CAROL FOR ANOTHER CHRISTMAS (TV)
Summary
This special, produced by the United Nations, stars Sterling Hayden as a Scrooge-like figure in Rod Serling's updated and internationalized reworking of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol." Daniel Grudge, a wealthy, bitter, selfish man, sits alone on Christmas Eve, remembering his son who was killed in World War II. When his nephew Fred stops by, the two have a bitter political debate in which Grudge expresses his belief in political isolationism and the need to build more bombers and missiles. After Fred leaves, Grudge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, who takes him on a World War I troop ship filled with injured soldiers. The Ghost then takes him back to Hiroshima, where he had served right after the dropping of the atom bomb. Grudge sees himself and Lt. Gibson visiting a doctor in a clinic full of children horribly burned in the atomic explosion.
Grudge is next visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, who conveys to Grudge the gluttony, wastefulness, and selfishness of which he and those like him are guilty. The ghost takes Grudge to a camp of displaced persons to illustrate his points, but Grudge flees. He happens upon the wreckage of the Town Hall in a postnuclear future. The Ghost of Christmas Future shows Grudge a group of selfish, brutish survivors led by the Imperial Me. Under the Imperial Me, the mob attacks Grudge's butler, Charles, when he tries to get them to work together constructively. A little boy, encouraged by his mother, shoots Charles with a pistol. The Imperial Me then leads his mob off to battle other bands of survivors. The next morning, Grudge awakens to find Charles and his wife, Ruby, cooking him breakfast. Fred drops in to wish Grudge a merry Christmas; Grudge tells Fred that he was right in his plea for tolerance and involvement with the rest of the world. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: December 28, 1964 9:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:25:47
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: T87:0502
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; United Nations; Christmas
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1964
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Edgar Rosenberg … Executive Producer
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz … Producer, Director
- C.O. Erickson … Associate Producer
- Rod Serling … Writer
- Henry Mancini … Music by
- Sterling Hayden … Cast, Daniel Grudge
- Eva Marie Saint … Cast, The Wave
- Ben Gazzara … Cast, Fred
- Barbara Ann Teer … Cast, Ruby
- Steve Lawrence … Cast, The Ghost of Christmas Past
- James Shigeta … Cast, The Doctor
- Pat Hingle … Cast, The Ghost of Christmas Present
- Robert Shaw … Cast, The Ghost of Christmas Future
- Peter Sellers … Cast, Imperial Me
- Britt Ekland … Cast, The Mother
- Percy Rodrigues … Cast, Charles
- Gordon Spencer … Cast, Marley Grudge