O'Neill: 'A Christmas Carol' endures through film versions

Now 180 years old, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens has stood the test of time. Published in December 1843, the tale of miser Ebenezer Scrooge (haunted into Christmas joy and generosity) is one of the most familiar works in all of literature.

But it's no secret that the familiarity of "A Christmas Carol" has endured largely through the movies, as opposed to the written tale by Dickens.  Indeed, the movies have so eclipsed the written tale that we sometimes confuse scenes from the movies with passages from the actual book, as many scenes from the movies are nowhere to be found in the written tale.

The most compelling example of this phenomenon is that of the late-great critic Edmund Wilson in his 1939 essay "Dickens: The Two Scrooges."  Most peculiar about Wilson's essay, which he presented to his English class at Northwestern University, is that the treatment of Scrooge takes up a mere page and a half of the 80-page opus, despite the title of the essay.

Most careless in the essay is Wilson's reference to Scrooge visiting the home of his clerk, Bob Cratchit, on Christmas morning as a passage of the written tale. Wilson must have been confusing this scene with the written passage when viewing the movie "A Christmas Carol" starring Reginald Owen in 1938.

Of course, movie makers must be extended some artistic freedom.  A movie based on a book need not be an exact replica of the book, but Wilson's mistake is more irresponsible than mere artistic freedom. 

As Paul Davis notes in his 1990 book "The Lives & Times of Ebenezer Scrooge," the notion that an employer in Victorian England would visit the home of an employee would have been unthinkable.

On the other hand, there are examples of at least one critic making the opposite mistake of indicating that movie scenes of "A Christmas Carol" are not at all in the book, when they are. This mistake is made by James Chapman in his essay "God Bless Us, Everyone: Movie Adaptations of A Christmas Carol," part of the 2000 collection "Christmas at the Movies," edited by Mark Connelly.

Chapman cites the scene of the Lord Mayor's Christmas Eve celebration in the 1935 movie starring Seymour Hicks as Scrooge as not being in the actual book. 

The celebration is very much a passage in the written tale. Though only a short passage of the written tale, the Lord Mayor's Christmas celebration is compelling to the extent that it highlights the importance of class distinction, which is essential to any work by Dickens.

My favorite film version of "A Christmas Carol" is the 1951 British production starring Alastair Sim. But be careful with this film, it strays from the written tale by Dickens.

By all means, take in a movie version or two of "A Christmas Carol." The story is an essential part of the holiday. But don't hesitate to read the short novel written by Dickens himself.

John O'Neill is an Allen Park resident and a Dickens scholar.