Michael May's Blog, page 55

“Why, It’s Old Fezziwig!” | Walter Matthau (1978)

Rankin-Bass' version skipped over the schoolhouse scene and had the Ghost fly Scrooge directly to Fezziwig's. The party is already in progress, so Dick Wilkins is not mentioned, nor are any of the partygoers named. Even Fezziwig himself is never named, though we see his name on a sign at one point. The old fellow is dancing at the party with his wife, but you already have to know who he is. He's jolly and fat and has white curly hair. He might be wearing a wig, but if he is it's neither Welsh nor one of those traditional pig-tailed wigs.

The fiddler is up on a desk in the background, but the focus of the scene isn't on the party at all and especially not on Fezzziwig. In fact, this could be any Christmas party. What the scene really cares about is Young Scrooge's relationship with Belle, whom he's dancing with. Old Scrooge remembers that he and Belle had gone outside to cool off after the vigorous dance and we get to hear their conversation. Belle wants to get married right away, but Scrooge wants to put it off until he's more financially secure. They sing a song about their dreams: hers of a humble little cottage and children; his (which we see represented onscreen) of a large, golden mansion and no kids.

Old Scrooge is very upset by all of this. He's been frightened since Marley and is willing to change; he just doesn't know how. He knows what's coming next and he dreads seeing it. He's really being torn down by this.

With all that going on, the Ghost doesn't bring up Fezziwig's relationship with Scrooge or lead Scrooge to compare it to his own relationship with Bob Cratchit. Scrooge's impetus to change so far hangs all on his putting money before love, but specifically romantic love. Which, if you're going to simplify the story, isn't a bad way to go. The money vs love choice is the heart of A Christmas Carol. Eventually Rankin-Bass will need to translate Scrooge's emotions about Belle to a more general love for humankind, but we'll see how (or whether) they succeed in that.

FCA Invasion 15 | DC Superheroes Live Action Holiday Special

You know those DC Superhero Holiday Special comics? Wouldn't it be cool if they were a live action TV special? That's exactly what Evan Hanson, Lizzie Twachtman, Rob Graham, and I imagine on this episode of the Fourth Chair Army Invasion.

Sleigh Bell Cinema | Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)

Paxton Holley ( Nerd Lunch , Hellbent for Letterbox , Cult Film Club , I Read Movies ) and I kick off the first of three Sleigh Bell Cinema episodes this season covering Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. We talk about what makes Mickey's Christmas Carol a good adaptation, how it's different from other versions, and even how we might recast a character or two.

“Why, It’s Old Fezziwig!” | Alastair Sim (1971)

Richard Williams' cartoon makes great use of animation to facilitate scene changes. The Ghost and Old Scrooge are looking at Boy Scrooge in the schoolhouse, then there's a rapid series of aging Scrooges. The scenery around him changes, but his posture stays the same. In the first several he's reading a book like he was at school, but then that changes into a book that he's writing in until the series settles on Scrooge writing in a ledger at Fezziwig's warehouse.

Old Scrooge - who's been remarkably humble and compliant since Marley's visit - is full of giddy wonder at seeing his old boss again. Fezziwig is fat, he does sit at a high desk, and he's wearing an old-fashioned brown wig (though not officially a Welsh one). He orders Dick and Young Scrooge to "clear away," but he doesn't specify how and we just see the apprentices move some books and chairs.

Old Scrooge never actually mentions Dick. He says the line about "he was very much attached to me," but he's referring to Fezziwig in this version. And that does seem to be the case. Fezziwig pays special attention to Young Scrooge. Since we don't know anything about Dick, I can only speculate why Fezziwig focused on Scrooge, but putting this together with Dickens' description of Fezziwig's compassion for outsiders, I imagine that Fezziwig saw that Scrooge - whom we know was a sad child - needed extra love and encouragement

The scene cuts from the clearing away to the fiddler on the desk as Fezziwig welcomes his guests. None of them are named, so we don't know how any of them are connected to Fezziwig, but Young Scrooge does dance with a young woman at one point. She has a different hair color than Belle will in the next scene, so it probably isn't her, but it's nice to see Scrooge enjoying himself.

Since Dick is hardly mentioned in this one, there's no scene where he and Young Scrooge praise Fezziwig for the party, so the Ghost just comments on what a "small matter" the party is while watching the celebration.

Old Scrooge defends Fezziwig as usual and I like how this version handles Scrooge's connecting Fezziwig's treatment of him with his own, abusive attitude toward Bob Cratchit (who also seems to be a monumentally sad person). Instead of having him get wistful and the Ghost asking him about it, Williams cuts from the gaiety of the party to a flashback of Scrooge leaving Cratchit as the office from earlier in the film. There's even an abrupt change of music from the merry fiddle to sinister woodwinds as the vision rushes into Scrooge's mind. It's quite effective. It's so quick that the Ghost doesn't even seem to notice. It just grabs Scrooge's wrist and tells him that they have to go, "Quick!," to their next scene.

Hellbent for Letterbox | Deadwood, Season 2

Deadwood December continues as the shadow of George Hearst arrives to threaten the camp. Continuing our streak of weekly episodes through the end of the year.

“Why, It’s Old Fezziwig!” | Teen Titans #13 (1968)

The Teen Titans Christmas Carol isn't an adaptation, but an adventure inspired by Dickens' story. The Titans have noticed similarities between Dickens' characters and the people involved with the Titans' current case, so they're using Christmas Carol tactics to try to redeem Ebenezer Scrounge.

Kid Flash poses as a makeshift Ghost of Christmas Past, but there's only one part of Scrounge's past that the speedster references and it doesn't have anything to do with the miser's first job. So what I'm saying is that the Titans version skips this year's scene.

“Why, It’s Old Fezziwig!” | Graphic Classics, Volume 19: Christmas Classics

Alex Burrows and Micah Farritor's version gives not quite three pages to Fezziwig's party. It's a very abridged version, so there aren't many details. Fezziwig isn't even at his desk when he tells Young Scrooge and Dick that it's time to quit working. He's nicely plump though and this may be the first version we've looked at so far that has the full-on white powdered wig. (It appears to be white in Classics Illustrated, but in that version all visions of the past are completely white, so it's impossible to tell what color Fezziwig's hair was originally.)

Old Scrooge notices Dick Wilkins and calls him by name, but he doesn't mention "poor Dick" or that Dick was "attached" to Scrooge. Dick is just another detail to make the vision that much more vivid.

With a festive wreath in hand, Fezziwig commands the boys to clear away and get ready for the party, but we don't get to see the preparations. The next panel after the command is a half-page of Fezziwig and his wife cutting a jig as others dance and celebrate around them. This is a smaller party than I'm used to, but the warmth of Farritor's color palette makes it a lovely, cozy affair. And the fiddler is there at Fezziwig's (sadly normal sized) desk; behind it rather than on it. None of the guests are called by name or their connections to Fezziwig mentioned. It's just a fun party.

No one praises Fezziwig in the scene, so when the Ghost criticizes the party as a "small matter," it seems uncalled for. Like he's goading Scrooge. Which is fine. Scrooge deserves to be pushed. And of course he defends his former boss with dialogue right from Dickens.

He genuinely feels it, too. Because this version is so shortened, Scrooge's transformation has started early and he's been quite emotional in Christmas Past so far. When he talks about the happiness that Fezziwig gave, he's got a lovely, gentle smile. And he looks profoundly pensive and then remorseful in the next panels as he thinks about his relationship with Bob Cratchit.

“Why, It’s Old Fezziwig!” | Campfire’s A Christmas Carol (2010)

Scott McCullar and Naresh Kumar give almost two pages to Fezziwig's party. It begins with Old Scrooge and the Ghost appearing in the warehouse and Fezziwig's desk is elevated above everyone else. Dickens never says why this is so, but the way the office is laid out in this version makes me wonder if it's so Fezziwig can keep an eye on everything. Not in any kind of micro-managing way, naturally, but just so he can know what's going on at a glance if he's needed. And maybe so all the employees can know if he's available.

That's one thing different about this version: all the employees. It's not just Scrooge and Dick at work; there's a whole staff. I suppose that's to help explain the crowd at the party, but in Dickens the party-goers seem to be made up mostly of Fezziwig's household (maids, bakers, cooks, milkmen, etc.) and people who don't have anywhere else to celebrate. It's hard for adaptations to point out that social outsiders make up so much of the party, but this one obfuscates it even more by creating a whole other source of celebrants. It doesn't even specifically mention Fezziwig's family, though the crowd does grow when the party begins, so clearly it's not just employees.

We never get a great look at Fezziwig or his hair, but he does seem a bit plump and he's probably wearing some kind of old-fashioned, brown wig.

True to Dickens, Old Scrooge points out Dick Wilkins and mentions that "poor Dick" was "very much attached" to Young Scrooge without going into any more detail about what that means or whatever happened to Dick.

Fezziwig instructs Scrooge and Dick to put up the shutters, which is curious since there are so many other employees in the room as well. As Fezziwig's apprentices, maybe Scrooge and Dick have some kind of leadership responsibilities over the rest of the staff.

There's just one panel of the actual party and I couldn't pick out the fiddler in it. It's just a shot of people dancing with narrative text describing food and festivities of the evening. If Belle is there, she's not mentioned.

Scrooge watches most of this pensively, but there's a little smile on his face throughout. Text from Dickens tell us that "his heart and soul were in the scene," but he's not visually exuberant about it. Which is totally cool. The impression I get is that the scene is giving him some peace and I very much like that. I've been running a theory that this Scrooge's ghosts and visions may all be in his head and that his mind is working to heal itself after a lifetime of building unhealthy, perhaps even sociopathic walls between him and the rest of the world. He may or may not have supernatural assistance in this, but either way, Scrooge's brain would be trying to calm itself by recalling these scenes. And it seems to be working.

The text mentions Scrooge and Dick's "pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig," but it's during the party, not after. The party-goers don't even leave the warehouse until a couple of panels later as Scrooge is still defending Fezziwig's generosity.

“Why, It’s Old Fezziwig!” | A Christmas Carol: The Graphic Novel (2008)

The Fezziwig scene gets five pages in Classical Comics' version by Sean Michael Wilson and Mike Collins, so there are a lot of details included that were missing from Classics Illustrated and Marvel's version. The first panel inside the warehouse has Scrooge and the Ghost looking up at Fezziwig from the floor below, so his desk is pretty high up there. And then later we see Fezziwig hopping down from it. He's wearing a wig, but it's not a Welsh wig and it's not powdered white either. It does look old-fashioned though. And Fezziwig is pleasantly plump.

Young Scrooge and Dick Wilkins look like preteens in this version, which isn't something I'd considered as a possibility. They're apprentices, so it makes sense; I'm just used to so many versions introducing Belle as a love interest at this point, so Scrooge is usually at romancing age: In his late teens or early twenties.

Scrooge refers to Dick as "poor Dick" and follows up with a "dear, dear," which is right out of Dickens. I didn't call attention to it when I reviewed Dickens' text, but "poor Dick" makes it sound like maybe something bad happened to young Mr Wilkins. Hard times or an untimely death? I don't think we ever find out, but Scrooge clearly feels sorry for his former friend. He also mentions that Dick "was very much attached to me," implying that maybe Scrooge didn't reciprocate Dick's attachment or appreciate the boy as much as Scrooge now feels he should have. It's another sign of growth, which is characteristic of Wilson and Collins' version. Their Scrooge is well on his way to becoming a better person.

Fezziwig calls for the boys to help close up the shop and clear away furniture for the party. And there's a panel showing them putting up the removable shutters. Another smaller panel has Young Scrooge sweeping up as Dick carries away a chair. And then the guests arrive.

There's a page-and-a-half dedicated just to dancing and fiddling and looking at food. The fiddler is never explicitly shown sitting at Fezziwig's desk, but there are a couple of close-up panels where he stops to mop his brow and then starts fiddling again, and behind him you can see the same bookshelf that was behind Fezziwig when he was at the desk. I like the attention to detail. The fiddler could have been stationed anywhere the way the panels are framed, but clearly Wilson and Collins are working to be as faithful as possible.

The party itself has no dialogue (except for some general merrymaking sound effects: "hurrah!" "whoop!" "hoho!" etc.) or even narrative text, so if you're not familiar with the story you don't know who everyone is. I spotted at least a couple of Fezziwig's daughters, but I didn't see any of their suitors and there's no way you'd know that any of the guests are people who've been marginalized by the rest of society. These just seem to be Fezziwig's friends and family.

Young Scrooge does have a dance partner in one panel, but she's not named and her hair appears to be a different shade from Belle's, once Belle appears in the following scene. I imagine that Scrooge's dance partner is just someone at the party - maybe even one of Fezziwig's daughters - and not someone he has a particular attachment to.

The narrative text reappears after the party to explain what Old Scrooge has been feeling during all of this (using Dickens' words, of course). And it fits with the expressions we've seen on Scrooge during the scene. He's wide-eyed and smiling; thoroughly taken in by the whole experience. And though there's no scene of Young Scrooge and Dick praising Fezziwig after the party, Old Scrooge of course gets to defend Fezziwig to the Ghost. And he looks sorrowfully thoughtful in the last panel as he expresses his desire to talk to Bob Cratchit just then.

Sleigh Bell Cinema | Christmas in Connecticut (1945)

Noel Thingvall (Masters of Carpentry, Schumacast, Greystoked, Thundarr Road) and I take a sleigh ride to New England and spend the hunky-dunky holidays flippin' flapjacks with Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, Una O'Connor, and SZ Sakall.