionally summons enough menace to raise our ire and we greet his eventual comeuppance with a shrug. Even Sigourney Weaver's performance is weak, her line readings lacking the conviction she brought to ass-kicker, Ripley.
And yet, despite the pervading second-hand feel to proceedings (even the Unobtanium mineral McGuffin is borrowed from eyewear designers, Oakley), Cameron still succeeds. Just. His greatest strength as a storyteller has always been to place believable relationships at the heart of massive spectacle. Kyle and Sarah in The Terminator (1984), army grunts Vasquez and Drake in Aliens, and the battling Brigmans in The Abyss, and while Sam Worthington is no Ed Harris, the love story that seemed so dubious in the trailer here proves to be the anchor-point of the entire enterprise. Sully's gradual embracing of the Na'vi way of life, backed by his gleeful appropriation of a functioning pair of legs, may be totally predictable, but it's a testament to Cameron that when the final battle comes, we're emotionally engaged with both the noble warriors and their exquisite arboreal homeland.
Mainstream press have, for reasons best know to themselves, been gauging the success of this film on fanboy festival reaction - but Harry Knowles and his ilk are irrelevant to the success of Avatar. the film wasn't made for 20-something ComicCon attendees, or their middle-aged fathers, but is squarely aimed at the teenagers they were when they first experienced, respectively, The Matrix and Roger Dean LP covers. Avatar's faults are many, but there's no denying the power of the on-screen images, the basic decency of the message, and the level to which he engages his audience in an admittedly predictable tale. For all this, Cameron's film can be judged a success and he may just have invented a whole new mythology for the next generation of awe-struck science fiction fans.
*Source: Financial Times: Man in the News: James Cameron, December 18th, 2009.
DVD Review: A Christmas Carol (1951)
Scrooge (1951), aka A Christmas Carol (US title)
Country: United Kingdom
Production Company: George Minter presents a Renown Film Productions Ltd picture
Producer: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Production Manager: Stanley Couzins
Director: Brian Desmond-Hurst
Screenplay: Noel Langley based on the story by Charles Dickens
Cinematographer: C Pennington-Richards
Editor: Clive Donner
Music: Richard Addinsell, Muir Mathieson (conductor)
Art Director: Ralph Brinton
Makeup: Eric Carter
Costume Design: Doris Lee, Constance Da Finna
Sound: WH Lindop
Filmed at: Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames; The Royal Exchange, Bank, London EC3; Hay's Wharf, London SE1.
Length: 86 mins.
Cast: Alastair Sim (Ebenezer Scrooge), Kathleen Harrison (Mrs Dilber), Mervyn Johns (Bob Cratchit), Hermione Baddeley (Mrs Cratchit), Michael Hordern (Jacob Marley), George Cole (Young Ebenezer Scrooge), John Charlesworth (Peter Cratchit), Francis de Wolff (Spirit of Christmas Present), Rona Anderson (Alice), Carol Marsh (Fan Scrooge), Brian Worth (Fred), Miles Malleson (Old Joe), Ernest Thesiger (The Undertaker), Glyn Dearman (Tiny Tim), Michael Dolan (Spirit of Christmas Past), Olga Edwardes (Fred's Wife), Roddy Hughes (Fezziwig), Hattie Jacques (Mrs Fezziwig), Eleanor Summerfield (Miss Flora), Louise Hampton (Laundress), C Konarski (Spirit of Christmas Yet To Come), Eliot Makeham (Mr. Snedrig), Peter Bull (First Businessman, and Narrator), Douglas Muir (Second Businessman), Noel Howlett (First Collector), Fred Johnson (Second Collector), Henry Hewitt (Mr. Rosehed), Hugh Dempster (Mr Groper), David Hannaford, Maire O'Neill (Alice's Patient), Richard Pearson (Mr Tupper), Patrick MacNee (Young Jacob Marley), Clifford Mollison (Samuel Wilkins); and by special arrangement, Jack Warner (Mr Jorkin).
Synopsis: On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge a miserly businessman, is visited by the ghost of his ex-partner, Jacob Marley, and three spirits who show him the downward path his life has taken, the joys and horrors of Christmas on the streets of London, and the dark future that awaits him if he refuses to mend his ways.
Review: The first film version of Charles Dickens' most loved story, Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost, was made in Brighton, England in 1901 by RW Paul and Walter Booth (a fragment was made available on YouTube by the BFI on November 3rd, see link below) since when the story has been adapted more than 20 times for the big screen and around 50 times for television. In all these different interpretations, the most effective performance by far is that of the great Scottish actor Alastair Sim in George Minter's 1951 version.
Directed with little flair by Brian Desmond-Hurst, whose first film was the 1934 Poe adaption A Tell Tale Heart (aka A Bucket of Blood), the film was a huge hit in Britain but considered too horrific and adult for the US market (future genre stalwart Richard Gordon [Fiend Without a Face, Inseminoid] raised production funds and managed US distribution through United Artists), where it was turned down for a premiere at Radio City Music Hall and failed to find an audience until it was broadcast on PBS in the 1970s.
In spite of the uninspired direction, improved immeasurably by Cyril Pennington-Richards' excellent cinematography and a literate, inventive script by Noel Langley (The Wizard of Oz), this is Sim's show. His Scrooge is utterly believable in the miserly bitterness of the early scenes - there's an underlying anger and disgust to his interactions with people, he disdains them all regardless of class - his terror at the glimpse of his fate and, most importantly, the sheer unbridled joy of his transformation. No one before or since, human or animated, has managed to pull off the transformation so convincingly.
It helps that Sim is supported by cameos and early performances from some of Britain's finest character actors: Ernest Thesiger (The Bride of Frankenstein), Mervyn Johns (Dead of Night, The Day of the Triffids, House of Mortal Sin), Carol Marsh (Terence Fisher's Dracula), George Cole (The Vampire Lovers, Mary Reilly), Miles Malleson (The Thief of Baghdad, Dracula, The Brides of Dracula), and Patrick Macnee (The Avengers), and genre fans will note that the film was edited by Clive Donner, who went on to an undistinguished directorial career, including such delights as Vampira (1974), The Thief of Baghdad (1978) and the George C Scott TV production of A Christmas Carol (1984).
The restoration was undertaken in 2006 by Point.360 and it was the first time that distributors VCI had access to original film elements - previous releases, including their fuzzy colorized version had been created from video masters. Though not without some nagging flaws, the picture looks noticeably brighter and deeper than we're used to and the Blu-ray is without doubt the best this film has ever looked.
Unfortunately there's a compromise in that the Blu-ray features the restored film along with a 2005 Marcus Hearn interview with Alistair Sim's protege George Cole, who plays Young Ebenezer; pop-up trivia; UK and US trailers; and a second, standard disk featuring 4x3 and 16x9 versions (the latter simply increase the size of the image and crops it top and bottom). The 2-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition DVD, however, features the above mentioned dual formats (with the Hearn/Cole interview) but includes a second disk, with extras not included on the Blu-ray: "Spirit of Christmas Past" is a 15-minute Hearn/Cole video interview, which repeats information from the commentary; "Richard Gordon Remembers George Minter and Renown Pictures" is a valuable 20-minute audio interview (with stills), conducted by Tom Weaver; "Charles Dickens - His Life and Times" is a seven-minute VCI overview; "Before and After Restoration" is a two-minute look at the restoration; and "Photo Gallery" is a montage of stills with an irritating frosted edge effect. As well as this, the second disc includes the 1998 colorized, unrestored version of the film (which Hearn and Cole rightly disparage in the audio commentary), as well as a shortened US edit of the 1935 version of the film starring Sir Seymour Hicks. You pays your money and you takes your choice but, while one can argue the merits of some of the inclusions, it's a real shame the Disc 2 contents weren't included on the Blu-ray.
Sim, Hordern, and Johns revisited their roles for an Academy Award-winning 1971 animated version by the great Richard Williams (The Pink Panther, Who Framed Roger Rabbit), which is also highly recommended (see link below) and has even more gothic overtones than this version but, as the saying goes, if you see just one version of Dickens' 1843 novella this Christmas, do yourself a favor and make it this one.
Availability
A Christmas Carol (Ultimate Collector's Edition), 2 Disc DVD set is available for $9.99 from amazon.com. Note: The keep case has a 2009 copyright date but this is exactly the same as the 2007 release.
A Christmas Carol, Blu-ray with Bonus Standard DVD is available for $16.99 from amazon.com.
Other Notable Versions
Scrooge, or Marley's Ghost (1901) is available on the BFI National Film Archive's YouTube Channel.
Richard Williams' A Christmas Carol (1971) is available on Google Video.
Further Reading
A Christmas Carol and its Adaptations: Dickens's Story on Screen and Television, Fred Guida, McFarland & Company, Inc. 2000.
Box Office 12/15/09: Frog Leaps to #1
Another quiet pre-Avatar weekend at the box office was lead by the wide release of Disney's return to traditional animation The Princess and the Frog, which grossed $24.20M in 3,434 theaters against a budget of $105M. The Blind Side continues to do remarkable business, with $15M for a total of $149.81M after four weeks.
Clint Eastwood's Invictus lands at #3 with a modest $8.61M, but this Yorkshire-man's heart is glad to see a rugby-themed movie by a major director with major stars anywhere in the Top 10. The Twilight Saga: New Moon is down 48% at #4 bringing in another $7.96M for a staggering $267.32M total.
A Christmas Carol dropped just 12% on seasonal sentiment, earning $6.83M for a six week total of $124.42M. The rest of the chart mainly consists of films we've seen before, The Road continues to stumble along, adding seven theaters and $505,878 for a total of $4.01M, which must be a tiny fraction of its undisclosed budget and Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones debuts at #30 in three theaters to mostly negative reviews, with $116,616, winning the week's highest per-theater average with $38,872.
At #52 Transylmania drops 94% (and 889 theaters) earning $16,018, a miserable $136 per screen, for a 10 day total of $390,486, making to officially the least successful horror comedy ever to open in more than 1,000 theaters - earning a mere 10% of its nearest rivals, 1993's My Boyfriend's Back and 1988's Critters 2: The Main Course.
This coming weekend see the opening of James Cameron's Avatar and some other films very few people will see.
Ink (2009)
Ink (2009)
Country: USA
Production Company: Double Edge Films
Producer: Kiowa K Winans
Executive Producers: Jamin Winans, Kiowa K Winans
Director: Jamin Winans
Screenplay: Jamin Winans
Cinematographer: Jeff Pointer
Editor: Jamin Winans
Music: Jamin Winans
Production Designer/Costume Designer: Kiowa K Winans
Special Make-up Effects: Alison Chilen, Tom Debrecini (Ink Design)
Sound Design: Kiowa K Winans
Fight Co-ordinator: Brian Taylor
Stunt Co-ordinator: Jim Milligan
Locations: Denver, Morrison, Lakewood, Arvada, Brighton, Commerce City, Thornton, Aurora, Evergreen, and Crested Butte, Colorado
Length: 102 mins
Budget: $250,000 [estimated]
Cast: Chris Kelly (John), Quinn Hunchar (Emma), Jessica Duffy (Liev), Jennifer Batter (Allel), Jeremy Make (Jacob), Eme Ikwuakor (Gabe), Shelby Malone (Sarah), Shannan Steele (Shelly), Steve Sealy (Ron), Steven Brown (The Collector), Shauna Earp (Sadie, the Bride), Marty Lindsey (The Key Master Incubus), Jeffrey Richardson (The Prince), Troy Garner (John's Incubus), Maiz Lucero (The Brave Incubus), Jason Coviello (Roger), Megan Heffernan (Naomi), Scott Ward (Todd), Brad Newman (Chad), Kent Randell (Carl), Steve Wilkins (Dan), Kathy Cagney (Kathy) LeighAnn Gould (ER Nurse), David Alan Hays (Judge), Tyler Giallanza (Young John), Jenna Hawkins (John's Mother), Greg C Vanbuskirk (Scott Hamilton).
Synopsis: Two opposing forces appear as the world sleeps: the Storytellers provide pleasant dreams while the Incubi deliver nightmares. The Storytellers are forced to defend a child, Emma against Ink, a misshapen creature determined to trade her soul for a place among the Incubi. As Emma's self-absorbed, estranged father waits by her bed-side, the Storytellers, led by a blind Pathfinder named Jacob, attempt to defeat her captors. Meanwhile one of their number, Liev, is captured by Ink, shackled to Emma and dragged along on his nightmare journey.
Review: Denver-based husband and wife team Jamin and Kiowa Winans are a fiercely independent unit, preferring the freedom of the final cut over the lure of Hollywood. Jamin started making films at the age of 10, but dropped out of LA film school after one year and returned to Colorado to form Double Edge Films, where he met law graduate Kiowa when she was hired to produce the short film Spin (2005).
Three years in the making, their second feature Ink (following 2005's 11:59) displays a visual acumen way beyond its meagre budget and the kind of imagination that Terry Gilliam and Guillermo de Toro - not to mention those who love their work - would admire. Taking place in overlapping, parallel worlds, incorporating flashbacks and alternate realities, those looking for a linear narrative will likely be frustrated, particularly in the first 20 minutes, but lovers of grown-up fairy tales like Time Bandits (1981), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), and Bernard Rose's Paperhouse (1988) will be rewarded by a beautifully made fantasy with a hefty emotional punch.
The film was shot on a Sony HDV V1U video camera and the digital sheen is initially distracting, but the eye soon adjusts, carried along by some excellent acting from Chris Kelly as John, the haunted junk bond-trader father driven by an impoverished past and by Quinn Hunchar as his appealing daughter, as well as outstanding production design by Kiowa Winans (the Bride's lair looks every but like JF Sebastian's apartment in Blade Runner), and the Gilliam-inspired design of the Incubi, their faces viewed through glass screens that distort their features and give them a menacingly omniscient air. Ink himself is a shambling giant of rags and tatters, his monstrous visage hiding his true nature (make-up designer Tom Debrecini recently completed a book on his craft) and his cracked voice - sounding like Liam Neeson at his most desperate - exhuding guilt and failure.
Quinn Hunchar as Emma, prisoner of the haunted monster, Ink.
Set-pieces too are handled with great flair, with excellent fight choreography, aided by Winans' choppy but effective editing, giving a suitably Matrix-like feel to proceedings - broken objects reconstitute, leaving no clue to the visitor's battles in a typically simple but well executed effect. One astonishing sequence sees Jacob the Pathfinder orchestrate a domino chain of events that changes the course of John's life, eventually enabling him to find redemption at his daughter's hospital bed-side. It's also worth noting the score - again by Jamin Winans - which underpins the emotion of the final scenes perfectly.
Ink was illegally uploaded to Bit Torrent sites hours after its DVD/Blu-ray release but the Winans' embraced the piracy, happy for their film to reach a wide audience and thanked viewers for over 400,000 downloads. If you're one of those who downloaded for free, pop on over to their Web site and donate a couple of bucks or buy a T-Shirt and a DVD so these folks can keep on working, we need this talent to thrive.
For those who haven't seen it, the film was released on November 10th and is available from Double Edge Films for $18.99 (DVD) and $22.99 (Blu-ray); or for $14.99 from iTunes; and for rent or as an Instant Download from Netflix. The soundtrack is available on iTunes.
