AMERICAN CHRISTMAS CAROL, AN (TV)
Summary
A television film version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” set in New Hampshire during the Great Depression.
The story begins in Concord, New Hampshire on Christmas Eve in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression. Benedict Slade, a business tycoon in charge of a bank, is visited by a troupe of orphans raising money for their orphanage, but instead of giving them money he hands out pamphlets about the “self-made men” of America, advising them to work their own way to success without anyone’s aid. Slade drives out to see the Reeves family, a poor farming couple who owe him for a loan, and they ask for another extension so they can pay him back. However, Slade is unsympathetic towards them and has his assistant Thatcher go forward with repossessing various items in their home, including their stove and their radio. Next they visit the orphanage for its head, Mr. Jessup. Slade’s last name is carved on a table in the lobby of the orphanage; he lived there for a year when he was a child. This does not give Slade any sympathy towards the children and he repossesses the piano he helped them purchase. He also repossesses the bulk of a university library, intending to rip apart the books for a little extra money. Among the books seized is an original edition of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, which the librarian, Merrivale, treasures above all else. Thatcher secretly keeps this book from being destroyed. He and Slade continue to drive around and repossess various items from peoples’ homes.
In Slade’s warehouse Thatcher tries to speak to him about reopening a closed granite quarry, providing jobs to the desperate unemployed workers who were laid off the previous year. Slade mocks Thatcher’s efforts and believes that he hates him for his repossession efforts. He views Thatcher’s proposal as a way to scam money out of him and angrily fires him on the spot. Thatcher returns home to his family and privately tells his wife that he’s been fired. While ripping up the repossessed books, Slade reads a passage from “A Christmas Carol” before ripping it up. Suddenly lightning strikes and the electricity goes out. As he lights a candle, Slade believes that he hears a strange voice whispering his name. He grabs a rifle and looks for the intruder, which turns out to be the spirit of Jack Latham, his long-dead business partner. Slade believes it is an actor using extensive makeup to impersonate Latham, but Latham proves his identity. Latham claims that he is in hell, where people are forced to constantly relive the injustices they committed in the past. To that end, Latham says he is there to help Slade make better choices with his life and avoid the same fate. He claims that Slade will experience three “visitations” that night and advises him to go along with them before disappearing. The electricity comes back on and Slade dismisses the encounter as a hallucination.
Later, in bed, Slade is puzzled when the radio keeps playing broadcasts of events from previous years. Mysterious music starts playing out of nowhere, and Slade goes to investigate, finding Merrivale in the warehouse playing on a repossessed trumpet. Slade dismisses the notion that Merrivale is a spirit and asks him to get out. Merrivale somehow transports himself and Slade to an icy plain before bringing them back to the warehouse. Merrivale is there to show Slade his past, and allows him to view a scene from his childhood at the orphanage. Nathaniel Brewster, a businessman, and his family arrive to find an apprentice for his business, and he picks Slade, despite his history of violence and antisocial behavior; Brewster feels that Slade needs his assistance in order to become a better person. Slade resists and must be physically dragged away. Brewster brings Slade to his workshop, where he is assigned the task of cleaning up the machinery and facility. Brewster tries to offer Slade comfort about the deaths of his parents and his emotional turmoil, and gets Slade interested in the idea of woodworking. The older Slade notes that Brewster was easily able to perceive his own thoughts and feelings.
Merrivale shows Slade his teenage years, when he becomes romantically involved with Brewster’s daughter Helen. Around this time, Slade tries to devise ways to increase Brewster’s production capabilities and proposes that they adopt the assembly line method. Brewster and his men disagree with Slade’s reasoning that customers will flock to the lower price of mass-produced wooden furniture, believing that the craftsmanship they embody is more important than profit margin. Slade is upset that his proposal is rejected and Helen tries to comfort him; he is concerned that Brewster and his company will be unable to compete in the changing market and he feels sorry for them. Helen convinces him to explain the situation to Brewster again over dinner. Brewster still refuses to embrace mass-production; Slade thanks Brewster for everything he’s done for him and announces that he intends to leave in order to pursue a sales job in a large furniture plant, hoping to work his way up to prosperity. Helen is devastated by this news and is furious that Slade said nothing about it before. She asks to go with him but he feels that his new position will not allow him to support her properly. He promises to call her when he feels he is successful enough to provide a good lifestyle for both of them.
Slade finds himself back in the present, weary and fed up with Merrivale’s presence. However, Merrivale shows him another scene from his past: his return to Concord years after his departure, when the Brewsters are holding a party to sell war bonds. He makes a dramatic entrance and Helen is quite beside herself. He apologizes to her for how he left things, and tells her that while he has been successful on his own he is unable to advance any further due to nepotism at his company. To rectify this he has decided to return to Concord and try his hand there. At the party he meets Latham, then in investments and real estate, and offers to speak to Slade about his business proposals. Slade drives Helen home, but they hear a lathe operating in Brewster’s workshop and go to investigate. It turns out to be Sam, Brewster’s loyal foreman, who is catching up on some work following a series of layoffs; he promises to leave in a few minutes so he can spend time with his family on Christmas Eve. However, Sam’s lit cigar accidentally starts a fire, and he is caught in a blaze which consumes Brewster’s factory; Sam escapes alive but is taken to the hospital with severe burns.
Brewster tells Slade that he let the insurance policy on his factory lapse and Latham offers to lend financial aid to eventually help rebuild the factory. The shock of seeing his factory in flames exacerbates Brewster’s already-existing heart problems, causing his health to deteriorate. Slade tells Latham about the concept of the installment plan and its potential for great profit. He tells Latham that Brewster is unwilling to accept his new ideas and that he should back him instead of financing the rebuilding of Brewster’s factory. Soon Brewster dies from his heart problems and Slade attends his funeral, finding that Helen no longer wants anything to do with him. The older Slade attempts to communicate with Helen, placing the blame for these events on Latham’s decision to back him instead of Brewster.
Suddenly Slade awakens in the present-day, in his bed. He head downstairs when he hears singing, and finds his warehouse has been festooned with Christmas decorations and is inhabited by children singing carols led by Jessup. Jessup implies that he is another spirit, and Slade yells at him and the children to get out. They suddenly disappear and moments later reappear in his bedroom. Jessup shows Slade a girl opening presents underneath a Christmas tree, and he realizes that the girl is Helen’s daughter. Jessup shows him her house; she is happily married to a pharmacist, and they emerge to celebrate Christmas together. Jessup and Slade leave as Jessup takes Slade to the Thatcher family home. They enter as Thatcher reveals to his children that he lost his job, and they are less upset about the news than he had imagined they would be. Thatcher attempts to cheer everyone up and keep a positive attitude about the situation, especially when his daughter starts crying. Slade becomes interested in Thatcher’s son Jonathan, who must use crutches to walk; Thatcher and his wife note that they will not have enough to pay for a trip to Australia to get Jonathan a special operation that would fix his condition. Slade asks Jessup about Jonathan’s fate, and Jessup believes that he will not live to see the following Christmas. Slade tries in vain to apologize to Thatcher, saying he had no idea of what his situation was like.
Slade awakens in his bed once more. The final spirit appears to Slade in the form of Mr. Reeves, dressed in garb not yet invented in the 1930’s. Slade concludes that he represents the spirit of Christmas future. He shows him a group of people gathered in his warehouse to auction off his possessions. Many of the sold items are used as kindling in a bonfire outside assembled by the jeering mass, including a portrait of him, much to Slade’s shock. Slade screams at Reeves to take him somewhere “quiet,” and he is whisked away to a small graveyard. There the Thatcher family stands over Jonathan’s grave and mourn him. Slade insists that things could be different now that he is aware of what may happen, but Reeves does not answer his queries and leads him away to a small neglected gravesite. Reeves notes that no one ever comes to visit the grave, and reveals that it is where Slade is buried. Slade begs Reeves not to let him suffer this fate and insists that he can change his ways.
Morning comes and Slade finds himself in his bed once more, discovering that it is Christmas morning. He drives over to visit Thatcher at his home and gives them a number of gifts, including a large chicken for their Christmas dinner and various tickets to get Jonathan to Australia for his operation. The Thatcher family is touched beyond words by Slade’s sudden show of kindness. Slade brings Thatcher along in his truck as he tells him that he is re-hiring him as his new vice president in charge of new projects, and that he has reconsidered his plan to reopen the local quarry. They go out to return repossessed possessions to the Reeves family and give them a Christmas gift; they are confused but grateful. Next, Slade visits Merrivale and says he has made arrangements to rebind his destroyed books. He also gives the orphanage a new piano and notices a boy there who reminds him of himself at that age, and offers to take him on as an apprentice just as he was, convincing him to come along. They visit the destroyed Brewster factory and Slade talks about his plan to rebuild the place and restart production, hoping to train the boy as a craftsman. When the boy resists, Slade echoes the words of Brewster and convinces him to go along with his plan. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 30, 1999 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:36:51
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 108064
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Depressions (economic) - 1933; Christmas
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1979
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Gary Smith … Executive Producer
- Edgar J. Scherick … Executive Producer
- Jon Slan … Producer
- Stanley Chase … Producer
- Eric Till … Director
- Jerome Coopersmith … Writer
- Charles Dickens … Based on the novella by
- Hagood Hardy … Music by
- Henry Winkler … Cast, Benedict Slade
- David Wayne … Cast, Merrivale
- Chris Wiggins … Cast, Mr. Brewster
- R.H. Thomson … Cast, Thatcher
- Kenneth Pogue … Cast, Jack Latham
- Gerard Parkes … Cast, Jessup
- Susan Hogan … Cast, Helen Brewster
- Dorian Harewood … Cast, Matt Reeves
- Tammy Bourne … Cast, Sarah Thatcher
- Chris Cragg … Cast, Jonathan Thatcher
- James B. Douglas … Cast, Sam Perkins
- Arlene Duncan … Cast, Jennie Reeves
- Linda Goranson … Cast, Mrs. Thatcher
- Derrick Jones … Cast, Harry Barnes
- Cec Linder … Cast, Auctioneer
- Sylvia Llewellyn … Cast, Latham's Secretary
- Jefferson Mappin … Cast, Joe
- Mary Pirie … Cast, Mrs. Brewster
- Sammy Snyders … Cast, Young Slade
- Ruth Springford … Cast, Mrs. Tidings
- Justine Till … Cast, Young Helen
- Michael Wincott … Cast, Choir Leader
- William Ballantyne … Cast, Minister
- Frank Gibbs … Cast, Fire Chief