'An American Christmas Carol' - Can Fonzie Be Scrooge?

Hello, and welcome back to Second Chances where I give another look at the maligned and forgotten.

Every Christmas, just about every TV channel airs a rendition of Charles Dickens' most popular work A Christmas Carol at some point. Everyone has grown up with Scrooge portrayed by Alistair Sim, George C. Scott, Patrick Stewart, Michael Caine, and Kelsey Grammer, and those are just the most well-known examples. The tale of a miser visited by ghosts on Christmas Eve is a tale just about everyone knows.

Though I can enjoy the "traditional" re-tellings of the story just fine, my favorite is an adaptation that changes things up quite a bit. I'm talking about An American Christmas Carol which originally aired on ABC on 16 December 1979. This rendition was a significant gamble at the time since it transplanted the story from 19th Century London to Depression-era New Hampshire and it featured Henry Winkler in the lead role during the height of his fame as Fonzie on Happy Days. As far I'm concerned, the gamble paid off.

I would give a spoiler alert here, but, as everyone knows the general gist of the story, it'd be pointless. This version of the story takes place in Concord, New Hampshire, during the height of the Great Depression. The town is suffering after the failure of the local granite quarry, leaving people to turn to the local financier Benedict Slade, played by Winkler. The problem is that he is a cold-hearted bastard. His first major scenes involved him repossessing from the locals on Christmas Eve, including taking a stove and radio from an impoverished farmer, taking all the inventory from a university bookstore, and even taking a piano from the local orphanage. That night he gets the visit from his late partner Jack Latham warning him to change his ways before it's too late and that he'll get three more visits.

See? I didn't even have to tell any more as you no doubt had filled in the rest yourself. The difference is in the details, and the changes for this one go way beyond just changing the location and the characters' names. It's clear that the budget for this was on the low end, but director Eric Till made some smart choices to make the most of what he had. One of the most brilliant moves was the depiction of the Ghosts of Christmas. Instead of the ethereal forms from the original story, the Ghosts take the form of three of the people he repo-ed from that day. Even though Winkler was extremely intimidated by the weight of the role as revealed in this interview, he knocked it out of the park, proving that he could do more that wear a biker leather and say, "Ehh!"

The screenwriter, Jerome Coopersmith, made some smart adjustments to the story that, I feel, made it easier to connect and even fixed some plot holes that were in the original story. Slade is more sympathetic than Scrooge. Even though he was depicted as a success-driven workaholic, he makes several attempts to help his mentor, Brewster, get his furniture business with the times that get rebuffed. You can see his frustration changing to indignation, making his turn-around at the end more believable and more rewarding. The visit to his grave given by the Ghost of Christmas Future was also adjusted, showing his fear, not of just dying, but of being hated and forgotten which connected with me more. The best adjustment was in Slade's interaction with Jonathan, the Tiny Tim analogue. While I won't dispute the plus points of a full belly for a sick child, Slade's gift of the trip to a clinic that could treat Jonathan's polio felt much more meaningful. All these examples and more contribute to a character that I enjoyed seeing turn to the light.

The story of Scrooge is great. I personally have never seen a bad rendition of the story. That said, An American Christmas Carol is my personal favorite. It adapts the story to another location and time period in smart ways, and Henry Winkler did a wonderful job in the lead role. This version did get a Blu-ray release five years ago. Check it out this Christmas; you will be pleasantly surprised.

Any other holiday films that deserve more attention? Let me know, and Happy Holidays!